Swachh Bharat comics teach children about India’s sanitation history, glorify Modi

Two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off the Swachh Bharat mission – his flagship cleanliness campaign – Amar Chitra Katha is releasing comics about the campaign, titled “Swachh Bharat, the Clean Revolution”. The comics, to be released today by Modi at the IndoSan summit, will aim to educate schoolchildren about the campaign and its successes since its conception.  

The comics begin with the character Uncle Anant, based on the creator of Amar Chitra Katha, educating children about India’s history of waste disposal. The comics tell of Chanakya prescribing fines for open defecation and even mentions the Manusmriti, which talks about the importance of cleanliness. Stories about the sanitation systems from the 2,500-year-old Indus Valley civilisation are also told in the comics.

However, sanitation was ignored since then, the comics claim, until Modi’s Swachh Bharat mission, which ushered “a new dawn” and “awakened the old dream again”. Former rural development minister Nitin Gadkari and urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu are also referred to in the comics.

While the purpose of the comics – ostensibly – appears to be encouraging the youth to become agents of change, there is also a fair bit of self-aggrandisement. When children ask Uncle Anant how the task of making India open-defecation free can be achieved in five years, he responds by saying “it is a difficult task. But Modi ji knew how to make the impossible possible”. While this is great PR for Modi, this may not be the best role model of humility for children to emulate.