Context:  

• The entire rural areas of Assam will be declared as open defecation free (ODF) within a couple of days with the Swach Bharat Mission – Gramin (SBM-G), Assam achieving 100 per cent sanitary coverage by providing sanitary toilets to people of the villages.
• Within two years of launching the programme, there is a significant success in providing sanitary toilets to rural people, moving up the coverage from 38 per cent in 2014 to 52% in March 2016 and then to nearly 90% as on July 2018. More than 4.7 million families are using improved sanitary facilities in the rural Assam. Under the SBM-Gramin, approximately 35 lakh toilets are constructed across the state.
• The Central government has started a mission to contain arsenic and fluoride contamination across the country by 2021. The target to achieve the ODF status for all villages in India is October 2, 2019. “Assam is well ahead of the target.

Hurdles:

• In case of Assam, there are two specific hurdles. The first one is that of limited working season which means work can be carried out only for a period of four to five months a year. Secondly, there is also the problem of geographical remoteness of hill areas of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao and other far-flung districts.
• With the success of 100 per cent sanitation coverage, the SBM-G is now creating awareness on for Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) activities in the rural areas across the state.

Altogether 4,000 self help groups (SHGs) two non government organisations (NGOs) are working for creating awareness among the people on the Centrally-sponsored programme.

The SBM-G has been able to create 1.25 crore mandays in the state since its inception in 2014.

The construction of toilets in rural India was one of the major promises Prime Minister Narendra Modi made during his speech from the Red Fort ramparts in his first Independence Day address in 2014. The government aims at constructing 12 crore toilets in rural areas of the country by October 2019 at a projected cost of Rs 1.96 lakh crore.