Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India on 2 October 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management and to create Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages.

[9] The objectives of the first phase of the mission also included eradication of manual scavenging, generating awareness and bringing about a behaviour change regarding sanitation practices, and augmentation of capacity at the local level.

[21][22] The total budget for the rural and urban components was estimated at $28 billion, of which 93 per cent was for construction, with the rest being allocated for behaviour change campaigns and administration.

Coverage about open defecation and contamination of drinking and bathing water in India prompted the government to take measures to deal with the problem.

These were directed towards the construction of toilets; no behavioural change campaign was carried out, and this supply-based approach did not result in broader social transformation.

[33] The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (extension of TSC) was enacted in 2009[5][34][35][36] to generate demand for sanitation, linked to subsidy payments for the construction of toilets by families living below the poverty line.

A limited randomized study of eighty villages in rural Madhya Pradesh showed that the TSC programme did modestly increase the number of households with latrines, and had a small effect in reducing open defecation.

[43] On 15 August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Red Fort in Delhi called on the public to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary by devoting a clean India.

From the early 2010s, several district collectors and magistrates from West Bengal to Rajasthan experimented with different methods to engage local people and panchayats in community mobilisation.

[citation needed] The core objectives of the first phase of the mission were to reduce open defecation and improve management of municipal solid waste in both urban and rural areas.

[84] For improving solid waste management, cities were encouraged to prepare detailed project reports that are bankable and have a financial model.

[10] As part of the campaign, volunteers, known as Swachhagrahis, or "Ambassadors of cleanliness", promoted the construction of toilets using a popular method called Community-Led Total Sanitation[86] at the village level.

[90][91] The World Bank provided a US$1.5 billion loan and $25 million in technical assistance in 2015 for the Swachh Bharat Mission to support India's universal sanitation initiation.

[101] The World Health Organization (WHO) has in its report stated that at least 180,000 diarrhoeal deaths were averted in rural India since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

[103] A study by Ashoka University concluded that the construction of toilets under the program led to a reduction in incidents of sexual assault against women.

[2] Data from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) demonstrate the increase in access to improved sanitation due to SBM.

[111] As a result of the Swachh Bharath Mission movement, 55 crore people in rural areas changed their behaviour and started using toilets.

[114] In 2019, he plogged on a beach in Mamallapuram during his morning walk; he was there to attend the informal summit with Xi Jinping, then-General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

[115] Other political leaders and public figures including actors and actresses, sportsmen and women, owners of large business houses were roped in as ambassadors to promote the mission.

[58] Constructing toilets became the mission's singular focus, even though the core objectives were the elimination of open defecation and the improvement of solid waste management.

[116][118] The mission was implemented with a target-driven approach; villages, districts, towns cities and even states declared themselves open defecation-free (ODF) based on the element of construction targets.

[111] By adding millions of on-site sanitation systems and not considering fecal sludge management, it will further add to pollution of the rivers in India.

The people who make India clean, the sanitation workers, remain "invisible in the participation, process or consequences of this national level movement".

[124]: 7  In 2015, one year after the launch of the program, hundreds of thousands of Indian people were still employed as manual scavengers in emptying bucket toilets and pit latrines.

The report stated that "Barriers due to physical disabilities, social/economic disparities, geography, sexual orientation, gender and caste were not addressed.

[131] In Bihar crores of rupees meant for Swachh Bharat Mission were siphoned off by Government officials in collusion with banks.

[133] In August 2023 a movie titled Panch Kriti - Five Elements based on Swachh Bharat Mission was released in India which featured five stories and is set in Chanderi in Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh, has been largely shot in real locations.

The money is paid out under the Swachh Bharat Mission's Open Defecation-Free scheme, and the goal seems to be on its route to being achieved fast, but only on paper in Rajasthan.

[47][138] The first part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, which started in 2016, was completed in the last five years in 2020, but due to Covid and lockdown, the Center had extended its deadline to March 2021.

This phase focuses on maintaining current Open Defecation Free (ODF) statuses across the country, as well as improving waste management in villages.