India has spent close to Rs 530 crore on promoting the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission in the media since the programme was announced in 2014, government data accessed through a Right to Information application shows.
The expenditure on advertising and promoting the campaign is equivalent to the entire annual budgets of some small schemes such as the North East development fund of the Ministry for Small and Medium Enterprises. The campaign attracts the highest Central government advertising expenditure, almost 15 times more than the much hyped Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme.