Aizawl FC scripted history recently by winning the I-League title, the first by a northeast team but the team’s fans, mostly from Mizoram, won more hearts with their version of ‘swachh mission’. Soon after the Aizawl FC-Shillong Lajong match ended at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Meghalaya capital Shillong, the Mizo fans went about collecting and disposing of the trash left behind by some 23,000 spectators.

Whether the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan has been able to bring a cleaner nation has been the topic of heated debate. This ambitious initiative into its third year now—it is but clear that the SBA has generated awareness and brought in attitudinal change among people to live in a clean and hygienic surrounding.

While the opposition political parties deride it and term it as a failure, the very fact that people though miniscule in comparison, are picking up brooms and trying to do their part speaks volumes. All said and done, the impact of the SBA on general psyche has been profound. Flashback Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, when Rahul Gandhi was stumped when he asked if Swacch Bharat Abhiyan was having an impact. As a detractor, he was taken aback by the resounding YES! from the audience.

General cleanliness which was earlier ignored by both citizens and the administration has been greatly impacted by the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. In 2016, when Itanagar was tagged the third dirtiest city in the country the embarrassment was palpable among the people. Thanks to concerted effort, the state capital managed to make a turnaround during the Swachh Survekshan survey 2017 and climbed to spot 216 thus avenging the humiliation.

In 2014, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to make India a cleaner nation. He inaugurated the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, also known as the “Clean India Movement”. The aim of the movement is to make India filth free in next 5 years by 2019 also marking the 150^th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi.

In the past, we have seen many such initiatives by various governments for instance under Rajiv Gandhi was launched the Central Rural Sanitation Program in 1986 and under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was launched the Complete Sanitation Campaign in 1999 but, the lack of awareness and commitment shown by the governments and people led to failure of the initiatives. But unlike the previous campaigns, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is far more advertised  via means of social media and celebrity participation and the constant visual bombardment has definitely managed to evoke response.

Though SBA cannot be labeled a success in the technical term at present, but to say that the initiative has been an utter fail would be unfair. Awareness about keeping the surroundings clean is the first step in achieving clean India and through the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan the wheels are turning towards the desired destination.