#Modi2: How PM Modi transformed our thinking with the launch of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

It was on Gandhi Jayanti, 2 October 2014, that scores of BJP leaders, party workers, bureaucrats, celebrities and lakhs of people across the country wielded brooms to launch an extensive Clean India Movement.

The scheme - which covers 4,041 statutory cities and towns - is aimed at eliminating open defecation by constructing toilets for households, eradicating manual scavenging, introducing modern practices of municipal solid waste management and changing attitudes towards sanitation, besides spreading awareness.

As the Modi government celebrates two years of its tenure, here is the glowing report card of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:

1) The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has put cleanliness on the top of the nation's agenda. The scheme has been widely publicised with help of social media, awareness events and training programmes.

2)The scheme has a target of 12 crore toilets by October 2019. That makes for 2,739 toilets a day, almost two toilets every second.

According to a government report published on the Swachh Bharat website, as of April 2016, more than 1.5 crore household toilets have been constructed, in addition to 65,108 community toilets and 11,705 public toilets. Currently, 2.29 crore household toilets are still under construction.

3) According to news reports, the rural sanitation coverage has gone up from 42.05% when a five-year Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was launched in October 2014, to 49.29% in January 2016.

4) Andhra Pradesh is set to become India's first state to make all of its urban areas 'Open Defecation Free' by 2 October this year.

On 22 May this year, the Gujarat government claimed that as many as 6,000 villages in the state have become Open Defecation Free (ODF). Maharashtra claims to have 51 towns and cities out of 361 that are now 'Free of Open Defecation' (ODF).

5) Inspired by the scheme, the Indo-Nepal Doctors Association has launched a campaign called 'Swachh Bharat Nepal - Swasth Bharat Nepal Abhiyan' on 3 January 2015. The campaign was unveiled at Sunauli-Belihiya on the Indo-Nepal Border Region.