Right from day one after being inaugurated as Prime Minister of India, PM Modi has accorded high importance to cleanliness and sanitation. However, formal Swachchh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India Mission) was launched on 2nd October, 2014 that is birthday of Mahatma Gandhi who himself was a a champion of campaign for cleaning of personal as well as public places and  maintaining personal hygene during independence movement that continued even after independence. Gandhi has realized long back social and economic implications of hygene and sanitation for society in general and for poor strata of society in particular. In independent India Modi is first PM who has accorded such a high importace to cleanliness and sanitation, unlike pevious governments who just paid lip service to this cause. The major victims of poor cleanliness are normally poor people, who has poor access to nutrion, sanitation infrastructure and  quality health services. When poor falls sick, his economic activities gets disrupted and source of livelihood comes to grinding halt, and if he is sole bread winner in family, then he and his family has to suffer a lot. In many cases poor gets trapped into quagmire of debt at exhorbitantly high interest rate from a local moneylender from where it becomes difficult to come out.  And thus he gets permanently into debt and poverty trap.

PM Modi has rightly realized that without people's participation this national mission on cleanliness can not be made successful. Only government sponsered programmes alone can not bring the result. There are two pronged approach to address this issue. First and foremost is creating awareness about importatnce and need of sanitation, and other is creating infrastructure for sanitation. People need to be explained why cleanliness at personal as well as public places and maintaining personal hygene is important as it is directly related to our health and money spent on health care, and in turn it is economically  advantageous. Then they need to be educated about good cleanliness practices that need to be followed by people on sustained basis. People need to be explained that shifting dirt and garbage from one place to other place without proper disposal does not serve any purpose. People need to be also educated how not to create filth and unhygenic conditions at first place itself, so that efforts required for cleanliness is reduced. And most important thing is that people should remove from their mindset that creating filth and non participation in cleaning either at personal or public places are respectful.

The other important approach is to create proper sanitation infrastructure. In absence of proper garbage collection, transportation and disposal infrastructure, it will only be shifting the garbage from one place to another place making other place unclean. There is need to provide proper toilettes, sewagw lines, sewage treatment plants and water supply system. Without providing these infrastructure by state cleanliness mission can not be achieved.

If the intended goal of National  Cleanliness Mission is achieved in time frame of about five years, it will not only reduce the national expenditure on health care, improve the well being of the people, improve the productivity of people, but will also increase tourism by changing its landscape. So Swachchh baharat Abhiyan (National Cleanliness Mission) has  great economic implications for India.