Critical Analysis of the Implementation of Clean India Mission in the Rural Areas: A Gender Perspective

After completing Clean India Mission’s first phase, the government declared the campaign a success and set out plans to implement the second phase. However, emerging evidence has questioned the claim’s validity as open defecation remains a reality in the country. Acknowledging the well-established link between sanitation and gender, this study has looked into the campaign through a gender lens. Based on a discourse analysis, it critically examines the implementation phase of the campaign by analyzing how the mission developed treatises about women’s group identity, pursued women’s empowerment, and created gender-sensitive messaging. This study concludes that the campaign did not pursue its gendered objectives properly; from the policy level to the implementation, the campaign failed to – i) address existing differences within different groups of women in rural India and ii) disseminate gender-sensitive messaging. Although the campaign created some foundations for women’s empowerment, there remains untapped potential.