President Murmu Attends Safai Mitra Sammelan in Ujjain

President Droupadi Murmu attended the Safai Mitra Sammelan in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, on 19 September 2024. The Safai Mitra Sammelan was organised as part of the fortnightly Swachhata Hi Seva—2024 campaign launched by the government of India. This year's campaign focuses on facilitating and honouring sanitation workers -Safai Mitra’s contribution to the Swacch Bharat Mission.

The Governor of  Madhya Pradesh, Mangubhai Patel and the state Chief Minister, Mohan Yadav, were also present.

Vice-President launches Swachhata Hi Seva 2024 campaign at Jhunjhunu

As a prelude to Swachh Bharat Diwas on 2nd October 2024, the government of India has launched the nationwide 'Swachhata Hi Seva - 2024' fortnight campaign. 

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar inaugurated the campaign at a function held at the  Paramveer Peeru Singh Government Senior Secondary School in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, on 17 September 2024.

Manohar Lal Khattar, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Rajasthan Government’s Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Avinash Gehlot were also present during the ceremony.

Duration and Theme of the  'Swachhata Hi Seva - 2024 Campaign

The Swachhata Hi Seva—2024 campaign will run from 17 September to 2 October 2024. 

The theme of this year's Swachhata Hi Seva - 2024 campaign is ‘Swabhav Swachhata – Sanskaar Swachhata’.

The campaign aims to generate widespread awareness and public participation in the cleanliness drive. 

This year, it will focus on large-scale cleanliness drives to address nationwide challenging and neglected waste areas and facilitate and honour sanitation workers' contributions.

Swachh Bharat Mission 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Swachh Bharat Mission in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2014. It was launched nationwide on 2 October 2014 on the occasion of  Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.

The Swachh Bharat Mission has two components: Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen and Swachh Bharat Mission Urban. 

Swachh Bharat Mission -Urban 

• The  Swachh Bharat Mission -Urban is being implemented by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• Phase I of the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban was launched on 2 October 2014. It aimed to make 4,041 statutory towns in the country open defecation-free and achieve complete scientific management of municipal solid waste. 
• Phase II of Swachh Bharat Mission -Urban was launched on 1 October 2021 and will last for a five-year period.
• The focus of Phase -II is to achieve “Garbage Free” status for all cities of the country by 2026.

 Swachh Bharat Mission -Grameen

• The  Swachh Bharat Mission -Grameen is being implemented by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti. 
• The Swachh Bharat Mission -Grameen was also launched on 2nd October 2014 to free the rural area from Open defecation. 
• Phase II was launched in 2020, and its duration is from  2020-21 to 2024-25.
• Phase II aims to maintain open defecation (ODF) and transform the village to ODF Plus status. 
• ODF plus means the village has attained 100 per cent open defecation-free status and has a Solid and Liquid Waste Management system.