NEW DELHI, October 2 — Commemorating the 157th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday addressed the national convention of 'Swachh Bharat Diwas 2026' at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, announcing that over 5.8 lakh rural habitations (representing 93 percent of Indian villages) have verified compliance as 'ODF Plus Model' panchayats.
According to performance audits published by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, the national milestone marks the culmination of the nationwide 'Swachhata Hi Seva 2026' mobilization, which witnessed voluntary public participation (Shramdaan) by over 25 crore citizens and sanitation workers (Safai Mitras). The Prime Minister conferred national honors upon top-performing states and district administrations for systematically remediating over 200,000 legacy Cleanliness Target Units (CTUs), expanding rural faecal sludge treatment plants, and operationalizing decentralized plastic shredding units.
The Prime Minister underscored that the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has evolved beyond basic sanitation into a catalyst for rural circular bio-economies, championed by the Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBARdhan) initiative, which converts agricultural biomass and livestock slurry into compressed bio-gas (CBG).
The foundational milestones of the Swachh Bharat Mission (launched on October 2, 2014, achieving rural sanitation saturation in October 2019), SBM-Gramin Phase-II implementation frameworks, criteria separating ODF Aspiring, ODF Rising, and ODF Model villages, and targets under Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Target 6.2 for universal sanitation access) are recurring topics across UPSC Civil Services (GS-II: Social Justice & Public Schemes) and State PSC examinations.