Karnataka has been the forerunner in putting forth concerted efforts to implement total sanitation in the rural parts of the State. The State has been implementing a number of sanitation programmes right from 1985, with the assistance of Central Government and external agencies like Danida, Royal Netherlands, World Bank, UNICEF and other development partners. With a view to give special emphasis to rural sanitation, “Nirmal Grama Yojane” has become operational in 1995 and was implemented for 8 years. Afterwards the Centrally sponsored scheme of “Total Sanitation Campaign” was in operation from 2005 to 2012 and this scheme was renamed as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan from 1st April 2012 and it was again rechristened as “Swachh Bharat Mission” with effect from 2nd October 2014.
