<span style="color: #222222;">In the run up to 74th Independence day, we bring you a special story about Swachh Bharat. The Swachh Bharat mission has focused on rural and urban areas separately and played a crucial role in ensuring sanitation in the country.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Since the launch of the mission in 2014, more than 10 crore individual toilets have been constructed across the country and as a result, rural areas in all the States have declared themselves Open Defecation Free ODF on 2nd October, 2019.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">       </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">AIR Correspondent reports, to ensure that the open defecation free behaviours are sustained, no one is left behind, and that solid and liquid waste management facilities are accessible, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) has moved towards its second phase which is also called ODF-Plus. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">This phase will continue till 2024-25. The Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) has also made remarkable progress in the area of both sanitation and solid waste management. Over 4,324 Urban Local Bodies have been declared ODF in the country so far. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">More than 66 lakh individual household toilets and over 6 lakh community and public toilets have also been constructed or are under construction. In the area of solid waste management, 96 per cent of wards have 100 per cent door-to door collection while 66 per cent of the total waste generated is being processed.</span><br />