Exploring Social Entrepreneurship In Swachh Bharat Mission

The ramparts of Red fort is well known as an initiator for massive movements, whether it is India’s Independence or Swacchh Bharat Revolution. The words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech in the year 2014 thundered across the world, reaching every nook and corner of the nation. Entire humanity was amazed when a national leader talked about toilets and cleanliness in the public which was earlier considered derogatory. Henceforth, the world’s largest behavioral change campaign began in India.

Known for villages and rural economy, Open defecation was a very common thing in India, particularly in rural areas. Making India an open defecation-free India (ODF INDIA) has been an important goal for the entire mission. People believed that having toilets at their houses is inauspicious. Hence, convincing them to build toilets at their homes and ensuring regular use has not been an easy task. This massive behavioral change requires strong commitment and dedication. Leaders at the top, in fact in the government too, have been proactive in this mission. They are found regularly cleaning the roads, even emptying the toilet pits. Not only this, Prime Minister himself felt no shame in sweeping the roads. All these showed strong political will behind the cleanliness. Propagating this whole idea to every nook and corner of the country, requires massive people participation, making the cleanliness campaign a Jan-Andolan. People started involving in this behavioral change campaign when they found their political ideals promoting it and when realized that cleanliness is the mantra of a safe future.

Amidst the entire movement, what is more, enthralling is the entrepreneurial growth that happened n the country as a result of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The Sanitation Economy was a US $32 Billion per year market in India, in 2017 and set to double to an estimated US $62 Billion by 2021. While the Toilet Economy was a US $14 Billion per year market in India, in 2017 and set to grow to an estimated US $31 Billion per year market in India by 2021, with an increased market share of about 50%. The construction of household toilets in rural areas is the major contributor to the overall market (70–80%) and is expected to have a market worth of $17 billion by 2021. These figures have provided a quick insight into the transformation that occurred in the sanitation sector creating large opportunities for social entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs consider problems and look forward to resolving them by creating solutions through their entrepreneurial skills. Similarly, social entrepreneurs consider social problems and look forward to resolving them by creating solutions. When the huge social problem of open defecation and dirtiness was highlighted in the year 2014, then there arises a huge working horizon for social entrepreneurs. The nation’s eyes were staring at them as they were expected to come out with various innovative solutions to this massive social problem. Many social entrepreneurs emerged to showcase their abilities and contribute to swachhta — Ek Jan Andolan. The nation has always kept immense faith in its dynamic youth. The immense potential in youth that India possesses has the ability to transform the entire world. However, in this case, the behavioral transformation was required only in the country itself. Everybody, particularly young entrepreneurs took this opportunity and activated various social enterprises and established sanitation startups, with the ultimate aim of cleanliness and sanitation for all by the year 2019. Some of the initiatives are listed below:

• Caya, a Delhi-based social innovations enterprise has been one of the largest contributors to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, impacting a million people across 200 rural areas. The organization designs, produces and installs prefabricated toilet blocks in rural communities, and has helped bring down the turnaround time of building and delivering a toilet from three weeks to two days. Founded by Navneet Garg (44) and Ashish Gupta (43) in 2016, Caya not only focuses on providing scalable and sustainable sanitation solutions but also aims to deliver reliable water supply to people living at the bottom of the pyramid.
• Started by Swapnil Chaturvedi, ‘Poop Guy’ of Pune, Samagra is in the business of making good quality and accessible toilets for the urban poor. Supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and more partners, Samagra works primarily with design and behavior change to reach a more sustainable future. The company builds toilets that have basic services like lighting and ventilation and goes a step further by providing regular maintenance services, sanitary dust bins, and kids' accessories. They also encourage behavior change through workshops and door-to-door surveys.
• • Started by Garima Sahai and KC Mishra in 2014, Svadha integrates the entire sanitation value chain. It establishes an army of entrepreneurs to provide access to quality, affordable and sustainable sanitation solutions. Svadha does this by owning the full stack from enabling partners, getting supply and tech, and training implementing partners. Supported under Toilet Board Coalition’s first accelerator program, Svadha operates from Odisha.

It isn’t mere stories; it is success of social entrepreneurship. List is extremely long; examples are more than enough to substantiate the fact that social entrepreneurship has been the key in swachh bharat mission. The rural sanitation coverage rises from 38% in the year 2014 to 99% in the year 2019. The immense growth that occurred in the sanitation economy over the past few years is the outcome of these numerous small efforts.

Social entrepreneurs or Swachhta entrepreneurs have been the pillars of this mission. Many lives got impacted and huge transformation took place in their lives. The old-age belief of having toilet at home is inauspicious has been entirely substituted with the belief that having toilet at home is a key to safe and secure future. This behavioral transformation amazed the entire world. In the year 2019 itself, India gets very closer to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 6.2: Sanitation for all, specified by United Nations, much before targeted year 2030.

One way link to another. Cleanliness and sanitation requires regular care and maintenance. Government and political leadership which has been the torchbearer for the entire movement, is still have much bigger targets to achieve in future, in this context of sanitation. One such is proper solid and liquid waste management. Henceforth, social entrepreneurship is going to be vital in the future sanitation plans as well.

Wrriten by Connecting Dreams Foundation SVC member Harsh Gupta