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    ISAS Working Papers

    Long-term studies on trends and issues in South Asia

    218 : Government and Garbage: Local Administration, Public Sanitation and the ‘Clean India’ Campaign

    Robin Jeffrey

    28 December 2015

    The paper examines a crucial component of public sanitation and waste management – the role of local government. It concludes that improvement of public sanitation in India, which is the goal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government’s ‘Clean India’ campaign launched in 2014, hinges on the capacities of local government; but these capacities are limited, for reasons that the paper seeks to make clear. The paper examines Indian local government under the following headings: history, jurisdictions, technology and people.