Swachhotsav 2023 was launched by Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on International Zero Waste Day (IZWD) 2023. Swachhotsav campaign aims at galvanizing participation and leadership of women to realize the goal of ‘Garbage Free Cities’. The first IZWD has been jointly facilitated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). MoHUA said that 1,000 cities are targeted to become 3-star Garbage Free Cities (GFC) by October 2024 under the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban (SBM-U) 2.0. GFC-Star rating protocol was launched in 2018 under SBM-U 2.0 to encourage a competitive, mission-mode spirit among Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
Key achievements under SBM-U:
✓Urban India has become Open Defecation Free (ODF).
✓ All 4,715 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) completely ODF,
✓ 3,547 ULBs are ODF+ with functional and hygienic community and public toilets and
✓ 1,191 ULBs are ODF++ with complete faecal sludge management.
✓ Waste processing in India has gone up by over four times from 17% in 2014 to 75% today.
About SBM-U 2.0:
✓ It is being implemented as a centrally sponsored scheme by MoHUA and envisages to make all cities ‘Garbage Free’.
✓ It focuses on source segregation of solid waste, utilizing the principles of 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), etc for effective solid waste management.