Greening Sanitation Programme

February 13, 2013

Most of the rural population of India depends on natural resources for their subsistence and livelihoods. At the national as well as global levels, there is increasing focus on environmental issues and sustainable development across various economic and social sectors. The major emphasis of greening of development programmes has been on (a) restoring and conserving natural resources and ecosystems. (b) developing clean technological solutions and infrastructure and (c) innovations for reducing carbon emissions and environmental pollution. The greening development can stimulate rural economies, create jobs and help maintain critical ecosystem services that are vital to the economy and human health and wellbeing and, also strengthen resilience to climate-induced change particularly of the rural poor who are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and natural resources degradation1 . The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) today is an effort to achieve this well being for rural India which aligns with the vision of Mahatma Gandhi for rural India. Emphasizing on the importance of sanitation, Mahatma Gandhi once said that sanitation is more important that independence. He had a dream of total sanitation for all.