Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin Shifts Focus to Sustaining Rural Sanitation Gains

Rural sanitation in India has moved from a push for household toilet access to a broader effort aimed at sustaining open-defecation-free status and managing waste at the village level. When the Swachh Bharat Mission began in 2014, sanitation coverage stood at 39 per cent. By 2019, rural India had reached 100 per cent coverage, with more than 10.28 crore toilets built across 36 states and union territories, and the countryside was declared Open Defecation Free.

That milestone shifted the mission's emphasis. Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin Phase II now concentrates on sustaining ODF status and strengthening Solid and Liquid Waste Management systems. An ODF Plus village is one that not only maintains ODF status but also manages solid and liquid waste effectively while keeping up visual cleanliness. Such villages are graded in three progressive stages: Aspiring, Rising and Model. Aspiring villages manage either solid or liquid waste; Rising villages handle both; Model villages manage both streams and also demonstrate visual cleanliness and display ODF Plus messaging.

As of 17 September 2026, India has 5.69 lakh ODF Plus villages, of which 5.25 lakh have attained ODF Plus Model status. Solid waste management arrangements are in place in 5.38 lakh villages, while 5.65 lakh villages have liquid waste management systems. In addition, 1,314 GOBARdhan biogas plants are operational across 582 districts. At the household level, 12.22 crore individual toilets and 98,273 biogas plants have been constructed.

GOBARdhan, or Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan, is a flagship umbrella initiative under SBM-G Phase II. It converts cattle dung, agricultural crop residue and organic waste into biogas, compressed bio-gas and organic manure or bio-slurry.

Officials and planners have stressed that infrastructure alone does not secure outcomes. A toilet becomes meaningful only when households choose to use, maintain and sustain it, and effective waste management begins with decisions taken within individual homes. Behaviour Change Communication therefore sits at the centre of efforts to sustain ODF results. Households are encouraged to adopt safe toilet use and disposal practices, understand appropriate sanitation technologies, and manage wet waste through compost pits or biogas plants. The focus extends to everyday hygiene, including handwashing, safe water storage, upkeep of sanitation facilities, and avoiding littering and spitting in public places.

Women have been central to this transformation, given the direct bearing sanitation has on their privacy, safety, dignity and health. SBM-G guidelines give special preference to women as Swachhagrahis and recognise DAY-NRLM Self-Help Groups as important platforms for behaviour change communication. Working closely with households, Swachhagrahis support families in adopting and sustaining toilet use through door-to-door outreach, awareness activities and cleanliness verification.

Women's collectives have turned awareness into sustained community action. In Howrah, West Bengal, SHGs supported a plastic removal programme across 18 Ganga-adjacent gram panchayats, collecting 9.32 tonnes of plastic waste within 18 days and establishing a regular plastic collection network through the SHG federation. In Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, around a dozen SHG women manage a Resource Recovery Centre, collecting household waste and segregating it into wet and dry fractions. Wet waste is converted into vermicompost, while dry waste is channelled for sale, generating wages and additional income. In Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, a Cluster Level Federation operates a Material Recovery Facility under an MoU with SBM-G for the sale and purchase of plastic waste collected there. Women's participation has thus expanded from awareness and mobilisation to implementation, waste management, livelihood generation and local decision-making.

Schools form another institutional channel for translating sanitation awareness into daily practice. SBM-G Phase II recognises schools as important for sustaining sanitation outcomes and provides for functional sanitation facilities and arrangements to manage biodegradable and liquid waste. In Chandil, Jharkhand, a school banned single-use plastic and built a soak pit for greywater management, while teachers regularly engage students on personal hygiene and puberty-related concerns. Such efforts create a two-way flow of behavioural change, with children carrying habits home and families becoming part of a wider culture of cleanliness.

The role of children is also expanding into a broader youth-led movement. Swachhata Hi Seva 2026 places students and youth at the centre of sustainable behavioural change, positioning schools and educational institutions as spaces for building cleanliness as a sanskaar. Activities include Swachhata Gyan Yatras, school Samvads and demonstrations on source segregation. Students will also engage with the Swachhata Evam Jal Samvads and learn about the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026.

In Jharkhand, children have taken SBM-G beyond conventional sanitation. Members of child cabinets have assumed responsibility for menstrual hygiene management activities. In one school, girls maintain the stock register for sanitary pads while child cabinet members help ensure regular availability. At Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Jhikpani, child cabinet ministers proposed setting up an MHM laboratory to school authorities, and the laboratory was subsequently established with support.