Policy Update
Anjana M
Background
Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya (SBSV) is a national campaign driving ‘Clean India: Clean School’ launched by the Government of India on 25th September 2014, an initiative focused on improving sanitation and hygiene practices in Indian schools. It ensures that each school has well-maintained water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities. Schools’ water, sanitation, and hygiene refer to a combination of technical and human development components necessary to produce a healthy school environment and to develop or support appropriate health and hygiene behaviours. The technical components include facilities for students and teachers to maintain hygiene practices like soap and water, toilets, sanitary pad disposal equipment, and drinking water on the school premises.
Human development components include a holistic human approach towards healthy practices in daily lives. It also aims to improve the curriculum and teaching methods while promoting hygiene practices and community ownership of water and sanitation facilities within schools. It improves children’s health, school enrolment, attendance, and retention, and paves the way for a new generation of healthy children. Policymakers, government representatives, citizens, and parents must ensure that every child attends a school with access to safe drinking water, proper sanitation, and hygiene facilities.
The campaign ensures a paradigm shift towards a more developed society by promoting awareness among children, through them to their parents, about the importance of a healthy society. The provision of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools secures a healthy school environment and protects children from illness and exclusion.
Gender-segregated toilet facilities particularly matter for girls vulnerable to dropping out of schools, partly because many are reluctant to continue their education when toilets and washing facilities are not private, not safe, or simply not available. Accessible school facilities are a key to school attendance for children with disabilities. Ensuring disabled-friendly and gender-segregated sanitation facilities ensures inclusivity and more acceptance for educational institutions among different sections of society, thereby promoting equality.
Functioning
The operational framework of SBSV functions through:
1) Infrastructure
- Construction and Maintenance: Initiative prioritizes the construction and maintenance of essential facilities like toilets, handwashing stations, and safe drinking water sources within schools.
- Accessibility: Efforts are made to ensure these facilities are accessible to all students, including those with disabilities.
- Hygiene Promotion: The campaign also promotes the use of these facilities, including menstrual hygiene management for girls.
2) Behavior Change Communication:
- Curriculum Framework: Schools are encouraged to incorporate hygiene and sanitation education into their curriculum and daily routines.
- Community Involvement: Students, teachers, parents, and community members are encouraged to participate.
- Awareness Campaigns: Various activities like talks, debates, and competitions are organized to raise awareness about cleanliness and hygiene practices. e in cleanliness drives and promote a culture of hygiene.
3) Community Ownership:
- Stakeholder Engagement: The campaign emphasizes the involvement of all stakeholders, including policymakers, government representatives, parents, and citizens, in ensuring the success of the mission.
- Capacity Building: Training programs are conducted to improve the capacity of school staff and community members to manage and maintain water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Regular monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are put in place to track progress and ensure the initiative’s sustainability.
4) National Awards:
- Recognition: The Ministry of Education recognizes schools that excel in maintaining cleanliness and hygiene through national, state, and district-level awards.
- Incentives: Schools identified for awards may receive additional grants to further improve their sanitation and hygiene facilities.
Impact
The Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya initiative has significantly impacted health, education, and the dignity of the children across India by ensuring the provision of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools.
- 94% of 1.47 million schools in India have a hand-washing facility. (Source: UDISE 2023-24 survey)
- The number of government schools with drinking water facilities has increased from nearly 0.9 million (83%) in 2005-06 to 1.03 million (95%) in 2013-14, and it further increased to 1.4 million (95.9%) in 2023-24. (Source: UDISE 2023-24 Survey)
- The number of schools with separate toilet facilities for girls increased from 0.4 million (37%) in 2005-06 to almost 1 million (91%) in 2013-14, and further increased to 1.36 million (93.6%) in 2023-24. (Source: UDISE 2023-24 Survey)
- The number of government schools having separate toilet facilities for boys has increased from 0.4 million (31%) in 2005-06 to 0.8 million (85%) in 2013-2014, and it further increased to 1.32 million (91.4%) in 2023-24. (Source: UDISE 2023-24 Survey)
- Initiatives like the formation of Child Cabinets and programs like West Bengal’s Three Star Approach have empowered children as change agents within their communities.
- Infrastructural investments in water and sanitation can be expected to increase attendance by reducing the spread of sickness and making the school environment more pleasant for students (Gupta, Dubey, and Simonsen, 2018)
Emerging Issues
Findings of an assessment conducted in 540 schools in nine states in India on the Mid Day Meal (MDM) Programme reveal that:(Ministry of Education, Government of India. (n.d.). Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Handbook. Ministry’s digital repository)
- Only 51% of the schools have a designated handwashing space, and in 44 per cent of the schools observed, the handwashing space was being used.
- Only close to one in ten (12%) of schools had soap/detergent available at the handwashing space.
- Nearly half (49%) of the students washed their hands using only water. Only two out of five (42%) students use soap/detergent. (Source: Hygiene Practices in Schools during mid-day meals, UNICEF-India Study 2009).
- A survey conducted in 392 schools in seven states in India reveals that nearly one-third (32%) of the children wash their hands with soap before eating. (Source: PAHELI Survey by Pratham under United Joint Programme on Convergence (UNJPC), 2012.
- Out of 10.17 lakh government schools, only 3.37 lakh (33.2%) have disabled-friendly toilets, and among them, just 30.6% are functional. (Source: India’s 2023-24 School infrastructure survey, UDISE 2023-24 survey)
Way Forward
SBSV’s initiative was a pioneering campaign of the Government of India towards a more inclusive and healthy society. The Initiative was almost successful in its results, but there is more to be done, mostly through public initiative. Cleanliness and a healthy society must be a part of a lifestyle, and maintaining public infrastructure must be taught and developed as social etiquette.
References
- Ministry of Education, Government of India. (n.d.). Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya. Retrieved June 2025, from https://www.education.gov.in/swachh-bharat-swachh-vidyalaya-campaign
- Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. (2015, August 15). Swachhta Vidyalaya Initiative by Department of School Education & Literacy [Press release]. Press Information Bureau. https://pib.gov.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=151323
- Press Information Bureau, Government of India. (2014, October 2). Swachh Bharat‑Swachh Vidyalaya Campaign launched [Press release]. https://pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=110034
- Ministry of Education, Government of India. (n.d.). Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Handbook. Ministry’s digital repository. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/Eng_Swachch-Bharat-Swachch-Vidhalaya.pdf
- Ministry of Education, Government of India. (2016). Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar: Guidelines. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/Swachh_Vidyalay_Puraskar_Guidelines.pdf
- National Portal of India. (n.d.). Information on Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya. Retrieved June 2025, from https://www.india.gov.in/information-swachh-bharat-swachh-vidyalaya
- Website of UDISE. https://udiseplus.gov.in/
About The Author: Anjana M is an undergraduate student at Miranda House, the University of Delhi, and a research intern at IMPRI.
Acknowledgment: The author sincerely thanks Ms. Aasthaba Jadeja and the IMPRI team for their valuable support.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
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