For hundreds of years, a large portion of the Indian population became accustomed to defecating in the open, to the point where they don’t even practice the basic ritual of washing hands before eating and after defecating. Some are averse to the idea of a bathroom in the house and consider it a religious taboo.

Old habits die hard, thus influencing mindsets of the common man towards personal hygiene was as important as getting the right infrastructure in place.

BSI thus approached the program by building a network of community leaders, who aided in breaking deep-rooted beliefs and strove to bring about attitudinal changes. Change leaders were identified from amongst local Government bodies, religious leaders, front line health workers and mothers/care givers.

BSI thus successfully galvanised the people power around the idea of a Clean India, through a holistic approach whist driving behavioral change, which is scalable, sustainable and measurable

The 12 hour live Cleanliness drive aired on leading news channels, featuring panel discussions on effective measures for a clean India, involving celebrities and influencers from all walks of life.

The Hygiene Education Bus “Swachh Express” travelled across 500 villages in 6 states to inform people about proper sanitation through street plays.

Specially curated Hygiene curriculum was introduced in 250,000 schools, and in 14 languages (including braille.)

13,000 community health workers contacted new mothers, educating them about hygiene practices, through specially designed baby books in their native language.

Hygiene messages appeared at the Kumbh Mela, (the largest human religious gathering), where 50,000 religious leaders supported the program to ensure messages of cleanliness were engrained in popular culture as well.

Mass media engagement occurred through regular conversations on TV, Newspapers and on the platform microsite, which brought to life the sanitation issue in a relatable way.

Incredibly, there was a 5% reduction in diarrhea deaths amongst children through the hygiene curriculum and community programs.

There has been a 38% increase in the awareness related to diseases such as cholera, malaria, typhoid and hepatitis.

RB won the President’s Award for making 200 villages and 40 cities open defecation free by building 90,000 toilets.

India’s first Toilet College trained 13,000 hygiene trainers and also helped provide dignified livelihood to workers involved in manual scavenging.

Prolonged education drive has ensured that 54% of the households are willing to construct toilets with their own saved money.

Number of economic working days saved due to this investment is 100, 00 which otherwise go in sickness due to poor health and hygiene.

1.7 million USD added to the national GDP through economic working days saved from disease

The PM of India Narendra Modi came forth to support the cause on Twitter.