Topic– Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
4) The next step in addressing sanitation woes should be a focus on waste management. Analyze. (250 words)
Why this question
Successfully tackling the issue of waste management is one of the major challenges facing the Indian state and hence this question.
Key demand of the question
The question expects us to draw a linkage between addressing sanitation woes and how waste management can help in. Thereafter, we need to bring out the current issues surrounding waste management and the steps that need to be taken to make it more effective and efficient for the success of clean India campaign.
Directive word
Analyze – When asked to analyze, you have to examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them as a whole in a summary.
Structure of the answer
Introduction – Highlight that India is projected to have an additional 300 million new urban residents by 2050. This is cause for alarm. Policy makers, planners, the private sector, innovators, researchers and others need to create a sustainable ecosystem for sanitation.
Body
- Explain that Centre launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) with an aim to eradicate open defecation by 2019. Since then, the number of people practising open defecation has decreased significantly with 1,678 cities declared open defecation free at the end of 2017. But, in order to further strengthen its mission of universal sanitation, India now needs to make human waste treatment a sustainable business proposition. This is also an important step to helping India achieve the sixth Sustainable Development Goal—sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
- Explain that sustainable sanitation ecosystem includes not only access to toilets, but also effective evacuation, transport, and treatment of waste along with reuse or responsible disposal of the treated product.
- Discuss the major issues related to waste management – financial requirement to build, operate and maintain piped sewerage networks and treatment plants, issues in urban planning etc
- Explain how these issues can be resolved.
Conclusion – you can conclude by giving your opinion on how crucial waste management is for success of swachh Bharat mission and the way forward.
