The Swachh Bharat Revolution: Four Pillars of India’s Behavioural Transformation

HarperCollins India presents

THE SWACHH BHARAT REVOLUTION
Four Pillars of India’s Behavioural Transformation

 Foreword by NARENDRA MODI
Edited by Parameswaran Iyer

 Perspectives on how India led the largest ‘jan andolan’ (people’s movement) in the world to make the impossible possible

 With a Foreword by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and essays by Arun Jaitley, Henrietta H. Fore, Amitabh Kant, Ratan Tata, Sadhguru, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Tavleen Singh, Arvind Panagariya, Bibek Debroy and many others, this book, edited by Parameswaran Iyer, provides wide-ranging perspectives on the Swachh Bharat Mission and celebrates a historic national achievement.

ABOUT THE BOOK

On 15 August 2014, in his maiden Independence Day address to the country, Narendra Modi became the first Prime Minister of India to address the challenge of open defecation from a national platform. It was a practice historically ingrained in Indian society and had seemed impossible to curb. But the Prime Minister did the unthinkable: he declared a firm resolve to eradicate it in just five years.

Launched to implement this vision, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) had a challenging job on hand but has proved to be one of the major successes of the government. Over the past five years, almost 10 crore toilets have been built under SBM-Grameen, and rural sanitation coverage has risen from 39 per cent in 2014 to 99 per cent in June 2019. The Mission’s mass outreach effort has mobilized over 60 crore people – nearly half of India’s population – to change their behaviour. India is now on the verge of declaring itself Open Defecation Free on 2 October 2019, Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.

The Swachh Bharat Revolution looks at how India led the largest ‘jan andolan’ (people’s movement) in the world to make the impossible possible – with the Mission’s success resting on four key pillars: Political Leadership, Public Financing, Partnerships and People’s Participation. With a Foreword by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and essays by Arun Jaitley, Henrietta H. Fore, Amitabh Kant, Ratan Tata, Sadhguru, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Tavleen Singh, Arvind Panagariya, Bibek Debroy and many others, this book, edited by Parameswaran Iyer, provides wide-ranging perspectives on the programme and celebrates a historic national achievement.

‘This Mission truly went way beyond a typical government scheme and became the shared vision of a nation.’
SOUMYA SWAMINATHAN
Deputy Director-General of Programmes, World Health Organization

‘The Swachh Bharat Mission is helping women in communities across the subcontinent lead a social movement for a cleaner, safer, healthier, and more prosperous future.’
MELINDA GATES
Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

‘When the collective force of over a billion people is effectively channelized, then nothing is impossible. This book is a true reflection of that indomitable spirit which has transformed the Swachh Bharat Mission into the largest mass movement in independent India.’
SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI
Cabinet Minister, Government of India

‘This book is a testament to the success of this iconic mission, as well as a recipe for creating a social revolution.’
AMITABH BACHCHAN
Actor and Swachh Bharat Ambassador

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PARAMESWARAN IYER is Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti – the ministry overseeing the implementation of the flagship Swachh Bharat Mission and the new Jal Jeevan Mission, aimed at providing drinking water to all rural households in India. Prior to his current appointment, Iyer served as Manager for Water in the World Bank based in Washington DC. A former IAS officer, he headed the innovative community-led Swajal Project in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the 1990s, and has over twenty-five years of global experience in the water and sanitation sector, particularly in Vietnam, China, Egypt and Lebanon.

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For more information, please contact Shivendra Singh at
shivendra.singh@harpercollins.co.in