<span style="color: #222222;">The News Services Division brings you glimpses of the year 2021, in its Special Year Ender series, &quot;The Year that was&quot;. Today, we take a look at Swachh Bharat Mission. This Mission has played a vital role in eradication of open defecation and making the cities and villages free from garbage. It has also inculcated cleanliness and hygiene practices in people by promoting behavioural change towards sanitation. As a result, now this mission has become a mass movement in the country.<br />” <br />” Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2nd October 2014. Since the launch of the Mission, several initiatives have been taken to make the country clean and garbage-free. In October this year, the Prime Minister launched Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 with an objective to achieve the next level in Swachchhata.<br />” <br />” AIR correspondent reports, Gandhiji said that cleanliness is more important than freedom. He said that cleanliness is very important not only for physical health, but also for a healthy environment. With this objective, Swachh Bharat Mission was launched across the country. In the last seven years, this campaign has taken cleanliness to a different level.<br />” <br />” The constructions of crores of toilets have revolutionised the lives of people, especially the lives of women. It was the wonder of the Swachh Bharat Mission that helped a lot in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.<br />” <br />” In the next phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the focus will be laid on ensuring everyone's access to sanitation facilities in the coming five years. For this, more than 3.5 lakh toilets will be constructed across the country.<br />”<br />”Apart from this, attention will also be given to the management of waste water so that water bodies can be prevented from getting polluted. Today Swachh Bharat Mission has become a mass movement. With the help of active participation of crores of people, a new thinking has been developed about cleanliness. As a result the country is becoming cleaner.&nbsp;</span>