Squatting with Dignity: Lessons from India

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Squatting with Dignity

Squatting with Dignity L e ss o n s

f r o m

Kumar Alok

I n di a

Copyright © Kumar Alok, 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. First published in 2010 by Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd B1/I-1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044, India www.sagepub.in Sage Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320, USA Sage Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP, United Kingdom Sage Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763 Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, typeset in 10/13â•¯pt Palatino LT Std by Excellent Laser Typesetters, Delhi and printed at Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kumar Alok, 1965– â•… Squatting with dignity: lessons from India/By Kumar Alok. â•…â•…â•‡ p. cm. â•… Includes bibliographical references and index. â•… 1. Sanitation, Rural—India.â•… I. Title. RA567.5.I4K86â•…â•…â•… 363.720954—dc22â•…â•…â•… 2010â•…â•…â•… 2009050493 ISBN: 978-81-321-0305-9 (HB) The Sage Team: Rekha Natarajan, Aditya Sikder and Trinankur Banerjee

To all the dedicated souls who worked selflessly for promoting sanitation in rural areas of India and to my parents.

Contents

List of Tables List of Figures List of Photographs List of Abbreviations Foreword by Dr N.C. Saxena Preface by Karin Hulshof Acknowledgements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Introduction Rural Sanitation: Development in Phases Debate on Key Policies and Evolution of Implementation Strategy Systems Building Geographical Spread Spread of the Movement Key Achievements and Learnings Key Challenges The Way Forward

Glossary Bibliography Index About the Author

ix xi xiii xv xxi xxiii xxv 1 17 57 124 210 241 266 284 319 364 370 375 380

List of Tables

1.1 Dropout rates of girls in classes I–VIII 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

Subsidy structure for household latrines Component-wise fund allocation in TSC Incentive pattern in Nirmal Gram Puraskar Key milestones in sanitation programme in India

7 50 51 54 55

4.1 Comparison between leach pit and septic tank 4.2 Requirement of sanitary pans and traps 4.3 Year wise household toilet construction

176 183 202

6.1 Year wise status of NGP awards 6.2 State wise number of GPs awarded NGP in first three years

250 251

8.1 NGP-awarded GPs reporting open defecation 8.2 Hand-washing practices among adults in NGP-awarded panchayats

293 310

9.1 9.2 9.3

Disability-affected people in India Waste management-related CDM projects in India List of a few approved methodologies related to methane recovery

322 332 337

xâ•… Squatting with Dignity

9.4 Nutrients in human urine and faeces 9.5 Methane emissions in three different cases

339 346

List of Figures

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

Disease transmission route Sanitation barrier Year wise rural sanitation growth in India Year wise construction of household toilets

2.1 Year wise sanction of TSC projects 3.1 Adoption by groups over time 3.2 School water and sanitation coverage during education surveys 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13

Comprehensive Bayesian Network for TSC Key factors influencing TSC success Year wise release of state share in TSC Borehole latrine Dug well latrine Hand flush water seal toilet Squatting pan and trap for pour flush toilet Design of P-trap for rural pan Off site double pits with RCC rings Rectangular lined direct pit Circular unlined direct pit Off site single pit with RCC rings Off site double pits—brick honeycomb

5 5 15 16 49 90 120

128 130 137 169 169 170 171 172 174 174 174 175 175

xiiâ•… Squatting with Dignity

6.1 6.2 6.3

Increase in sanitation coverage and introduction of NGP Annual construction of household toilets Annual construction of school toilets

8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 8.10 8.11

IHHL being used as regular and functional toilet Social mobilization process in NGP-awarded GPs System for monitoring to ensure Open Defecation Free (ODF) status State wise percentage of SC and ST households gaining access to toilets Reasons for toilets being non-functional State wise share of NGP awards Projected sanitation coverage in states by 2012 Projected year for full sanitation coverage in states Share of states in achieving full sanitation coverage at the national level Use of household toilets in NGP-awarded GPs State wise expenditure of IEC fund

9.1 Methane emissions in three different cases

252 252 253 294 294 295 297 303 304 305 305 306 309 313 347

List of Photographs

4.1 Women masons

179

6.1 Children wash hands at the primary school Hiware Bazar (NGP in 2007), Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra

258

7.1 A proud Prabhu Devi stands inside the toilet constructed by her under TSC in Muzaffarpur District, Bihar

269

List of Abbreviations

AEO AFC AIIH&PH AP APL ARWSP AS & FA ASHA BDO BPL BPO CBO CCDU CDM CDO CEO CEP CLTS CMP CRSP DANIDA DAVP DDC DDWS

Additional Executive Officer Agriculture Finance Corporation All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health Andhra Pradesh Above Poverty Line Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor Auxiliary Social Health Activist Block Development Officer Below Poverty Line Business Process Outsourcing Community Based Organization Communication and Capacity Development Unit Clean Development Mechanism Chief Development Officer Chief Executive Officer Child Environment Programme Community Led Total Sanitation Clean Milk Programme Central Rural Sanitation Programme Danish International Development Agency Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity Deputy Development Commissioner Department for Drinking Water Supply

xviâ•… Squatting with Dignity

DEE&L DFID DLM DM DPEP DPRO DRDA DWCD DWS DWSC DWSM ECOSAN EFC FC GHG GOI GP HRD IAY IAS ICDS IEC IFD IHHL ILE IIMC IR IRC IRMA ISP IT ITN JMP KAP KFW KRWSSA

Department of Elementary Education and Literacy UK Department for International Development District Level Monitor District Magistrate District Primary Education Programme District Panchayati Raj Officer District Rural Development Agency Department of Women and Child Development Drinking Water and Sanitation District Water and Sanitation Committee District Water & Sanitation Mission Ecological Sanitation Expenditure Finance Committee Finance Commission Green House Gas Government of India Gram Panchayat Human Resource Development Indira Awas Yojna Indian Administrative Service Integrated Child Development Services Information, Education and Communication Integrated Finance Division Individual House Hold Latrine International Learning Exchange Indian Institute of Mass Communication Indian Railways International Water & Sanitation Centre, Delft Institute of Rural Management, Anand Intensive Sanitation Project Information Technology India Training Network Joint Monitoring Programme Knowledge, Aptitude and Practice Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency

List of Abbreviationsâ•… xvii

LPG LPT MDG MHM MICS MoHFW MP NABARD NCERT NDDB NFHS NGO NGP NHRDP NIC NJA NRHM NSS NSSC NSSO NYK O&M ODF ORS PC PHED PIP PMU PPT PRAI PRI PTA PWD

Liquefied Petroleum Gas Leach Pit Toilet Millennium Development Goals Menstrual Hygiene Management Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Member of Parliament National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development National Council for Education Research and Training National Dairy Development Board National Family Health Survey Non-Governmental Organization Nirmal Gram Puraskar (Clean Village Award) National Human Resource Development Programme National Informatics Centre Nari Jagriti Abhiyan (Women Awakening Movement) National Rural Health Mission National Service Scheme National Scheme Sanctioning Committee National Sample Survey Organisation Nehru Yuvak Kendra Operation and Maintenance Open Defecation Free Oral Rehydration Solutions Production Centre Public Health Engineering Department Project Implementation Plan Project Management Unit Power Point (Presentation) Planning, Research & Action Institute Panchayati Raj Institution Parent Teachers’ Association Public Works Department

xviiiâ•… Squatting with Dignity

RCC RDSO RGNDWM RKMLP RSM SACOSAN SC SCERT SCOPE SEI SGSY SGBVSC SHG SIDA SIPARD SIPRD SLWM SRP SSA SSHE ST SWASTHH SWSM TIFAC TLB TLC TSC UN UNDP UNICEF

Reinforced Cement Concrete Research Designs and Standards Organisation Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad Rural Sanitary Mart South Asian Conference on Sanitation Scheduled Caste State Council of Educational Research and Training Society for Community Organisation and Peoples Education Stockholm Environment Institute Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojna Sant Gadge Baba Village Sanitation Campaign Self-Help Group Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency State Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development State Institute of Panchayat & Rural Development Solid and Liquid Waste Management Sector Reform Project Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Universal Education Campaign) School Sanitation & Hygiene Education Scheduled Tribe School Water and Sanitation Towards Health and Hygiene State Water & Sanitation Mission Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council Toilet Linked Biogas Total Literacy Campaign Total Sanitation Campaign United Nations United Nations Development Programme United Nations Children’s Fund

List of Abbreviationsâ•… xix

UP USA USD WAPCOS WATSAN WB WES WHO WSP-SA VHC VWSC ZP ZWM

Uttar Pradesh United States of America US Dollar Water and Power Consultancy Services Water and Sanitation World Bank Water and Environmental Sanitation World Health Organization Water and Sanitation Programme-South Asia Village Health Committee Village Water and Sanitation Committee Zilla Panchayat Zero Waste Management

Foreword

D

espite the fact that lack of sanitation and hygiene is responsible for a number of diseases especially among the most vulnerable sections of the society, this subject has been treated with a lot of apathy by policy makers across the globe and India has been no exception to this. Only during the last one decade the subject of sanitation especially rural sanitation has started getting attention from the policy makers and implementers in India. With the introduction of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in 1999, a bold beginning has been made in India to accelerate rural sanitation coverage. A country as vast as India faces enormous challenges in operationalizing any policy decision. Efficacy of the implementation of the government policies has always remained a big challenge and rural sanitation sector has been no exception. The paradigm shift made by launching community-based TSC has witnessed a slow but continuous process of adoption of the key reform principles by the states over the years. It is interesting to learn the factors which induced different states in adopting TSC principles and also the reasons for not accepting some of them. Introduction of Nirmal Gram Puraskar in 2003 further accelerated the ownership of sanitation issue by the states and districts. Unlike other sectors, like education and health, policy evolution in rural sanitation has taken place in a relatively short time frame; as a result it is easy to study and analyze the process of sanitation policy evolution and the associated debates and

xxiiâ•… Squatting with Dignity

conflicts. Within a few years, TSC, which remained a neglected subject for our policy makers and implementers, gained the status of one of the seven key national flagship programmes of the Government of India and was the only sector where Planning Commission had increased the 10th plan outlay by more than 100 per cent. As per the claims made by the Government of India, Millennium Development Goals are likely to be achieved ahead of 2015. This calls for a study of the key factors which helped in building the sanitation movement in India. The author of this book, Mr Kumar Alok, had the privilege of working as Director, Sanitation in the Government of India at a time when the TSC programme was gaining roots in many states and has been closely involved in a number of policy decisions and initiatives related to programme implementation. He has made a sincere attempt to document the policy development and the spread of the sanitation movement in various parts of India including the ongoing policy debates. The book is also about the constraints it faced, intense debate it has gone into and the competing role of its stakeholders that played a critical role in shaping and re-shaping the rural sanitation world of India. A careful reading of this publication will provide the required knowledge. The way forward as outlined in the last chapter of the book offers enough opportunities for the sanitation professionals to make a strategic shift in both the content and approach of future sanitation interventions. The opportunities available in recycling of waste, bio-methanation and saving in carbon emission are some interventions which have the potential of transforming the whole sector in near future. Even though the book discusses examples from the Indian programme, the experiences gained in India are of significance to many developing countries that face almost similar types of challenges. I am sure the book will be able to guide practitioners of rural sanitation not only in India but in other developing countries too in meeting the global sanitation challenge. Dr N. C. Saxena Former Secretary Planning Commission Government of India

Preface

S

anitation, like education and health, is a fundamental building block in the fight against world poverty. That is why leaders worldwide have committed to halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015, as part of the Millennium Development Goals. History tells us that investments in basic sanitation can help lift people out of poverty, ill health and early death. Today, 2.6 billion people—more than 40 per cent of world’s population—lack access to basic sanitation. Meeting the needs of these women, men and children for a private, clean toilet—something taken for granted in developed countries today—is both possible and imperative. Together we can do it— and together, we must do it. India is one of the countries where the government has committed to address the challenge of sanitation, a much neglected subject with a lot of taboos attached to it. With strong political commitment, the Total Sanitation Campaign was introduced in 1999. Within a decade the sanitation budget increased nine-fold and the programme shifted from a supply-driven programme towards a community demand-based programme with the Panchayati Raj, the local governing body, in the lead. As a result the riskiest sanitation practice, open defecation, in rural areas has dropped from 89 per cent in 1990 to 74 per cent in 2006 and there are over 142 million new users in the country. Despite such concerted efforts, one in two people or some

xxivâ•… Squatting with Dignity

600 million Indian still defecate in the open. The quantities of human excreta they produce in an increasingly densely populated environment allow diseases to spread easily. This is taking its daily toll in sickness, deaths, absenteeism from school, loss of productivity and exposing young women to risks of violation of privacy and violence. The actual account of the current achievements, approaches and experiences in India deserve to be put on paper. The author of this book, Kumar Alok, worked as Director, Sanitation in the Government of India and as Water and Sanitation Specialist in UNICEF’s Delhi office. He is widely acknowledged for his contributions in the development of the sanitation sector in India. I am in no doubt that this book will inspire and guide many people to address the sanitation challenge and that the lessons drawn from the vast and rich Indian Total Sanitation Campaign can be applied within and far beyond India. Karin Hulshof UNICEF Country Representative New Delhi

Acknowledgements

F

ounder of All World Gayatri Pariwar and great seer, Pundit Shriram Sharma Acharya has observed, ‘As opposed to writing something worth reading, it is always better to achieve something which deserves writing.’ Sanitation movement in India in the beginning of this century has been one of such initiatives which deserves special writing and documentation. It is a saga of thousands of dedicated sanitation volunteers from all walks of life who have worked selflessly and tried to promote sanitation and hygiene in rural households of the country. In my opinion rampant open defecation has been the biggest national shame and these volunteers have tried their best to wipe out this slur afflicting national pride and glory. One can see thousands of fellow country men and women defecating in open field, along the roadsides, railway tracks, rivers/ lakes and any other open space completely oblivious of the health hazards as well as the associated human indignity. In such a situation promoting sanitation and hygiene has been one of the biggest challenges in the country. Implementation of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)—the national sanitation programme—has been one of the largest sanitation initiatives ever taken up in India and that too in a very short time frame which has directly or indirectly influenced the lives of millions of rural people across the length and breadth of India. It has been the story of large scale behaviour change of millions of people who had been used to the extremely

xxviâ•… Squatting with Dignity

demeaning practice of open defecation for ages but adopted sanitary toilets for safe disposal of their excreta. Poor sanitation coverage is a challenge not only in India but many other developing nations. National Governments, Development agencies, donor community and sanitation professionals have been struggling to tackle this problem and meet the Millennium Development Goals related to sanitation but so far limited success has been achieved. Considering the vastness of India and variety of situations—administrative, economic, social, geographical—there are a large number of success stories as well as failures and challenges which need to be shared among the sanitation professionals and the key stakeholders. This book is an attempt to analyze the growth of sanitation movement in India— the evolution of policy and associated achievements and challenges in operationalising the policy and programmes in various provinces of India. It was my fortune to be an active participant in this national movement initially as Director of the Total Sanitation Campaign in the Government of India and later on as WES specialist in UNICEF, New Delhi. An effort has been made to correctly capture the evolution of the programme and strengthening of the sanitation movement in India so that development professionals can make best use of the learnings. Any critical comments on the policy, programme, opinion of individuals or organizations have been made only to give the correct perspective to the readers so that they may avoid the mistakes, if any, in future development of a similar programme. Sanitation is a noble mission for the nation and a large number of dedicated individuals and organizations have worked for this mission. I acknowledge the contributions made by each and every such individual and organization in building this movement who have been a source of inspiration for me to take up this documentation with the prime objective of correctly capturing the process of programme evolution as well as contributions made by various key players. The readers will be able to judge how effective I have been in this endeavour. Even though I had the desire to write this book, there was hardly enough determination to reach the destination. But for the continuous persuasion and encouragement of

Acknowledgementsâ•… xxvii

Dr Kamal Mazumdar and Mr Manu Prakash, this book would have been a non starter. I am extremely thankful to both of them. The entire team of sanitation professionals working in West Bengal deserve special thanks as they have provided me immense support for writing the book. Mr Chandi Charan Dey has been kind enough to spend considerable amount of time with me. He has always given his invaluable inputs to me. Dr M. N. Roy and Mr Chandan Sengupta not only encouraged me but also spent plenty of time in sharing their precious experience in the sanitation sector. I express my gratitude to both of them. Dr S. V. Mapuskar, Mr Srikant Navrekar, Mr K. K. Jadeja, Dr M. S. Kalshetti, Mr A.â•¯K. Singh, Mrs Sumita Ganguly, Mr C. Srinivasan, Mr P. Toshniwal, Mr P.â•¯S. Ojha, Mr S. N. Singh, Mrs Alka Malhotra, Mr Prakash Kumar, Father George have always been proactive in extending their support whenever I needed. They have given their vital and significant inputs in writing this book. My special thanks to Ms Arpita Choudhary for drawing the various sketches used in this book. I am thankful to all my ex-colleagues in Government of India and UNICEF for giving me required support in this initiative. My special thanks to Ms Lizette Burgers who not only encouraged me but also gave important suggestions in improving the content of the book. My wife Preeti, son Anshumaan and daughter Shradha have been the real supports and sources of strength for me. I am grateful to a large number of officials and sector professionals who have not only encouraged me to write this book but also actively supported me and without their help this work could not have been completed. I hope that the book will be useful for large number of sanitation professionals both within and outside India. Kumar Alok

1 Introduction

A

nyone who gets the opportunity to travel by railway or road in India finds one thing in common: hundreds and thousands of people defecating along the railway track or the road and disposing tonnes of harmful human excreta in the open resulting in spread of various diseases. This practice is so widespread that people defecating in the open form the majority in India and persons and institutions who dared to question this practice have been subjected to mockery. The problem gets more aggravated with the taboo attached with the words ‘Toilet’ and ‘Excreta’ and very few politicians, administrators and even development professionals consider it important to even discuss about the ill effects of poor sanitation and hygiene on human beings and environment. A country which has produced innumerable number of saints and seers, which has been the spiritual leader of the world, where focus has been given on both internal and external purity, but still millions defecate in the roadside, along the railway track, in the paddy fields unmindful of not only the harmful effects on their health but also of their dignity and privacy. Purdah system has been practiced here for so many years imposing many restrictions on the women but when it came to their defecating in the open menfolk never felt ashamed and the women were also effectively forced to venture out in the open to relieve themselves of the basic call of the nature.

2


Breaking this taboo in a caste-ridden society where any word related to toilet, excreta, scavenging is treated with contempt has been a major challenge. The glory associated with large-scale advances made by India in nuclear, space and information technology as well as economic boom in the recent years go pale when one sees millions of people shitting in the open. Unfortunately sanitation is one sector which witnesses the maximum rural– urban divide. The problem of open defecation is more associated with rural areas and less with urban areas. As per 2001 census, about 78 per cent rural households used to defecate in open whereas this number in urban areas was only about 26 per cent. This divide has turned out to be one of the biggest barriers in any meaningful sanitation movement in the country as those affected were completely ignorant about the ill effects of lack of sanitation and the urban elite who could do something were ignorant about this problem of the rural areas as they were not subjected to this crisis in their day-to-day life. However, a section of people in the political and administrative leadership realized the importance of promoting sanitation and hygiene towards the end of 20th century and since the beginning of this millennium a movement to get rid of open defecation has gradually built up in rural India. In a very short span of time a large number of villages have not only taken a resolve but also completely stopped open defecation. The success however varies from state to state, nevertheless there has been significant success achieved even in adverse conditions. Sanitation movement in India under the banner of Total Sanitation Campaign has been able to break the taboo associated with poor sanitation significantly and deserves special documentation and analysis. This movement has been the story of large-scale behaviour change of millions of people who had been used to the extremely demeaning practice of open defecation for ages but adopted sanitary toilets for safe disposal of their excreta. Villages which had made the foul odour caused due to rampant open defecation as their identity totally transformed themselves—the waste which was source of health hazard started getting converted into rich manure and cleanliness became the order of the day.

Introduction

3

Something which couldn’t happen in centuries, how could that happen in less than a decade? The practitioners of rural sanitation as well as other social development programmes would like to know the answers to these questions. It has been a glorious journey towards attaining freedom from open defecation in India. Even though a lot is yet to be achieved but as Gandhiji had observed, ‘Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.’ A courageous attempt has been made by India as a nation to eliminate the practice of open defecation. If invention of aircraft by Wright brothers in early 20th century has been one of the key milestones in the aviation history and economic development of the world, evolution of a massive sanitation campaign sweeping across the Indian countryside has been equally glorious event for social development of India. It has been one of the most innovative initiatives which warrant thorough analyses. Age-old practices combined with ignorance about the health linkage of poor sanitation have led to prevalence of such insanitary conditions in our villages which are quite a contrast from the sanitary systems found even 5,000 years ago during the Indus Valley Civilization. People had been ignorant of not only the basic linkage of the poor sanitation and health but also of the comfort and convenience associated with toilet at home.

LINKAGE BETWEEN POOR SANITATION AND HEALTH Water and Sanitation is one of the primary drivers of public health. I often refer to it as ‘Health 101’, which means that once we can secure access to clean water and to adequate sanitation facilities for all people, irrespective of the difference in their living conditions, a huge battle against all kinds of diseases will be won. – Dr Lee Jong-wook, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO, 2004b)

There cannot be more apt description of the direct relationship that exists between water, sanitation, health, nutrition and human wellbeing. Consumption of contaminated drinking water, improper

4


disposal of human excreta, lack of personal and food hygiene and inappropriate disposal of solid and liquid waste have been the major causes of many diseases in developing countries. High levels of malnutrition especially among the children (national average 44 per cent of under-5 children—National Family Health Survey, 2006) and high infant mortality rate (national average: 57 per thousand live births in rural India—National Family Health Survey, 2006) are also significantly attributed to poor sanitation, repeated vector infestations and water-borne diseases. This impacts the global statistics on child deaths too. About 2.1 million child deaths occur every year in India, which is the highest number within a single country worldwide (Jones et al., 2006). Of the 26 million infants born in India every year, about 2.3 million die before reaching the age of 5 years.1 Infant and child mortality rates are considerably higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In 2001–05, the infant mortality rate was about 50 per cent higher in rural areas (62) than in urban areas (42). The rural–urban difference in mortality is especially large for children in the age interval 1–4 years—the rate in rural areas is twice as high as the rate in urban areas (National Family Health Survey; NFHS, 2006).

Sanitation and Burden of Disease Human excreta is a source of infection. If the excreta is not disposed properly it leads to soil pollution, water pollution, contamination of foods and propagation of flies. The human excreta of a sick person as a carrier of disease is the main source of infection. It contains the disease agent which is transmitted to a new host through various channels: water, fingers, flies, soil and food. This can be seen in Figure 1.1. This disease transmission cycle can be broken by providing toilet and promoting hygiene practices as indicated in Figure 1.2. Five of the ten top killer diseases of children aged 1–4 years in rural areas are related to water and sanitation. These are diarrhoea, 1

Source: Projection made by UNICEF for India using global data.

Introduction Figure 1.1:

Disease transmission route

Source: UNICEF.

Figure 1.2:

Sanitation barrier

Source: UNICEF.

5

6


malaria, schistosomiasis, trachoma and intestinal helminths (ascariasis, trichuriasis, hookworm). It is estimated that globally 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases (including cholera) and 90 per cent of whom are children under 5, mostly in developing countries. Eighty-eight per cent of diarrhoeal disease is attributed to unsafe water supply and inadequate sanitation and hygiene. Each year 1.3 million people die of malaria, 90 per cent of whom are children under 5. An estimated 160 million people are infected with schistosomiasis. Basic sanitation reduces the disease by up to 77 per cent (WHO, 2004a). It is estimated that in India about 350,000 children die of diarrhoea annually, almost 1,000 every day (SACOSAN III, 2008). Typhoid, dysentery, gastroenteritis, jaundice and malaria claim the lives of over a fifth of the children aged 1–4 years in rural areas (Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, 1998). Such diseases’ parasites consume nutrients from the infected children bringing about or aggravating malnutrition and retarding children’s physical development. They also destroy tissues and organs on which they live causing pain and various health problems. This has further implications on high child mortality rate, which is at present 74 for under-5 age group (NFHS-3, 2006). This also contributes to low enrolment in schools as about 42 million children aged 6–10 are not attending school. The drop-out rate is equally high. As per NFHS-3, about one-fourth of all children don’t study beyond primary school. Thus, all of these have compromised children’s attendance and performance at school and, not uncommonly, resulted in morbidity and death. Infectious diarrhoea is mainly responsible for the burden caused by water-borne and water-washed diseases. From the health perspective, improving access to safe water supply and sanitation services is a preventive intervention, whose main outcome is a reduction in the number of episodes of diarrhoea and accordingly a proportionate reduction in the number of deaths. In a special article on child survival in India (Jones et al., 2006) have analyzed that in the year 2000, 23 per cent of total under-5 child deaths (557,000 deaths) were caused due to diarrhoea alone and 91 per cent of these deaths, that is 506,000, could be prevented

Introduction

7

through required interventions which included provision of safe water and sanitation.

Lack of Sanitation—Extra Burden on Women and Children Lack of sanitation places additional burden on women and children. In the absence of appropriate toilet facilities, women in rural India, as in most parts of the world, often suffer from lack of privacy, harassment and need to walk large distances to find a suitable place for defecation. In several cases, they have to wait till early morning or night before venturing out in the open causing health problems such as reproductive tract infections, skin infections and urinary tract infections. Exposing oneself in the open, especially during menstruation, affects women’s dignity, and self-esteem. These also have significant implications on attendance and enrolment of girls in schools especially for adolescent girls. Studies show that not having access to proper, safe and private sanitation substantially increases absenteeism among girl learners, and contributes to their dropping out of schools altogether. Table 1.1 shows the rate of dropouts of girls in classes I–VIII. Table 1.1: Dropout rates of girls in classes I–VIII Classes I–V

Classes I–VIII

25

50.76

Source:

National University for Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA; Government of India, 2004–05).

Children are the main victims of diarrhoea and other faecal– oral diseases, and also the most likely source of infection. Adults often think of sanitation in adult terms, but the safe disposal of children’s faeces is of critical importance. Children are the most severe victims of water-borne diseases resulting in high mortality and morbidity. NFHS-3 (2006) informs about high child (under 5) mortality, that is 74 children per thousand live births dying within 5 years of age.

8


Sanitation is likely to be particularly effective in controlling worm infections in children. Child-friendly toilets, and the development of effective school sanitation programmes, are important and popular strategies for promoting the demand for sanitation facilities and enhancing their impact.

NON-HEALTH BENEFITS OF SAFE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION FACILITIES Sanitation facilities interrupt the transmission of faecal–oral disease at its most important source by preventing human faecal contamination of water and soil. Epidemiological evidence suggests that sanitation is at least as effective in preventing disease as improved water supply. Often, however, it involves major behavioural changes. Providing better access to improved water and sanitation helps in reducing the water-borne and water-washed diseases and, in addition, confers many other diverse benefits ranging from the easily identifiable and quantifiable (costs avoided, time saved, etc.) to the more subtle and difficult to measure (convenience, well-being, etc.) gains. Any investment made for improving access to water and sanitation results in much greater benefits to the society. As per cost-benefit analysis done by WHO for water and sanitation interventions, for each US$ invested, economic benefits, ranging from US$3 to US$34 can be reaped, depending on the location in the world (Hutton and Haller, 2004). In addition to the intangible benefits, like pride, convenience and privacy, three major types of economic benefits accrue to a household due to adopting safe sanitation and hygiene behaviour: 1.

The first set of benefits is the costs avoided due to less illness. The related benefits accrue to both the health sector and to patients themselves. Cost savings in health care are mainly due to the reduced number of treatments

Introduction

2.

3.

4.

9

of diarrhoeal cases. Also, patients avoid costs incurred in seeking treatment, including expenditures on care, drugs and transport and the opportunity costs of time spent in seeking care. It is estimated by WHO that the global cost savings of this intervention would be a minimum of US$2.1 billion per year, and could be up to US$7.3 billion per year. In India, there occurs an average of three episodes per annum of water and sanitation-related diseases resulting in minimum medical expenses of Rs 100 per capita per annum. There could be an annual saving of Rs 12 billion on this account (Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, 1998–99). Second set of benefits related to less illness are the avoided days lost, with respect to formal or informal employment, other productive activities in the household or school attendance. These benefits are both on account of gains related to lower morbidity and less death. The annual global value of adult days gained could be a minimum of US$210 million and could be up to almost US$750 million. In India an annual loss of 180 million man-days can be saved for the economy owing to reduced sanitation-related diseases (Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, 1998–99). Third major benefit is due to the time saving associated with closer location of the sanitation facilities and as a result users don’t have to go out in the field as is the traditional practice. This time saving translates into increased production, higher school attendance and more leisure time. The annual value of these time savings, spread over the entire population would range between US$12 billion and US$64 billion. Human excreta which is basically an organic matter if decomposes in the open produces green house gases like carbon dioxide and methane responsible for global warming. Avoidance of such gases by way of safe and proper disposal of excreta has the potential of earning carbon credits too which means more revenue for sanitation promotion activities.

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From this perspective, the health and socio-economic benefits of improved access to safe water and adequate sanitation have tremendous potential for contributing towards poverty reduction and improving the overall quality of life. So there are compelling arguments to support sanitation promotion throughout the globe. Mr Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General, had rightly mentioned that, ‘We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care’ (WHO, 2004b).

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL AND SANITATION

Despite there being a strong linkage between water, sanitation, health and overall well-being of the people, a large number of people are still without access to the basic sanitation and drinking water facilities. As per WHO, in 2002, 1.1 billion people lacked access to improved water sources, which represented 17 per cent of the global population and 2.6 billion people lacked access to improved sanitation, which represented 42 per cent of the world’s population. India’s share in this global problem has been quite high. As per 2001 census, nearly 78 per cent rural population and 64 per cent total population was not having access to any form of sanitation facility. This implies that more than 108 million rural households in India were not having any toilet facility. The sanitation coverage increased to some extent in 2006 as revealed by NFHS (2006), according to which 44.5 per cent of total population had access to toilets in the country of which rural sanitation coverage was only 26 per cent. However, latest estimates of the Department of Drinking Water Supply indicate that the rural sanitation coverage has increased to about 57 per cent in 2008 (SACOSAN III, 2008).

Introduction

11

Confirming the central role of water and sanitation in sustainable development and poverty alleviation, the United Nations Millennium Declaration emphasized upon expanded access to drinking water and sanitation. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. There are eight MDGs representing commitments of the global community to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation. MDGs are the world’s time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions while promoting gender equality, education and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights—the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter and security as pledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Millennium Declaration. The Millennium Declaration set 2015 as the target date for achieving most of the goals. Target 10 of Goal 7—‘Environmental Sustainability’ is related to Water and Sanitation issues—‘Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and sanitation.’ The baseline year for MDG has been taken as 1990. This implies that in order to achieve MDG in relation to sanitation, 1.6 billion households across the globe must gain access to improved sanitation by 2015. Out of this 478 million people live in South Asia alone. Translating the same target to India means improved access to about 61 million households by 2015. As per the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) data released by UNICEF and WHO, the overall sanitation coverage in India during 1990 was only 14 per cent. The improved sanitation coverage figure for rural areas was very low at 4 per cent only. As per JMP definition, only those toilets are considered to be counted which are sanitary in nature and also not shared by other households. As per this, in order to achieve MDGs overall sanitation coverage in India should increase to 57 per cent and in rural areas coverage must increase to at least 52 per cent by 2015.

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100 PER CENT SANITATION IS POSSIBLE ‘Nobody can stop an idea whose time has come.’ Sanitation promotion in rural India has been such an idea whose time had come by the turn of the century. The seeds were sown way back in 1999 by launching of the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC). Although germination of the seed took more than required time but when it happened, it took place with a big bang. Nobody would have imagined that a programme which had been so low on the agenda of the country as a whole since ages could turn into a massive campaign across the length and breadth of the country in a short span of time. Mahatma Gandhi had observed, ‘We are daily witnessing the phenomenon of the impossible of yesterday becoming the possible of today.’ The story of sanitation promotion in India also has been somewhat similar. Rural sanitation coverage was as low as 1 per cent in 1981 even 34 years after independence implying that 99 per cent of the rural population used to defecate in the open, along the road side, the railway track, river, canal, open fields and any open place which was easily accessible to people at dawn and dusk. How could a practice be considered bad if 99 per cent of the population was following it? Naturally few in the government and society in general took this problem seriously. The international decade of water and sanitation saw some activity in this sector leading to launch of Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in 1986 by the former Prime Minister Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi. CRSP definitely tried to set the tone and agenda in favour of an accelerated rural sanitation programme but given the mindset both within and outside the government system it was not an easy task to make sanitation a mass movement but CRSP certainly helped in increasing the rural sanitation coverage to 22 per cent by 2001 adding an incremental 1 per cent households with toilet facility every year. In the 1990s it was realized that business as usual was not the solution for promoting sanitation in rural areas and the sanitation programme had to break away from the traditional target-driven approach of building toilets without bringing in required change

Introduction

13

in attitude and behaviour. So the necessity of awareness building for generating the felt need for toilet and educating the people about the associated health risks was considered crucial and a modest but firm beginning was made by Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad (RKMLP), Narendrapur in partnership with UNICEF under overall support of Government of West Bengal to start an Intensive Sanitation Project (ISP) in Medinipur district. ISP implementation busted the myth that sanitation promotion was not possible without large subsidy for toilet construction. Rather it proved that if people were explained properly why a toilet was necessary and what benefits it could bring to their everyday life, they were more than willing to accept it as a way of life even without any financial grant from the government. The only precondition for such a success was complete commitment on part of the people implementing the programme and in this context there could not have been a more committed and dedicated organization leading this campaign than RKMLP which has been fired with the ideology and preaching of none else but renowned saints of India Shri Ramakrishna Paramhans and Swami Vivekananda themselves. ISP was the silent initiation of building a self-reliant and resurgent India which has influenced the national policies repeatedly and guided many states in formulating their sanitation strategies. In the 1990s, ISP motivated about 50,000 families in undivided Medinipur district to construct and use sanitary toilets. It demonstrated a unique low-cost technology for toilet construction which cost only Rs 230–250 per toilet. Any urbane mind would not have even believed that such a programme was possible without seeing this model on ground. And I was no exception. When I saw the TSC guidelines in 1999 while functioning as district collector, I too had the audacity to reject this idea as a foolish attempt of some bureaucrats in Delhi who had no connection with the field reality. Probably it wasn’t my fault as much as the system in which I had grown where we used to provide full cost of toilet construction of Rs 3,000 under CRSP, so it was difficult to conceive that any toilet could be constructed in less than this amount.

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What seemed to be impossible to ordinary human beings was proved to be possible beyond any doubt by a group of highly devoted and enthusiastic volunteers of Ramakrishna Mission in Medinipur in partnership with local panchayats and this had shaped the future of restructured CRSP. Total Sanitation Campaign was launched in 1999 with the objective of involving institutions of local self-government for promotion of sanitation and hygiene by focusing on awareness building with the involvement of different stakeholders like panchayats, NGOs, schoolteachers, anganwadi workers and mobilizing the whole community. District was chosen as the unit for implementation and the programme focused on funding for toilets at household, school and community level. It had a beautiful arrangement of managing the demand as well as supply for toilet facilities. On the one hand, TSC focused on awareness creation to increase the demand for toilets and, on the other hand, it focused on setting up a network of supply chain to meet the demand by installing Production Centres or Rural Sanitary Marts in every block. Not all government programmes take care of these forward and backward linkages, in absence of which the programme implementation suffers, but TSC had taken care of these issues at policy level itself. The number of TSC projects kept on increasing gradually every year but other than few districts in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, the implementation was far from satisfactory even at the time of beginning of the 10th Five Year Plan in April 2002. It deserves mention that Sector Reforms in water and sanitation sectors were launched together by Government of India in 1999 in 67 districts and both TSC and Sector Reform Projects2 were sanctioned in these districts. Both programmes required a paradigm shift in approach where focus was given on community management of the water supply and sanitation facilities. The programmes needed a heavy dose of capacity building and awareness generation efforts for all different stakeholders. The reform initiatives required a very committed management support at all levels—centre, state and districts—but 2 Although Sector Reform was brought in for both water and sanitation related projects but the term Sector Reform Project was used for Community Managed Water Supply Project. TSC was the Sector Reform Project in Sanitation sector.

Introduction

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given the general state of governance and priorities of key functionaries both programmes moved with snail’s pace till the end of the 9th plan period. Story of the TSC was more pathetic. However, a combination of policies, advocacy efforts, capacity-building measures and systems building led to sudden acceleration in sanitation coverage from 2002–03 onwards which is a history in itself. In 2003, Government of India came out with one of the most innovative incentive schemes—Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP)— which has really transformed the rural sanitation sector in India. Riding on the wave of TSC and NGP, this sudden explosion in rural sanitation coverage has completely stumped the traditional mindset which refuses to believe that anything good in social sector can happen in India. The growth has been so fast that even the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of UNICEF and WHO has not been even able to correctly capture the fast-moving rural sanitation coverage data and timely update JMP reports. Rural sanitation coverage in the past few years has really accelerated in India as evident from the chart given in Figure 1.3. About 10 million additional households are getting access to sanitary toilets every year in rural India. The average sanitation growth rate in the last three years has been about 8 per cent per year and using Figure 1.3:

Year wise rural sanitation growth in India

Source: TSC online monitoring software at www.ddws.nic.in.

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this projection, India is likely to achieve the MDG in respect of rural areas well ahead of 2015. If we see the growth rate in the last one year it has been about 11 per cent and as per this trend India can even achieve full sanitation coverage by 2015. Even though there is wide variation in sanitation coverage in different states, the very fact that the programme implementation has taken off gives us the confidence that these states will also now accelerate the sanitation coverage. The NGP has influenced the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and the states in such an incredible manner that the number of eligible PRIs is increasing in geometric progression and will soon reach out to all the villages in the country. Starting from 40 PRIs in 2005, the number of NGPawarded PRIs has increased to 4,959 in 2007 within a span of two years and in 2008 more than 12,000 PRIs received the award. As indicated in Figure 1.4, on an average 9–10 million households are accessing toilets every year now. All these developments point towards only one thing—India is not only going to achieve MDG but will be close to achieving 100 per cent sanitation coverage by 2015 which will be a unique achievement for the country. Even though it appears incredible, 100 per cent sanitation in India is possible. Figure 1.4:

Year wise construction of household toilets


2 Rural Sanitation: Development in Phases

SANITATION AND INDIAN CULTURE

H

uman beings have a natural tendency to remain clean. Cleanliness is not only fundamental to healthy life but also self-respect and is the ultimate value in human life. There is a feeling of social prestige also attached with this feeling of cleanliness. It leads to self-respect in human beings. Both external and internal cleanliness are important for any civilization to grow. Sanitation and cleanliness have been given very high priority in Indian civilization since ages. Sanitation has always been considered to be a way of life in India. The oldest available historical proofs related to this come from Indus Valley Civilization which is the earliest known urban culture in the Indian subcontinent. Remains of Indus Valley Civilization were first identified in 1921 at Harappa in Punjab and then in 1922 at Mohenjodaro in Sind. The civilization was spread from the foothills of Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Each town had more than 3 miles perimeter. Excavations in this more than 5,000 years old civilization have revealed that town planning was quite advanced during Indus Valley Civilization compared to other contemporary civilizations (Singh, 2000).

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In addition to well laid out streets and houses, there was a very good underground drainage system in both the towns in the streets and lanes. Waste water from the houses found outlet in smaller drains which were connected to cesspools built either entirely of masonry or earthenware jars. Sometimes, cesspools were converted into soak-pits by knocking the bottom of the jar lining them or by not paving the masonry structure. Bathrooms or at least a wainscoted floor which could be used for bathing purpose were part of every household. Latrines were fairly common, and rubbish-chutes were also not unknown (Ramakrishna Mission, 1982). Drains from bathrooms, courtyards and other parts of houses were quite common which were usually fitted with terracotta pipes or earthenware drain pipes encased in bricks. During excavations in Lothal (in present-day Gujarat), sewerage systems, drains and water supply systems were found. People even had water-based toilets in each house, of which many were covered with burnt clay bricks. To facilitate operations and maintenance they had man-hole covers and chambers. Similarly excavations at other sites also reveal existence of soak-pits bathrooms connected by terracotta pipes with soakage jars, etc. This reveals that sanitary engineering was fully developed as far as 5,000 years ago during the Indus Valley Civilization. After the Indus Valley Civilization, good sanitary systems have been found later on also. Excavations in Hampi which was part of the Vijayanagaram Empire of southern India have revealed that there were developed sanitation systems laid out in the city. There are historical evidences that even during Maurya and Gupta periods sanitation systems were well developed.

SANITATION IN THE VEDIC PERIOD Post-Indus Valley Civilization, Vedic period is the most noteworthy phase in Indian history which dates back to about 2500 B.C. The Hindus trace their cultural life to the Vedas which they hold to be divine truths revealed from time to time to the Rishis (seers) in their super normal consciousness. Veda literally means

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knowledge and supreme knowledge too. Study of the Vedic literature reveals that sanitation and hygiene was given prime importance in the society during that time. Smritis are the oldest scriptures in Hindu religion belonging to the Vedic period which had defined the code of conduct for the people within the family and in the society. Manu Samhita has an important place among all the Vedic literatures. We find extensive references to proper sanitation and hygiene maintenance in Manu Samhita which focuses on purity as a holistic concept including both internal and external cleanliness. Purity not only of the external environment but also of mind, thought and intellect is necessary for leading good life. Manu Samhita contains a set of verses which talk about the places where defecation and urination were permitted and places prohibiting passage of stool or urine. The code was very clear and rigid regarding maintaining environmental sanitation and not only the practice of defecation was regulated by the code but also urination in those days. Considering the importance of water in day-to-day life and also its use as a purifying agent, great emphasis was given to prevent pollution of the water bodies. ‘In the water he must not evacuate stool or urine, nor cast sputa, poison, blood, or anything smeared with any excreted organic matter’ (Chapter IV, verse number 56). Defecation or urination in the open especially on the road, pasture land or ploughed field was strictly prohibited as evident from the following three hymns: ‘He must not pass urine on the road, or in the pasture ground or on the ashes. Nor in the ploughed field or in the water, nor in a cremation ground, nor on the mountain, not in a dilapidated temple, and never on an ant hill. Not in a hole dwelt by an animal, neither when walking, nor staying, nor having arrived at a riverbank, nor on the summit of a mountain’ (Chapter IV, 45, 46 and 47). Enough stress was given on personal hygiene and cleanliness in the Vedic period. Specific codes were prescribed for cleaning or purifying oneself after excretion which included washing hands. Earth or clay was prescribed as the cleaning agent and washing hands for minimum seven times was stipulated for householders which could increase up to four-fold depending upon the

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category of the person. The harmful effects of poor hygiene were also clearly enunciated in these hymns: He must not cut his fingernails with teeth. He who (wantonly) grinds earth (with his fingers), or cuts his fingernails (with his teeth), as well as a malicious calumniator, and, who neglects his personal cleanliness, soon meets destruction. (Chapter IV, 69 and 71) Earth and water, enough for the purpose, should be used for purifying the part after defecation or urination, or after the discharge of any of the 12 aforesaid bodily excretes. The person wishing purification must rub his genitals once, his anus thrice, his left-hand ten times and his both hands seven times, with earth (clay) and water. This is the rule of purification for householders; Brhamacharis, forest dwellers, hermits and ancharits (yati) shall respectively double, treble and quadruple the number of purification measures laid down in 136. (Chapter V, 136 and 137)

Excreta was considered to be so harmful that even looking at it was also prohibited. ‘He must not look at the excreta’ (Chapter IV, 77). The means of purification of land where defecation or urination was done was prescribed in detail which is mentioned as, ‘A ground defiled by stool, by urine, is purified by brooming, plastering, washing and scraping it or by keeping kine thereon’ (Chapter IV, 124). In addition to personal cleanliness, emphasis was given on cleaning all the important belongings. Process of cleaning the non-living things was also prescribed which implies that the society placed high emphasis on maintaining cleanliness and hygiene. During the Vedic period internal purity was also given very high priority. Purity has always been treated as a holistic concept which includes both internal as well as external purity. ‘But of all purifications or purity, the purification or purity of the mind is the greatest purification or purity. He who is pure in intent (thought or idea) is truly pure, purification with the help of clay and water is no (real) purification’ (Manu Samhita). The Vedic culture never talked about mere ritual of purity but the purity of thoughts, feelings and actions. People were advised the process

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of maintaining internal purity. Pranayam (breathing exercise), knowledge, truthfulness, forbearance, ascetism, etc., were the virtues which were treated as means of internal purification whereas water was considered as a purifying agent for external body. These beautiful thoughts are summarized in the following verses of Chapter V of Manu Samhita: Knowledge, Yoga and penitential austerities (Tapas), the fire, food, the earth, conviction, water, pastes and unguents, the air, the sun and time are the purificators of embodied creature. Through forbearance the erudite are purified, through gifts wrong doers are made pure. Sinners in secret are purified by muttering or mentally repeating, the sacred mantras and the foremost of Veda-knowing Brahmanas are purified through the practice of penitential austerities. (Chapter V, 107) Water purifies the limbs and bodily members (of the person); truthfulness purifies the mind; the individualized self is purified by knowledge and penitential austerities; and intellect is purified by knowledge. (Chapter V, 109)

PATANJALI’S YOGA PHILOSOPHY Seer Patanjali had been the codifier of Yoga and had outlined the philosophy of Yoga about 2,500 years ago which is one of the cornerstones of Indian culture. Patanjali’s Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama—non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence and non-receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama—Shauch or cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study and self-surrender to God. Then comes Asana, or posture; Pranayama, or control of Prana; Pratyahara, or restraint of the senses from their objects; Dharana, or fixing the mind on a spot; Dhyana, or meditation; and Samadhi, or super consciousness. The first two— Yama and Niyama—are considered to be the most essential. These are moral trainings; without these as the basis, no practice of Yoga will succeed. The first item of ‘Niyama’ is ‘Shauch’ which means cleanliness or purity both external as well as internal (Acharya and Pandya, 1995; Bhave, 1997).

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Cleanliness has been regarded as the first step of civilization. Being unclean or observing poor sanitation has been considered to be an attribute of lethargic and sluggish people while agile, awakened and self-respecting people try to adopt sanitation and hygiene practices without wasting time. This is possible just by changing the attitude and making minimal efforts. Accumulation of dirt and filth on a regular basis is a natural phenomenon. Sweat from the body, foul odour from the mouth, excretion of urine and faecal matter, etc., are natural and recurring phenomenon. Not only this, dust accumulates on clothes, waste accumulates in the house, village or municipalities daily and if these are not cleaned regularly, will invite a plethora of diseases. All these are related to external cleanliness. Internal cleanliness relates to purity of mind and soul which is reflected in our inner qualities, actions and behaviour. Without inner purity, it’s difficult to acquire divine virtues. For balanced growth of personality and purity in life, external sanitation and internal cleanliness both are necessary and combination of these has been called as ‘Shauch’ by Rishi Patanjali which means ‘purification’. Rishi Patanjali has taught subtle meaning of purity which must get reflected in all our beliefs, thoughts and actions and has outlined the process of acquiring purity in life. 1.

2.

3.

4.

If the food is simple and pure it leads to purity of soul and conscience that is why vegetarianism has been promoted in Indian culture. Not only this, the practice of fasting has been recommended for inner purification which was used time and again by Gandhiji during the freedom movement. If the livelihood is earned through righteous means, it leads to purity of soul and vice versa. Livelihood should not be earned through dishonest means or without making adequate efforts for the amount earned. Believing in omnipresence of God, the human body is treated as a temple where God resides so it is mandatory that the body should be kept clean. If the inner-self is clean and pure, it would automatically reflect bliss and happiness in our actions. Without purity, happiness cannot be acquired.

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5.

6.

7.

8.

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Inner purity should lead to mutual respect for other living beings in the society and non-violence in proactive sense will be reflected in one’s personality. Even if there are ideological differences with someone, there will be friendliness in the relations without any ill feelings towards such person. Cleanliness results in higher concentration which is essential for meditation. It’s not easy to meditate at a dirty place or in a filthy environment. Cleanliness gives directionality to our thoughts and helps in removing layers of age-old beliefs and practices afflicting our soul. Without adopting purity, it is difficult to control the sensory desires. Purity of thoughts helps in having command over our sensory organs. If we attain purity, it will pave the way for self realization. Just like before entering the temple we clean ourselves, with purified body, mind and soul we can easily enter the temple of God and attain eternal bliss.

Rishi Patanjali has summarized the philosophy of internal cleanliness in his following sutra, A person who is chaste i.e. one who has wiped out filth like haughtiness, ego, jealousy etc his mind becomes pure, namely free from distraction and he acquires the ability to confine his attention to himself. That leads to a happy frame of mind namely free from distractions and happy with himself. Devotee with such a blissful mind can easily make it one pointed, which in turn leads to subjugation of the mind and other organs. Budhi thus purified gets the competence for self realizationi.e. to apprehend the real nature of Purusa. (2.41 of Patanjali’s Yog Sutra)

THOUGHTS OF SAINTS AND SEERS IN MODERN INDIA

So in ancient Indian civilization, sanitation, cleanliness and purity were part of the philosophical foundations of Indian culture

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and religion. The very existence of life was not possible without ‘purity’ which was a very holistic concept encompassing both external and internal cleanliness as defined by Rishi Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra or in Vedic literatures like Smritis. Indian seers in different ages have emphasized on this important aspect of life. In all other religions also sanitation and cleanliness have been stressed upon. In Bible also safe disposal of human excreta has been emphasized upon. Specific quotation from The Holy Bible (the Book of Deuteronomy) (23: 11–15) is reproduced here: If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he shall go outside the camp, and not return until, toward evening, he has bathed in water; then, when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp. Outside the camp you shall have a place set aside to be used as a latrine. You shall also keep a trowel in your equipment and with it, when you go outside to ease nature, you shall first dig a hole and afterward cover up your excrement. Since the LORD, your God, journeys along within your camp to defend you and to put your enemies at your mercy, your camp must be holy; otherwise, if he sees anything indecent in your midst, he will leave your company.

One of the major characteristics of Indian civilization has been that it has stood like a ‘Rock of Ages’, weathering many a fierce storm, because her foundations are the eternal values of philosophy and religion. India has produced spiritual leaders in an unbroken succession to remind an average man of his true end and show him the way. ‘The greatest men of India have always been not distinguished statesmen, valiant warriors, or astute merchants, but the messengers of Spirit who appeal to the fundamental unity of all in the basic Reality which is spiritual, and a comprehensiveness of outlook which knows no narrow distinctions’ (Ramakrishna Mission, 1982). The modern India has witnessed few highly spiritual leaders who have shaken the country out of its slumber. Swami Vivekananda, a true disciple of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhans, awakened the sleeping Indian masses by showing them their true worth by arousing self-confidence in

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our ancient values and culture. He was the messenger of Indian religion and culture to the West and made them understand the very philosophy of Vedanta. Mahatma Gandhi is known for waging the war against the British Empire by mobilizing the entire country using the tools of truth and non-violence which was unheard of in the past. He built the freedom movement and the war against untouchability on the basic foundations of religion and spirituality. Pundit Shriram Sharma Acharya, founder of ‘All World Gayatri Pariwar’, initiated a revolution to purify the thought process of the masses and pioneered the revival of spirituality and creative integration of the modern and ancient sciences and religion relevant in the challenging circumstances of the present times. All these saints were deeply perturbed by the poor sanitation situation in the villages and cities in India, and have given lot of emphasis on cleanliness in their preaching for leading a happy and prosperous life as well as practiced in their own daily life. Their key preachings and messages are elaborated in the following sections.

Swami Vivekananda on Cleanliness Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success, and above all, love. – Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda had traveled extensively within India and in the Western countries in connection with sharing the cultural heritage of India with the world and also arousing the sleeping countrymen about India’s own rich cultural heritage. In course of his extensive journeys he had closely observed basic sanitation and hygiene practices in the West as well as in India and had educated the countrymen in adopting the better of the two cultures. Being a true Yogi, Swami Vivekananda taught his disciples that the first prerequisite for practicing Yoga was purity, physical and mental; and advised that all uncleanliness that would draw the mind down must be abandoned.

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In his words, ‘Purity is absolutely the basic work, the bed-rock upon which the whole Bhakti (devotion) building rests. Cleansing the external body and discriminating the food are both easy, but without internal cleanliness and purity, these external observances are of no value whatsoever’ (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3, page 67). He further highlighted that ‘by the practice of cleanliness, the Sattva material prevails, and the mind becomes concentrated and cheerful’ (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 1, page 264). Swamiji had deep appreciation of personal cleanliness maintained by Indian people in general but used to be quite disgusted with overall environmental uncleanliness prevailing in Indian society and also by the fact that even the basics of health and sanitation were not at all followed by the people. He was very critical of the people taking bath many times a day for cleaning themselves but at the same time not keeping the surroundings clean. He had expressed his strong sentiments by critically commenting on this behaviour, ‘Dirt is so repugnant to us that if we touch it we bathe; and so to keep ourselves away from it, we leave a heap of it to rot near the house’ (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 5, page 473 published by Advait Ashram, Kolkata, West Bengal). Having traveled extensively in Western countries and being a scholar of Western philosophy he was appreciative of the good practices in the West and advised countrymen to adopt those practices. However, he never encouraged blind following of the Western culture and wanted people to have greater faith and respect for their own culture. He was very impressed with the overall environmental cleanliness prevailing in Western countries. In his own words, ‘In the West, they have a habit of keeping everything about themselves neat and clean, and even the poorest have an eye towards it. And this regard for cleanliness has to be observed; for, unless the people have clean suits of clothes, none will employ them in their service. Their servants, maids, cooks, etc., are all dressed in spotlessly clean clothes’ (Vivekananda, 1907). But at the same time he was very critical of some personal cleanliness habit like not bathing regularly in Western countries prevailing at that time.

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Swamiji greatly emphasized upon food hygiene while cooking as well as serving food. He had closely observed the cooking practices of Indian and Western cooks. If he was impressed with the Indian cook for cooking in clean utensils after purifying himself by taking bath, he liked the Western cooks for the utmost hygiene maintained while serving food. At the same time he criticized them for not maintaining the hygiene while cooking food.

Gandhian Concept of Sanitation Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Young India, ‘Cleanliness is next to godliness. We can no more gain God’s blessing with an unclean body than with an unclean mind. A clean body cannot reside in an unclean city.’ This statement highlights the great priority given to sanitation by the Mahatma throughout his life. He too emphasized upon the purity of mind and body both. He used to be highly concerned with the prevailing poor sanitation conditions and overall plight of the villages in India which instead of having graceful hamlets were full of dung heaps. Seeing the pathetic conditions of sanitation and cleanliness in our villages Gandhiji had observed: The approach to many villages was not a refreshing experience. Often one would like to shut one’s eyes and stuff one’s nose; such is the surrounding dirt and offending smell. A sense of national or social sanitation is not a virtue among us. We may take a kind of a bath, but we do not mind dirtying the well or the tank or the river by whose side or in which we perform ablutions. I regard this defect as a great vice which is responsible for the disgraceful state of our villages and the sacred banks of the sacred rivers and for the diseases that spring from insanitation. (Gandhi, 1941)

He was equally worried about the poor hygiene habits of the rural people and rampant use of the village tanks for bathing, washing clothes, bathing of cattle especially the buffaloes and also drinking and cooking purposes. In his address to the nation on various occasions he strongly advocated for cleaning the tanks and wells and getting rid of dung heaps. He wanted the Indian

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villages to develop into model ones with perfect sanitation and for this purpose he strongly felt that without the involvement of the individuals and the village community sanitation was not possible. So he always emphasized upon ownership by the community in taking up any kind of sanitation drive. He exhorted for equal participation of the rich and the poor in the villages for this purpose. Gandhiji taught the nation that the waste including human excreta which was responsible for so many diseases in the rural India if properly managed could be converted into wealth. The human excreta and cow dung could be converted into golden manure for the farmers, useful articles could be made out of the animal bones and rags, and waste paper could be recycled into paper. In those days, open defecation was the practice in the rural areas, so he advised the nation a simple technique of safe disposal of human excreta—covering the excreta with soil so that flies could not transmit diseases in the village. Alternatively, he advised for burying the excreta in individual or common field. Sanitation was so dear to him that he gave it a very high priority in his dream of a model village. Not only this, while outlining the role of a village worker, he clearly mentioned that the village worker had to be fully aware of the science of village sanitation. He was equally unhappy with the urban sanitation situation which was characterized by inhuman practice of manual scavenging and the associated pernicious practice of untouchability. Despite being a great believer in Indian value system and the indigenous solutions to our own problems he was not averse to learn from the West about the science of municipal sanitation which he felt could be incorporated with suitable amendments to fit into our needs. In his opinion not only physical sanitation of the city was important, but there was also a need for internal sanitation of the citizens. Gandhiji was deeply perturbed by the practice of untouchability and scavenging prevailing in Indian society and launched the movement against it for liberation of the scavengers along with the freedom movement. Bhangi Mukti Andolan (movement for the liberation of the scavengers) was part of the freedom

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movement steered by Gandhiji. His clear and unequivocal views on untouchability are reflected in his writings. In its inception, untouchability was the rule of sanitation and is still is in all parts of the world outside India. That is to say, an unclean person or thing is untouchable but immediately on his or her uncleanliness is shed; he or she is no longer untouchable. Therefore, persons who are to attend to scavenging, whether paid bhangi or an unpaid mother, they are unclean until they have washed themselves clean of their unclean work. If instead of being regarded as untouchable for ever, the Bhangi was treated as a brother and was given an opportunity and even made to become clean after performing an unclean service for society he should be as acceptable as any other member of that society. Untouchability as it is practiced in Hinduism today is, in my opinion, a sin against God and man and is, therefore, like a poison slowly eating into the very vitals of Hinduism. In my opinion, it has no sanction whatsoever in the Hindu Shastras taken as a whole. Untouchability of a healthy kind is undoubtedly to be found in the Shastras and it is universal in all religions. It is a rule of sanitation. That will exist to the end of time; but untouchability as we are observing today in India is a hideous thing and wears various forms in various provinces, even in districts. It has degraded both the untouchables and the touchables. It has stunted the growth of nearly 40 million human beings. They are denied even the ordinary amenities of life. The sooner, therefore, it is ended, the better for Hinduism, the better for India, and perhaps better for mankind in general. (Gandhi, 1947)

He was deeply aggrieved at the plight of the untouchables in India and had realized that even if India was freed from the clutches of the British, as long as the pernicious practice of untouchability continued it was not good for Indian society, so he accorded sanitation a very high importance during the freedom movement and even mentioned that sanitation was more important than Swaraj. He had rightly said, ‘Conservation of national sanitation is swaraj work and it may not be postponed for a single day on any consideration whatsoever.’ He always called upon the Congress workers and his followers not to engage scavengers

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for disposal of their excreta but be their own scavengers. In his opinion if village worker was not a successful scavenger, he could not fit himself for village service. Gandhiji’s thoughts on sanitation had motivated a large number of his followers who willingly performed the scavenging activities in the villages. The topmost among such followers were Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Shri Appa Patwardhan, etc.

Pundit Shriram Sharma Acharya on Sanitation Promotion Pundit Shriram Sharma Acharya was a harmonious blend of a saint, spiritual scientist, yogi, philosopher, writer, reformer and visionary. His life and work represent a marvelous synthesis of the noble thoughts and deeds of great personalities like Swami Vivekananda, Shri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, Socrates and Confucius. He has written more than 3,000 books on various issues related to religious, spiritual and social reforms including women’s empowerment. He has written two books exclusively on sanitation—Pavitra Jeevan meaning ‘pure life’ and Gandagi ki Ghrinit Asabhyata meaning ‘abhorring civilization of filthiness’ which are published by Shantikunj, Haridwar. In both the books, he has expressed deep concerns about the insanitary conditions prevailing in the villages and explained the essence of cleanliness both physical and spiritual as well as how to live a clean and pure life. He has explained the importance of cleanliness as enshrined in Gayatri Mantra which is recited in prayer of Sun God and to sharpen our intellect. Twelfth letter of Gayatri Mantra—‘VA’— teaches us to lead pure life: ‘Vasatam naa pavitrah san bahyatoabhyantarastatha. Yatah pavitrataya hi rizteati prasannta.’ This means human beings should be clean and pure both from outside as well as inside because happiness lies in purity. Purity is a spiritual attribute. The soul is by nature pure and beautiful hence thoughts, behaviour and belongings of spiritual persons are always clean and beautiful.

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He has defined purity and cleanliness at various levels. First is ‘physical cleanliness’ which includes cleanliness of body, residence and surrounding environment. Second is cleanliness of ‘thoughts and feelings’. Third is ‘financial cleanliness’ which implies purity in financial transactions while earning livelihood. Fourth is ‘purity in practical subjects’ which implies our day-today interaction with others and the nature of work we do. Last is ‘spiritual purity’ without which all actions are meaningless. The physical and mental purity are the most important for normal human beings which if taken care of, automatically help in purity in other domains. That is why cleanliness has been accepted as a divine virtue and it is said that one who is clean is close to God. He has highlighted that cleanliness is a virtue which is required not only by living beings but also non-living things. It is a common practice that if a machine is overhauled and cleaned completely it gets a new lease of life and its efficiency increases. The same is true for human beings also, who by keeping themselves and their surroundings clean can not only keep fit but also increase their efficiency and longevity. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi he also chose to clean his own excreta himself and advised his followers not to defecate in the open and construct simple low-cost toilets for safe disposal of excreta which could help in disease control in our villages. He also advocated for recycling of human waste which could be used as manure in agriculture field and could reduce the requirement of purchasing fertilizers by the poor farmers. A great believer in equality in society, he spoke against the evil practice of untouchability and preached that people might dislike the filth but should not dislike the person who removes the filth.

SANITATION IN PRE-INDEPENDENCE (BRITISH) PERIOD Over a period of time, slowly sanitation had been relegated to a very low priority by the society. Among majority of the masses, its meaning got confined only to ritualistic cleanliness rather than the holistic concept enshrined in ancient scriptures. This led to

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poor sanitary conditions in the villages and towns as well as poor hygiene practices inviting overabundance of diseases. Condition of an average village in India can be best described by the memoirs of William Vampire—a British national who had once come to India and spent many years in learning Indian spirituality. He was so impressed with the spiritual thoughts of Hindu religion that he wrote in his book, ‘If somebody asks me what is Hindu religion I would say that it is the pure form of human beings.’ The same Mr Vampire had made very harsh and sarcastic comments on the poor sanitation prevailing in Indian villages. He has written, ‘You cannot lose your way in India. In case you are unable to find your way even in a dark night just stand on a raised place and try to smell the wind blowing from all four directions and proceed in the direction from where the bad smell is coming. I am sure that you will enter a village very soon’ (Acharya, 2002). In 1857, British rule was firmly established in India. Poor sanitation condition in the villages started affecting the health of the British Army personnel too. The initial public health intervention by British Government in India was targeted at the health of their army personnel. Considering the extremely unsatisfactory health of British Army personnel, a Royal Commission was appointed in 1859 to investigate the causes of their poor health. The commission recommended establishment of a commissioner of public health in each presidency and also emphasized on the need for protection of water supplies, construction of drains and prevention of epidemics in the civil population for safeguarding the health of the British Army. Accordingly sanitary commissioners were appointed in three provinces—Bombay, Madras and Bengal. Later on in 1869, a Public Health Commissioner was appointed with the Government of India. The experiments with local self-governments started in the late 19th century. In 1885, local self-government act was passed bringing local bodies into existence in urban areas and subject of sanitation was delegated to the local bodies in 1888. However, this delegation was without adequate resources and manpower required by the local bodies for this purpose. In 1896, there was a severe plague outbreak in India and in its aftermath, focus on

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public health increased. To strengthen the local bodies, in 1912, grants were given to them and deputy sanitary commissioners were appointed in the local bodies. Later on, the subject of sanitation and public health was delegated to the provincial governments in 1919. To promote research and capacity building in the arena of public health, the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH&PH) was established in Calcutta in 1930 with the aid received from the Rockefeller Foundation (Park, 2000). In 1930s a nationwide movement against untouchability and the Bhangi Mukti movement were launched, details of which are given in the following section.

Bhangi Mukti Movement in India It is estimated that the existence of Purdah system in medieval period had led to expansion of scavenging system in India. During this period, the Muslim women used to wear burqua (veil) to cover their faces and they were not allowed to defecate in open. So they preferred to defecate at home in Purdah and the bucket privies were, therefore, designed and constructed for their defecation (Pathak, 1991). Those made captives during the war or who violated the rule of law prevailing at that time were forced to clean the latrines and throw the night soil at distant places. Afterwards the captives released were generally not accepted by their caste men and hence they formed different caste of Bhangis. The very word Bhangi means ‘one who breaks the law’ and implies the genesis of the Bhangi system in India. These Bhangis were placed at the lowest rung of the caste ladder and they neither got social justice nor humane treatment. It is estimated that due to the fear of the rulers in those days, women in the neighbouring states of the capital also started Purdah system which generated need for Bhangi or scavenger class in these states also. This is the reason why the Bhangi caste people are primarily found in Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, etc. People from these states only are mostly found to be doing scavenging work in other states (Mehta, 1963). The practice of manual

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scavenging was thrust upon them from generation to generation. Being economically poor and socially backward, they were not in a position to revolt against these inhuman practices which continued till Mahatma Gandhi picked up the cause of liberating the Bhangis from cleaning the night soil. During early 1930s the British Government proposed for a separate electorate for untouchable communities in India which was not at all acceptable to Gandhiji and the Congress. Protesting against the communal award of separate electorate to the untouchable community by the British Government, Mahatma Gandhi undertook fast while he was in Yervada prison in Pune which forced the British to revise their stand of separate electorate. However, urgent need for eliminating the evil practice of untouchability was felt and accordingly a national organization Harijan Sevak Sangh came into existence in 1932. Great Thakkar Bapa was closely associated with Harijan Sevak Sangh and with his utmost zeal and enthusiasm he turned this into a national movement and also requested Gandhiji to make a countrywide tour in support of Harijan upliftment. Responding to the need of the time, Gandhiji travelled about 12,500 miles during November 1933 and July 1934 for this purpose which produced great impact and millions of people inspired by the thoughts of Gandhiji stopped the practice of untouchability and the Harijan brethren secured admission to famous temples. Mahatma Gandhi firmly believed that every one should be one’s own scavenger. If every person cleans his own excreta there won’t be the requirement of a separate Bhangi community. Mahatma Gandhi always practiced what he preached. When he attended the National Congress convention in Calcutta in 1901, he asked the volunteers not to engage scavengers and clean their night soil themselves. He set the example by himself cleaning his night soil with the help of a broom which made a great impact on the minds of the volunteers and afterwards whenever the All India Congress Convention was organized the volunteers themselves used to take up the task of disposing of the night soil. Similarly in 1918, when Gandhiji started his Sabarmati Ashram, again he advised the inmates not to engage professional Bhangis

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but to clean and dispose the night soil themselves. The inmates of the Ashram had arranged two buckets—one for defecation and the other for urination and ablution—and they used to dump the night soil in a trench and cover that with earth which was later on used as good manure. Gandhiji also urged the volunteers of Congress to take up social and constructive work simultaneously with the freedom movement and requested them to be part of liberation of the scavengers programme. Inspired by him, a large number of disciples worked relentlessly for this purpose and notable among them were Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Shri Appa Saheb Patwardhan, Shri Thakkar Bapa, Shri B. R. Ambedkar, Shri Mamasaheb Phadke, Shri Jugatram Dave, Shri Babalbhai Mehta, Shri Mansukhlal Joban Putra, Shri Shivabhai G. Patel, Smt. Rameshwari Nehru, Shri Parikshitlal Majumdar, Shri Krishna Das Shah, Shri Vallabh Swami, Shri Jivanlal Jairamdas, Professor N. R. Malkani, Shri Viyogi Hari, Shri G. Ramachandran, Shri Bhau Navrekar, Shri Senapati Bapat and Shri Gargi Maharaj (Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission; RGNDWM, 1994). Two programmes, Bhangi Kasta Mukti and Bhangi Mukti, were launched during the freedom movement which continued later on also. The purpose of Bhangi Kasta Mukti programme was to reduce their immediate suffering by improving their working condition. This involved providing them gloves, gum boots and scrapers so that they could be saved from having to touch night soil. For long-term solution, Bhangi Mukti programme was taken up which aimed at converting dry latrines into sanitary ones and imparting skills to the scavengers for alternative employment. Inspired by the dream of Gandhiji various organizations continued to work for improving sanitation in post-independence period also. Their primary focus was on Bhangi Mukti. Gandhi Smarak Nidhi under the chairmanship of Late Appa Saheb Patwardhan, Safai Vidhyalaya, Nashik under the leadership of Late Bhau Navrekar, Safai Vidhyalaya, Ahmedabad led by Shri Ishwar Bhai Patel and Sulabh Sanitation Movement spearheaded by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak are the key organizations which worked for Bhangi Mukti in post-Independence era.

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BRIEF HISTORY OF RURAL SANITATION PROGRAMME SINCE INDEPENDENCE After Independence, a sanitation programme was introduced in the first Five Year Plan period itself. In 1954, The National Water Supply and Sanitation Programme was introduced in the health sector by the Government of India which was later on transferred to the Ministry of Urban Development (Park, 2000). The objective of the programme was to provide safe water supply and adequate drainage facilities in the urban and rural areas of the country. Singur1 model of toilets—simple pit with round squatting plate without pan—was developed as part of this programme in 1956. In the initial years of post-Independence period, the major emphasis of the sanitation programmes was on Bhangi Mukti which was primarily urban focused and targeted at eliminating the inhuman practice of manual scavenging. However, majority in the rural areas continued to defecate in the open which is evident by the fact that even in 1981 only 1 per cent rural households had access to toilets. There was not much attention on the unhygienic practice of excreta disposal in the rural areas which causes a number of diseases and there was no focused rural sanitation programme in the country.

INTERNATIONAL DECADE OF WATER AND SANITATION AND LAUNCHING OF CRSP 1980s was celebrated as the international water supply and sanitation decade which witnessed increased attention to both water supply and sanitation programmes. During this decade ambitious target of 100 per cent coverage for water, 80 per cent for urban sanitation and 25 per cent of rural sanitation was decided by the Government of India (Park, 2000). However, by the turn of 1

A place in West Bengal where Rural Training and Health Centre was set up.

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the decade, sanitation coverage could increase only to 9 per cent in the rural areas. In 1984, National Guinea Worm Eradication Programme was launched by Government of India in technical cooperation with WHO and UNICEF which helped in eradication of the guinea worm cases by 1996. Since no further cases were reported for next four years, in the year 2000, WHO formally certified India to be free from the guinea worms which has been one of the major achievements of collaborative effort of international agencies and government in both water supply and health sectors. In the year 1985, the subject of rural sanitation was transferred from the Ministry of Urban Development to the Ministry of Rural Development. During this decade, in 1986, the 20-point programme of the Government of India was restructured to include clean drinking water as well as protection of the environment including sanitation. This attached slightly higher priority to the sanitation programme in the country and in 1986, the first centrally sponsored sanitation programme titled Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development. Giving priority to the sanitation programme, it was envisaged that 25 per cent of the rural population would be provided with sanitation facilities at the end of the international decade for water supply and sanitation. In order to achieve this goal, resources available under other rural development programmes like Indira Awas Yojna2 (IAY), National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and Rural Labour Employment Generation Programme3 (RLEGP)—wage employment programmes—were dovetailed to provide sanitation facilities at household, schools, anganwadis,4 health centres and panchayat offices. At that time 100 per cent subsidy for construction of toilets was provided to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes 2

IAY is rural housing scheme sponsored by the Ministry of Rural Development to support BPL families construct houses for themselves. 3 NREP and RLEGP were the earliest version of wage employment programmes launched by the Ministry of Rural Development. 4 Anganwadis are pre schools set up under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme.

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families as well as households belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL). The technology promoted was ‘two pit pour flush water seal latrine’. The funds under CRSP were allocated to the states following fixed allocation criteria which included weightage to rural population, area and incidence of poverty. Later on, a national seminar on rural sanitation was organized in 1992. Incorporating the recommendations of this seminar, the CRSP guidelines were modified in 1993. The unit cost of the latrine was increased to Rs 2,500 and for the first time an element of beneficiary contribution was included which varied from 10 to 20 per cent and in case of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes families, it was pegged only at 5 per cent in cash or kind. The modified guidelines included the provision for construction of Village Sanitary Complexes, establishment of Rural Sanitary Marts, awareness creation for demand generation and educating people about the linkage between sanitation, health and hygiene and also model sanitation villages (Mohandas, 1998). As per reports of the Ministry of Rural Development, even if the CRSP was officially launched in 1986 the actual implementation started in 1993. Despite these initiatives, CRSP was poor and distant cousin to other development programmes, both in terms of attention that it commanded and the resources which were allocated to the programme.5

INTENSIVE SANITATION CAMPAIGN IN WEST BENGAL Albert Einstein had observed, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.’ Various approaches for rural sanitation promotion were being experimented in the field in early 1990s by different organizations and the foremost among them was an imaginative 5

Proceedings of the national seminar on rural sanitation held during 9–10 July 1998.

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Intensive Sanitation Programme initiated in Medinipur district of West Bengal which became the foundation for the revamped rural sanitation programme in India. This project was spearheaded by Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad (RKMLP)—a social service unit of Ramakrishna Mission founded by the great Indian saint Swami Vivekananda to realize his dream of poverty reduction and social development. This project was fundamentally based on the concept of mass awareness, mass organization and mass education enunciated by Swamiji (Prabhananda, 2003). During the international decade of water and sanitation, it was decided to accelerate the rural sanitation coverage and accordingly focus was given on seven priority states which included West Bengal. At that time, the subject of rural sanitation was handled by the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) who were asked to prepare a project for taking up sanitation promotion in West Bengal. Till the mid-term review of the international decade of water and sanitation, no project was initiated by PHED. So in the year 1988, UNICEF and Government of West Bengal requested RKMLP to develop an integrated sanitation project. At that time RKMLP—one of the most noteworthy voluntary agencies—had been implementing various social development programmes related to early childhood development, literacy, micro-credit to rural woman, etc., for a long time in West Bengal and had started working in the rural sanitation sector also since the early 1980s. Following the teachings of Swami Vivekananda to mobilize and awaken the youth, RKMLP had developed a network of youth organizations rallying about 1,100 youth clubs through its cluster organizations. Since RKMLP was active in Medinipur and having a good network of youth clubs, it was decided to implement the Intensive Sanitation Project (ISP) in this district which was one of the largest districts having more than 9.6 million population spread over 14,000 square kilometres of geographical area. Based on its past experience, ISP was conceived by RKMLP led by its the then director, Late Shri S. S. Chakraborty and Shri B. K. Das, the then Project Officer of UNICEF’s Kolkata office. In 1990, the Government of West Bengal in partnership with RKMLP, UNICEF and Zilla Parishad (district panchayat) initiated

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this unique self-help ISP in Medinipur district following the key strategy of activating a market of sanitary facilities by way of awareness building and demand generation. RKMLP with its network of village level youth clubs and cluster organizations set up village-level production centres and streamlined demand generation and supply systems. This was an initiative which tried to reverse the traditional prevalent practice of indiscriminate open defecation in rural areas by spreading awareness about the ill effects of such social behaviour which required courage and conviction to face the barrage of queries and also derision from the common people. But braving these difficulties, ISP under the overall leadership of Professor S. S. Chakraborty and Mr Chandi Charan Dey created a history in rural sanitation sector in India. Mr Chandi Charan Dey was in the forefront of implementation of the project in the field leading the dedicated team of RKMLP volunteers. He was ably and fully supported by Mr Chandan Sengupta of UNICEF Kolkata in this endeavour. Dr Surya Kanta Mishra, the present Minister for Rural Development & Panchayati Raj was the Sabhadhipati of Medinipur Zilla Parishad and Dr M. N. Roy, present Principal Secretary of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Department was the district collector in Medinipur at that time. Both Dr Mishra and Dr Roy gave full support to this innovative experiment which later on became the cornerstone for rural sanitation reform in India. The key strategies followed in the ISP were the following (Chakraborty, 1998): 1.

The programme implementation started without any subsidy giving focus on demand generation. Following the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, ‘education is the panacea for all social ills’, the programme focused on location-specific education programmes to educate the people about the benefits of sanitation facilities. However, later on a token subsidy of Rs 200 was introduced in the programme against the prevailing CRSP subsidy of Rs 2,000.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

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An element of revolving fund was introduced to facilitate loan for construction of toilets by rural households which was later on withdrawn. Intensive Human Resource Development Programmes were designed and conducted for inculcating positive aptitude and skills for implementation of Demand Driven Sanitation for the functionaries of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Administration and Panchayati Raj Institutions from district to village level. Taking into consideration the socio-cultural factors, social mobilization activities emphasized upon the ‘on-site defecation’ with lowest cost latrines installed with locally available materials. Drudgery and privacy of woman were the focus areas for demand generation. The technology options provided were in line with the economic affordability of the rural population. Six different cost-effective household toilet models with costs ranging from Rs 230 to Rs 2,600 (in 1990) were offered to the families for choice of the toilet models considering their economic affordability. The focus was given on all rural households and not only to the BPL families. The campaign focused on Above Poverty Line (APL) families also for total sanitation in the village. The network of production centres cum rural sanitary marts was set up in all blocks to arrange timely supply of sanitary materials to the families who had expressed the need for toilet. This network involved cluster organizations of RKMLP. Twenty-five sanitary mart cum production centres in Purba Medinipur and 29 in Paschim Medinipur district were established. For demand generation, a cadre of sanitation motivators involving village youth clubs and Gram Panchayats was developed and trained which was linked with the production centres. A performance-linked incentive was given to the motivators.

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9.

In order to have focused and intensive drive for sanitation promotion, activities were taken up in a defined geographical area with the specific time frame of about six months instead of diluting efforts in a widespread area at a time. 10. A systematic weekly monitoring mechanism involving all sectors had been developed to monitor the progress and to overcome the shortcomings. 11. For the first time in the country a voluntary organization had been entrusted to act as a nodal agency for implementing sanitation project in a district while the district administration and Panchayati Raj Institutions extended necessary support in implementation of the sanitation programme. Within few years of initial implementation, learning from the experience, few key strategies in ISP were modified. The first was the removal of the revolving fund component which was introduced initially but it was noticed that people were not refunding the revolving fund in time and volunteers of Ramakrishna Mission were spending more time in recovering the money rather than working towards implementation of the project. Mr Chandan Sengupta who joined as project officer, in UNICEF Calcutta in 1991 was instrumental in making this important policy change. At the time of introduction of ISP, only Rs 30,000 was provided for setting up of production centres which was found to be insufficient. In such case, UNICEF revised the norms and increased the unit cost to Rs 80,000 for setting up the production centres. The most important change in the policy was related to subsidy for construction of household toilets. Initially, there was no subsidy for household toilets in ISP; however, in the CRSP there was provision of Rs 2,000 as subsidy. In order to avoid two sets of policies in operation in the district, Government of West Bengal had taken a decision that in Medinipur district, no CRSP subsidy would be given. All the other development agencies, international agencies, etc., were also advised to follow similar norms to avoid any kind of confusion in the field. In order to follow the correct process of mobilization and inducing the demand for sanitary toilet, Late Shri S. S. Chakraborty

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was against the concept of subsidizing construction of household toilets. He was a strong votary of zero subsidy approach in sanitation promotion and had the conviction that if people were motivated and took up the toilet construction with their own fund, the behaviour change would be sustainable forever. However, there were equally strong reasons to suggest for introducing an element of subsidy to accelerate the programme implementation which are summarized in the following: 1.

2.

3.

Zero subsidy required very high degree of social mobilization for which large number of specialized NGOs were required. There was limited capacity of NGOs in the state as well as within the district. Despite the presence of Ramakrishna Mission, its network of youth clubs were active only in 2,500–3,000 villages out of about 10,000 villages in Medinipur district. So the programme had effectively no reach in other 7,000 villages. The adoption rate of toilets in villages was very slow. Even the poor families willing to construct toilets needed to be financially supported either by providing them sanitary materials on instalment basis or a loan upfront. In the absence of subsidy, poor households were somehow able to mobilize resources but very slowly and that too over a period of time, as a result the coverage rate was very low and more efforts were needed to convince the people to adopt the toilets. It was felt that if part subsidy was given and people were asked to contribute partly from their own resources that would help in accelerating the coverage and reaching out to more households. With this objective in mind Government of West Bengal introduced an incentive of Rs 200.00 for BPL families for installation of home toilet from 1994. The beneficiaries were expected to contribute Rs 30–50 as per the choice of technology. An element of subsidy, however, at a much lower rate was initiated in ISP which has since been followed even in TSC programme by the Government of West Bengal. In effect this meant that the

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Rs 2,000 subsidy available under CRSP was effectively distributed among 10 households in Medinipur. Another major learning from implementation of ISP was related to involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in sanitation promotion and role clarity between them and NGOs. Initially, the PRIs were not involved in ISP implementation which was mostly managed by RKMLP through its cluster organizations and youth clubs. They used to motivate the community for adopting toilets and then supply the sanitary materials including squatting plates. Initially the panchayats strongly opposed involvement of NGOs in social mobilization in the district and even physically obstructed the NGOs. There are instances that vehicles of RKMLP were forcibly stopped by the agitated PRI members in the district. However, this was resolved by direct involvement of the district administration and district panchayat who used to communicate with the PRI members and explain the rationale of the ISP. In the words of Dr M. N. Roy, ‘Continuous and sustained dialogue with the PRI members and role clarity between the NGO and the PRIs helped not only in removing the distance between these two important institutions but also brought synergy in their functioning.’ Swami Vivekananda had observed, ‘Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition and the acceptance. Each man who thinks ahead of his time is sure to be misunderstood.’ This happened in case of ISP also and when its acceptance from the PRIs came, this turned out to be an excellent partnership at the district level which was later on scaled up in other districts of the state also involving other NGOs. One offshoot of involvement of the PRIs was that the process of mobilization was partly compromised. On many occasions, PRIs resorted to taking shortcuts in demand generation rather than following the full process of mobilization. There were instances when additional subsidy was provided to further accelerate the sanitation coverage which had an adverse effect on use of the facilities. Not only this, it was promoting dependency upon subsidy which was very much against the key principle of selfreliance and self-awakening as preached by Swami Vivekananda

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and incorporated in the programme while it was launched. However, with continuous monitoring, training and dialogue with key stakeholders, some of these aberrations could be arrested. Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) had preceded the ISP in Medinipur which had mobilized the whole PRI system as well as government machinery from district to the panchayat level. There was increased visibility of government officials in the villages because of the TLC and the high energy levels acquired during the TLC served as a good foundation for implementing another development programme which required large-scale social mobilization. Sanitation promotion had a similarity with TLC as it was a functional education programme to improve the health of the rural people. This helped the PRIs and government functionaries to channelize their energy in the ISP implementation. The project gave lot of emphasis on capacity building of different stakeholders and a large number of functionaries were trained for taking up this new initiative which included training of more than 7,600 village motivators, 144 seed masons, 1,414 village masons and 4,711 youth club leaders. More than 217,000 household latrines were constructed under the programme between 1990 and 1996–97. Household toilet coverage increased to 100 per cent in Purba Medinipur (total household 783,623) and 91 per cent in Paschim Medinipur (total household 914,042) district in December 2006, against 4.74 per cent in 1991. In addition to toilets, households were encouraged to construct soakage and garbage pit, bathing platform, washing platform, improved stove and latrine linked biogas plants (Dey and Asaktananda, 2007). Participation of the youth in this programme was one of the main reasons for success. Swami Vivekananda had a strong belief in the power of the youth and had observed on various occasions, ‘Youth are the Key Agents for Change.’ RKMLP involved a large number of youth organizations in this unique sanitation movement by orienting them about the needs of demand-driven and self-financed sanitation concept and its impact on human health and society. As a result of this endeavour, village youth clubs participated spontaneously in the movement and their number rapidly increased from 125 Village Youth Clubs in 1990 to more

46


than 1,000 clubs having 25,000 volunteers within two-year period. Medinipur Sanitation Movement established the vision of Swamiji beyond any doubt by transforming the age-old defecation habits of about 10 million population of this district. An independent evaluation of the Medinipur experiment was carried out in 19 villages by UNICEF during 1996–97. The major findings of the study were (Chakraborty, 1998): 1.

2.

3.

4. 5.

96.73 per cent of families installed latrines because delivery of materials at the doorstep and skilled masons were made readily available at the village level through village level network. Interpersonal contact was the most effective means of communication in the project where 84 per cent of the families were motivated by the youth club or the sanitation motivator. The reason for accepting latrine was primarily convenience for women and children followed by dignity. The health factor had the lowest influence on the families for toilet construction. 85.62 per cent families who installed the low-cost toilets were satisfied and did not find any foul smell. 59.19 per cent families accepted the latrines because of its low cost. About 42 per cent were willing to upgrade the toilet.

The strategy adopted in the ISP was proved to be quite effective on the ground and helped in achieving total sanitation in the villages. This success motivated Government of India to adopt this strategy in the national programme while restructuring CRSP in 1999.

RESTRUCTURING OF CRSP AND LAUNCHING OF TSC A nationwide baseline survey to understand the Knowledge, Aptitude and Practices (KAPs) among the people related to water

Rural Sanitation

47

and sanitation issues was conducted by Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM) through Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi during 1996–98. The survey was conducted in 65 districts spread over 25 states with a broad objective to provide baseline against which the effectiveness and success of water and sanitation programmes could be assessed and to provide background data and insights at the district level for evolving a suitable information, education and communication (IEC) programme and strategy. Some of the key findings of this study having implications for future policy changes were (Mitra, 1998): 1.

2.

3. 4.

Even if only 20 per cent households reported having toilets, out of this 55 per cent people were motivated by themselves. Convenience and privacy were the key motivational factors both for the people who had already constructed latrines and for those who wanted to construct latrines in future. Subsidy was motivational factor only for 2 per cent respondents who had constructed latrines. 51 per cent people were willing to spend up to Rs 1,000 for constructing toilets.

This KAP study clearly revealed that subsidy was not the key motivational factor and people were willing to spend money to construct latrines. These findings were very much in line with the experience gained during the implementation of ISP in Medinipur district of West Bengal. So it was felt that business as usual in sanitation sector was not possible if the sanitation coverage in India had to be increased. At that time, a national seminar on rural sanitation was organized by RGNDWM during July 1998 to discuss and finalize a new rural sanitation strategy. The seminar also analyzed the lessons learnt from the implementation of CRSP. Churning of ideas in the seminar led to the historical shift in rural sanitation strategy in the country. It was abundantly realized that fully subsidy-driven programme would not lead to an increase in sanitation coverage;

48


so it was decided that future programme should focus on low subsidy at a flat rate that too only for the BPL households. Awareness generation was considered to be the most critical factor for bringing about the behaviour change. Guided by the findings of the KAP study conducted by IIMC and experience gained in implementing ISP, CRSP was restructured in 1999 and the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was launched by the Government of India in 1999 with the following objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7.

Eliminate open defecation to minimize risk of contamination of drinking water sources and food. Bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas. Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas. Generate demand for sanitation facilities through awareness creation and health education. Encourage cost-effective and appropriate technologies in sanitation. Cover schools/anganwadis in rural areas with sanitation facilities and promote hygiene education and sanitary habits among students. Convert dry latrines to pour flush latrines, and eliminate manual scavenging practice, wherever in existence in rural areas.

TSC introduced a paradigm shift in rural sanitation strategy by making it ‘community led’ and ‘people centred’ with increased stress on awareness creation and demand generation from the people for sanitary facilities in houses, schools and for cleaner environment (see Box 2.1). TSC primarily followed the key strategies as evolved during ISP implementation and projects were initially taken up in 67 districts where Sector Reform Projects for demand-responsive water supply schemes were also sanctioned. It was decided that demand-responsive schemes in both water supply and sanitation sector would be implemented together in those districts. While selecting these 67 districts, care was taken to include at least one district from each state. In the bigger states,

Rural Sanitation

Box 2.1:

49

TSC Principles

• • • • • • • •

Focus on awareness creation for sanitation and hygiene promotion Low to no subsidy approach Demand-responsive approach Community driven and people centred—involvement of PRIs and NGOs Choice of technology options and vertical upgradation approach Alternative delivery mechanisms—network of RSM and PC Strong focus on school sanitation and hygiene promotion Involvement of co-operatives, women groups, self-help groups, youth clubs, etc. • Cost sharing in construction of sanitation facilities and O&M

more than one district from different regions was selected. Subsequently few TSC projects were sanctioned every year and by 2005 majority of the districts were brought under TSC. Year wise, number of districts covered under TSC may be seen in Figure 2.1. Funding under TSC was available for construction of household, school and community sanitary complexes for women, start-up activities like baseline survey and initial IEC, social mobilization and capacity development activities during the project period, alternate delivery mechanism for setting up network of Figure 2.1:

Year wise sanction of TSC projects


50


production centres and Box 2.2: Components in TSC rural sanitary marts, • IEC and start-up activities administrative expenses, • Rural sanitary marts and production etc. Later on funding for centres • Individual Household Latrines solid and liquid waste (IHHL) management was added in • Community sanitary complex 2006 (see Box 2.2). Subsidy • School sanitation and hygiene education structure for household • Solid and liquid waste management toilet was kept in line with • Administrative charges the vertical upgradation approach. As the quality and unit cost of the toilet increased, the beneficiary contribution also increased and the ratio of subsidy decreased. The household subsidy structure approved in TSC is indicated in Table 2.1. Table 2.1: Subsidy structure for household latrines6 Basic Low Cost Unit Cost (Rs) BPL

APL

Contribution State BPL APL

Up to Rs 1,500/(single pit)

60%

Nil

20%

Nil

20%

100%

Between Rs 1,500/and Rs 2,000/-

30%

Nil

30%

Nil

40%

100%

Above Rs 2,000/-

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

100%

100%

Source:

GOI

Household BPL APL

TSC guidelines issued by RGNDWM, Government of India.

The component-wise fund allocation matrix in TSC is given in Table 2.2.

INTRODUCTION OF NGP—AN INNOVATIVE INCENTIVE SCHEME By December 2001, Nandigram II block in East Medinipur district of West Bengal had achieved full sanitation coverage. Nandigram 6

During the latest revision carried out in 2008 November, unit cost of a household toilet was increased to Rs 2,500 out of which Rs 2,200 is subsidy from central and state governments. Additional subsidy of Rs 500 is given in hilly and difficult areas.

Rural Sanitation

51

Table 2.2: Component-wise fund allocation in TSC Sl Component

Amount earmarked as per cent of the project outlay

Contribution (per cent) GOI State Household/ community

a. Start-up activities and IEC, Up to 15 per cent including motivational awareness and educative campaigns, advocacy

80

20

0

b. Alternate delivery mechanism (PCs/RSMs/ revolving fund for SHGs and milk cooperatives)

More than 5 per cent (subject to a maximum of Rs 8.5 million per district)

80

20

0

c. Individual latrines for BPL/disabled households

As per actual requirement to ensure 100 per cent coverage

60

20

20

d. Individual household latrines for APL

Nil

0

0

100

e. School sanitation, including anganwadis (hardware and support services)

As per actual requirement to ensure 100 per cent coverage

70

30

f. Community sanitary complexes

Less than 10 per cent

60

20

20

g. Solid and liquid waste management

Less than 10 per cent

60

20

20

h. Administrative charges, including training, staff, support services, monitoring and evaluation

Less than 5 per cent (subject to a ceiling of Rs 4 million per district)

80

20

0

Source:

TSC guidelines issued by RGNDWM, Government of India.

(Das, 1984) had a history of active participation of people even during the freedom movement. Satyagrahis from this area played very active role in breaking the salt regulation as well as Quit India Movement call given by Gandhiji. People in large numbers courted arrest and also even sacrificed their lives fighting against the British government. It is the same Nandigram where agitation against the land acquisition move of the Government of West

52


Bengal started in 2007. It seems that rebelling against the system and tradition has been in the soil of Nandigram which probably triggered the sanitation movement also. As per request of the state government, a national review mission visited Medinipur in June 2002 to study the achievements made by Nandigram and the mission was deeply impressed with the sanitation campaign taken up in this district. Large-scale involvement of PRIs in this rural sanitation programme led to the realization that only if local panchayats were actively involved in sanitation and hygiene promotion initiatives total sanitation in the villages could be achieved (RGNDWM, 2002). This insight led to the conceptualization of Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP)—an incentive scheme for the Panchayati Raj Institutions for becoming open defecation free. The NGP award recognizes the efforts made by PRIs in promoting total sanitation. The award amount ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 million for all three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The award was also designed for individuals and organizations helping the PRIs attaining NGP status. Mahatma Gandhi had always believed in the ability and strength of the local self-governments (Panchayati Raj Institutions) in developing rural India. NGP launched by the Government of India on 2 October 2003 (134th birth anniversary of Gandhiji) has helped in converting his vision into reality. NGP, an incentive and award scheme for the PRIs for promoting sanitary conditions in rural India, has motivated and empowered the local bodies. These local bodies are taking up the big challenge of eliminating the practice of open defecation. As anticipated, local panchayats have proved that if given the responsibility with authority, they can achieve even seemingly unreachable goals. The number of open defecation-free PRIs has been exponentially increasing since the first NGP awards were distributed on 24 February 2005 to 40 PRIs from six states. The number of awarded PRIs increased to 769 from 14 states in 2006. In 2007, 4,959 PRIs from 22 states were awarded and in 2008, 12,382 PRIs from 25 states received NGP award.

Rural Sanitation

53

The whole concept of NGP is to reward those districts, blocks and Gram Panchayats (GPs) which have achieved full sanitation coverage. The cash incentive for PRIs can be utilized for improving and maintaining sanitation facilities in their respective areas with more focus on solid and liquid waste disposal and maintenance of the sanitation standards. The present incentive pattern is based on population criterion, which is given in Table 2.3. While selecting the PRIs for NGP, following items are considered for scrutiny: 1.

2.

3. 4.

All households should have access to toilets with full use and there is no place for open defecation in the respective PRI. All schools have sanitation facilities, which are also put to use. All co-educational schools must have separate toilets for boys and girls. All anganwadis have access to sanitation facilities. General cleanliness prevails in the village.

PRIs attaining the eligibility for the award submit their applications to the Department for Drinking Water Supply (DDWS) through the respective state governments. The applications are scrutinized by DDWS and those applications which prima facie satisfy the eligibility criterion are sent for field verification through an independent agency (District Level Monitors, DLM) appointed by the Ministry of Rural Development. The DLMs verify each and every application by visiting the PRI and assessing the ground situation through random sample survey as well as focus group discussions. DLMs submit a detailed verification report to the Government of India (DDWS) based on which a committee headed by Secretary (DWS) sanctions the award to the eligible PRIs. The NGP awards are distributed by the President of India in a grand function in Delhi or in different states which has further motivated the PRIs to work for sanitation promotion.

10,000

20,000

Individuals (amount in rupees)

Organizations (amount in rupees)

100,000

1,000 to 1,999 200,000

2,000 to 4,999

Gram Panchayat

400,000

5,000 to 9,999 500,000

>10,000

35,000

20,000

1,000,000

Up to 50,000

Block

2,000,000

>50,001

Nirmal Gram Puraskar Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

50,000

PRI (amount in rupees)

Source:

Less than 1,000

Population Criteria

Particulars

Table 2.3: Incentive pattern in Nirmal Gram Puraskar

50,000

30,000

3,000,000

Up to 1 million

5,000,000

Above 1 million

District

Rural Sanitation

55

RURAL SANITATION PROGRAMME: TIME PERIOD, 1857—2007 The evolution of sanitation programme and key public health policies since 1857 is summarized in chronological order in Table 2.4. Table 2.4: Key milestones in sanitation programme in India Year

Milestones in Rural Sanitation Programme/Public Health Policy in India

1859

A Royal commission appointed by British government to look into causes of poor health of British Army. 1864 Sanitary commissioners were appointed in three major provinces— Bombay, Madras and Bengal. 1869 Public health commissioner appointed with the Government of India. 1885 The local bodies came into existence. 1888 The subject of sanitation was assigned to the local bodies. 1896 Severe plague epidemic occurred in India. 1912 Government of India decided to support local bodies with grant and appointed deputy sanitary commissioners and health officers. 1930 AIIH&PH established at Calcutta. 1930s Design of borehole latrine developed. 1932 Harijan Sevak Sangh established for uplifting the condition of untouchables. 1936 Bhangi Mukti, a movement for liberation of scavengers initiated, with a spin-off effect—development of Wardha-type latrine. 1943 Action research initiated to develop appropriate low-cost rural latrine model at Singur Rural Training and Health Centre, AIIH&PH, Calcutta, Poonamallee Research Institute, Madras and other institutions at Ahmedabad. 1949 Dug well-type latrine developed at Singur. 1954 The rural sanitation programme introduced as part of the first Five Year Plan of Government of India. 1953/1956 The twin pit pour flush latrine evolved and field tested at Singur, West Bengal by AIIH&PH, Calcutta. 1972 An Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) started by Government of India to provide drinking water supply in problem villages. 1980 Development of rural pan, consuming less water for flushing. 1981 Census reveals the rural sanitation coverage as meagre 1 per cent. International decade for drinking water and sanitation begins giving emphasis on the rural sanitation. Formation of the technical advisory group by United Nations. Development Programme (UNDP) and World Bank to assist the development of low-cost technologies. Table 2.4 (Contd.)

56


Table 2.4 (Contd.)

Year

Milestones in Rural Sanitation Programme/Public Health Policy in India

1984 1986

Guinea worm eradication programme launched. National Drinking Water Mission set up by Government of India and CRSP launched. ISP launched in Medinipur. National conference on rural sanitation organized by Government of India. CRSP restructured. 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments, empowering the PRIs, came into existence. National level KAP study conducted by Government of India. National conference on rural sanitation organized by RGNDWM. CRSP restructured and TSC launched. WHO certified eradication of guinea worm from India. Rural sanitation coverage increased to 21.9 per cent. Nandigram II block in Medinipur district claims 100 per cent household toilet coverage. Allocation-based CRSP phased out and TSC becomes the only national sanitation programme of Government of India. National review mission visits Nandigram II block and recommends for incentive scheme for PRIs for sanitation promotion. Guidelines for setting up communication and capacity development units (CCDU) in states initiated. The first revision in TSC guidelines carried out. NGP, incentive scheme for PRIs, launched on 2 October 2003. The first SACOSAN organized in Dhaka. CCDU guidelines approved by the government. Second revision in TSC guidelines carried out. Guidelines for supporting key resource centres finalized. The first NGP distribution ceremony organized on 24 February 2005, Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi. Second NGP distribution ceremony organized on 23 March 2006. The second SACOSAN organized in Islamabad in September 2006. Third revision in TSC guidelines carried out in March 2006 and subsidy per household toilets increased. The first international learning exchange (ILE) in water and sanitation sector organized in November jointly by UNICEF and Government of India. Third NGP distribution ceremony organized on 4 May 2007. The second ILE organized in September 2007.

1990 1992 1993 1994 1996–97 1998 1999 2000 2001

2002

2003 2004

2005 2006

2007 Source:

Park (2000).

3 Debate on Key Policies and Evolution of Implementation Strategy

E

ven though Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was launched in 1999, its operationalization took time. Most of its key principles and strategies got accepted by various stakeholders over a period of time and underwent lots of debates. It is not easy to arrive at consensus on any approach in a diverse country like India. When the issues are as sensitive as subsidy for construction of toilets or role clarity between various institutions like panchayats, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and government organizations, it becomes much more difficult to reach a consensus. There have been a range of issues which were debated a lot by the centre and the states, experts and civil society, line departments, PRIs, etc., and finally the programme and policies evolved through this process which helped in shaping the future of TSC implementation. In the words of Gandhiji, ‘Dignity of human nature requires that we must face storms of life.’ This applies for a programme like TSC also and to emerge as a strong programme it was imperative for it to evolve through the policy debates. In due course, some issues were fully resolved and took the shape of policy by modifying the TSC guidelines but there are some issues still unresolved and pose challenge for effective implementation of the programme. Different states adopted various elements of TSC strategy at varying pace and issues resolved in one state could have been posing a serious challenge in another state. The

58â•… Squatting with Dignity

evolution of the programme and adoption of key policies and strategies has been at different stages in different states. Subsidy for household toilets: high or low? Subsidy for rural households has been one of the most sensitive and widely debated issues. Reduction in the quantum of household toilet subsidy was one of the major policy changes in TSC compared to the erstwhile Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP). Whereas in CRSP, subsidy of Rs 2,000 per household toilet used to be provided, TSC advocated for a maximum subsidy of Rs 600 per household toilet that too only for the BPL families. Moreover this was not supposed to cover the entire cost of construction of household toilet as in the case of CRSP but to be treated as incentive for adopting a toilet and the corresponding good hygiene behaviour. This major policy decision was guided by two main factors—successful implementation of ISP in Medinipur district and the findings of the national KAP study conducted with the support of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) during 1996–97 (Mitra, 1998). Knowledge, Aptitude and Practice study had revealed that about 51 per cent of households not having a toilet were willing to spend up to Rs 1,000 for construction of a decent sanitary toilet and interestingly only 2 per cent of the total households indicated that the government subsidy was a motivating factor for them to construct toilets. These findings were further corroborated by the fact that a large number of toilets were not used for the purpose for which they were constructed but for anything else including storage of grains, keeping the goats and sheeps, some were converted into bathrooms and in few cases these were even used as places for worship. Success of the ISP in Medinipur had led to a belief that with a combination of awareness creation and social mobilization initiatives, cost-effective technology options and an innovative decentralized supply chain, it was possible to promote low-cost but sanitary toilets even among the poorest of the poor households. Sanitation promotion was possible only by awareness

Debate on Key Policiesâ•… 59

creation and making people feel the necessity for a toilet rather than thrusting upon them a latrine as done in the past. Promotion of low-cost leach pit technology demystified the perception about the existing technologies especially the prevailing belief that only septic tank toilets were effective and sanitary ones (Chakraborty, 1998; Mishra, 1998). It helped in reducing the cost of household toilet construction making it affordable to even poor households and scaling up over a vast area in a 10 million plus population district. Over a period of seven to eight years (till 1998) more than 200,000 families in Medinipur district alone had constructed single pit toilets and started using them. This was possible even without any subsidy, provided that a dedicated team of social mobilizers was available for awareness generation among the rural households. In this case, RKMLP with a team of highly dedicated professionals working in tandem with panchayats provided the leadership throughout the district both for the purpose of social mobilization and running the supply chain to convert the demand for toilets into actual construction and use of the facilities. In short, ISP had proved the point made by Gandhiji that it does not require money to be neat, clean and dignified. The simple technology promoted could be easily adopted by a large number of households and thus ISP also proved the hypothesis that ‘simplicity is the essence of universality’. The decision to shift from high-subsidy to low-subsidy regime was taken during a national conference in Delhi in 1998 attended by a range of stakeholders which included state governments, NGOs, academicians, professionals working in international agencies in India and other experts. There is a belief that meetings in Delhi generally result in a consensus on the proposals put forward by the Government of India. So, this meeting also might have resulted in a similar type of consensus and a strategic shift towards low-subsidy regime in rural sanitation programme was also agreed to. Acceptance of an approach on paper is one thing and implementing that idea on ground in a vast and diverse country like India is another thing. Just as affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law, all men and women cannot be forced to think alike. Even if a set of highly skilled professionals


and experts take certain sound decisions based on strong logic these will have to pass through the scrutiny of a large cross section of stakeholders before actually getting accepted and implemented on ground. Even though the decision to shift from high to low subsidy regime had a firm footing in a convincing logic and justification, this was not palatable to an array of technocrats, civil servants and politicians for whom it was difficult to even imagine that a toilet which had so far been requiring Rs 2,000–3,000 could be constructed in as low as Rs 625 to Rs 1,000 as proposed in the TSC guidelines. As a result, even after three to four years of launching of TSC, there were very few state governments who really believed in this philosophy of low subsidy and most of them were reluctant to implement this programme. Other than few districts in West Bengal and also in Tamil Nadu, funds released to the TSC project districts were hardly used and the physical and financial performances were very low in the initial three to four years of TSC implementation. The debate on this subsidy issue had a very wide spectrum. On one extreme of the spectrum were few state governments demanding restoration of subsidy to the earlier levels or even more and on the other extreme was the Water and Sanitation ProgrammeSouth Asia (WSP-SA) which was campaigning for zero subsidy. Both the sides were able to put forward cogent arguments in favour of their stand and both seemed to be reasonable from their own point of view. It was a fact that by merely giving subsidy to households, sanitation coverage was not going to increase and the real behaviour change needed for adopting sanitary practices required proper awareness creation and social mobilization. On the other hand, the argument of the state governments also had merit that it was difficult to motivate people to construct toilets in absence of a reasonable amount of subsidy. Most of the state governments also argued that what could be achieved in Medinipur with the involvement of RKMLP could not be expected to be replicated everywhere as it was difficult to find such dedicated NGOs in other states. The fact lay somewhere in between. With a strong social mobilization it was possible to make people construct toilets even without subsidy but in absence of such


mobilization it was not possible to move ahead with the programme without giving a reasonable amount of subsidy. In fact if we draw a graph between two parameters—extent of social mobilization needed and amount of subsidy required for constructing a toilet—we’ll find an inverse relation between the two. Based on the capacity of the TSC-implementing agencies for mobilizing the community the extent of subsidy required could be assessed provided there was a bare minimum social mobilization for triggering behaviour change. Since most of the state governments lacked the initial enthusiasm and the ability to embark upon a massive social mobilization drive for sanitation promotion they were resorting to easy escape route of demanding for high subsidy. A remarkable but bizarre thing about functioning of government system is that its beliefs change with the change in leadership. It has been experienced that frequent leadership changes get reflected in repeated policy changes. Dr S. S. Meenakshi Sundaram, who hailed from southern state of Karnataka, became the secretary of the Department of Drinking Water Supply in August 2002. At the time the Government of Karnataka was implementing a Rs 2,000 subsidy programme for household toilets, supplementing the additional subsidy from the state budget, and Karnataka was not showing much interest in TSC implementation because of its low subsidy structure. It had even not shown interest in asking for sanction of more projects other than three projects sanctioned initially as part of the Sector Reforms Programme. At the same time, Mr Shanta Kumar assumed the charge of Ministry of Rural Development; he came from Himachal Pradesh which was also demanding for higher subsidy for toilet construction primarily because of increased input costs in this hilly state. The third important player in the chain of decision-making was Dr R.â•¯C. Panda, the then joint secretary who was from Tamil Nadu and also believed in the need for increasing subsidy for household toilets. He was a step further and wanted to provide subsidy even to the APL households. In a system where all the key decision-makers were on the same page, it was easy to take decision even on such debatable topic and accordingly it was in principle decided to increase the subsidy


from Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 so that toilet with a permanent superstructure could be constructed. Sometimes a decision is taken in no time but its operationalization becomes a formidable task especially when such decisions involve approval of the Union Cabinet. Since the subsidy structure in TSC was approved by a resolution of the Union Cabinet in 1999, any modification also required approval by the same authority. So the need for preparing a ‘Note for the Cabinet’ arose. As per government procedure before seeking approval of the Union Cabinet, approval of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) headed by the Secretary, Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance is necessary. The responsibility of preparing the EFC note was entrusted upon me. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. This was amply proved in this particular instance. Working for the first time in Government of India, I was not fully aware of the procedure of preparing an EFC note. As a result, the note prepared by me for increasing the subsidy was not as per the format prescribed by the Ministry of Finance, it was technically wrong. Even though the note was seen and approved by everyone in the hierarchy nobody had really checked whether the procedure of preparing EFC memo was followed or not. So after circulation of the memo, the initial comments that we received from the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, indicated that the proposal was not in the appropriate format and we were asked to resubmit the proposal accordingly. For a decision to materialize in government, it is not only the intent but also the procedure has to be right. Having no other option, we started working on a new EFC note strictly following the prescribed format and by the time this revised note was prepared in February 2003, Dr Meenakshi Sundaram had received his transfer orders and his successor was already notified. Mr Palat Mohandas was to succeed Dr Meenakshi Sundaram who belonged to the opposite end of the subsidy spectrum and was widely known for his strong views on this issue. His conviction for a low-subsidy regime was absolute and along with Dr N.â•¯C. Saxena,1 he was the person responsible for bringing out this Dr N. C. Saxena was the Secretary, Rural Development during 1998–99 who played pivotal role in restructuring CRSP and introducing TSC.

1


major policy shift in 1999 when he was posted as joint secretary in Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM). Having known his views on this issue, Dr Meenakshi Sundaram considered it prudent to leave the decision of approving the revised EFC note to Mr Mohandas. As expected, Mr Mohandas didn’t like the idea of increasing subsidy for household toilets and was always of the view that a toilet meant a system of safe disposal of excreta for which a simple pit with a water seal and pan was sufficient. The real technology of sanitary toilet lies below the ground and not above the ground. The superstructure of the toilet only serves the purpose of privacy and protection from weather. He was a firm believer that these basic requirements could be met by investing as little as Rs 500 as done in Medinipur. Anything beyond this should be contributed by the individual and he often used to quote the legendary Mr Yugandhar2 that the government’s job was not to build Taj Mahal. Rather than confronting everyone head-on immediately, he bought time by ordering for an evaluation of implementation of the TSC so far and decided to revise the subsidy later on based on the evaluation outcome. Evaluation of the key elements of TSC was also directed by the Union Cabinet while approving the restructuring of CRSP in 1999. For any new proposal to go to the Union Cabinet, an evaluation of TSC was necessary. This led to automatic delay in revision of subsidy and my ignorance of preparing the EFC note helped in keeping the subsidy policy undisturbed and retaining the same subsidy level in TSC for a few more years which was ultimately revised in March 2006 about 3½ years later than originally conceived. Since Mr Mohandas was one of the key functionaries in designing TSC programme, he had greater ownership and conviction to convince others about the rationale and various major policy shifts adopted under TSC. Known to be a powerful orator he had the capacity to convince people having divergent opinions and in case they were not convinced, he didn’t mind to even impose his opinion upon them. He took up the challenge of convincing 2 Mr B. N. Yugandhar has been a renowned civil servant and expert in rural development sector. Presently member of National Planning Commission.


different state governments about the need of adopting low-subsidy approach by one-to-one meetings or regional or state-level workshops and was quite successful also. He also didn’t mind confronting with his own minister on this issue. He somewhat believed in what Max Mueller said years ago, ‘Truth needed to be repeated as long as there were men who disbelieved it.’ His firm commitment to low-subsidy approach made it clear to the state governments that Government of India was not going to increase subsidy; so many states also started implementing the programmes within the framework defined by TSC. During the same period the subsidy for household toilets to be constructed under Indira Awas Yojna—a rural housing scheme implemented by another division in the Ministry of Rural Development—was also rationalized and brought at par with that in TSC. However, it was not an easy task to convince all the state governments about the relevance of low-subsidy regime. Most of the states in western part of India were in favour of increasing subsidy and were not willing to continue with low-subsidy programme. However, there was greater degree of acceptance in the eastern states. Even those states which were not clamouring for high subsidy, for example Tamil Nadu and Tripura, had resorted to additional subsidy from the state budget or were dovetailing funds from other rural development programmes like Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojna and Employment Assurance Scheme. Various advocacy efforts did lead to a realization among the state governments about prioritizing sanitation programme. However, some of the state governments were wary of their own capacity to launch a large-scale social mobilization campaign and tried to resort to simple route of giving little extra subsidy to make people construct toilets easily. The approach and response adopted by different states and international agencies towards this issue are summarized in the following section.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) Prior to launching of TSC, Government of Andhra Pradesh was implementing a high-subsidy programme for construction of


household toilets. The state government had taken loan from Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) to finance the rural sanitation programme. Even after introduction of TSC, the state government was not willing to accept the idea of reducing subsidy for household toilets. However, it fully accepted the need for accelerated implementation of rural sanitation programme and tried to pool additional resources for this purpose. One of the innovative(!) initiatives taken by the state government was utilizing the rice available for the ‘food for work programme’ to supplement the subsidy for toilet construction. As per this, two and half quintals of rice along with Rs 750 as cash incentive were offered to the BPL households through the Gram Panchayats (GPs). People were expected to make their own contribution in cash or kind to complete the superstructure. Not only a toilet but also a bathroom attached to the toilet was being constructed under this programme which generated lots of enthusiasm and interest in the state and in the year 2003–04 itself more than 2.5 million household toilets were taken up for construction. The subsidy was routed through the GPs, but the state government had not accepted the idea of a low-subsidy regime. Even after the change of government in Andhra Pradesh after 2004 elections, the same high-subsidy structure continued.

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh was another state which showed keen interest in sanitation promotion; however, it continuously demanded for increasing subsidy as the state was not convinced of the utility of very low cost toilet construction in UP villages. In their view a reasonably good superstructure was essential for ensuring use of the toilet and so they demanded for increase in subsidy. Uttar Pradesh was one state which used to pay subsidy as high as Rs 2,375 during CRSP days. People who were used to this kind of subsidy were not willing to accept small subsidy of Rs 500 only. Naturally, Minister for Panchayati Raj from Government of Uttar Pradesh used to write frequent letters to the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India for increasing the


subsidy in TSC. Due to Mr Palat Mohandas’ persistent belief that providing higher subsidy would be counter-productive for sanitation movement such requests were never agreed to. Realizing that Government of India was not going to increase subsidy in near future, Government of Uttar Pradesh took a decision to increase the subsidy for household toilets allocating additional resources from the state budget. The state government launched Special Incentive Scheme through village panchayats in the year 2004–05 for the promotion of pucca (permanent) superstructure construction and apart from Rs 600 TSC incentive money, the state government allocated Rs 900 as special incentive for every household latrine. This special incentive was routed through the Gram Panchayat to the individual beneficiaries.

Punjab Initially the Rural Development Department and later on the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) which became the nodal agency for TSC implementation were very reluctant to implement the programme and were very much against the idea of low subsidy. In every meeting and workshops organized by the Government of India, a customary answer used to be given by the Punjab government officials that people were not willing to construct low-cost latrines so they needed higher amount of subsidy. An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. The PHED was not willing to take up the mundane task of exhorting people to construct toilets when they could make their living more lucrative by digging deep tube wells, laying pipelines, constructing overhead storage tanks and water quality treatment plants, etc., which not only required higher technical inputs but also involved huge sums of money. However, they didn’t want to antagonize the Government of India—the Kamdhenu3—which was passionately pushing for sanitation promotion so they used 3 As per Hindu mythology, Kamdhenu is the mythological cow which fulfils all desires and provides unending supply of milk.


to innovate excuses. Their demand for subsidy was quite in line with their status of being one of the richest states in the country. The request for subsidy for toilet construction varied on different occasions between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000. On 15 August 2003, a big advertisement was published in one of the Delhi newspapers which talked about launching of a new scheme—Rajiv Gandhi Pendu Jan Sehat Yojna—by the Government of Punjab. This scheme had a component on toilet construction for scheduled caste families at a cost of about Rs 5,000. After seeing this advertisement in the newspaper, Mr Palat Mohandas was quite furious and the next day in the morning the newspaper cutting was sent to me with a direction to get detailed reports from the state government. Pending the detailed report from the state government fund release to newly sanctioned TSC projects in Punjab were stopped and it resumed only after a gap of about one year when the state government gave an undertaking that they would implement TSC in its right spirit. This was a superficial assurance given to please the secretary and of course was never fulfilled; as a result as far as sanitation is concerned, Punjab has remained where it was and few other states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal have progressed considerably.

Gujarat Like Punjab, Gujarat also has been one of the rich and progressive states in India which had similar type of sanitation coverage (40 per cent) in 2001 census. Gujarat has been fortunate to have inherited the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi who not only launched the freedom movement in India but also started a movement against poor sanitation and hygiene specially the inhuman practice of manual scavenging prevailing in India in those days which had created a caste of untouchables who were responsible for carrying human excreta on their head. Despite the legacy of Gandhiji, sanitation programme in Gujarat was not moving because of the ongoing conflict between high and low subsidy. A high-subsidy


programme sponsored by the state government was in operation where Rs 4,000 subsidy was given to every household which was much more than the subsidy permissible in TSC. Further the programme was being implemented through a network of NGOs and not through the panchayats. The NGOs were not interested in implementing a low-subsidy programme and in this tussle TSC implementation suffered considerably. Later on in 2004, due to various advocacy efforts, the state government took the decision to reduce the subsidy at par with that prevailing in TSC. This removal in anomaly in the subsidy structure really helped in accelerating TSC in Gujarat. Analyzing the whole issue of subsidy and implementation of the programme in different states does raise a doubt whether the demand for high subsidy has been actually raised by the people or by institutions who try to speak in the name of people. It has been very frequently heard from the PHED officials as well as political representatives that people are not willing to construct low-cost toilets and more funds are required. There has been a tendency to speak on behalf of people without actually understanding what people demanded. Wherever proper mobilization has taken place and people have been explained the rationale of sanitation they have gladly accepted the idea and for a well-informed community subsidy rarely becomes a barrier. We have seen that reduction in subsidy in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, etc., further accelerated the programme. In my opinion, it is the middle level institutions who crave more for subsidy than the people themselves so if the fund is actually routed through the households this problem can also get mitigated to a large extent.

International agencies The subsidy had been a contentious issue not only between the centre and the states but also between government and various international agencies. Different agencies had been following different pattern of subsidy in their programmes and had approaches


varying from zero to very high subsidy. When the central government was promoting construction of low-cost toilets under TSC, World Bank-assisted water and sanitation projects in Karnataka, Kerala and Uttarakhand were providing subsidy ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,375. In Kerala and Karnataka Rs 2,000 was given as subsidy while in Uttaranchal it varied between Rs 1,500 for APL households and Rs 2,375 for BPL households. Interestingly there was subsidy provision even for APL households. It was in quite contrast with the stand taken by Water and Sanitation Programme-South Asia which was arguing for a zero subsidy programme at various forums. It was ironical to note that the two organizations having similar roots were following two different and contradictory approaches. When Mr Palat Mohandas was apprised of this bizarre situation, he did express his annoyance to the World Bank and as a result when World Bank-supported Maharashtra water supply and sanitation project was negotiated in 2003, no separate funding for sanitation was included in the Bank project and it was expected that the sanitation component would be taken up under TSC. In this case, World Bank had accepted to respect the subsidy norms in TSC. In my opinion, this was a decent victory for this modest programme. In 2003, I visited Apni Yojana scheme in Churu district of Rajasthan which was funded by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW)—the German Development Bank. Apni Yojana has been a very good project designed for bringing bulk water supply from far-off Indira Canal in Ganganagar district and making distribution network in various villages in Churu–Bissau area. Under this programme, some amount of sanitation intervention was also done which included providing household toilets to few families. There was no concept of universalizing sanitation coverage; limited fund was earmarked to provide subsidy to only few selected households. The subsidy amount varied from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 and there was a provision for APL households also. I was little disappointed to see different approaches being followed by different international agencies while implementing their programmes in the ground. At that time I was also handling all the projects funded by bilateral donors including KFW in


the ministry. This issue was taken up strongly with KFW which accepted our point in principle but expressed reservations in changing the project design at this late stage; however, it agreed to follow uniform subsidy pattern in future projects. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as an organization had taken the most pragmatic stand on this issue. Even though UNICEF had promoted zero subsidy sanitation programme in partnership with Ramakrishna Mission in Medinipur district of West Bengal it was open to the idea of giving zero or low subsidy for household toilet construction in different states. In West Bengal, after introduction of TSC, a subsidy of up to Rs 250 was being given whereas in most of the other UNICEF-supported states about Rs 500 subsidy was given. Few states like Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh went for slightly higher level of statesponsored subsidy. UNICEF was generally focusing on awareness creation for sanitation promotion but was not contributing its own money for household toilet construction. It was only supporting the states in creating the enabling environment rather than funding the toilet construction programme itself. UNICEF was in full support of the Government of India’s TSC programme and was supporting the same principles through its field offices. It was following a flexible approach of supporting the states to maximize the gains and was not guided by any dogma related to zero subsidy only. Water and Sanitation Programme-South Asia was advocating for zero subsidy approach in TSC. Their advocacy for zero subsidy approach was probably more guided by their dogma rather any pragmatic thinking and was not accepted by the ministry. Our field experience had revealed that awareness creation was key to sanitation promotion but converting that awareness into construction and use of toilets needed some financial support to the poorer section of the society. Somebody who has no money to even feed two meals to his family and children even if he realizes the need for sanitation, to expect him to spend money first for constructing toilet would be an unreasonable expectation. With the increase in priority on TSC, government was in a position to find money to provide support to all poor households throughout the country


without discriminating anyone. In such a case, it was strongly felt that some reasonable incentive money combined with increased awareness was the right policy for scaling up TSC. When this thinking of Government of India was firmly communicated to WSP-SA team led by Junaid Ahmed, WSP-SA sent a polite letter to the ministry accepting the point in government’s argument and for first time they accepted on paper the subsidy approach followed in TSC. Probably they had realized that policies are neither in doctrines and dogmas nor in intellectual argumentation but in realizing what works in the field.

Revision in subsidy for household toilets Fancy for a pucca superstructure has been a strong guiding force for demanding higher subsidy by most of the states. The purpose of sanitation promotion and toilet construction is safe disposal of human excreta for which the essential requirements are a pit and a pan with P-trap used as water seal. The pit is to store the disposed excreta and the pan with trap to prevent the foul smell to come out of the pit and also to cut the possible disease transmission route. The purpose of the superstructure is only to provide privacy and some protection from weather. Hence, TSC was not focusing much on superstructure as a good quality superstructure meant higher cost of construction. However, a mindset had developed in most parts of the country to have a brick-cement superstructure rather than a temporary one made of local materials. Demand for higher subsidy was more from the states located in western and southern part of India than in the eastern part. In absence of increased subsidy, most of these states were reluctant to implement TSC. It was difficult for them to conceive toilet without a pucca superstructure. Even in states like Maharashtra where implementation had started in full swing, toilets with pucca superstructure were constructed costing about Rs 3,000. It was a different matter that the community was in a position to spend the additional amount from their own resources because of


prosperity in western Maharashtra combined with high degree of social mobilization. This also triggered the need for increasing the unit cost for household toilets under TSC which practically meant increasing the subsidy. Mr Kashi Ram Rana who became the Minister for Rural Development in June 2003 belonged to Surat district in Gujarat which was also a TSC and Sector Reform Project district. So he was keen to see that TSC implementation improved in Gujarat but at the same time was not convinced that toilets could be constructed with only Rs 500–600 as subsidy. He wanted the subsidy to be increased to Rs 1,500 but Mr Palat Mohandas (Secretary, DWS) was not convinced and not in favour of increasing the subsidy. So they used to have arguments over this issue. In a democratic set-up, it is the political executive who is ultimately responsible and accountable for the decisions so naturally his or her will prevails. In this case also Mr Rana prevailed upon Mr Mohandas and ordered for increase in subsidy immediately, but due to technical reasons he had to wait till the mid-term evaluation of TSC. So he insisted that the mid-term evaluation should be completed quickly. Accordingly this task related to mid-term evaluation was expedited and assigned to the Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC) which took up the work in 2004. The study was conducted in a sample of 20 TSC districts of the country in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tripura, Orissa, Assam and Jharkhand. Based on the field study, AFC recommended increase in unit costs of the toilets on two accounts—first, to offset the inflationary pressure since 1999 and second, to provide some fund for a semi-permanent type of superstructure which was felt to be necessary for sustainability of the sanitation programme (RGNDWM, 2005). The study revealed that in many parts of the country due to weather conditions the temporary superstructures made of cloth, jute, cement bags, local materials, etc., used to get damaged quickly resulting in need for repeated investment (even though small) by the households. In many cases, households were not willing to reconstruct the superstructure once damaged in cyclone or thunderstorm resulting in disuse of the toilet facility.


So the need for at least a semi-permanent superstructure came up very strongly to ensure sustainability of behaviour change. By the time AFC submitted its report, Mr Mohandas was no longer secretary in the department. New minister, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, also had very firm opinion about increasing the subsidy. Since the unit costs for household toilets were fixed way back in 1998–99, Rs 500 as subsidy was too meagre as incentive for any rural household and he immediately accepted the report submitted by AFC which became the basis for increasing the subsidy and also few more changes in the TSC guidelines. Finally with the approval of the Union Cabinet, the unit costs were increased to Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 for two different types of models keeping the subsidy ratio same as before. This decision resulted in effective increase in subsidy from Rs 500 to Rs 1,200 for household toilets. Later on, in 2008, the ministry further increased the unit cost to Rs 2,500 and subsidy to Rs 2,200 for construction of household toilets.

Evolution of NGP—an innovative incentive scheme As already discussed, Intensive Sanitation Project in Medinipur district had been able to demonstrate the power of communication and social mobilization in sanitation and hygiene promotion. Due to intensive mobilization and a well-designed decentralized delivery mechanism the programme produced amazing results. It was a combination of the demand and supply side management which helped in adopting sanitation and hygiene practices by more than 200,000 families in Medinipur by the time TSC was launched in this district in the year 2000. Medinipur had been the most populated district not only in West Bengal but also in the whole of India having about 9.7 million population spread over a geographical area of about 14,000 square kilometres. Over the past 20–30 years most of the large districts had been divided into many small districts but Medinipur was one of the exceptions. So on administrative grounds Government of West Bengal had taken


a decision to bifurcate the district with effect from 1 January 2002 into East and West Medinipur districts. Mr M.â•¯V. Rao was a highly motivated and dynamic Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who happened to be the last district collector of the undivided Medinipur. One of the blocks in East Medinipur, Nandigram II, was about to achieve 100 per cent sanitation coverage by the end of December 2001. Mr Rao and his entire district team put all efforts to ensure that Nandigram II became the first open defecation-free block in India before the district was divided. Where there is a will there is a way. Righteous actions adopted by upright people for virtuous goals always deliver noble results. Working with such honest intentions, the whole team of PRIs, the state and district administration and RKMLP achieved the success in declaring Nandigram II as first block with full sanitation coverage. This was no mean achievement considering the fact that even after three years of launching of TSC, Government of India was struggling to get even the TSC principles accepted by many state governments. Enthused by this success, Government of West Bengal sent a proposal to the Government of India (Department of Drinking Water Supply) in early 2002 requesting to verify the claim made by the block and district administration by sending an independent team and if possible to reward the block for the special achievement made by them. The idea was well received by Dr R. C. Panda who was the joint secretary and also Mr A.â•¯K. Goswami, the then Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation. A multi-agency team was constituted to verify the claims of Nandigram II block and a clear terms of reference (see Box 3.1) was given to the team which among other things included verification of the claims made by the district and also suggest an incentive pattern and norms for the block, organizations and individuals who were instrumental in attaining full sanitation coverage. One of the 24 blocks of East Medinipur district of West Bengal, Nandigram II block is located in Haldia subdivision having a geographical area of 107.29 square kilometres and population of about 104,000. It had seven GPs and 75 Gram Sansads. The sanitation programme was launched in Nandigram II block in

Debate on Key Policiesâ•… 75 Box 3.1:â•…TOR for Multi-disciplinary Team • To assess the extent of sanitation coverage in rural areas in Nandigram II block • To find out the main factors responsible for the success of sanitation programme in Nandigram II • To assess the impact of rural sanitation on health and hygiene as well as quality of life of people in the block • To identify key persons and organizations who were responsible for the success of the programme • To identify the processes adopted in Nandigram II block, which can be replicated in other parts of the country • To suggest incentive pattern and norms for the block, organizations and individuals who are responsible for the success

1994. Lok Jagaran, a cluster organization of RKMLP, was involved in sanitation promotion in this block but due to lack of social mobilization and communication with the people no remarkable progress could be achieved till 1998. A baseline survey conducted in November 1998 revealed that out of 16,080 families, only 4,965 (30.87 per cent) families had latrines, which were installed on selffinance basis. By December 2001, all households (approximately 18,000) had installed and started using toilets and became the first block in the country having full sanitation coverage. Mr Madhusudan Roy, the then Block Development Officer (BDO) of this block, had played a very catalytic role in this unique achievement. I was fortunate to be one of the members of the team which included Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel of Safai Vidyalaya, Ahmedabad, Mrs Sumita Ganguly from UNICEF, Dr M. M. Datta from WHO and Mrs Soma Ghosh Moulik from WSP-SA. The team visited all the panchayats of Nandigram II block defying the sweltering heat in the month of June 2002 and was highly impressed with the outstanding work done by the team of elected representatives and the grassroot-level government functionaries and volunteers of Ramakrishna Mission in Nandigram. For me it was an excellent learning experience and the first opportunity to see in depth a successful sanitation programme and understand different elements of the programme which helped me a lot in


programming TSC in future. When the team came back it submitted a detailed report to the ministry and also recommended for a special award for Nandigram II block. Not only this, the team felt that involvement of Panchayati Raj functionaries was an essential precondition for success of sanitation movement in India which was so far not seen in most parts of the country. At that time it was only West Bengal where the PRIs were actively involved in sanitation promotion. Accordingly, the team recommended for an incentive scheme for the PRIs, key individuals as well as organizations who played catalytic role in making the PRIs open defecation free. Dr Panda and Dr Meenakshi Sundaram4 both were open to this suggestion of the team and the then Minister Mr Shanta Kumar5 immediately accepted the recommendation in last quarter of 2002 and advised the department to formulate an incentive scheme. Following a wider consultative process with key stakeholders in the sanitation programme, the draft guidelines for the incentive scheme were formulated and the award was named as Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) which means ‘clean village award’. However, before announcing the award formal approval of Integrated Finance Division (IFD)6 of the ministry was necessary. The experience so far reveals that IFD rarely clears any proposal in first instance. As was the usual practice, the file related to NGP also kept on shuttling between IFD and RGNDWM—the former raising the queries and the latter trying to answer those queries. This chain of file movement stopped only when Mr Palat Mohandas7 chaired a meeting where Mr Lalit Mathur, the then financial adviser of the ministry, was also present. Mr Mathur was quite positive to the idea of involving PRIs in sanitation promotion and agreed to the proposal. However, he had a query Mr Meenakshi Sundaram succeeded Mr A. K. Goswami as Secretary (August 2002–February 2003). 5 Mr Shanta Kumar succeeded Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu as Minister Rural Development (July 2002–May 2003). 6 IFD stands for integrated finance division which is set up in every Ministry for advise and support on all financial matters. IFD represents finance ministry in every department and is headed by a Financial Advisor (FA). 7 Mr Palat Mohandas succeeded Mr Meenakshi Sundaram as Secretary, DWS (March 2003–August 2004).

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related to the expected fund requirement to implement the incentive scheme. At that time we had anticipated that not more than 30 to 40 PRIs would be able to meet the eligibility criteria set for NGP so a modest fund projection of about Rs 15 million was made which was supposed to be met from the Information, Education and Communication (IEC)8 budget of the sanitation programme. Since it was felt that the NGP would be a good advocacy tool for mobilizing the PRIs, TSC project districts and state governments, expenditure from the IEC budget was considered to be the most appropriate. IFD had one more issue related to the award for individuals. Mr R. P. Nath, Director, IFD was of the opinion that managing awards for the individuals would be very difficult and could act as a double-edged sword. It might raise the expectations of the individuals too much and if not given could act as disincentive for many people. So he was really not in favour of clearing this element of the award but on our insistence he relented. Later on the concerns raised by Mr Nath came true. We were flooded with individual-category award applications and almost all the panchayat presidents, motivators, panchayat secretaries, etc., started applying for the award and it was really very difficult to reward so many individuals who were even otherwise supposed to work for programme implementation. Because of these difficulties no NGP award in individual category had been given till 2007. By the time NGP proposal was cleared by IFD, a new minister Mr Kashi Ram Rana had taken over the charge of Ministry of Rural Development. Finally, the NGP file was cleared by Mr Rana and it was decided to formally announce the award scheme on 2 October 2003—the 134th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It was considered to be a tribute to the Father of the Nation who had spearheaded the sanitation movement even during India’s freedom struggle. NGP was also trying to achieve another dream of the Mahatma of empowering the local self-governments. His dream of self-rule (Swaraj) and village republic had always meant decentralized governance at the village level by the village panchayats themselves. Even though 73rd constitutional amendment 8 IEC: Information Education and Communication. A separate budget was allocated for this purpose at national level.


was enacted by the Parliament of India in 1993 and three-tier local self-government system was put in place in most of the states, the real devolution of funds, functions and functionaries had not taken place in all the states to the desired extent. There were 29 subjects supposed to be devolved to the local self-governments which included water supply and sanitation also but very few states barring West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc., had taken any meaningful initiative on this front. NGP was trying to achieve both the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi and as time progressed it amply proved itself to be a brilliant tool of social mobilization, community empowerment and sanitation promotion, that too at a very fast pace. It is necessary to understand the basic philosophy which guided the formulation of NGP. 1. It’s known to everyone that sanitation has never been a glamorous subject in Indian society. It has almost been an untouchable subject in our system of governance and there were only a handful of officials and professionals willing to work for sanitation promotion and who had understood the devastating effect of poor sanitation on health, hygiene, livelihood, pride, privacy and dignity of society. Ever since the Bhangi system came into existence in our society, sanitation, toilets, excreta, Bhangi they all became synonymous and were looked down upon by the society in general. There were very few people who had the courage and the conviction to talk about this subject in open and also work for propagation of sanitation systems. Of course, society has never given them respect at par with the experts of other glamorous subjects including water supply. There were very few people like Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel, Dr S.â•¯V. Mapuskar, Mr S. S. Chakraborty, Mr C.â•¯C. Dey, Mr Bindeshwar Pathak and Mr Srikant Navrekar who were working for sanitation promotion in a limited way in their area of work. Unfortunately without glamour nothing works in the modern days. Under these circumstances, it was necessary to glamourize sanitation programme. It


was felt that a national award for promoting sanitation to the individuals, organizations and PRIs would definitely add prestige and glamour to the sanitation programme. 2. As per census 2001, there were 138 million rural households out of which only about 22 per cent households had some form of toilet which implied that more than 100 million rural households had to be provided with sanitation facilities. In addition, all households had to be reached with hygiene messages. An operation of this scale could never be done by a small fleet of government officials and NGOs only. After the 73rd constitutional amendment in 1993, there are more than 3 million elected panchayat representatives in India. If their collective power is harnessed effectively, wonders can be created in no time. It was necessary to include a large army of grassroot-level elected leaders who could easily influence the local community for adopting sanitation and hygiene promotion. In essence, the need was to expand the number of stakeholders in the sanitation programme. Nandigram II block in East Medinipur had already proved this hypothesis; the need was only to take that forward in other parts of the country. With collective efforts even difficult tasks can be easily achieved and Indian history has many such examples. When Lord Rama had to construct a bridge over the sea to link Rameswaram with Sri Lanka he used the collective efforts of his whole army of monkeys and even tiny-looking squirrels came forward in construction of the bridge even though they were able to carry only small pebbles. It was their devotion to contribute in this great endeavour which brought them in large numbers. India needed a similar initiative in sanitation promotion. NGP provided a platform for this when the President of India—the highest elected functionary in Indian democracy—started recognizing the small but critical efforts made by the lowest grassroots level functionaries—the Gram Panchayat presidents in nation building. 3. Most of the sanitation projects so far had involved only the NGOs and not the PRIs. As a result, there was limited


ownership of PRIs in the sanitation programme. Since the NGOs used to provide their support only for a limited period for which they were funded under the sanitation projects, the initiatives started by them were not sustainable after their exit. Since the institution of PRI is constitutionally mandated, it can be safely presumed to be a sustainable institution and its involvement in TSC would definitely lead to sustainable sanitation promotion. Keeping these things in view, it was felt necessary to make a conscious effort to bring the PRIs at the forefront of the sanitation movement and NGOs were expected to provide necessary technical and mobilization support to the PRIs. It was felt that in order to get the award and the associated recognition, the PRIs would work for sanitation and hygiene promotion and will bring the sanitation into the forefront of development agenda. It was also designed to give emphasis on school and anganwadi sanitation and hygiene education. In order to do so following four criteria were applied for NGP eligibility: 1. The panchayat should be free from open defecation and all households must have access to toilet facility. All households must use the toilet and nobody should defecate in the open. 2. All schools in the PRI area should have functional toilet facilities both for boys and girls separately and the toilets must be maintained. 3. All anganwadis in the PRI area should have functional toilet facilities and should be child friendly. 4. There should be overall cleanliness in the village.

NGP: organization of award distribution function Organization of the NGP function has been the biggest advocacy tool for sanitation promotion. In response to the applications


invited while launching NGP on 2 October 2003, 400 plus applications were received and scrutinized by the department. After the parliament elections in 2004, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh who had become the Minister for Rural Development was very keen to see that the award distribution took place immediately which would further motivate other panchayats to take up sanitation promotion. Mr Rakesh Behari, the then joint secretary, was probably not on the same wavelength and had privately expressed his views that since NGP was related to the panchayats, the responsibility of organizing the function must be given to the Panchayati Raj Ministry. Unfortunately, there were no supporters of this proposal in the department either below him or above him. Since the function was getting delayed, irritation of the minister was also increasingly visible who was very keen to see the function being organized without losing time. Mr V.K. Duggal was the secretary of the department at that time (2004) and he could read the restlessness of the minister in rolling out the first NGP award function. Mr Duggal took it up as his personal responsibility to organize the NGP function in the most befitting manner. During that time itself, I had the opportunity of accompanying him to World Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) forum organized by Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), Geneva at Dakar in Senegal. The urgency of organizing NGP was so heavy on his mind that he told me in Dakar itself that organizing NGP function would be the first priority of the department when we returned back and I had to shoulder the responsibility of planning the event. Immediately after this conference, when we were back in Delhi, Mr Duggal called for a meeting of the National NGP Sanctioning Committee and sanctioned the eligible applications. The same day he finalized the date for the function in consultation with the minister. 24 February 2005 was decided as the date when first NGP award distribution would take place. In order to raise the profile of the event, it was felt that either the Prime Minister or the President of India should be requested to distribute the first set of NGP awards. Accordingly, initially Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was requested to distribute the NGP awards to the PRIs but due to his


other engagements his office declined this request. Immediately, Ministry of Rural Development requested H.â•¯E. Dr A.â•¯P.â•¯J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, to distribute the awards. A person with great commitment for overall development of the nation he willingly agreed to distribute the award and in this way he had not only associated himself but also the great institution of the President of India in distributing the NGP awards. This was despite the fact that he had suffered a shoulder injury due to his fall in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the month of February 2005 itself. Even if he was not fully physically fit, he came to Vigyan Bhawan to distribute the awards having plaster on one shoulder. When the passion for welfare of society overflows, great men forget their problems and take pleasure in the happiness of others. Just by his presence in this function, he kick-started a new movement in rural India which is now sweeping across the country and has given hopes of India becoming an open defecation-free country. He had enlightened a dream in the eyes of the panchayat presidents’ across the country to receive the award from the President of India. This dream is so strong that some of the panchayat presidents have even spent money from their own pocket to make their villages open defecation free. Many panchayat presidents had taken it as their personal challenge to ensure that the village becomes open defecation free and they get NGP. Any amount of IEC undertaken so far for sanitation and hygiene promotion has proved to be insignificant before this new wave of NGP. The first NGP function was held in a grand manner on 24 February 2005, which has been an important milestone in the rural sanitation movement in India which will be remembered in the days to come. For this purpose, an organizing committee was constituted for which I was made the chairperson and was given the liberty to co-opt my team. Unlike the big committees usually formed in the government, a small committee of 5–6 persons was made and one key responsibility was allotted to each person. It was a small team of Dr Kamal Mazumdar, Mr Girish Chandra, Mr Y.â•¯K. Sood, Mr D. Rajsekhar and Mr M. L. Bhatia supported by other officers and staff which managed this function at ease. Mr V.â•¯K. Duggal personally supervised arrangements being made


by us for NGP function and continuously guided us during the preparation phase. Had it not been the strong commitment and perseverance of Mr Duggal, NGP function would not have been organized in this manner and the movement for an open defecation-free India would not have been set up with such a big bang.

Debate about the lowest unit for NGP: Gram Panchayat or habitation While formulating the NGP guidelines, it was decided to have Gram Panchayat as the lowest unit for receiving the NGP. The population of the GP in India varies significantly from one state to another state. For example, in Kerala and West Bengal the population of a GP may be as high as 25,000 while in states like Uttaranchal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh population may be as low as only 200–300 persons. Initially, incentive for two population slabs for all tiers of PRIs was decided. In case of GPs, for population below 5,000 an incentive of Rs 200,000 and for population above 5,000 an incentive of Rs 400,000 was proposed. Considering the variation in the population some states had advocated for more population slabs; however, in the beginning of the programme it was felt to keep the minimum number of slabs for operational convenience. However, based on the experience of NGP award system in first two years, the population slabs for GPs were modified and five different population slabs were introduced in 2006 which may be seen in Table 2.3 given in Chapter 2. At the time of formulation of NGP, it was interesting to note that some states and organizations had very little faith and conviction about the panchayat’s ability to achieve open defecation-free status and attain eligibility for NGP. So in place of GP, demand for taking habitation as a unit for NGP award cropped up. In India, the lowest functional administrative unit is GP for which there is an elected body for the local self-governance. Another important unit at village level is the ‘revenue village’


which is the lowest administrative unit for land revenue administration as well as census operations purpose. Generally, more than one revenue villages constitute a GP and in few states the reverse is also true. Whatever be the case, the lowest functional unit of self-governance is a GP having a democratically elected institution and well-defined and notified geographical area. Since GP was the lowest unit, it was not logical to give incentive or award to any entity smaller in size to a GP. States like West Bengal and Kerala where the GP population size was very high never made such demands but states like Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa demanded for habitation-level award system. Interestingly they got support from WSP-SA which was advocating for habitation-level award in the World Bank-assisted Uttarakhand Water Supply and Sanitation Project, negotiations for which were going on at that time. The argument given was that it was difficult to mobilize the whole GP so small hamlets could be awarded for attaining open defecation-free status. Interestingly the underlying assumption in favour of this argument was that it was difficult to mobilize the whole GP at a time which was the main premise for the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach being pushed by WSP-SA. The argument against this was much stronger which included among other things the following: 1. Since habitation is not a well-defined geographical and administrative entity, it would have been really difficult to administer the award scheme and its population could be anything from one household to 200–500 households. For very small population size habitations, such an incentive would have defeated the very purpose of NGP and would have indirectly amounted to very high subsidy. 2. The real purpose of the NGP was to scale up the sanitation programme and set higher goals to be achieved by the communities rather than giving them very simple and easy goals which would have been even otherwise achieved. The NGP was looking for some extra effort from the community in lieu of the incentive amount given. This objective would have been defeated by giving way to these requests.


3. In a state like Uttaranchal where most of the PRIs are of very small population size, a typical habitation could have a population of 5–6 households only and going by the existing sanitation coverage ratio not more than 4–5 households would have required toilet facility to become eligible for a habitation-level award. This achievement could not be considered to be such a big accomplishment that a special national incentive scheme was required. The incentive amount would have amounted to additional subsidy for the households rather than a real community incentive which WSP-SA had been advocating for so far. Time has been a very effective arbitrator in this case. With the passage of time it has become abundantly clear whether this debate was justified or not. Phenomenal increase in the number of NGP-awarded panchayats throughout the country including the states of Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh articulate the story. In three years time, more than 5,700 GPs received NGP and the government is struggling with managing the ever-expanding list of GPs aspiring for the NGP award. One can imagine what would have been the situation had the habitation-level NGP award been announced. In human body vast reservoir of energy is accumulated. If the power centres of this body are activated human beings can accomplish everything they want. The same holds true for any society. The need is to realize this potential. As long as we don’t realize our potential, we live in misery. The world belongs to the believers; those who believe in making things happen can make the circumstances favourable for them and even achieve things which seem to be difficult. It was not prudent to set a very narrow goal before the nation by accepting a habitation-level NGP award so this idea was nipped in the bud. Swami Ramtirtha had mentioned, ‘If a line is to be shortened, don’t try to erase a portion of it but draw a bigger line nearby, it will automatically look smaller in reference to the big line.’ So there was no question of drawing a smaller line by settling for a lower award at the habitation level.


Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) versus Total Sanitation Campaign One of the salient features of TSC is to keep the community in the forefront of decision-making and implementation of the programme. In addition, community has to contribute partly towards the cost of construction. This has led to a more decentralized approach for sanitation promotion and the unit of programme implementation was taken as district rather than state. The whole idea was to saturate the entire district with sanitation facilities so that open defecation was completely eliminated which would also have given the desired health benefits. In addition to this, hygiene promotion was given thrust in the programme which has so far been a neglected area. Due to the 73rd constitutional amendment, three-tier elected local self-government system—Panchayati Raj Institutions—are in place in almost all the states except Jharkhand. India is having about 250,000 GPs and about 3 million elected functionaries in these PRIs. It’s a big number by any means and only by reaching out to these GPs the colossal task of sanitation promotion throughout the country could be achieved. Introduction of NGP further helped in bringing the PRIs in the forefront of TSC implementation. In fact ISP in Medinipur and prior to that initiatives of RKMLP actually targeted 100 per cent sanitation coverage in the intervention villages from where the concept of TSC originated. In essence, TSC has been designed as a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Programme. Many countries in the world have been experimenting with different models of sanitation promotion and one of these has been CLTS promoted by various international agencies and sector experts. UNICEF and WSP in various countries have been working with their local NGO partners and respective national governments to promote this approach which had the ultimate objective of reaching out to the entire community and making the whole village open defecation free. In most of the countries the focus has been primarily on social mobilization and awareness creation about the sanitation and health linkage and not on providing subsidy for construction of household toilets. Various


participatory rural appraisal tools are used as part of the social mobilization process to convince the community about the need for sanitation facilities. Various approaches to trigger the process of community thinking and action about the sanitation-related issues used to be followed which included calculation of excreta load in the community and establishing the link about small proportion of excreta entering the body through food, water, etc. This used to create some amount of repulsion among the people about the way they were leading their life and a new change process used to start. ‘Shame’ was used as the main trigger factor in this approach ignoring other motivational factors. This approach had been successful in various communities in the world and in India also it was advocated strongly by WSP-SA. In CLTS approach, followed in other countries, no subsidy was given to the households but in India’s TSC programme there was provision of providing a token subsidy of Rs 500 (approximately US $10–$12) for the extremely poor families living below poverty line. As already discussed earlier, the subsidy for household toilets had been substantially reduced in the TSC from earlier Rs 2,000 to Rs 500 only. There was a clear realization at the policy formulation level that without proper social mobilization and awareness creation, sanitation programme in India was not going to succeed and reliance on high subsidy was not the right approach. However, there was also realization of the fact that a large number of rural population was extremely poor and needed some financial support to actually convert the demand into access and use of toilets. So keeping this in mind, a token subsidy of Rsâ•¯500 was introduced targeting the rural poor which was sufficient for setting up a basic model of sanitary toilet. In addition, after witnessing the success of Medinipur sanitation programme where PRIs were actively involved in social mobilization and panchayats after panchayats were becoming open defecation free, it was decided in principle to give incentive to the PRIs to eliminate open defecation from their villages completely. The process of formulating incentive scheme NGP had already begun. One of the main objectives of NGP was to trigger the sanitation movement for the whole community rather than keeping it confined to only


a few households in the community. India being such a vast and diverse country where every state has different administrative culture, one approach could never fit into the requirement of all diverse communities. There was need for operational flexibility at state and district level and not prescribe uniform process of change for the whole country which would not have happened in the country of India’s dimension.

CLTS: community versus individual Water and Sanitation Programme-South Asia being a specialist agency of the World Bank for policy influencing in water and sanitation sector started advocating for CLTS approach in India. In its version of CLTS, WSP-SA suggested that no subsidy should be given to the households rather the entitled subsidy amount for the whole village/panchayat should be given to the GP as community incentive. In their opinion, this would have acted as incentive leading to greater mobilization by the GP for sanitation promotion. Accordingly they motivated Government of Maharashtra to experiment this approach in two districts—Ahmednagar and Nanded. Government of Maharashtra also at that time (2002–03) requested Government of India to approve this approach which practically meant the diversion of targeted individual household subsidy to the community fund and was not agreed to by Government of India. In India debate has always been going on in the rural development sector that the subsidies to the poor are not well targeted as a result the benefit of the development process doesn’t reach the poor fully. In our opinion, any decision to divert the targeted subsidy of the extremely poor households was absolutely unethical. However, Government of Maharashtra had issued a circular directing the chief executive officers of these two Zilla Panchayats not to release the state component of the subsidy to the households till the panchayat became open defecation free. It is worth mentioning that in TSC the state component of subsidy was only Rs 125 (approximately US$3) at that time. Taking


into consideration average number of BPL households eligible for toilet subsidy, not more than Rs 18,750 (US$450) could have been allocated to an average GP as state share of toilet subsidy. If we see the increase in investment in rural development sector over the past few years, an average panchayat in India gets more than Rs 1 million annually. Compared with this amount, the subsidy amount saved for the rural poor was peanuts for a GP to get financially motivated. If at all any motivation had to work at the GP level it was the pride of the people, dignity of the women and the need for their privacy and for that no monetary incentive was required. Unfortunately the spirit of this argument was very much against their own advocacy plank of no subsidy for toilet construction. Another key issue which emerged out of this approach was that subsidy was practically getting diverted from the BPL to the APL households. It has been noticed in few panchayats that the subsidy given to the community is being equally divided among all the households not having toilet in the community. This amounts to actually subsidizing the APL families who can afford construction of toilets on their own, at the cost of BPL families. The dichotomy is clearly evident—on one hand, advocacy is going on for not providing any subsidy to the people and, on the other hand, the approach being advocated is leading to subsidizing the rich also. Focusing on the whole community for full sanitation coverage had been the main strategy in the sanitation initiatives taken up by RKMLP during 1980s as well as ISP in Medinipur. A village or its habitation was taken as a unit and slowly the whole village was fully covered with sanitary toilets. Government of India also had a concept of model villages during the erstwhile CRSP as well as in TSC initially for achieving 100 per cent sanitation coverage as well as solid and liquid waste management in the village. Later on with introduction of NGP approach, the component of model village was removed. One of the arguments always given by the proponents of CLTS has been that TSC is not focusing on community approach. Leading such argument, WSP-SA has always been advocating that


the entire community should adopt the changed behaviour of using toilets collectively and at same point of time. This may be feasible in very small communities having few households but not in communities and panchayats having large population. The scientific evidence so far has been that the behaviour change in a community follows the normal distribution pattern reflected by a Gaussian Curve which may be seen in Figure 3.1 (Rogers, 2003). The innovators lead the behaviour change process followed by early adopters. A vast majority of people get convinced and change their behaviour sooner or later but real resistance to change comes from late adopters and resistors who are small in number but hamper the process due to their stubbornness. The fact is that we’re not only promoting access to sanitation and its use but also few key hygiene-related behaviour like washing hands before eating and after defecation, and safe storage and handling of drinking water which need intervention at every household level and adoption of these practices by every individual. So the importance of behaviour change at household level can never be ignored. Rather it has been noted that in places where sanitation promotion is taking place following the so called CLTS approach, Figure 3.1:â•…Adoption by groups over time

Source: Rogers (2003).


the focus on hygiene practices has been extremely low which is not the objective of any robust sanitation programme. In view of these, the argument that focus on communication and mobilization at household level is not required seems to be faulty. Even though in principle both TSC and CLTS are on similar footing, there has always been a demand to adopt CLTS approach in TSC. People spearheading CLTS approach have been advocating for a particular type of mobilization strategy irrespective of the socio-cultural and economic background of the community. On the other hand, TSC has outlined key principles of community involvement and given flexibility to the project districts and states to adopt the most effective and pragmatic approach. As a result we see a variety of ways of social mobilization in various parts of India. In my judgement this debate of TSC versus CLTS has been more or less a hollow and superfluous debate. TSC has been designed to ensure that the whole community adopts sanitation and hygiene behaviour and only if it does so it is awarded NGP. I have a feeling that in the name of CLTS, a group of consultants, NGOs and even companies are trying to develop a brand of their own for earning their bread and butter. So it is in their interest to mystify the CLTS approach. As a result there is a tendency to deride any other approach without going into its merit. There is need for such experts and organizations to not only shed their dogma but also narrow organizational interests if larger public goals are to be achieved. Just like there are many ways of reaching God by adopting the preachings of various religions, there are many ways of achieving total sanitation in villages. This has been amply proved by various communities. It would amount to fundamentalism if we say that there is only one religion and by following rituals of this religion only one can attain salvation. Similarly it will tantamount to fundamentalism if we profess only one way of achieving total sanitation as insisted by proponents of CLTS. This amounts to lack of respect for other approaches which have been quite successful. A more tolerant attitude towards other equally functional approaches will make the sanitation initiatives more rich and meaningful.


Payment of subsidy: back-ended or frontloaded In the earlier supply-driven CRSP programme, the subsidy used to be given upfront to the beneficiary households. At times it was difficult to even monitor whether the subsidy was actually used for the right purpose. In TSC, since the approach had changed and the subsidy was only a part of the toilet construction cost, it was intended that the individual households would add some money from their own pocket and construct the toilet as per their choice of technology and design available to them at the village level. The rural sanitary marts and the production centres established were supposed to provide technology options and the services to the individual households for toilet construction. In order to involve the households in their own toilet construction, TSC advocated for construction to be taken up by the households themselves or through their own masons or Rural Sanitary Marts (RSMs) under their own supervision. For this purpose, subsidy amount was to be given to the individuals as back-ended incentive once the construction was over. It was not intended that the beneficiary contribution would be collected by the TSCimplementing agencies from the field and toilet would be installed by the government agencies. However, this policy has not been followed fully in letter and the spirit in all the states in the country. Wherever PRIs have been strong and fund flow has been through them, the PRIs have generally distributed the subsidy either partly upfront and partly back-ended or fully back-ended after construction of the toilet. In most of the states where PHED or other engineering departments have been nodal agency, they have tended to collect the beneficiary contribution and implement the construction programme themselves which is also not in the right spirit of TSC. This approach has led to low involvement of the PRIs and the households leading to lukewarm response from them in the programme. This has been one of the major challenges in TSC and with the passage of time some states have resolved this issue and streamlined the process of fund flow but few are yet to do.


Project versus programme Immediately after my joining the ministry in November 2001, there was a review of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)-funded UNICEF’s Child Environment Programme (CEP). Field visits were planned in three states followed by two days’ consultation at Bhopal. I was asked to attend the review at Bhopal which was my first exposure to this kind of review and I preferred to be a good listener and observer in the meeting. This gave me a good opportunity to interact with my good friend and batchmate Mr Pankaj Rag who was posted as collector in Betul district—one of the CEP project districts. I could hear from Pankaj about the stories of this project’s implementation in Betul. My interaction with him led to a belief that this project was being implemented as a stand-alone project which was not synchronous with the national TSC programme. His concerns also echoed in the statements of Mr Manu Srivastava who was collector in Chindwara—another CEP district. Subsequently in 2003 also I got the opportunity to participate in another CEP review again organized in Bhopal. During this time, I visited CEP project in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh which was very close to Bhopal. It was shocking to see the half-constructed and the abandoned toilets in a large number of schools. Even though UNICEF used to advocate for good quality of hardware combined with software inputs to promote quality education package in schools, the vision of UNICEF was hardly translated into action in this district. One of the possible reasons could be that an absolutely parallel institutional structure of working with NGOs only was chosen by the local UNICEF officer. The NGOs selected were also not very credible ones and their roles and responsibilities were not clearly defined. The payment norms to the NGOs were also very high compared to the norms followed in TSC project. Again during 2004 parliament elections, I had the opportunity of working as election observer in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh which was one of the CEP districts since long time. The


CEP project in this district was again different from the TSC programme. Even though there was a small amount of subsidy in TSC, in CEP project no subsidy was provided and only the social mobilization cost was given to the NGOs which was substantially high compared to what was given in TSC as a result out of the 7–8 NGOs engaged in CEP project hardly 2–3 NGOs were willing to work in TSC. Huge amount of money was paid to the NGOs to mobilize the community to construct toilets without any subsidy but the output in the five years project period was appallingly low. A closer examination of the TSC and the CEP project clearly established that UNICEF in this state was implementing stand-alone project having totally disconnected from the national sanitation programme. It was painful to note that an organization which had the capacity to work at a much broader and higher level to influence and strengthen TSC implementation across the 14 CEP states in India was operating at a very low efficiency and frittering away its energy in managing small projects which were also not in line with the national TSC programme causing various operational problems in the field. For example, in many CEP projects a large number of specialist consultants/extenders as well as NGOs were engaged which was definitely different from the norms followed in TSC projects. One of the essential conditions of scaling up of TSC project was that similar support was provided to all the districts. If certain set of financial and technical support could not be provided uniformly to all the TSC districts it was difficult to expect the real scaling up. UNICEF’s small project-level intervention was somehow hindering this process whereas UNICEF could have been strategic partner in institutionalizing TSC at national and state level which would have supported the programme much better across a large number of districts. When the design of the DFID and SIDAsupported 2nd CEP project was going on, UNICEF used to invite myself and my colleague Mr Sunil Kumar from the government for interaction with the consultants appointed for evaluating CEP1 and designing CEP2 project. At that time this issue was strongly taken up with them and there was full appreciation of these issues by the consultants as well as UNICEF team led


by Mr Henk van Norden. In fact they were also of similar view which helped in redesigning the CEP project where the emphasis was only on software support to the governments both at national and state level in institutionalizing TSC and Swajaldhara. This strategy was fully incorporated in the newly designed CEP (2004–08) and slowly Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES) section in UNICEF transformed itself from working at project level to programme level which really helped in scaling up of TSC in India in subsequent years. UNICEF had changed itself to fill the critical gaps in TSC and Swajaldhara and provide strategic support in 14 CEP states. If one corner of a square is set the other corners would automatically be set. This realignment in policy was a big step in strengthening TSC implementation and setting all other systems right. When water mixes with milk it loses its own identity but acquires the qualities of milk. It’s difficult to separate the drop of water from milk. UNICEF’s efforts also got so aligned with TSC that it was difficult to distinguish between the two which really strengthened the TSC implementation and the programme was no longer seen from the narrow organizational lenses.

Detailed TSC guidelines versus a general framework During my 19 years of government service, I was fortunate to have the opportunity of implementing a large number of government programmes in different capacities and in the process had to read guidelines of various programmes. It has been noticed that most of the government programme guidelines contain too much functional details without giving much flexibility to the implementers at the field level. One of the major difference in the guidelines of TSC and other programmes was that TSC provided a very broad framework without prescribing too much of operational details. It was a guideline in true spirit which showed the broad objective of programme implementation and left plenty of room for


decision-making at state and district levels. This gave opportunity for district functionaries to innovate and over a period of time we could see lot of innovations coming up which were later on assimilated in the TSC guidelines itself. For example, TSC gave flexibility in operationalizing the supply chain of RSMs and production centres in terms of institutional structure, the way the funds would be advanced to the selected institution, etc. In states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, SHGs were involved in a big way and even bank finance for them was tied up. This had a negative side also. The usual experience reveals that states and districts tend to follow the programme guidelines in letter only and not in the spirit which causes lots of implementation problems. In absence of operational details, many districts and states were not willing to take operational decisions at their level and used to request Government of India to issue detailed and elaborate guidelines on each sub-component of the programme. It was easy for us in the Government of India to issue such detailed instructions but it would have killed the very spirit of decentralized decision-making, so consciously such requests were not agreed to. However, to solve this problem a decision was taken to develop technical notes on different themes capturing different options and best practices from various parts of the country. Accordingly, technical notes on school sanitation and hygiene education, capacity development, communication strategy, etc., were issued and circulated among the TSC project districts. In addition, through regular dialogue with the implementing agencies in the review meetings and workshops various operational doubts used to be clarified. The state governments were also advised to issue state-specific operational instructions to the TSC project districts which would enable them to take quick decisions. As a result, states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa issued comprehensive operational guidelines at state level. This helped in retaining the flexibility of the programme as well as giving it a clear direction also. I am sure that had the nature of TSC guidelines been tampered with, it would have taken away the flexibility and the scope of innovation available to the district officials and would have become another


routine government programme. Its strength would have been converted into its weakness. It’s necessary that programme is designed for achievers and not for losers. Those who have courage and conviction to take decisions and innovate for overall well-being of the people must be allowed the flexibility and TSC provided that opportunity to the performers.

Institutional arrangement: should the same department handle water and sanitation programmes? Since water is essential for sanitation, generally it is advocated that water supply and sanitation programmes should be implemented by the same department. In India, in most of the states, Public Health Engineering Departments (PHEDs) have been handling both water supply and sanitation programmes; however, there are many states where these subjects are handled by two different departments. In most of such states, Rural Development or Panchayati Raj departments are managing sanitation programme. In Government of India, both these subjects were handled by RGNDWM since the mission was made functional in 1986. However, during 1999–2000, when a new Department of Drinking Water Supply was created, for a brief period, the subject of rural sanitation was shifted to the division handling rural housing programme in the Ministry of Rural Development, but the same secretary continued to supervise both the programmes at his level. It was only in December 2001, the rural sanitation programme including TSC was transferred back to RGNDWM. When Mr Palat Mohandas assumed the responsibility of Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation in March 2003, he strongly recommended that water and sanitation should be handled by only one department in the state governments also. In his opinion this would have given push to the sanitation programme. Once the merger at national level had taken place, he wrote letters to all chief secretaries of such states to keep the two subjects with one


department only. At that time in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Kerala and Tripura, Rural Development or Panchayati Raj departments were dealing with the subject of sanitation. Since Rural Development is a very important subject at state level, usually very senior officers and ministers who also have good political clout deal with this subject. On the other hand, PHEDs are not insignificant organizations and are always close to the power centres in the states for their ability of nurturing and mobilizing cash-rich contractors in need and in our democracy such need arises frequently and no later than every five years. So naturally this request of Mr Mohandas fell on deaf ears and was not positively responded to by most of the state governments. Initially only two states Punjab and Rajasthan responded to this positively who had their own reasons for the same. Later on Tripura also followed suit. At that time in Punjab, Rural Development Department was handling TSC. Realizing that TSC was a complex programme requiring lot of efforts for social mobilization and that too with very low amount of subsidy, they were reluctant to implement such unexciting programme. They probably wanted something juicy which unfortunately was not there in TSC. Taking advantage of the letter of Secretary, Government of India, Rural Development Department readily agreed to transfer the subject to PHED which had expressed interest in taking over TSC programme. On a short-term horizon, it was a clever decision by Punjab PHED. This helped them in killing two birds with the same stone—first, they could increase their empire and second, they could keep the Secretary, Government of India happy by implementing his request. This happiness was reflected in sanction of TSC projects in all districts of Punjab quickly. It’s a different matter that after realizing that TSC was a low-subsidy programme and there was no scope to engage contractors, PHED officials were not very impressed and their interest in the programme waned. It seems they had done a wrong cost–benefit analysis. Probably it was below their dignity to implement such a low-subsidy programme so they preferred not to implement it and hardly any progress


in TSC projects in Punjab could take place. Not a single GP from Punjab received NGP till 2007. Subsequently in 2007, they could manage to transfer back this programme to Rural Development Department again and get rid of the periodic embarrassment faced in the TSC review meetings conducted by Government of India. Public Health Engineering Department in Rajasthan was a bit smarter than Punjab PHED. Probably they had done their homework properly and when Chief Secretary, Rajasthan requested them to implement rural sanitation programme also, they accepted the responsibility of only coordinating at state level and left the implementation mechanism with the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj departments’ field functionaries—district panchayats. This gave them the scope of passing the buck on the district panchayats if needed. Even though this theory of having same departments handling water supply and sanitation was being promoted for better implementation of sanitation, the experience in India proved the converse. Till 2003, very few states were actually implementing TSC and in most of such states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura Rural Development/Panchayati Raj departments were managing the sanitation programme and were able to mobilize the GPs as well as the district administration in implementing TSC. This really helped in large-scale social mobilization required for sanitation promotion in the states. On the other hand, in states where PHEDs were handling TSC, they were quite reluctant as well as clueless in taking up the social mobilization work which required large-scale involvement of different cross sections of the society rather than relying only on a bunch of contractors or departmental staff. Even in a state like Maharashtra where same department at state level was handling the subject, the field level implementation machinery was different and district panchayats were in the forefront. There was a natural tendency in the states to separate sanitation from water supply if anything meaningful was to happen. West Bengal led the example when it transferred the subject of rural sanitation from PHED to Rural Development Department in 1993 and after


that real scaling up in sanitation programme took place in the state. Even recently, Government of Madhya Pradesh transferred the subject of rural sanitation from PHED to Rural Development Department. In retrospect this initiative of merging both departments doesn’t appear to be a wise decision. This problem is not unique to India but prevalent in other parts of the world also. As I understand that even in UNICEF in the early 1990s water and sanitation professionals who happened to be mostly civil engineers were reluctant to work for rural sanitation and any reference to their work in sanitation sector in their personal evaluation reports used to be seen as a negative attribute. It’s not easy to change this mindset and resolve this conflict but different states have handled it differently and within those constraints, TSC programme has grown over the years. However, this issue remains as a major challenge for TSC even today in such states and there has been lot of conflict between PHED and district panchayat as well as district administration. Few states have resolved these by issuing detailed operational guidelines delineating the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders. The remedy may lie in making low-cost rural sanitation a part of the curriculum of civil engineering departments in the country which will pave the way for greater respect for this important but nonglamorous subject by the public health engineering community and also taking up a change management initiative to accept the changing role of public health engineers.

Should there be two Communication and Capacity Development Units (CCDUs) in the states? When the CCDU guidelines were being finalized, a debate cropped up whether two CCDUs should be set up in the states where two different departments were handling water and sanitation programmes. Since the department had already taken a decision to advise the states to merge water and sanitation subjects with one administrative department there was stubbornness in pursuing


with the idea of having only one CCDU in every state. It was expected that one CCDU would handle both the responsibilities and coordinate the work related to both the programmes. The thought was definitely noble and ideal but unfortunately not practical. It’s easy to talk about convergence but difficult to actually realize this. When different sections within the same department or office find difficulty in working together, to expect convergence of efforts among two administratively different departments having different line of reporting is being too optimistic. Following this dogma of convergence, only one CCDU was sanctioned in each state. The smarter of the two departments submitted the proposals first and got the funds sanctioned for CCDUs. PHED was winner in some states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and in state like Gujarat Rural Development Department bagged the CCDU. The experience over the years revealed that the CCDUs in such states managed only one subject ignoring the requirement of other programmes and remained confined to their own administrative set-up. This affected implementation of communication and capacity building initiatives for TSC in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. In such case, UNICEF also came forward to support state-level sanitation cells or further augmented the technical manpower in the existing CCDUs. As a result demand came from the states to sanction separate CCDUs which has now been agreed to by the Government of India.

Evolution of school sanitation programme: should children maintain school toilets? As per sixth All India Education Survey conducted in 1993 only about 8 per cent rural schools had toilet facility and only about 4 per cent of schools had separate toilets for the girl students. It was a pathetic condition which definitely had a bearing on the attendance of children in schools especially adolescent girl students. In order to overcome this problem, TSC focused on


construction of toilet blocks having lavatory and urinals in all schools and specially focused on construction of separate toilet blocks for the girl students in all rural schools. With the increase in sanitation coverage in schools, the issue of operation and maintenance has come to the fore. Mere construction of school toilets is not going to be of any use unless a sustained system of operation and maintenance is put in place which has proved to be a challenging task in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)9 as well as TSC so far. Two types of maintenance arrangements have generally been noticed in different parts of the country—one involves the children for day-to-day maintenance and another relies on a paid sweeper who happens to be irregular on most of the occasions. Engagement of children for cleaning the school environment including the school toilets had at times raised eye-brows from parents as well as activists although they may be having different reasons. Even the issue of forced child labour has been raised by some activists on certain occasions. In the system where sweepers have been engaged, various organizations working for the upliftment of Dalits raised the issue of Dalits being forced to do the cleaning job. On the other hand, in many schools children have been actively involved in day-to-day maintenance of the toilets which has ensured that the school toilets are also used properly and regularly. In general, it was recommended in TSC to encourage the children to clean the toilets on a rotational basis so that all children share this responsibility without having any kind of bias against a particular community or caste of children. We have a casteridden society since ages where people belonging to a particular caste were traditionally assigned all the jobs related to cleaning of toilets and in many upper caste communities cleaning toilets is looked down with contempt. Parents in such communities are generally reluctant in allowing their children to clean the school toilets as a result resistance on this front has been noticed in few states/districts. There is need to recognize the dignity of labour associated with cleaning of toilets. People must realize that if they 9 SSA is universal Education Programme (a national flagship programme) implemented by the Department of Elementary Education in Government of India.


are polluting, they must clean also and it’s not below dignity to clean one’s own toilet. The issue remains that without proper cleaning and maintenance of toilets mere construction will not have desired results. In a country having more than one million schools, children will have to collectively share the responsibility of keeping their toilets and the school environment clean and green which needs to be facilitated by the teachers. Not only this, children need to learn the dignity of labour and should not abhor this type of work but rather take pride in keeping their environment clean. Very good examples of maintenance of school toilets are seen in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar and Jharkhand where school cabinets/children clubs have been formed to undertake various school-related activities including maintenance of toilets and environment which is very encouraging. The school sanitation programme has grown over the years amidst all these debates and challenges faced and there is an ever-increasing priority on construction and maintenance of the school toilets.

Focus on human excreta disposal only versus overall waste management: incorporation of Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) as part of TSC In common parlance sanitation does not mean only toilet construction and disposal of human excreta but also proper disposal of garbage and wastewater in the villages. TSC has been primarily focusing on safe disposal of human waste and not on other types of solid waste generated in the villages at household or community level. Initially the programme was not concentrating on solid and liquid waste management which was limiting its very definition of ‘total’ sanitation campaign. Many states had been demanding for incorporation of solid and liquid waste management as a component under TSC. The state leading with such demand was Kerala which already had


a very high level of household toilet coverage rate and it really wanted to focus on SLWM. In addition to Kerala, requests used to come from various members of parliament and ministers from different states to allow construction of drains in their constituencies which was just one component of SLWM. Maharashtra had already launched ‘Sant Gadge Baba Abhiyan’ which was also an incentive scheme managed on competition basis at block, district and state level. Each applicant PRI used to be evaluated on a set of indicators including SLWM. However, it was noticed that even if panchayat was not open defecation free or 100 per cent households were not accessing and using the toilets they could get Sant Gadge Baba award. In one of the workshops organized for CEOs of different Zilla Panchayats of Maharashtra in August 2002, the demand for inclusion of SLWM came up very strongly. The argument put forward was that TSC must address all issues related to sanitation which also included SLWM. There was full substance in the argument and the demand could not have been wished away just like that. However, knowing how little importance individual household sanitation programme was receiving in the country, inclusion of SLWM had the potential of further reducing the attention on the real challenge of human excreta disposal management. When majority of the Indian population didn’t mind defecating in the open and never considered it as a sanitation challenge would it have been realistic to advise people not to litter garbage in the villages. However, it was easy to promote this once a panchayat had been successful in tackling the problem of human excreta disposal and eliminating open defecation as there would have been a lot of awareness about the sanitation issues. The panchayat could have taken up SLWM activities in second phase of sanitation movement. It was a major challenge for the country to operationalize TSC and increase the sanitation coverage in the rural areas to meet the MDGs as well as full sanitation coverage goals set by Government of India so it was necessary to keep constant focus and pressure on the issue of human excreta disposal without diluting the initial campaign. So SLWM was not made part of TSC in first 6 years of its implementation.


At the same time it was necessary to take the sanitation movement forward by at least experimenting SLWM in few villages so it was decided that villages receiving Nirmal Gram Puraskar could use the award money for taking up SLWM. The need of introducing SLWM was fully accepted but the exact timing was to be decided. During the first Nirmal Gram Puraskar function held on 24 February 2005, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, in his speech emphasized upon the need for taking up solid and liquid waste management in rural areas and cited few examples of Keerapalayam village in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu and Kharodi village in Punjab which happened to be Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s native village. In addition, he highlighted few initiatives taken by Technology Information, Forecasting And Assessment Council (TIFAC) under the Ministry of Science & Technology with respect to solid waste disposal and its use for conversion of waste into energy. He strongly highlighted the need for solid and liquid waste management in the rural areas under TSC. In 2004, a mid-term appraisal of TSC was conducted by Government of India engaging Agriculture Finance Corporation (AFC) which among other things recommended for inclusion of SLWM also in TSC. It was felt that once SLWM was made part of TSC its actual operationalization on ground would take further time so a decision was taken to include SLWM component in a limited way and it was proposed in EFC note to allocate up to 5 per cent of TSC budget for this purpose. The idea was that with this money and the incentive amount given to the PRIs under NGP, few good models could be developed and subsequently when the panchayats attained open defecation-free status more funds under SLWM would be gradually allocated. When the note was circulated for comments by various ministries, interestingly the Ministry of Finance proposed for higher allocation of funds for SLWM. As a result, fund earmarked for this component was increased from 5 to 10 per cent which was subsequently approved by the cabinet in March 2006 and TSC became more broad-based by inclusion of this new component. Now the challenge is to operationalize this component over the next few years.


Focus on software: capacity development and awareness creation Total Sanitation Campaign made a sharp departure from the earlier supply-driven and allocation-based programme sponsored by the Government of India and focused on soft elements like capacity building of different stakeholders and awareness creation. Accordingly a significant proportion of TSC funds were allocated for these activities. While preparing TSC project proposals, the district and state officials generally used to indicate only a lump sum amount for these purposes following a general thumb rule. The government is such an institution which relies heavily on precedence in absence of which the system finds it difficult to proceed further. People don’t mind taking wrong decisions also if precedence for that exists because they will have the justification of pointing out that someone else also had erred before them. Since heavy reliance on awareness generation and capacity building in a rural development programme was brought for the first time, TSC project officials were looking for guidance for spending money on training and awareness generation activities. Traditionally PHEDs and other engineering departments have been involved in construction activities only for which they have government-approved schedule of rates to decide the estimate/unit cost. Unfortunately Public Works Department’s schedule of rates never had entries like organizing trainings, conducting workshops and exposure visits. So there was clear reluctance among the government officials especially PHED engineers in many parts of the country to take financial decisions on these issues. The TSC guidelines also had given a broad framework only where the nitty-gritty of unit cost of various activities were neither indicated nor intended to be indicated. I remember once an executive engineer working in one of the TSC districts in Bihar complaining about the District Development Commissioner’s (DDC) reluctance to sanction funds for organizing training of masons, schoolteachers, etc. Against the approved amount of approximately Rs 35,000 per training of masons, the DDC was willing to release only about Rs 5,000 per


training which was simply insufficient to carry out the task. This is despite the fact that the district was overflowing with funds and was getting reprimanded for not spending the money. Unfortunately we don’t try to think beyond the physical existence of material things. The unadulterated materialism has taken such strong roots that we have on our own adopted a culture where only seeing is believing and sanctity of truth lies only in immediate physical demonstration. Any other virtuous thought or action, which is likely to bear fruit after a period of gestation, is looked down upon with disgust. Modern science is dependent on physical experimentation and demonstrations so that only what is understood by sensory perceptions is regarded as truth (Acharya, 1990). Since investment in the software activities like capacity building and awareness creation don’t lead to the physical achievement instantly, many government officials had developed a sense of mistrust and disgust also on these soft components. As a result this crucial component of programme implementation takes a back seat adversely affecting the programme. State like Haryana had tried to develop a package for the NGOs taking up sanitation promotion in the districts by linking the cost of social mobilization with actual physical achievement and making payment over a period of time linked to the physical output. Few states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have issued detailed operational guidelines at state level fixing unit costs of various software activities to minimize these problems. In TSC, the initial investment is more on software components as projects need to spend more on establishing the baseline, building capacity of the key functionaries, initiating the awareness campaign in the villages for generating demand for the sanitation facilities, setting up supply chain, etc., and the physical achievement is realized after a while when these key building blocks are put in place. Naturally there is a gestation period and the programme managers and implementers must have the belief and confidence in what they are doing and also patience to reap the benefits. These apprehensions slowly die down when the campaign takes over. The same phenomena is now noticed in


TSC projects across the states where those initial inhibitions are slowly reducing and government officials are showing greater courage and decision-making ability in implementing this flexible programme.

Modification in TSC guidelines Mahatma Gandhi had observed, ‘There is no one without faults, not even men of God. They are men of God not because they are faultless, but because they know their own faults, they strive against them, they do not hide them, and are ever ready to correct themselves’ (Bajaj, 2007). So it is necessary to re-adjust the policy to remove the faults, if any, and meet the actual field requirements to fully operationalize the programme. TSC programme has shown the flexibility of correcting itself to accommodate the field necessities as and when they arise. Ever since these were introduced in 1999, TSC guidelines have been modified more than four times incorporating various corrective measures based on the requirements of the programme implementation. TSC has shown enough elasticity to incorporate the suggestions coming from various stakeholders and the best practices emanating from the field which were considered to be useful for programme acceleration and at the same time it has maintained its core focus of eliminating the practice of open defecation from rural areas. It has always followed a process of extensive consultation with all stakeholders which has facilitated decision-making through a process of collective thinking and has appealed to a wide cross section of policy makers and programme implementers. The programme has always been open to the ideas and suggestions and has incorporated the learnings from the field. It has always been outward looking rather than being closed in receiving new ideas. Since the issue of first set of guidelines in 1999, various policy changes have come gradually in TSC which have made this programme much more robust and inclusive. Some of the key changes are discussed in the following section.


Elimination of manual scavenging in rural areas I have felt for the years, that there must be something radically wrong, where scavenging has been made the concern of a separate class in society. We have no historical record of the man, who first assigned the lowest status to this essential sanitary service. Whoever he was, by no means did us a good. We should, from our very childhood, have the idea impressed upon our minds that we are all scavengers, and the easiest way of doing this is, for every one who has realized this, to commence bread labor as a scavenger. Scavenging, thus intelligently taken up, will help one to a true appreciation of the equality of man. – Mahatma Gandhi (Gandhi, 1947)

Due to various reasons a system of dry latrines had evolved over a period of time. In these latrines, raw excreta used to be stored in a chamber or in a bucket which was manually cleaned by a person belonging to the lowest caste status in Indian society known as manual scavenger. This caste people were also regarded as untouchables and suffered differential and inhuman treatment at the hands of the other members of the society. It is a crime and a sin to regard a person as untouchable because he was born in a particular community, but this inhuman practice of manual scavenging had been going on since ages and it had been a great challenge for the nation to completely eradicate this practice of manual scavenging. Gandhiji fought against this evil practice throughout his life and launched a nation-wide campaign. Harijan Sevak Sangh was formed to fight against untouchability and manual scavenging. A firm believer in ahimsa (non-violence), Gandhiji had observed that the removal of untouchability was one of the highest expressions of ahimsa. After independence, lots of initiatives were taken by the government as well as few NGOs like Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Safai Vidyalya and Sulabh International which helped in getting significant success in eliminating manual scavenging as well as rehabilitating the scavengers but still the nation has not been able to proudly claim that this inhuman practice of manual scavenging has been completely eliminated. The law preventing such manual


scavenging titled ‘the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act’ was passed by the Parliament of India in 1993. By now, this law has been adopted by almost all the states except those where manual scavenging has never been a problem—mostly north-eastern states. The whole approach of liberation and rehabilitation of manual scavengers has three basic components: (a) legislative back up to prohibit dry latrines and manual scavenging, (b) conversion of dry latrines into pour flush toilets under centrally sponsored schemes promoting low-cost sanitation in rural and urban areas and (c) rehabilitation of the liberated scavengers by providing skill upgradation as well as finance. In the Government of India there are three ministries responsible for liberation and rehabilitation of manual scavengers. Ministries of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation and Rural Development are responsible for liberation of scavengers in urban and rural areas respectively by converting the dry latrines into pour flush toilets. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is responsible for the rehabilitation of the liberated scavengers. Rehabilitation is taken care of by providing them self-employment opportunities through training and financial assistance primarily by the Scheduled Castes Development Corporation and other commercial banks. Deeply perturbed by the fact that this pernicious practice of manual scavenging was still going on, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, former prime minister, had announced on 15 August 2002 to speed up the process of liberation and rehabilitation of scavengers. Accordingly the Planning Commission had prepared a National Action Plan focusing on the three main components of this problem—legislation, support for conversion of dry latrines and rehabilitation of scavengers. A Central Monitoring Committee chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to monitor the implementation of the National Action Plan was set up. The issue of manual scavenging has been more prominent in urban areas of the country rather than the rural areas. However, there were pockets in Uttar Pradesh and few more states where


although formally there was no report of manual scavenging but actually this practice did exist. The law of prevention of manual scavenging is stringent and there has been a tendency among the state governments not to report the very existence of this practice. Even though the problem was not on a big scale in rural areas it had to be completely eliminated. At that time TSC guidelines had not focused on this important social issue. Interestingly, rural sanitation programme had focused on this component initially but over a period of time it was dropped from the agenda. Mr Rakesh Behari, the then joint secretary in the Department of Drinking Water Supply, was very concerned about this issue. He was of very clear view that the elimination of manual scavenging must be the topmost objective of TSC and was empathetic enough to incorporate this in the revised guidelines issued in 2004. Separate letters were written to all the state governments to give full attention to this problem. One major achievement of this modification in TSC guideline was increased focus of Government of Uttar Pradesh on this issue. Priority was given in TSC to this problem; as a result, a large number of such villages in the districts of Moradabad, Bijnour, Kanpur Dehat, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, and so on, completely converted the dry latrines into pour flush toilets and few panchayats also received Nirmal Gram Puraskar. As per reports of Government of Uttar Pradesh, out of more than 2,000 Gram Panchayats having practice of manual scavenging throughout the state more than 100,000 dry latrines have been converted into pour flush water seal latrines and more than 15 per cent Gram Panchayats have achieved the open defecation-free status (see case study of Bharatpur GP in UP in Box 3.2). Many PRIs are in the process of claiming Nirmal Gram Puraskar from Government of India.

Community sanitary complexes In the original TSC guidelines issued in 1999, there was a provision of constructing community sanitary complexes for women

112â•… Squatting with Dignity Box 3.2: Eradicating Manual Scavenging in Bharatpur, Moradabad District Bharatpur is a Gram Panchayat (GP) of Bahjoi Block in Moradabad district having 205 families mainly from Muslim community. Manual scavenging was commonly prevalent in the GP and about 108 families were using dry latrines. Mr Nand Kishore, the GP president, was fully convinced of the need of converting these dry latrines into pour flush ones but he had a Herculean task ahead of him. He faced the challenge of changing the mindset of the users of dry latrines to destroy them and construct new ones. It was equally challenging to convince the economically well off people to loosen their purse strings to construct ‘sanitary toilets’ with their own resources. There was need to mobilize resources for extremely poor families to construct toilets and also rehabilitate the scavengers, as they would be jobless if the dry latrines were removed. Where there is a will there is a way. With continuous IEC and mobilization by the Gram Pradhan and the Village Motivators encouraging results started coming speedily. The economically well off families joined the sanitation movement and constructed sanitary latrines from their own resources and families from the weaker section got financial support from GP to construct toilets. Now the last hurdle was to rehabilitate the six scavengers who were involved in manual scavenging. To deal with this, Gram Sabha meeting was called, which decided to engage these scavengers in cleaning of village roads and drains and every family agreed to pay Rs 10 per month for the purpose. The behaviour of the whole community has now changed. They don’t throw garbage on the streets instead they put it in dust bins. Now this panchayat is one of the proud claimants of prestigious Nirmal Gram Puraskar and rightly deserves so.

in the rural areas; however, there was a ceiling that not more than 6 per cent of total hardware cost could be spent on construction of such complexes. The thrust of TSC was on construction of individual household latrines which was easy to maintain as there was a defined owner for the toilet. The experience so far with community complexes was not very pleasant. There was an issue of operation and maintenance of such complexes. So in general, not many sanitary complexes used to be sanctioned for TSC projects. These were supposed to be constructed in those villages where many households did not have land for construction of individual toilets. In some cases, community sanitary complexes were also used as entry point for promoting construction and use of household toilets.


At that time in 2002, Tamil Nadu government led by Ms J. Jayalalitha had taken a decision to construct at least one community sanitary complex for women in every Gram Panchayat of the state. Partly, it was to be funded by state government and partly by the TSC. This required sanction of about 300–400 community complexes in each district. Being from Tamil Nadu cadre, Dr R.â•¯C. Panda who was the joint secretary considered himself duty bound to help the Tamil Nadu government in this endeavour and also to score some loyalty points. With the limit of not more than 6 per cent of hardware cost to be spent on such complexes, he was not in a position to sanction many complexes as the members in the National Scheme Sanctioning Committee (NSSC) including the representative from Integrated Finance Division used to object to such move. So while revising TSC guideline in May 2002, Dr Panda conveniently deleted the provision of 6 per cent limit on community complexes and got the approval of Minister for Rural Development. Since then large number of community complexes were sanctioned in TSC projects of Tamil Nadu. However, sometimes NSSC used to limit the number to 100 or 200 complexes per district. With passage of time, an issue was raised that why community complexes should be constructed only for women and not men. One argument was that it would re-enforce the practice of open defecation among the men. So in the next revision of TSC guidelines community complexes were made permissible for both men and women. It was expected that the Gram Panchayats or user groups would come forward for shouldering the responsibility of operation and maintenance (O&M) of these toilets. Since the bulk of the users were local village people, it was not very practical to charge the users a fee each time toilet was used so in many cases self-help groups (SHGs) were charging a monthly fee from their members or the users. This O&M model was to some extent functional in Tamil Nadu where state government also had provided O&M funds to the Gram Panchayats for this purpose but this arrangement was not very functional in many other states. This has been one of the reasons of low implementation rate for this


component in TSC in many states. State like West Bengal avoided constructing community complexes in villages due to this reason; however, they were in favour of constructing community complexes at public places where user charges could be actually collected from the floating population using the facilities. There are public places in rural areas like bus stops, railway stations and marketplaces where people congregate for various reasons but there are hardly any public conveniences which can be used by the people willing to pay for such facilities. The situation has been equally bad at the tourist places also. When Mr Jagmohan was the Tourism Minister of India he had taken lots of initiatives to give a facelift to the historical Red Fort in Delhi. In December 2003 I visited the Red Fort with one of my friends who had a five-year-old daughter named Shruti. It was heartening to see that Red Fort had really got a major facelift and the whole ambience was looking very nice. While visiting inside Shruti felt the pressure of going to the toilet. We were at that time in the northern end of Red Fort and there was no toilet facility there so we had to walk down to the southern extreme of the fort where there was a public toilet but the condition was awfully bad. The moment Shruti went inside the toilet and could sight more than a kilogram of excreta lying on the toilet pan where flies and insects were hovering over it she immediately withdrew herself from the toilet and pressure also had gone. If this could be the condition of Delhi’s Red Fort, where a large number of tourists visited, there was a need for providing quality toilet facilities at tourist places also. Mr Palat Mohandas visited the holy shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand sometime in 2003 and was shocked to see that all along the way there were hardly any toilet facilities even though thousands of people used to visit these holy shrines every day. I also had the similar experience in 2004 when I visited Badrinath and Kedarnath. In the name of toilet facility, there were few temporary bamboo mat urinals constructed along the roadside. There was no system of maintenance of these urinals and the design itself was such that these could be used only once. In many such urinals, people used to defecate also. There was no


scope for anyone else to use these temporary urinals which were full of excreta and of course very smelly. Seeing the plight of toilet facilities even at such important tourist places it was felt essential to modify TSC guidelines to incorporate construction of community toilets in all public and tourist places in the rural areas. Since Mr Palat Mohandas had himself seen the reality on the ground, TSC guidelines were immediately revised and community complexes for tourist places were sanctioned in many districts. However, an upper ceiling of Rs 200,000 per such community complex was fixed.

Revolving fund for micro credit Even though subsidy for construction of household toilet was reduced and a range of low-cost toilet models were being promoted in the TSC, in many parts of the country higher unit cost toilets continued to be constructed. Most of the prosperous districts or states were promoting single or twin pit pour flush toilets with cemented superstructure that cost in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Even otherwise, subsidy was available only to the BPL households and not to the APL families. So there was a need for alternative means of financing the toilets in the rural areas. This need was being met through two innovative means in certain pockets of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat—financing through SHGs and milk cooperatives. In the past 10–12 years, a new movement has started in rural India which is empowering the poor especially women by organizing them into SHGs, which are working on the principles of thrift and credit. The women save a small amount every day and use this saving for lending purpose among the group members in times of need. This not only organizes them into a cohesive group and empowers them but also takes care of their petty finance needs without forcing them to go to the moneylenders. More than a million SHGs have been formed in India which are also getting financial support from the banks and governments to


take up self-employment activities. This movement is very strong in southern and western states of India. In Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, TSC project districts/NGOs/banks provided loan or revolving fund to these SHGs for lending among their members for toilet construction at either nil or at a very nominal interest rate. Few NGOs facilitated this whole process. The members repaid the loan amount to their group in 10 to 12 easy instalments. Similarly in Gujarat, the state government, UNICEF and milk unions in Panchmahal, Mehsana and Surat took an initiative of financing the milk cooperatives’ members through their respective milk unions by giving them a revolving fund. The milk cooperative societies used to advance low-interest loan to the members for constructing toilets who in turn used to repay the loan amount in 10 to 12 easy instalments. The loan amount used to be recovered from the monthly payment to be made to the members by the cooperative society against the milk procurement. Although this was done at a small scale, it had a very good potential of scaling up because of the Clean Milk Production (CMP) campaign launched by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) which is attempting to improve overall sanitation and hygiene at village level to improve the quality of the milk by reducing bacterial contamination. Sanitation promotion beautifully fits in the CMP campaign of NDDB and TSC can easily be dovetailed with the milk cooperatives to create open defecation-free villages in at least those districts and states where dairy movement is strong. These two innovations were exciting enough to be given a trial at the national level and were included in the cabinet note prepared for revision of TSC guidelines in 2005. Although project appraisal and monitoring division in the Planning Commission had reservations about this supply-side management by giving revolving fund, the logic found merit with Mr Adarsh Kishore, the then finance secretary, who approved this important modification during the EFC meeting. Based on this, the Union Cabinet also approved this component. To start with, a revolving fund of up to Rs 5 million was approved for each TSC project which could be routed through SHGs or milk cooperative societies and was also made available for the APL households.


Focus on School Sanitation & Hygiene Education (SSHE) The School Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE) was an important component of TSC since its inception. In the original guideline, more than 15 per cent funds of the TSC project districts were expected to be spent on school sanitation. The situation of the infrastructure in the schools was very poor as reflected in the sixth All India Education Survey conducted by National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) in 1993. Only about 15 per cent schools had toilets and only 4 per cent schools had separate toilet for the girls. Added to this was the problem of non-maintenance of the toilets constructed so far. School sanitation was a big challenge in TSC which required a convergent action by PHED, Rural Development and Education departments. A minimum infrastructure of water supply and sanitation was required in the schools both for boys and girls separately. Like other components of TSC, this component was also not getting much priority by the implementing agencies and a very ad hoc approach was taken towards this critical issue. Not much thought was given on the design and adequacy of the toilet and urinal blocks. In many states, the quality of construction was a major issue. Even though toilets were being constructed there was no integration with water supply. Even if it was integrated with water supply, there was inadequate ownership from the education sector which was a major barrier for sustained operation and maintenance of the facilities created. For promotion of hygiene behaviour, role of teachers was very important. If Integrated Sanitation Project in Medinipur district of West Bengal was the torch bearer for household and community sanitation promotion, School Water Supply and Sanitation towards Total Health and Hygiene (SWASTTHH) implemented in Mysore district of Karnataka and school sanitation and hygiene education in Alwar district of Rajasthan were good models for adaptation in other states. UNICEF’s partnership with International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC), Delft, Netherlands was an important collaboration to bring in new ideas and focus on quality of the


SSHE programme. Even though some people may question it but UNICEF’s partnership with IRC definitely led to greater focus on this component in TSC by the Government of India and an attempt was made to overall improve the quality of implementation. Ms Kathleen Shordt and Ms Mareille Snell from IRC were the main persons working with UNICEF and Government of India for institutionalization of this component and their inputs were quite useful. Initially, only one toilet block unit used to be sanctioned in most of the TSC projects and that too for the primary and upper primary level schools only. High and higher secondary schools were not being considered for construction of toilet units under TSC till March 2002. This was quite funny as when the children grow older they need more privacy and they must use toilet facilities. So there was no reason for not sanctioning the school toilets in high and higher secondary schools. It was the first National Scheme Sanctioning Committee meeting chaired by Mr A. K. Goswami (Secretary, DWS) in February 2002 which also happened to be my first such meeting in which a unanimous decision was taken to sanction school toilet blocks for all government schools in rural areas up to the higher secondary level. It was also decided in principle to sanction separate toilet blocks for the girl students in all co-educational schools; however, funds were sanctioned for only one toilet unit in most of the schools initially and it was expected that based on the actual utilization, projects would be further revised and more units would be sanctioned later on. Subsequently, this was also made a non-negotiable element of NGP eligibility which has really helped in increasing focus on school toilet construction especially for girl students. Over a period of time, very innovative and gender-friendly toilet designs have been developed by various states and TSC-implementing districts. When Mr Palat Mohandas was posted as Secretary, DWS in March 2003, he wanted a bold policy decision of covering all schools and anganwadis with water supply and sanitation facilities across the country in next two years. He accordingly conducted one-to-one meetings with secretaries of the departments of


Elementary Education and Women and Child Development for cross-sectoral convergence. One of the outcomes of these meetings was to make concerted efforts in providing water supply and sanitation facilities in all the rural schools and anganwadis in next two years. If we look at the baseline situation prevailing at that time and also consider the pace of implementation of TSC in most of the districts, this goal was highly ambitious and difficult to achieve. The problem was further compounded by the fact that TSC was sanctioned only in approximately 300 districts which represented only about half of the geographical area of the country. So even if the implementation was accelerated, achievement could be expected only in those districts where TSC projects were sanctioned. There was also a danger that this decision might trigger a construction drive of the school toilets without giving emphasis on other issues of operation and maintenance, hygiene education and involvement of parents and teachers community in the whole programme. Knowing that the achievement was not going to take place in next two years, our bureaucratic mind started operating and the finishing line was not clearly defined so that it could be conveniently extended further. However, in 2005 Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister for Rural Development, finally decided a firm deadline of March 2007 for this purpose. Even by March 2007 this goal could not be achieved and once again the finishing line got extended further. Although this ambitious goal is yet to be achieved but it has definitely given a massive push to this component of TSC. As per the recently released data of seventh education survey,10 the percentage of schools having water supply, toilets and girl toilet blocks have increased from 44 to 77 per cent, 8 to 29.5 per cent and 4 to 35 per cent respectively (Figure 3.2). Although a long road is yet to be covered but this has definitely led to increased attention on this component and tangible improvement on ground is noticed. 10 Sixth and seventh All India Education Surveys were conducted by NCERT in 1993 and 2003, respectively.

120â•… Squatting with Dignity Figure 3.2:â•… School water and sanitation coverage during education surveys

Source: Sixth and seventh All India Education Surveys.

Fund-sharing pattern for the school toilet construction under TSC among the central government, state government and comunity was in the ratio 60:30:10, respectively. Ten per cent contribution was expected from the school management committee/ parents and teachers association/village education committee/ Gram Panchayat for construction of school toilet. The idea was that if the local communities were really interested in this facility, they would mobilize themselves and make part contribution which will also help in long-term sustainability and operation and maintenance of the facility. In SSA operated by education sector there was no such element of community contribution for construction of school toilet; however, there was an element of community contribution in operation and maintenance of the facility. Since school toilets were being constructed under two different programmes which were following different funding pattern and norms it was creating some amount of confusion at the field level and some of the state governments demanded for uniformity in the funding pattern. There was some merit in the demand and it had to be responded to accordingly. There was also a growing feeling that 10 per cent community contribution was acting as a barrier for construction of school toilets which was


even otherwise a necessary infrastructure for each school. Anecdotal evidence was revealing that it was the Gram Panchayat which was contributing for school toilets or in many cases SSA fund was used to provide 10 per cent community contribution which was anyway not the original intention of the TSC programme. So it was decided to do away with this provision and Government of India agreed to bear the additional 10 per cent cost. Accordingly TSC guidelines were modified in March 2006 with the approval of the Union Cabinet.

Funding for hygiene promotion Since 1986, the CRSP had primarily focused on toilet construction. There was not much emphasis on awareness creation for demand generation of sanitation facilities and behaviour change related to hygiene practices. When TSC was introduced, in order to remove the anomaly of the previous programme more than 15 per cent of the total TSC budget for a district was earmarked for IEC activities. The IEC activity was supposed to focus on demand generation for toilet facilities as well as hygiene promotion at household, school and community level. For government machinery which has so far been used to implement target-oriented supply-driven top-down programmes the radically different new principles as enshrined in TSC were not easy to be digested. The maximum improvement which could be seen was in some form of awareness creation for toilet construction and no serious effort for hygiene promotion was made. They were also not fully at fault for this situation. The TSC guidelines had nowhere explicitly emphasized upon hygiene promotion as part of IEC activities, as a result this important activity was out of sight and out of mind of most of the TSC functionaries. Mr Henk Van Norden was the chief of WES section of UNICEF in Delhi office and he once strongly pointed this out in one of the meetings in 2002 and suggested for greater focus on hygiene promotion. It was a valid point made by him and this element was included and prominently defined in the


subsequent modifications carried out in TSC guidelines in May 2002. Of course by merely defining this, the problem was not going to be solved but at least it was recognized and well stated in the policy document which later on helped in slowly strengthening this element in TSC.

Introduction of anganwadi sanitation When we talk about sanitation in schools, pre-schools cannot be ignored. At this young age children form new habits and can easily adopt good hygiene practices. Even though the intent might have been there, anganwadi sanitation was not explicitly mentioned in the 1999 TSC guidelines. As a result while submitting the TSC project proposals very few states were proposing for constructing toilet facilities in anganwadi centres. At the same time, if some state was proposing for anganwadi sanitation that was being sanctioned by the Government of India, treating anganwadi as part of the school set-up. In this process few project districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu had got anganwadi toilets sanctioned but others were not concerned. In 2003, when Mr Palat Mohandas emphasized upon 100 per cent sanitation coverage in the schools and anganwadis, it was necessary that toilets in anganwadis were sanctioned under TSC as Department of Women and Child Development which implements Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme was not having any funds for creation of infrastructure in anganwadi centres. Further, in order to attain full sanitation coverage, access and use of toilet facilities in anganwadi centres was made as one of the non-negotiable conditions for Nirmal Gram Puraskar eligibility also. In view of these developments, it was necessary to explicitly mention anganwadi sanitation as an important component of TSC and make necessary fund provision for the same. So this component was added in the TSC guidelines during May 2004 revision. In addition, unit cost of Rs 5,000 was prescribed for constructing the anganwadi toilets. This unit cost was decided


in quite an ad hoc manner in one of the NSCC meetings chaired by Mr Mohandas who wanted some kind of uniformity in the unit cost of anganwadi toilets. At that time some projects had got anganwadi toilets sanctioned at the unit cost of Rs 20,000 also. It was felt that one twin pit toilet with a brick superstructure should be sufficient and as per the prevailing cost of construction at that time Rs 5,000 appeared to be a decent unit cost. However, later on when states started the actual cost analysis, it appeared that this unit cost was insufficient and needed upward revision.

4 Systems Building

W

e all know that for human survival food, clothes and shelter are required. For cultivation fertilizer, seed and water need to be managed. For making a building bricks, cement, sand, steel, and so on, are essential. Similarly for designing and operationalizing any development programme a number of key building blocks are crucial without which the programme cannot meet its desired objectives. Not only this, all the components are important and none of them can be ignored. The goal cannot be achieved by using only one of these. So it is essential for practitioners of development programmes to have an insight into what makes a programme succeed and what are the essential building blocks in absence of which the programme structure cannot be built. Most of the time, we only try to focus on the end results and outputs without spending time in understanding the key elements of the programme in absence of which we can dream of the results but actually will not be able to achieve them. If the foundations are not strong, buildings may fall under their own weight also, otherwise they can survive even severest of the earthquakes as well. The quality of the building blocks will determine the worth of the building itself. Most of the government programmes suffer on this account. One of the main reasons of low performance of many government programmes is that enough emphasis is not accorded on systems building for effective and sustained implementation of the programme but

Systems Buildingâ•… 125

usually new programmes are rolled out to receive public applause and when in absence of proper systems, the programmes don’t deliver fully these are either closed or superseded by another set of programmes with a different name. Swajaldhara programme aiming at community-managed rural water supply schemes also met somewhat similar fate. In view of these, an effort was made to understand the key systems required to be put in place without which Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) programme implementation could not have really taken off. In doing such analyses, a handy Decision Support Tool following Bayesian Network model was used. Immediately after joining the RGNDWM, in the beginning of 2002, I got an opportunity to participate in a one week training programme in IRC, Delft in the Netherlands which focused on Bayesian Network analysis and its application for rural water supply and sanitation programmes. The input was timely and helped in analyzing the key factors and variables which can make or break the TSC programme.

Bayesian Network Bayesian Network is one of the powerful tools to develop a comprehensive Decision Support System. Bayesian probability theory is a branch of mathematical probability theory that allows one to model uncertainty about the world and outcomes of interest by combining common sense knowledge and observational evidence. The Bayesian Network consists of (a) a set of variables, (b) a graphical structure connecting the variables and (c) a set of conditional probability distributions. It is commonly represented as a graph, which is a set of ‘nodes’ and ‘arcs’ (Ahuja and Alok). The nodes represent the variables and the arcs represent the conditional dependencies in the model. The absence of an arc between two variables indicates independence, that is, there are no situations in which the probabilities of one of the variables depend directly upon the state of the other variable. The graphical


model in a Bayesian Network is developed after identifying all the important variables that influence the output and identifying the relationships between the variables. Bayesian Networks model evaluation is the process of updating probabilities of outcomes based upon relationships in the model and the evidence known about the situation at hand. When a Bayesian model is actually used, the end user applies evidence about recent events or observations. This information is applied to the model by ‘instantiating’ a variable to a state that is consistent with observation. Then mathematical mechanics are performed to update the probabilities of all the other variables that are connected to the variable representing the new evidence. After model evaluation, the updated probabilities reflect the new levels of belief in (or probabilities of) all possible outcomes coded in the model. These beliefs are mediated by the original assessment of belief performed by the author of the model. The beliefs originally encoded in the model are known as prior probabilities, because they are entered before any evidence is known about the situation. The beliefs computed after evidence is entered are known as posterior probabilities, because they reflect the levels of belief computed in light of the new evidence. There are various softwares available for analysis of the Bayesian Networks. I had the opportunity of using Netica software. A Bayesian Network for successful implementation of TSC was developed identifying all the possible factors, which might influence the successful implementation of TSC and the interdependence of the various factors was identified. A comprehensive network for successful implementation of TSC may be seen in Figure 4.1. This network not only helped in analyzing the key factors impacting TSC implementation but also provided a platform for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different key elements in various state and district TSC programmes and gave a solid insight into the dynamics of the programme implementation and the areas where more emphasis was required in order to maximize the gains. By assigning ‘a priori probability’ and defining the relationship between different variables using conditional


probability tables, Bayesian Network can evaluate any project and find out the probability of successful implementation of that project. The probabilities can be updated based on field data regarding each identified variable. The model also helps to indicate the most critical factors for success of the programme, which in turn indicates the areas of concern where immediate remedial action is required. In this TSC network there are six critical factors or building blocks (Figure 4.1) leading to success of the programme: (a) policy, (b) resources, (c) capacity development, (d) awareness and social mobilization, (e) alternate delivery mechanism or supply chain and (f) monitoring of the programme. All these factors were function of a number of interdependent variables as reflected in Figure 4.2, and by strengthening these systems the programme output could be increased. So a conscious effort was made to strengthen each sub-component of the TSC programme.

National policy For any meaningful intervention by government in any sector, a well thought out policy is essential. As we think, so we implement. Supremacy of mind over body is well established. It’s the mind which thinks and gives direction to the body. It is the thought process which governs our actions. Similarly the job of Government of India is also to think and plan and support the states and districts to act and implement the programmes. But this entails that the planning should be done properly and a good workable policy should be in place. In addition to the policy, adequate amount of financial and human resources are required to implement the programme. As already explained the subject of rural sanitation occupied government agenda very late and the first national sanitation programme, Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP), was launched as late as in 1986. Over the years slowly senior functionaries in the Government of India started realizing the need for more effective sanitation programme across the states which

Figure 4.1:â•…Comprehensive Bayesian Network for TSC

Source: Author.

130â•… Squatting with Dignity Figure 4.2:â•… Key factors influencing TSC success

Source: Author.

could respond to the actual field realities. Based on the field experience available at that time necessity of a demand-responsive and community-driven programme with focus on awareness creation for sanitation and hygiene promotion was emphasized. This led to restructuring of the CRSP and TSC was launched in 1999 the evolution of which is already discussed in the foregoing section. When TSC was launched in 1999, the supply-driven component of CRSP was also in operation. However, it was decided right in the beginning that the allocation-based component would be phased out gradually by March 2002 and from April 2002 all the resources for rural sanitation programme would be available for TSC only. This clear policy decision right before launching of TSC helped very much in removing the anomaly of two different approaches being followed in the field simultaneously. It is worth mentioning that similar decisions were not taken in case of Sector Reform Programme in water sector as a result both


supply- and demand-driven schemes continued to co-exist together sending wrong signals to the policy makers and implementers in the states. This anomaly was removed only when the demand-driven scheme of Swajaldhara was finally gobbled up by the supply-driven Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) in 2008. Total Sanitation Campaign had very good features like funding support for universal coverage of all households, schools, anganwadi centres and public places for construction of toilets, awareness generation for toilet construction as well as hygiene promotion and corresponding capacity-development initiatives. Funds were also earmarked for setting up supply chain to meet the demand which was likely to be generated in the project area and also some amount of administrative expenses. The idea was to implement the project taking district as the unit and keeping the community-based organizations, Panchayati Raj Institutions, etc., in the forefront. It was to be implemented in a decentralized manner with the ultimate objective of making that district open defecation free. Based on the past experience, the emphasis on subsidy was reduced and initially only Rs 500/600 as subsidy was available for the BPL families. A robust policy was in place which had incorporated all the latest developments in the sanitation sector over the past many years. There were few policy issues which were debated extensively but still a well-agreed sanitation policy in the form of TSC was in place. Another interesting feature of this programme was the broad framework for operation by the district implementing agencies which offered them the opportunity to innovate as per the local conditions rather than prescribing them the nitty-gritty of implementation. As the time progressed and the feedback related to implementation was received, the TSC guidelines were suitably modified periodically to incorporate the field requirements. During 1999–2007 guidelines were modified four times. One of the most important additions in TSC guidelines was that of Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP)—a community incentive scheme in October 2003. This innovative scheme has really transformed the TSC implementation approach in the field. Thus, in the form of TSC and NGP we had a robust policy in place which


included elements ranging from community incentive to basics of systems building and demand and supply management.

Financial resources Over the past several years sanitation has been a poor cousin of water supply. Even though the health benefits of providing good sanitation facilities are either equal or more than providing safe drinking water, unfortunately not much attention had been paid to this important subject in the past. This is evident from the poor financial resources allocated for rural sanitation compared to the rural water supply. After launching of TSC, in the first three years budget to the tune of only Rs 1.35 billion per year were allocated. In a ministry which was having an annual budget of more than Rs 120 billion at that time, TSC was the smallest programme from budget point of view having allocation of only about Rs 1.35 billion in 2001–02. One of the major complaints of officials in Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance was regarding poor funds absorption capacity of the rural sanitation programme. During the annual plan discussion meetings it was made amply clear by Mr A. Shekhar, the then adviser, water resources, and other officials in the Planning Commission that they were not averse to the idea of increasing allocation for rural sanitation programme provided there was off-take of money in the field in the form of better implementation rate. This was not only a challenge but also great opportunity for fund availability for TSC. But this was possible only if the programme implementation improved. With the reluctance of many states to actually accept the major paradigm shift in TSC, this was not an easy task. In most of the projects, fund released was parked in bank accounts. Only few districts in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were actually implementing the programme so release of subsequent instalments of fund to the project districts was very poor. This implied poor off-take of fund.


Initially, based on the annual budget allocated for TSC, Union Government used to decide on the number of districts where TSC could be sanctioned in a particular financial year. Accordingly the number of districts used to be proportionately divided among all the states. Normally, in the first 3–4 years about 35–40 TSC projects used to be sanctioned every year. Initially, most of the states had only few TSC project districts as a result they were not giving much priority to this programme. At that time, it was felt that in order to receive higher priority from the states and to accelerate the sanitation implementation, TSC needed to be sanctioned to as many districts as possible. When Mr Palat Mohandas became the secretary of the department, he was of strong view of scaling up TSC in all the districts of the country but there weren’t adequate financial resources for the purpose. Even without financial resources he insisted upon the states to send more TSC proposals and majority were sanctioned also. During 2003–04 alone 132 TSC projects were sanctioned which was maximum in any financial year (Figure 2.1). The number of projects sanctioned was quite high compared to the fund available. As a result, when the issue of fund release to these newly sanctioned projects came up tussle started between the department and the Integrated Finance Division led by the financial advisor (FA) and both of them gave their arguments which were quite sound from their own perspectives. FA was reluctant in sanctioning projects without adequate resources in hand. He was simply following the basics of financial discipline. On the other hand, the secretary was keen to sanction more projects to get more involvement of the states and also to give a push to TSC across the country. He was trying to use this to leverage more funds for TSC. After lot of tussle, the issue was resolved and it was decided to sanction TSC projects as planned by Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation, but the quantum of fund release as first instalment was reduced to 10 per cent from the current 30 per cent. This was to ensure that in those districts where implementation was slow not much fund was parked. This decision made funds available for sanction of few more new projects.


At this point of time, Mr Mohandas realized that if TSC was to be made operational throughout the country the issue of financial resources was to be sorted out. One of the possible options was to approach World Bank for additional funding to meet the gap between the actual requirement and resources available through the planning process. Accordingly, he wanted a concept note to be prepared for seeking World Bank funding for this purpose. Keeping in line with his impatient and demanding nature, the concept note was developed in a relatively short time where the consultant Manu Prakash had played a key role. Under our overall guidance he was able to put up a good piece of document which could be shared with the Department of Economic Affairs and also the World Bank. As per the funding pattern prevailing in 2002–03, a funding gap of approximately Rs 40.86 billion was projected. The World Bank had expressed its interest in funding this project. This concept note was shared with the Planning Commission also which in principle supported the requirement of additional funds for rural sanitation sector in India. As per the normal practice, the sanctioning procedure of the World Bankfunded projects is so complicated that it usually takes more than a year, so pending approval of this project alternative arrangements had to be made. At that time, even though funds earmarked for TSC was less, overall budget of the department was quite good. Plenty of funds were allocated for water supply programmes every year. Planning Commission used to allocate a lump sum fund to the department every year which was supposed to apportion this amount between both water supply and sanitation programmes. When the real need for funds for sanitation increased, it was decided to allocate more funds for TSC from this overall kitty available with the department and simultaneously impress upon the Planning Commission to allocate more resources for the sector. In this regard Department for Drinking Water Supply (DDWS) took the lead and for the financial year 2004–05 a quantum jump was given from Rs 1.65 billion to Rs 4 billion. In fact for a change, I was asked by the secretary to decide the allocation for TSC as per my requirement and absorption capacity. I could not ask for more than


Rs 4 billion, which itself was quite high compared to the previous year’s allocation. The allocation was more than doubled. I can say without hesitation that it was the turning point in rural sanitation sector. It was a real bold decision which took this sector out of the small shell it was confined till the other day. It had broken the barriers and established its presence as an important programme of the Government of India which could no longer be stifled for want of money. It was loud and clear that money was available for this programme. In the following year, the allocation was further increased to Rs 7 billion and since then there has not been any reversal in the trend and it has been continuously increasing. The allocation for 2008–09 is Rs 12 billion. The programme witnessed 11-fold increase in financial resources since its inception in a short span of time. Rural sanitation sector was the only sector for which 10th Five Year Plan outlay was more than doubled during the midterm appraisal of the plan. Originally only Rs 9.55 billion was allocated for the sector for 5 years which was later increased to Rs 22 billion—an increase of more than 100 per cent. This was a growing acceptance of the facts that first, rural sanitation was an important sector for social development of the country, second, the programme implementation had improved to absorb additional funds and third, putting in more money would deliver results in due course. Once the Planning Commission increased the annual allocation for rural sanitation, revisiting the concept note sent to the World Bank was necessary. In the government system it may be difficult to increase the allocation initially but once increased it may be more difficult to reduce the budget. Concept of zero based budgeting doesn’t take place due to proportionate increase in each sector and programme because of so many pull and push factors. A detailed analysis of future fund requirement and resource gap indicated that there was no funding gap in TSC and hence there was no need for World Bank funding. The entire requirement of TSC could be easily funded by the available plan resources which saved us from possible interference of World Bank in implementing the national sanitation programme.


We have witnessed the fact that if the goals and means are righteous resources automatically get accumulated and impossible-looking goals become possible. If the enthusiasm to achieve the destination is strong and pure, the path and the means too become visible. Courageous steps taken in the direction of achieving noble goals help face all the difficulties coming in this effort with smile. It was a courageous attempt to plan for scaling up TSC even without adequate resources which very few in the government would have dared but the goal was so decent that it received full support from all corners. The country had managed its own resources for funding the largest ever rural sanitation programme in India which was a unique achievement.

Resource contribution by states As per the funding pattern approved in TSC, funds for different components are shared by central government, state government and community. The fund sharing ratio is different for the different components; however, on an average Government of India, state governments and community share is usually in the ratio of 60:22:18. During 2002–03 an analysis of fund release pattern by the state governments for TSC projects over the years revealed that except few states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat who were generally regular in releasing their ratio of state share, the situation was not very encouraging in case of other states. Non-release of state share had direct relationship with the overall priority and ownership accorded by the state government to the TSC programme. States like Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Assam were initially reluctant in releasing the state share of TSC. Interestingly, implementation rate was also poor in most of these states. However, with continuous persuasion combined with mild coercive actions most of the states realized the importance of releasing fund for sanitation promotion. Over


the years this reluctance has substantially reduced and most of the state governments are timely releasing funds to the TSC projects. It can be seen from Figure 4.3 that since 2003–04 release of fund by state governments picked up considerably and their relative share was quite significant and in 2003–04 it was even more than the amount released by the Government of India. Currently, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Tripura, Sikkim, Haryana and Maharashtra have released more than 50 per cent of their share already. With the improvement in implementation of TSC, community contribution also started pouring in regularly and currently more than Rs 9.90 billion is contributed by the beneficiaries themselves in TSC which was unthinkable even few years ago. Figure 4.3:â•…Year wise release of state share in TSC

Source: www.ddws.nic.in.


Capacity development Human being is considered to be the maker of his own destiny primarily because he has the capacity to find the solutions for his problems and convert the adversity into privilege. It is not easy to reverse the flow of the river or the direction of the wind. Human beings only can achieve these feats but for this, extraordinary talent is required. With ordinary talent and ability even attempting such thing will be considered stupid. This is the reason why for every difficult task qualification is tested and work is assigned according to the worthiness of the individuals. In order to shoulder higher and complex responsibilities, individuals or the systems need to augment their capacity and empower themselves. The process of empowerment primarily rests upon inner strength and self-reliance. Capacity development means inculcating high ‘morale’ using which a person like Gandhi even with ordinary physical structure could shake the whole world. Another important element of capacity development is to develop ‘selfreliance’. Swami Vivekananda wanted to inculcate the concept of self-reliance amongst the people involving them in the process of development. To build the structure of TSC, good capacity of different stakeholders is essential. It is the most critical building block on which the whole structure rests. A series of initiatives were taken for building the capacity of various stakeholders involved in TSC implementation which included policy development, module preparation and identification of resource centres to take up capacity-development activities. Some of the key steps are discussed in the following.

Evolution of CCDU guidelines Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission had institutionalized three important initiatives in the 1990s for capacity


development and awareness creation by supporting the states in setting up state-level Human Resource Development (HRD) cells and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) cells. In addition, India Training Network (ITN) was set up linking key institutions and NGOs working in water and sanitation sector in India. These programmes were part of the National Human Resource Development Programme (NHRDP) launched in 1994 with the objective of training at least one grassroot-level worker in each village including training of mechanics, masons and PRI members. When I joined RGNDWM in 2001, I was made responsible for managing both these support programmes. As I went deep into what was happening in the two programmes, following issues emerged very clearly: 1. Human resource development and communication initiatives at grassroots level were required to implement the key sector programmes and more so for better implementation of TSC and Sector Reform Projects which were emphasizing on a new paradigm in the sector focusing on greater capacity building and communication activities. Any strategic shift in programme can happen only if the lowest functionaries at the grassroots level also appreciate the rationale of this shift and understand the key action points for themselves. In such a case, capacity development and communication efforts are very critical for success of the programmes but unfortunately both these cells were disconnected with the main programme. They were working in isolation as independent programmes with no intention of supporting the sector reform initiatives as most of the manpower working in these cells were not at all involved in implementation of Sector Reform Projects (SRPs) either at state level or at district level. 2. The salary expenditure in both the cells in most of the states was very high compared to the actual investment on capacity building and communication activities. 3. In many states, officers who were not needed in the main programme were sidelined and shunted in these cells. So


these cells basically became rehabilitation ground for few officials in many states. 4. Despite giving 100 per cent central assistance to these two cells, the overall expenditure and performance was far from satisfactory and there was not much ownership from the state governments for taking up these software activities. 5. There was hardly any convergence of efforts between the HRD and IEC cells. They were not only working independently from the main programme but also independently from each other. 6. Even though the main task of IEC cell was to educate people about water and sanitation-related issues and programmes, there was no proper communication strategy and tools developed and made available to the states. With the launch of SRPs which focused mainly on demand generation for water and sanitation facilities through increased awareness among people and capacity building of all stakeholders, it was quite natural that these two important institutions needed to fulfil this mandate of the reform initiatives. Further fragmentation of capacity building and communication activities could never lead to good results in the field. In addition to this, we had seen the success of UNICEF-supported State Sanitation Cell which was functional in State Institute of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development (SIPRD), Kalyani in West Bengal. This cell had been instrumental in accelerating TSC in West Bengal significantly. So there was a genuine need to restructure HRD and IEC programmes of the RGNDWM and accordingly a draft concept note for setting up state Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) cell addressing the issues was developed by me way back in March 2002. Transformation of a concept paper into a policy document is a very long and tedious process which has to undergo the scrutiny at various levels by officials and also sector experts. But it was beyond my imagination that it would take more than three years. It speaks a lot about the decision-making process in the


government and the factors which contribute to decision-making which may range from firm rationale to even personal whims and fancies. The initial concept note for setting up state WATSAN cell was circulated among all the department officials for comments but as usual nobody offered any formal comment. However, during one of the meetings in mid 2002 in the department few officers spoke about its utility but also suggested few changes. This process itself took about 4–5 months. In the meantime, Mr Shanta Kumar who assumed the responsibilities of Minister for Rural Development in July 2002 had once gone to his constituency in Himachal Pradesh where he was invited in one of the official functions organized by the PHED. The function included ceremonial welcome of the minister and other dignitaries with the traditional shawl and cap in true Himachal culture and their speeches followed by a sumptuous lunch. Later on Hon’ble Minister was informed that this function was part of the IEC activity related to drinking water undertaken by the state IEC cell. Minister was quite upset at the way awareness-generation activities were planned and implemented in the states and immediately after arrival in Delhi he called Dr Panda, the joint secretary, and requested him to review the whole scheme as he could see a disconnect between actual need and practice. As a result, an order was passed by the minister to first close down the existing HRD and IEC programmes, meet the committed liabilities of the state governments and revamp the two programmes to meet the requirements of TSC and SRP projects. It was a major boost to work towards the new guidelines for setting up state WATSAN cell focusing on HRD and IEC activities. Mr S. S. Meenakshi Sundaram, the then Secretary, DWS was briefed about the concept note on the state WATSAN cell and he decided to hold a consultation with key stakeholders which included few state secretaries, members of TSC’s National Sanctioning Committee, leading NGOs, representatives of international agencies like UNICEF, WSP and World Bank. The meeting took place in last quarter of 2002 and based on the inputs given by various participants the concept note was revised and sent to Integrated Finance Division (IFD) of the ministry for their concurrence. Since this cell was to primarily work for communication


and capacity building activities, Dr Panda preferred to name it as ‘Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU)’. The road ahead was not very easy for CCDU. While working in the government, one gets the opportunity to understand the power of pen. Judicious exercise of this power can bring lots of positive developments or otherwise can create roadblocks for any initiative. Very often objections are raised as a matter of habit—a defensive approach or as a precautionary measure rather than based on proper analyses of the proposal. On many occasions, IFD raises routine objections primarily to indicate that they do exercise some caution. This unwritten rule was not violated while scrutinizing CCDU proposal also. As expected, objections raised by the dealing assistant, who ironically happens to be the most powerful functionary in a functional anarchy, were ratified by all in the hierarchy and the file related to CCDU guidelines started shuttling between Krishi Bhawan1 and CGO complex2 with questions and clarifications. Other than government files, I am yet to see any other non-living thing that grows fatter with passage of time. Finally, when it almost became impossible to hold this file using one hand, all the doubts of IFD could be clarified in a meeting with Director of Finance and the proposal was concurred in mid 2003. By the time, IFD concurred to the CCDU guidelines, Mr Kashiram Rana had assumed the responsibility of Minister for Rural Development and he wasn’t very convinced about this proposal and the file once again started shuttling between the secretary and minister. After the general elections in May 2004, new government came to power and Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh became the new Minister for Rural Development and approval of CCDU guidelines was his first major policy decision in water and sanitation sector. Immediately copies were circulated to all the states and proposals for setting up CCDUs were sought from them. In order to facilitate proper preparation of proposals by the states to set up the CCDUs, a template was developed covering all key aspects. Another checklist for scrutiny of the proposals to be received from the states was also developed. All proposals

1

2

Ministry of Rural Development is located in Krishi Bhawan. Department of Drinking Water Supply is located in CGO Complex.


were scrutinized against this checklist and sent to IFD for their concurrence. But unfortunately all the roadblocks were not yet over. There was unusual delay by IFD in clearing these proposals. What was more surprising was that not even objections were raised. Later on we could learn that due to personality clash between two joint secretaries all files were kept pending and new queries were raised. Not only this IFD suggested to either further change the guidelines to omit references to post creation for CCDU or seek Finance Ministry’s concurrence. It was a frightening idea to send the proposal to Finance Ministry where new set of objections could have been raised. If IFD could take more than a year to clear a proposal one could imagine how much time the Finance Ministry could have taken. Lastly on intervention of Shri V.â•¯K. Duggal, Secretary, CCDU guidelines were again revised in a meeting taken by him on 31 March 2005. Finally fund to about 15 states were released on 31 March in typical government style with a direction to the states to utilize the funds immediately. Had it not been the March rush, resolution of the dispute and sanction of CCDUs would have taken some more time. This was a classic case of how decision-making can get delayed if that is not very high on the agenda of the policy makers. Every person who appends his/her signature has the potential of delaying or even shooting down a proposal. Personal relations are very important in making or breaking things. It was a long journey before this important policy was operationalized. It is said that ideas are like babies who need to be nurtured till they attain maturity. Only with patience and perseverance end results can be achieved. That is why Gandhiji used to say ‘Patience and perseverance, if we have them, overcome mountains of difficulties’ (Bajaj, 2007).

Initiating the training of key TSC functionaries During 1999–2002, every year Government of India was sanctioning about 40 to 50 TSC projects but the implementation had


not taken off in most of the districts. One of the critical gaps in implementation was that key district-level functionaries like district collectors, CEOs and presidents of district panchayats and executive engineers were either not aware of the key issues in sanitation promotion or not motivated enough to implement the TSC programme as sanitation was not a very glamorous subject for them. At that time (first half of 2002) I didn’t have much idea about what UNICEF and WSP-SA, the two leading development agencies in the sector, were doing in the field as I was quite new to the sector. During the same period, WHO used to have a very small budget for water and sanitation and only about US$100,000 was allocated for this purpose. Dr M. M. Datta was the professional officer in charge of water and sanitation sector in WHO who approached me for finalizing his work plan. At that time WHO was requested to fund training of key district functionaries of all the new districts where TSC projects were sanctioned in 2001–02 and 2002–03. WHO considered this to be a good utilization of its small budget for sanitation sector and agreed immediately. The funds were transferred to Safai Vidyalaya, Ahmedabad, RKMLP Narendrapur and Gandhigram Rural University, Dindigul. They started the training with the training modules available with them which were later on further refined. Few key programme managers from more than 40–50 TSC projects districts were trained about the key issues in sanitation, technology options, social mobilization process, etc. Talking and discussing sanitation over a period of five days including field visits did motivate few of them who started implementation in the right earnest in their districts. Once this process was initiated and its utility established more funds were sanctioned from the HRD budget of the ministry in favour of the identified key resource centres to conduct training of key programme managers which triggered the process of TSC implementation in a large number of TSC districts. Subsequently respective state governments and UNICEF state offices also took up a large number of such capacity-development programmes. In fact the role played by these lead institutions was so critical that it was felt to institutionalize the system of supporting the key resource centres to carry out training, exposure visits, etc., for


TSC projects on a regular basis and this was the starting point for initiating the proposal to support the key resource centres.

Development of training modules It was noticed that different training institutions were focusing on different aspects of sanitation during the training of the key programme managers, so it was necessary to develop few standard training modules for different stakeholders. Mrs Sumita Ganguly in UNICEF was requested to take initiative in organizing a three days workshop for this purpose. 10–12 key sector experts were invited along with few state government officials and Safai Vidyalaya run by Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel hosted the workshop in August 2003 at Ahmedabad. This workshop was attended by representatives from Ramakrishna Mission, Gandhigram Rural University, Dindigul, SIPRD, Kalyani, Extension Training Centre (ETC), Nilokheri in Haryana, Safai Vidyalaya, Ahmedabad, UNICEF and Government of India. Each training institution presented various training modules developed by them and afterwards two subgroups were formed for working out the structure of the training modules for (a) household sanitation promotion and managing the TSC programme and (b) school sanitation and hygiene educationrelated issues. In addition, the groups discussed the modality of rolling out the training programme through the identified resource centres and the minimum cost for organizing such training. It was a very useful workshop which helped in standardizing the training modules for about 10 different types of stakeholders and also led to development of the first technical note on capacity development for TSC functionaries. This technical note formed the foundation for guidance to the respective state governments who further improved the modules as per the state-specific requirement. The modality of rolling out of training programmes formed the basis for development of the policy guidelines for supporting key resource centres. Although this workshop was


a small event but it was an important initiative having lasting impact on scaling up of TSC in India.

Guidelines for supporting Key Resource Centres (KRC) The erstwhile National Human Resource Development Programme of the Department of Drinking Water Supply had two components—one to support the state governments in taking up capacity-development activities and the other to support KRCs in organizing various training programmes and workshops for sector professionals. These key resource institutions were also part of ITN. Some of these institutions were All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIPH&H), Kolkata, Safai Vidyalaya, Ahmedabad and Gandhigram Rural University, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. While developing CCDU guidelines a major omission had taken place by not making provisions for funding the key resource centres for operationalizing TSC. Midway through the approval process of CCDU, this mistake was realized but any modification at that stage would have further delayed its approval. So it was decided to initiate a separate proposal to support the KRCs both at national and state levels. During the Ahmedabad workshop held in August 2003 which was attended by representatives of most of the national-level training institutions involved in TSC, an overall agreement had emerged regarding the key roles and responsibilities of these institutions and cost norms for organizing training at state, district and village level for different types of stakeholders. Based on this, a draft guideline for supporting the KRCs was prepared and processed for approval of Secretary, DWS and subsequently by IFD. To our surprise, the policy note and the guideline was approved very fast by the IFD. Mr P.â•¯S. Rana who was the additional secretary and financial adviser in the ministry at that time had the opportunity of visiting sanitation projects in West Bengal and was impressed by the capacity-development


initiatives taken by Ramakrishna Mission as well as SIPRD, Kalyani. He was fully convinced about the need of capacity development of different functionaries in TSC for success of the programme. As per the culture, the officials in IFD had put up the proposal with their adverse comments before Mr Rana who was kind enough to approve the proposal overruling their objections after seeking verbal clarification from me. It was really a sweet surprise to see such fast approval of this policy. It was also testimony of the fact that if the decision makers were fully informed and sensitive to the programme needs, government institutions were capable of taking fast and appropriate decisions.

Network of resource centres Capacity-building challenges in TSC have been enormous. A vast range of stakeholders need to be trained and oriented in the new principles and strategies followed under TSC. There are more than 250,000 Gram Panchayats and 600,000 villages in India. There are more than 3 million elected representatives working at different levels of local self-government. There are an equal or more number of grassroot-level government functionaries working in the villages who are the real implementers of the programmes. Equally large number of women SHGs is in existence in different states. Overall the number of different stakeholders will turn into millions and their capacity building cannot be done by one institution or organization. A large number of institutions are required to support this massive exercise. So it was conceived to have a network of resource centres throughout the country. This could be a two-tier network—regional as well as state-level resource centres. It was felt necessary to have at least 5–6 regional level resource centres and three to four resource centres for every state. Regional level resource centres were in existence in some form or the other right from the days of ITN. Institutions like RKMLP, SIPRD, Gandhigram Rural University and Environmental Sanitation Institute were already active in capacity building


of key resource persons and key programme managers at the district and state levels so it was easy to include them as the regional resource centres. The main challenge was to identify such resource centres at state level. Except few states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, most of the states did not have good institutions to shoulder this major responsibility. So in 2004–05 with the involvement of state governments and UNICEF a list of training institutions available in the states managed by different government departments as well as NGOs were collected who could be possible resource centres. This list was scrutinized based on certain indicators and 3–4 institutions for every state were selected for their initial capacity building. A five days training of trainers programme of the resource persons working in these centres was organized at Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration Pune with the support of IRC, the Netherlands and UNICEF. This was the beginning of developing a network of resource centres throughout the country for TSC implementation which was a very good infrastructure for capacity building and helped in scaling up TSC. States like Maharashtra later on identified 38 such resource centres and used them for capacity building as well as monitoring the quality of TSC implementation and NGP applications’ verification in the field.

Awareness generation It’s not necessary that what appears to be prima facie true is the real truth. Many of our beliefs, thoughts, actions and behaviour are due to age-old superstitions and blind faith which are not based on facts and reality. Many superstitious beliefs have been practiced for so long that these have got entrenched in our behaviour and even if they are wrong and not in the interest of human beings appear to be true. Non-truth practiced over a very long period gets so much internalized even in our sub-conscious that revolutionary changes in our thought process are required to get rid of such practices.


Defecating in the open too has been one of such age-old practices which appears to be the right behaviour for millions across the world irrespective of their income status to continue with this unhealthy and shameful practice. This can be reduced only by removing the layers of blind faith in the minds of people which has clouded the truth. And this process to make people realize the ill effects of open defecation is awareness creation. Without understanding the real dangers of open defecation, it’s not possible to change the behaviour of the people. Prima facie, this appears to be a daunting task but it’s not so difficult. Pundit Shriram Sharma Acharya has said that darkness has no independent existence. It’s the light which exists independently. Absence of light is called darkness and whatever be its intensity the moment light reaches the darkness vanishes. Even the light of a match stick is sufficient to remove the darkness. We don’t have to fight with the darkness but make efforts to spread the light. The same is true with ignorance which doesn’t have its own independent existence. Ignorance is nothing but absence of knowledge and awareness. So in order to remove ignorance, it is needed to spread the knowledge and awareness. That is why awareness creation has been identified as one of the most important elements of TSC to change the age-old behaviour of defecating in the open by majority of the nation.

Development of communication strategy and tools With the launch of TSC, focus on awareness creation for sanitation and hygiene promotion among the rural households increased. There was need to reach out to almost all rural households either for motivating them for construction of sanitary latrines or educating them for adopting critical hygiene behaviour. This was a major communication challenge under TSC for which a well thought out strategy was required. Moreover, mere strategy was not sufficient but a set of tools for communicating with the


people was also required. Since the early CRSP days, various communication materials had been developed by the Government of India, state governments, UNICEF and other agencies but they were all addressing to specific localized needs. Most of these materials were developed in a very ad hoc manner and were not sufficient to meet the complex needs of a fully scaled up national sanitation programme. With the change in the policy at the national level, there was need for developing a new communication strategy centring on the key policy initiatives outlined in TSC. In 2002, UNICEF, Delhi came out with the suggestion of engaging a professional media agency to develop the communication strategy as well as tools. Accordingly Mrs Sumita Ganguly and Mrs Alka Malhotra requested our involvement in the process of selection of the agency as well as guiding the agency to develop the communication strategy. Initial round of proposals given by agencies like Thomson Social and Ogilvy & Mather were not accepted and were advised to come up with fresh proposals. In the second round the concept proposed by Ogilvy & Mather reflected their better understanding of the programme requirements so the contract was awarded to them. The contract included a formative research to study the key behaviour patterns and the communication interventions required. Based on a formative research, the communication strategy was to be developed which would lead to further development of a set of communication tools including TV and radio spots, designs of hoardings, wall writings, posters for different target groups and designs for newspaper advertisement, etc. The work started and Ogilvy & Mather completed their formative research and proposed the communication strategy. The formative research threw up the similar ideas which any sincere sanitation practitioner could have thought of just based on his or her experience in the field even without this kind of formative research. Four types of factors were identified for triggering demand for sanitation which included pride, privacy, women’s dignity and shame. Health issues were not considered to be important motivating factors for construction of toilets in rural areas. Based on these findings, Ogilvy & Mather came up with


the idea for developing creatives. They suggested that Sholay film had been one of the super hit Hindi feature films of all times and the characters in the Sholay film were well recognized by people across the country and across different age groups. They suggested to develop a spoof based on the characters and famous dialogues of this film. This idea was liked by some but at the same time disliked also by few people. Other suggestions also came like developing communication materials using cricket as a theme and involving cricket stars like Mr Sachin Tendulkar. Whatever effort was made by UNICEF for involving Mr Sachin Tendulkar did not produce positive results and since he was already tied up with other social development programmes like HIV-AIDS and polio this request was not accepted by his team. Mr Rakesh Behari, who was the joint secretary at that time, was not very convinced with the Sholay theme and was keen on including cricket or some wellaccepted cultural icon. There was an apprehension that Sholay film-based communication materials would have more acceptability only in Hindi-speaking states and not in southern states. The issue was debated extensively within the department both on the government files as well as outside the files. It was felt that even if the Sholay theme had more acceptability only in Hindi-speaking states there was nothing wrong as we faced the greatest communication challenge in these states only where the sanitation coverage was abysmally low and barring Uttar Pradesh, TSC had not really taken off in any other Hindi-speaking state. Finally it was decided to organize a meeting with representatives of different states and NGOs working for sanitation promotion in different parts of the country. Such a meeting was organized in February 2004 which was chaired by Mr Rakesh Behari and detailed presentation was made by Ogilvy & Mather about the strategy developed by them. After lot of debate it was finally decided to go ahead with the Sholay theme and develop the communication materials with a recommendation to bring in some serious messages at the end of the television spots through some reputed cricketer and in this regard name of Mr Kapil Dev was suggested who has been one of the most respected and successful cricketers in India. So far, he has been the only Indian cricket captain having the privilege to lift the


cricket World Cup in 1983. The communication team of UNICEF could get in touch with Mr Kapil Dev who immediately agreed to deliver messages on sanitation and hygiene issues for which no cricketer had so far come forward. He was also magnanimous enough not to charge any professional fees for this social cause. Six spots both for radio and television were developed—two each focusing on three themes, motivating people for toilet construction, educating people for hand washing after defecation and before eating and safe handling and storage of drinking water at household level. The scripts for all the radio and TV spots were cleared by the department at the level of secretary and accordingly shooting took place. The spots were screened before Joint Secretary Mr Rakesh Behari and other officials of the RGNDWM in October 2004. The spots were liked by the team except for few minor observations which would have been rectified by Ogilvy & Mather. It was decided to screen the TV spots before Secretary, DWS and Minister for Rural Development. When these were screened before them, they did not like the approach of the film which adopted the Sholay route and they wanted more direct messages to be communicated in the spots. The efforts made over the last two years could not fructify and these spots were not adopted by the ministry for telecast. Since UNICEF did not have adequate resources there was no question of telecasting the spots; however, it did try to telecast the spots on selected channels in few states and later on did a recall study of these spots. There were two learnings from this whole episode of development of Sholay spots: 1. Usually any decision in government must be agreed and supported by everyone in the chain of decision-making. Negative decision can take place at any level but most likely a positive decision can take place only if everyone in the hierarchy subscribes to the idea. In terms of Set Theory, for any positive decision in the government the intersection of the opinions of all decision makers should not be a null set.


2. Though opinion of different persons vary significantly towards any piece of artwork which includes TV films and spots, the only way to minimize this variation is to execute the work quickly and take approvals from the same set of incumbents who initiated the process. In this case UNICEF and its appointed agency had taken very long time in developing and executing the concept.

Mass media campaign in partnership with DAVP Once the Sholay spots were not approved, it was decided by both the secretary and minister to develop new set of TV and radio spots having direct messages on sanitation and hygienepromotion issues using the expertise of the Department of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It was also decided to launch a mass media campaign from 24 February 2005—the day the first NGP was to be awarded to the PRIs by the President of India. This decision was taken in last part of December 2004 and there was hardly any time available with us for making good spots. Fortunately we got good cooperation from DAVP and their focal point—Mr Ratan Prakash—was quite dynamic and responsive to the exigencies of the situation. Quickly few agencies were shortlisted who were explained the issues involved in sanitation and hygiene promotion in rural areas and requested to develop and share the storyline with us. The agencies were also requested to submit storyline for documentation of the process of sanitation promotion in some of the NGP-awarded villages. Following a very tight schedule, the proposals of the agencies were scrutinized, agencies shortlisted, briefed and shooting of films started. Under the direct supervision of Mr V. K. Duggal, Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation, the spots were selected for telecast. A media plan was developed by DAVP for telecast of these spots on both public as well as private TV and radio channels. With the approval of the Minister for Rural


Development, the media plan was executed for 3–4 months with a direction to conduct an impact assessment of the mass media campaign. For the first time, a structured mass media campaign on sanitation and hygiene promotion was launched which was very essential especially in view of the scaling up of the TSC programme. There was the necessity of creating an enabling environment for the grassroot-level workers who were involved in direct one-to-one interpersonal communication at village level. Mass media campaign was like an artillery fire supporting the infantry operating at the field level. At that time, a sense of reluctance was prevailing in the ministry in continuing with the existing campaign as a result it was reluctantly stopped pending development of another set of new spots and more focus was given on interpersonal communication only which is the most effective means of communicating social messages at household level. Any amount of mass media campaign cannot yield results in absence of an interpersonal communication at village level. This has been amply demonstrated in the ISP implemented in Medinipur where only through direct contact with the households, demand for sanitation was generated and interestingly there was no mass media campaign. So focus on interpersonal communication at village level is a non-negotiable element in rural sanitation and hygiene promotion. As part of their contract, Ogilvy & Mather team developed a set of flip charts, to be used by motivators for communicating with the local community. In addition, they developed attractive posters, slogans, hoarding designs, etc., to be used by TSC projects. The whole process continued under direct supervision of both UNICEF and Government of India. The communication strategy and tools were approved and released during the first NGP function held on 24 February 2005. The strategy focused on developing a district-level communication plan concentrating on intensive and repeated dialogue with the community at household and village level by trained motivators. This practice was already in existence in few TSC projects. A series of six regional dissemination workshops were organized jointly by UNICEF and Government of India to operationalize the communication strategy at the


field level inviting key programme managers at state level. Teams from few districts were also invited in the workshops to develop district-specific communication plans. The workshops were organized at Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore and Delhi covering all the states in the country except West Bengal which had already gone ahead in implementing TSC. As an outcome of these workshops, most of the districts revised their project implementation plan giving emphasis on interpersonal communication and got them sanctioned by the Government of India.

Monitoring system For any programme to effectively yield result in the field, it is essential that a monitoring system to detect, report and record problems in implementation is put in place. It is more necessary to have a self-regulating monitoring system to report the problems even before anyone notices. Failures are natural, but it is necessary to have an understanding of why failures take place which can only be indicated by an effective monitoring system. From oriental saints to modern-day management gurus all have focused on introspection—looking inwards to detect problems within us as well as the system in which we live. Every company prescribes a detailed monitoring system to ensure that its products are made of good quality and takes rectification measures whenever required. Similarly for improving individual character sages in India have emphasized upon Sadhana—self regulation—to weed out the negative traits in the personality and further develop the positive qualities. This internal but critical monitoring is essential for success of social sector programmes also. Monitoring brings discipline in programme implementation and increases accountability of all stakeholders. In TSC also a variety of tools were used to monitor not only the physical and financial progress but also the process of implementation. A combination of field surveys and online monitoring softwares were used to develop a reasonably robust monitoring system.


TSC online monitoring software Review of physical and financial progress of any government programme is a standard exercise. It helps in collecting information related to basic progress which is frequently needed for various purposes such as internal monitoring of the programme, answering parliament questions, providing information to secretary and minister before their meetings with key counterparts and replying to important VIP references.3 Usually request for updated progress reports from the offices of minister or secretary used to reach us at a very short notice. At that time there was real shortage of manpower in CRSP section and Gopal Krishna was the only Office Assistant (OA) who used to maintain the progress reports in an Excel sheet. Since he was the only OA in the office, he had to do other works also and compilation and updating of progress reports used to get neglected. The only solution to this day-to-day problem was to develop a database where all data was entered by the districts directly. At that time WHO had a very small budget of about US$100,000 only for water supply and sanitation sector. But this small budget was enough to take care of our requirement and a computerized monitoring system for TSC was planned. In those days, Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS)—a ‘mini Navaratna’ company—used to be involved in all types of work in the RGNDWM ranging from developing communication materials to supplying tea and biscuits in government meetings and was favourite of the senior officers. They were jack of all trades. Since we needed a new system to be in place, we decided to work with WAPCOS and got this project sanctioned through WHO. Unfortunately, the software developed by them was not meeting our requirement and the quality was simply unacceptable so the project had to be abandoned and the fund advanced to them was used to engage few data entry operators. 3 Letters received from Members of Parliament, State Chief Ministers and Ministers, State MLAs, etc., are treated as VIP references which are supposed to be timely replied and closely monitored.


So finally we had to look inwards and in-house facility of National Informatics Centre (NIC) cell in RGNDWM was used to develop a simple monitoring system. Team led by Mr D.â•¯C. Mishra and supported by Mrs Seemantini Sengupta and Mr O.â•¯P. Agrawal started working on this. It was decided to make a simple system for collecting basic data through online software. For this purpose, the existing data collected in hard copy as per TSC guidelines was considered to be the starting point. NIC was quick to develop the initial version of the software which went through numerous changes as and when required and today we have a robust online monitoring system for TSC. As time progressed and the use of the software increased, need for new query modules, reporting formats, etc., cropped up and NIC’s in-house team was ever ready to respond to the needs in the quickest possible time which was a great support for the programme management. Developing a system is one thing and making it operational is a totally different ball game. It’s a big challenge to make a shift from one system to another which we faced here also. All districts were given separate user-id and passwords but very few were entering data regularly. So we had decided to enter data in the online software in the ministry for the districts which were submitting hard copy of the progress reports. To my utter surprise, I noticed that the data entry operator in the office was first entering the data in the old Excel sheet and only in free time he used to enter data in this online software. Our experience so far had been that lower government functionaries would accept computerization only if it led to reduction in their efforts and not of their supervisors. So the dual system of data entry in Excel sheet as well as online monitoring software simultaneously could never succeed. It was not required also. So a formal order had to be issued to discontinue data entry in the Excel sheet. Mr Palat Mohandas really appreciated this initiative of the NIC team and ensured that online data entry by TSC projects was reviewed in all his meetings with state secretaries. This helped in greater acceptance of this system by the states. Later on we made online data entry as a mandatory condition for release of funds under TSC. This led to some amount of commotion among the states initially but they


immediately started organizing training for their key data entry personnel. Slowly use of this software got fully institutionalized which took more than two years. Today majority of the districts enter TSC progress reports online. Total Sanitation Campaign online monitoring system is one of the few success stories in any social sector programme of Government of India and I was definitely proud to be associated with this. Unfortunately, this initiative faced strong resistance from a small group of officials working in WSP-SA. They had come out with an idea to develop a monitoring system for Swajaldhara (erstwhile sector reform). This system focused on physical and financial as well as process monitoring. The approach adopted for process monitoring was very defective. In a workshop, as early as April 2002, I had questioned this approach which was based on collecting process-related data on a very large number of indicators that too from the implementing agencies themselves. First, to be more realistic process data needed to be collected through independent channels. Second, a linear scoring system was suggested by WSP to judge the performance of a district with respect to process parameters. Anyone who has worked in a social sector can easily conclude that a large number of issues are interlinked and there is no linear correlation but a very complex non-linear equation exists among most of the social sector-related indicators. After spending lot of time and money, WSP under the leadership of Ms Karine Fourmond developed this software and went for field testing and its peer review through their leading international experts based in Washington. At the time of field testing of Swajaldhara software, they came up with the idea of developing similar software for TSC also and accordingly tried to convince Mr Rakesh Behari, the then joint secretary. In one of their meetings with the joint secretary, I was also summoned. WSP team preached me about the need for a robust online monitoring system which also captured the process indicators. I was already working on a separate online third-party monitoring system for capturing behaviour change as well as process indicators but I was not at all convinced about their work done for Swajaldhara and my numerous questions were unanswered by them. In this context, I preferred Bayesian


Networks as a monitoring tool which more realistically depicted the ground realities in Water and Sanitation sector. To my shock and surprise, I was advised by WSP team to discontinue the online monitoring system developed by NIC in favour of the system proposed to be developed by them. What an option it was? On the one hand, there was a functional system fully accepted by states, developed in-house and was giving any information on the click of a mouse and on the other hand, there was just a conceptual framework which itself was questionable. Adding salt to the wound, a further request was made to guide the WSP consultants in developing the software. This was totally unacceptable to me and WSP’s monitoring model was not only questioned but their all arguments were demolished convincingly. Afterwards WSP team never troubled me for TSC monitoring system. Later on the Swajaldhara software developed by WSP also failed and no state was willing to accept it. Even the new WSP team which took over shortly after that felt the futility of this software and shelved this project. It is essential to have faith in our own beliefs and abilities which alone steers us through difficult times. Lack of faith might have led to failure of one of the most successful online monitoring systems.

NGP online monitoring software Nirmal Gram Puraskar online monitoring software is a classic example of how a software evolves over a period of time matching pace with the evolution of the programme. NGP was growing at a rapid pace and in order to manage it effectively there was need to improve and strengthen the online monitoring software with the same pace and this was possible only by an in-house team which was also well versed with the programmatic requirements. Before the first NGP award distribution ceremony in February 2005, it was decided to develop a database of NGP applications and a checklist against which these applications could be scrutinized. This database was initially kept on the local computer


network and was not in public domain. Only a few reports were hosted in the public domain. NGP applications received from districts used to be manually entered in this database at Delhi and after scrutiny of the applications, the status used to be entered in the software for each level of scrutiny. A checklist of application was also developed which was managed manually during the first year of NGP process but later on it was felt that the checklist should be in the database as manually retaining these documents was humanly impossible. Initially user rights for data entry and scrutiny were given to few people in the department. For 2006 award ceremony, more than the 1,700 applications were received which was almost fivefold increase compared to the previous year but still the number was manageable. As the applications increased, continuous upgrading of the software became essential for proper management of the NGP applications. Mr G.â•¯V.â•¯S.â•¯N. Moorthy of NIC had played the main role in developing this software and was a great helping hand. He kept pace with the changing requirement of the programme and continuously upgraded this software. In next year, lot of information was displayed in the public domain. The panchayat-wise information to the verification agencies was also given from the NGP website itself and a separate module for generating reports as per user requirement was developed. In 2006, another module was added on managing the NGP function which included details of persons nominated by the state governments to receive the award, their travel plan, their exact names, banking details of the awarded Gram Panchayats, and so on, which helped in managing NGP function quite well. It was expected that in 2007 and in subsequent years many more panchayats would apply for NGP award and data entry at national level would be humanly impossible so the software was further improved giving user rights at state and district levels for data entry. Now the applications are entered online at the state/ district levels which are scrutinized at Delhi through this monitoring software. But for this software, managing the NGP process and function would not have been easy for the department. It has been unique and indigenous response to the growing challenge


of programme management and a good initiative in introducing e-governance in the sanitation sector.

Introduction of Review Missions There was a system of sending a multi-institutional Review Mission to the Sector Reform Project (SRP) districts to get an overall assessment of the quality of implementation of the programme and whether all key reform principles were actually followed and implemented in the districts. The Review Missions were also useful in understanding the problems in implementation in the field and nature of handholding required by the projects. Since TSC programme was not managed by RGNDWM for a brief period, this system was absent and second or third instalment of fund used to be released simply based on the Funds Utilization Certificate sent by the TSC districts. It was not easy to digest existence of two separate systems for two programmes in the same department. Virudhanagar district in Tamil Nadu was the first district for which I received the proposal for fund release in February 2002 immediately after taking over TSC programme. Since the rationale for a Review Mission in SRPs was very sound, it was felt to introduce the same for TSC also which was acceptable to Dr Panda (joint secretary) also. Since the district wanted funds immediately, first TSC Review Mission was a one man mission led by Dr Kamal Mazumdar to Virudhnagar district. Although figuratively it was one man mission but Dr Mazumdar’s presence in any mission usually is worth many persons. He was delighted to see lot of good work done in the district by a young and dynamic district collector, Dr K. Gopal, and Dr Mazumdar gave me a detailed account of a range of innovations taken up by the district which included rain water harvesting in schools, dovetailing biogas plants with toilets and very good school sanitation programme. Soon this system was institutionalized and multi-disciplinary multi-institutional Review Missions for most of the states were constituted. The missions used to be led by an


officer from RGNDWM with participation from UNICEF, WSP, leading NGOs and state government officials. These review missions helped in capacity building of all those who participated in the missions as these gave lot of insight into what was happening in the field. Efforts were made to send at least two such review missions to each state every year. Since these missions were also linked to release of funds in the states, these visits were taken very seriously and the recommendations of the Review Missions used to be acted upon which helped in programme strengthening in the states. However, over the years when the number of TSC projects increased, there was a corresponding increase in the requirement and periodicity of sending the Review Missions in the states. It was increasingly becoming difficult to send the Review Missions from Delhi in absence of which fund release to the districts was getting delayed. In addition, it was noticed that many states were not very much involved in reviewing the TSC implementation at their level and were more dependent upon National Review Missions. So it was strongly felt to encourage the states to introduce similar systems by empanelling available resource persons from government, NGOs and external agencies who should frequently review the implementation in the field and provide necessary guidance. Now this system has been institutionalized in most of the states; however, the system of National Review Missions has slightly weakened over the period which needs to be strengthened.

Third-party process monitoring Sometime in mid 2004, Mr Palat Mohandas had gone to review SRP and TSC implementation in Dakshin Kannada district of Karnataka. During the field visit he saw poor quality of school toilet construction. To add salt to the wound, these toilets were not maintained at all and were totally filthy. This gave enough ammunition to Mr Mohandas who used this opportunity to whack me and few more colleagues in the department on his return


to Delhi. He took exception to the fact that the school toilets in districts were not maintained properly and wanted to know from me about the steps I had taken to monitor the quality of work in the field. After a two-hour long monologue, one clear instruction came from him to set up a system to monitor the implementation in the field. It was a big challenge as it involved monitoring the quality as well as process of implementation which probably is more difficult than the implementation itself. TSC online monitoring system has so far been focusing only on physical and financial performance which speaks a lot about the actual implementation of the programme but certainly lacked modules on quality and process monitoring. Most of the external agencies working in the sector especially WSP-SA, World Bank and UNICEF used to raise voice over the need for quality assurance and process monitoring. WSP’s initiative on process monitoring in Swajaldhara had by that time fully failed. There was another example of third-party monitoring system in UNICEF-supported SSHE project in Mysore district of Karnataka but this system was mainly used for inspecting construction quality before making payment to the implementing agencies. We decided to set up a system of third-party monitoring for this purpose. Suggestions were invited from all partners including external agencies in the sector. The experience says that the decision-making is simple and fast in the government if precedence exists. Probably the same precedence principle applies in the bureaucracy of international agencies also. Since they didn’t have any significant prior experience in India no input came from them so we decided to develop our own system based on our own requirement. Mr Manu Prakash and Ms Shipra Saxena, two very energetic and dynamic consultants who worked with me for about two years, played very crucial role in developing a detailed terms of reference covering various aspects of TSC and Swajaldhara programmes. A good sampling plan was finalized to monitor the programme in 20 Gram Panchayats (GPs) of each TSC and Swajaldhara district every quarter. Eight GPs were taken as ‘control’ GPs which were to be visited every quarter to monitor


improvement over a period of time and 12 new GPs were to be selected in each quarter which would have helped in monitoring spatial growth of the programme implementation. A range of indicators covering issues like hygiene practices, quality of construction, key social processes like awareness generation and capacity building were included and to maintain full transparency an online monitoring software was also developed. NIC team working in the department was quick enough to develop good online reporting software with a set of standard reports as well as query formats. Independent agencies were supposed to be engaged for the monitoring purpose and each district-level monitoring agency was expected to do panchayat-wise data entry and the software would generate compiled reports on various key indicators. The original idea was to engage only one agency per state which would be responsible for process monitoring in the field and submit state-level analytical reports. In addition, there was supposed to be a nodal agency at national level to coordinate with all the state-level agencies and prepare analytical reports at the national level. While preparing the terms of reference it was conceived that DDWS would select the monitoring agencies. There is a monitoring division in the Ministry of Rural Development which is responsible for monitoring of all programmes of the ministry. Mr Rakesh Behari, joint secretary, was of the view that monitoring activities should be handled by the monitoring division which had the mandate and also manpower for taking up such activities. By that time, monitoring division had put in place a system of district-level monitoring for all rural development programmes in 128 districts and had selected about 35–40 agencies for this purpose. Some of the agencies were highly professional and reputed for their work in the country but few agencies were small companies or NGOs who had managed to get empanelled through their networks. Monitoring division was happy to hear this proposal from us as it meant higher budgets and a bigger empire for them. But unfortunately the passion and vision with which this process was initiated was not noticed there. For them it was an opportunity to distribute the largesse among various


agencies. They decided to distribute the work among all the 35–40 agencies listed with them. As a result each agency was given about 10–12 districts. We had initiated this process in 398 districts in the last quarter of 2004–05. This resulted in 3–4 agencies working in most of the large size states. No state-level nodal agency was selected. Initially not even a national-level nodal agency was appointed. So the concept developed earlier was already diluted. Very soon we started getting voluminous reports from the agencies—about 398 reports every quarter. We didn’t have even enough space to keep the reports what to speak of reading and reviewing those reports. Mr M. L. Bhatia, section officer, had innovatively parked few reports underneath the chairs of all the staff sitting in the CRSP section as well as stacked along the wall which in itself was a great balancing act. Monitoring division was again requested to appoint a nodal agency. They immediately swung into action and suggested to appoint an agency called AGRIWATCH as nodal agency on single sourcing basis. When finance rejected the idea of single sourcing then a limited tender was called from among the existing monitoring agencies and interestingly AGRIWATCH qualified in both the technical as well financial bid. A great coincidence! Unfortunately AGRIWATCH didn’t meet the expectations and analysis of the reports was not done properly. Very routine and substandard quality of work was produced which was not at all acceptable to us. Online monitoring system developed by NIC threw some light on the quality of monitoring work being done in the field. A quick look at the hygiene practices data or toilet use data revealed major anomalies in data collection. In some districts as high as 95–100 per cent persons practicing hygiene behaviour was reported and in some districts the figure was as low as 0–5 per cent. Both were extreme ends and far from reality. For example in a district like Purulia in West Bengal which had almost the lowest sanitation coverage in 2001 census and nothing much was happening on ground, the reports indicated that about 98 per cent people were using toilets and practicing hand washing—a report which was difficult to be relied upon. It clearly indicated that District Level Monitors (DLMs) faced problems in data collection related to use


of toilets and hygiene behaviour which not only required questions to be asked to the households but also observation of the hygiene practice. We lacked in training the DLMs on these critical issues which resulted in faulty and unreliable data collection. Every quarter we were spending about Rs 50 million (US$1.25 million) on this exercise. Not seeing much improvement in the data collection system, we preferred to close this exercise after three quarters. It was decided to first set the system in place, weed out weak agencies, train them in data collection on key hygiene practices, but unfortunately this could not be taken forward. Not able to institutionalize third-party monitoring system despite putting lot of efforts was one of the glaring failures which I have always regretted.

Report cards for TSC Over the years TSC implementation had improved but the pace of implementation was not uniform across the states. Some states had been progressing very fast whereas some were lagging behind. There was a need to assess the progress in the states with respect to two key goals—the MDG for sanitation agreed by the UN system and full sanitation coverage goal set by Government of India. A need was also felt to track the year wise progress on different components of TSC at national and state levels. Mid year review of the UNICEF’s country programme (2003–07) was scheduled to be held in August 2005. So Mrs Sumita Ganguly, the then sanitation coordinator in UNICEF, approached me and mooted the idea of developing a sanitation report card for each state as well as country as a whole. I liked the idea but I didn’t have time to analyze the online progress reports and develop the report cards. So she offered the support of a consultant to work under my guidance and develop the report cards. It was agreed and Mr Monish Verma who used to work on and off for UNICEF as consultant was selected for this job. He was good at number crunching and developing graphs, etc. We decided key indicators


against which report cards were to be developed and Monish prepared those report cards in PowerPoint (PPT) format as well as word documents for 14 CEP states supported by UNICEF and a country report. These were presented for the first time in the Mid Term Review of UNICEF’s CEP held in August 2005 in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa. Preparation of report cards was an exercise which unfolded the power of data analysis. The simple innocuous-looking data can contain so much information which if presented correctly can shake the mind completely. One of the important components of report card was to analyze the growth in sanitation coverage in each state since the last census was conducted in 2001. Based on the average growth rate in sanitation coverage during 2001 and 2005, projections were made to find out the year in which the states could achieve MDG as well as attain 100 per cent sanitation. The results were mind-boggling. Although the analysis revealed that India as a whole was on track to achieve MDG in time but was slow in achieving 100 per cent coverage within the time frame set by Government of India. States like West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were on track to achieve MDG but few states were expected to take as long as another 400–600 years to achieve full coverage. As per the data, laggard states like Chhattisgarh could achieve full coverage as late as in 2616, Bihar in 2450, Jharkhand in 2392 and Rajasthan in 2177 (Alok, 2005). The corresponding period for achieving MDG was equally disappointing. This report did trigger a debate and introspection among the key functionaries of each state and also sparked off a sense of competition to improve their position vis-à-vis other states. The report cards turned out to be a sweet surprise for us in the ministry as well as in UNICEF. In September 2005, Mrs Sunila Basant, Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation was holding regional review meetings with all state secretaries and she wanted the report cards to be developed for all states and presented by me before them. The analytical findings of these report cards were used extensively in the communications from central government to the state governments. Minister for Rural Development wrote to all chief ministers requesting them to accelerate TSC implementation in their states


and also enclosed a copy of the report cards. Some of the states which were earlier lagging behind did give emphasis on system building and accelerating TSC implementation in order to reduce the number of years still left for achieving MDG and full sanitation coverage. At least few states found the report cards to be too embarrassing and tried to improve their situation by accelerating TSC implementation. The sanitation coverage increased even in low-performing states and the projected year for full sanitation coverage reduced in states like Chhattisgarh from 2616 to 2041, Bihar from 2450 to 2123, Jharkhand from 2392 to 2055 and Rajasthan from 2177 to 2059, which has been a considerable improvement (Alok, 2008). Although the report cards were initially prepared only for UNICEF’s 14 CEP states, these were considered to be useful tools and need was felt to regularly update report cards in order to capture the continuous acceleration in programme implementation. This was possible only if generation of report cards was embedded in the online monitoring software for TSC. The NIC team of Mr O. P. Agrawal and Ms Seemantini Sengupta were again quick to respond and added a module in the TSC online monitoring software to generate online report cards for all the districts and states based on the monthly online data furnished by them. Over a period of time, report cards became a regular monitoring tool for assessing the performance of the TSC projects in the states.

Technology options As already discussed, safe disposal of human excreta is essential to prevent transmission of diseases. Use of sanitary toilets helps in preventing excreta-related diseases. It is necessary to have an understanding of the development of latrine designs over a period of time. During the pre-independence period, usually open defecation was the order of the day in the villages. The majority of the population in the urban areas also used to defecate in the open but bucket latrines or dry latrines were also used in


a significant number of households. Considering the large-scale poverty prevailing in the country, Gandhiji used to advise people to cover the excreta with loose soil which would help in its fast decomposition and reduction in disease transmission. However, need for simple and cost-effective designs were felt. It is reported that a borehole latrine was introduced by the Rockefeller Foundation during 1930s in campaigns of hookworm control (Park, 2000). A borehole latrine (Figure 4.4) consists of a circular hole of 30–40 centimetre diameter and vertically dug into the ground to a depth of 4–8 metres, most commonly 6 metres. On the top of the hole, a Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) slab with circular opening used to be placed. This used to last for about a year for a family of five or six people. This technology promoted way back in 1930s is still in use in many parts of the country especially Assam, Tripura, western Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. In some states it is known as Kui (well) toilet and in some as Dhamaka toilet. Later on in 1949–50, an improved version of borehole latrine was developed by Rural Training and Health Centre in Singur, West Bengal, which was known as dug well latrine (Figure 4.5). This type of latrine had a circular pit of 0.75 metre diameter and 3–3.5 metre depth. If required, the pit was lined with pottery rings to prevent caving in of the soil. A concrete squatting plate used to be placed on the top of the pit. Figure 4.4:â•… Borehole latrine

Figure 4.5:â•…Dug well latrine

Source: Park (2000).



Subsequently, further improvement in the design of the latrine was made and hand flush water seal toilets (Figure 4.6) were developed by Planning, Research & Action Institute, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Research-cum-Action (RCA) type designed by the Research-cum-Action Projects in Environmental Sanitation of the Ministry of Health, Government of India. These latrines used a pan and a trap to provide the necessary water seal. The cost of this type of toilet was higher than the affordability limits of a majority of the rural population as a result it could not be scaled up easily and this has been one of the limitations of success of the erstwhile CRSP. So there was a need of developing further cost-effective but sanitary toilet designs. A sanitary toilet consists of three main components: (a) pit for disposal of excreta, (b) squatting chamber with a pan and P-trap and (c) superstructure for privacy and protection from weather. The most important of these from sanitation point of view is the pit where excreta is disposed of. The whole rural sanitation campaign focuses on safe disposal of human excreta which takes place in the pit. Unfortunately, common people usually judge the quality of the toilet by the squatting area and the superstructure which are Figure 4.6:â•… Hand flush water seal toilet



more cosmetic in nature. Primarily because of this factor, demand for more subsidy for toilets is raised by many states. One of the most critical elements of a sanitary toilet is the pan along with the P-trap. The job of the pan is to receive the night soil, urine and wash water and transfer these to the pit through the P-trap. Various types of toilet pans are manufactured in India and most of which are traditional flat pans having low slope as a result more water is required for flushing purpose. The per capita water availability in rural areas is much less than that in urban areas. Sometimes this physical limitation leads to nonadoption of toilets and their use. So in the 1980s an innovative rural pan consuming less water was designed and developed. This pan has been extensively used in Medinipur project. The design of the pan may be seen in Figure 4.7. It has a steeper slope compared to the flat pan which helps in flushing of the excreta even with as little as 1 litre of water. Low water consumption pans are required not only for water scarce areas but also in areas having Figure 4.7:â•… Squatting pan and trap for pour flush toilet

Source: Park (2000). Note: All measurements in millimetres.


either sufficient or surplus water. The reason being that excess water poured needs to be fully absorbed in the soil otherwise the efficiency of the leaching effect in the pit will go down. The P-trap retains some amount of water in its curvature having P shape (please see design of a P-trap in Figure 4.8). The water in the trap functions as a seal and does not allow foul odour generated due to methane or hydrogen sulphide gases to escape to the squatting chamber. It also cuts the disease transmission route by isolating the excreta in the leach pit. No flies or mosquitoes can move from the squatting area to the pit because of the presence of the water seal. Since the excreta is lighter than water, it floats in water. The volume of water retained in the water seal is the minimum volume of water required for flushing the excreta and if the volume of the P-trap is optimized keeping in view the minimum dimension required for smooth passes of excreta without causing any obstruction, the water requirement can be optimized. This is what is precisely done while designing the rural pans. The gap in water levels is less in case of rural pan which requires less water for flushing purpose (see dimension A–B in Figure 4.8). One of the biggest contributions of ISP in Medinipur was to develop a very low-cost toilet option which was affordable by everyone and through proper social mobilization and communication about the associated health hazards of open defecation, people could easily accept, adopt and use toilets. These toilets are direct single pit toilets. A pit of 4 feet depth and 3 feet diameter Figure 4.8:â•…Design of P-trap for rural pan



is dug by the household. A squatting plate having a mosaic pan with inbuilt P-trap costing about Rs 4504 is placed over the pit. For the purpose of superstructure, bamboo mat, jute cloth, old sari or local materials are used which give sufficient privacy. The total cost of this toilet is not more than Rs 500 which is easily affordable by everyone. In many programmes, mistake of providing two pits right in the beginning is done which is really not required. One pit lasts for 4–5 years if used by a family of 5–6 persons. By the time this pit fills up, the behaviour change induced due to continuous use is expected to encourage the household to dig another pit or upgrade the toilet slowly as per their financial status. Constructing two pits right in the beginning, firstly adds to the cost of the construction and secondly, it has been noted in many cases the second pit gets damaged by the rodents, rains or floods. Since the squatting area is right above the pit, the superstructure has to be of temporary nature because this will have to be shifted once the pit is filled up. This poses a limitation with this model. So in many states off site single pit toilet has been preferred to begin with which is slightly costlier but within the low-cost norms of TSC. The advantage is that the quality of superstructure can be slowly upgraded as well as another pit can be added if the first pit is filled up. In TSC, a range of technology options have been developed for use by the households. Different models of toilets being constructed under TSC may be seen in Figures 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 4.12 and 4.13. The cost range varies from Rs 450 to Rs 5,000 (UNICEF, 2007a). Adoption of this low-cost technology which was safe and sanitary for disposal of human excreta has been one of the main reasons for success of Medinipur ISP. This design was cost effective and simple so could be easily replicated on a scale justifying Gandhiji’s statement that ‘Simplicity is the essence of universality’. This aspect was not much emphasized upon in CRSP, the earlier version of rural sanitation programme. Mostly off site twin pit toilets with concrete superstructure used to be constructed in the CRSP. 4 Rs 450 is the present cost; however it cost only Rs 230 when ISP was launched.

174â•… Squatting with Dignity Figure 4.9:â•…Off site double pits with RCC rings

Source: UNICEF, 2007a. Figure 4.10:â•…Rectangular lined direct pit

Figure 4.11:â•…Circular unlined direct pit

Source: UNICEF, 2007a.


Another important technology widely used in urban areas and also aspired for in the rural areas is the septic tank latrine. The septic tank is a watertight masonry tank into which household sewage is admitted for treatment. There are various designs

Systems Buildingâ•… 175 Figure 4.12:â•…Off site single pit with RCC rings

Source: UNICEF, 2007a. Figure 4.13:â•…Off site double pits—brick honeycomb


in septic tanks. Some are double chambered and some single chambered. The solids settle down in the tank to form ‘sludge’ while the lighter solids including grease and fat rise to the surface to form ‘scum’. The sludge is much reduced in volume due to


anaerobic digestion. A portion of the solid is transferred into liquids and gases which rise to the surface in the form of bubbles. The liquid passes out of the outlet pipe from time to time. In many parts of the country there has been a thinking that septic tank latrines are better and there has been a natural demand for such latrines which are very costly. For rural areas, the septic tanks offer a limited use, mainly for locations with high water table. Septic tank latrines are not only costly but also unhygienic. A comparative strength and weaknesses of both types of latrines may be seen in Table 4.1. Table 4.1:â•…Comparison between leach pit and septic tank Leach pit

Septic tank

• • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Low cost Less space Needs little water Sludge handling easy—manure No recurring cost Pit emptying easy No mosquitoes

High cost More space Needs more water for flushing Sludge handling difficult Recurrent costs for emptying Safe disposal of effluents—pollution Mosquito menace


Although the leach pit toilets work very well in a large number of geographical conditions and major parts of India, they have limitations in flood affected and high water table areas. Leach pits aren’t much effective not only in these areas but also in the areas where soil absorption capacity is very low or in hard rocky surface. In such areas, either the septic latrines are required to be constructed or alternative technologies need to be tried. In many such places, TSC officials have developed innovative mix of leach pit and septic tank. In such systems, the excess water is taken out to another pit or a separate soak pit or soakage channel. The limitation of septic latrines has already been discussed earlier so it has not been encouraged under TSC on a very large scale. Eco-sanitation, a new concept, has been tried in limited pockets in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The technology operates on urine and excreta separation and retrieving the nutrients of urine and excreta for recycling in the agriculture or kitchen gardens. This


has been found effective in the coastal areas of Cauveri River in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu where an NGO ‘SCOPE’ has demonstrated that eco-sanitation is possible in India. Ecosan toilets are most ideal for areas where water is scarce or water table is high such as flood plains or coastal areas and densely populated areas where risks of ground water pollution from pits to drinking water sources is assessed high. However, proper operation needs full understanding of the concept, and extra motivation of the people using this model. The eco-sanitation model consists of two watertight chambers (vaults) to collect faeces. Urine is collected separately as the contents of the vault have to be kept relatively dry. Initially, a layer of absorbent organic material is put in the vault and after each use, the faeces is covered with ash (or saw-dust, shredded leaves or vegetable matter) to deodourize the faeces, soak-up excessive moisture and improve carbon/nitrogen ratio, which ensures that sufficient nitrogen is retained to make a good fertilizer. When the first vault is three quarters full, it is completely filled with dry powdered earth and sealed so that the components can decompose anaerobically. The second vault is used until it is also three quarters full and the first vault is emptied by hand, the contents are used as a fertilizer. The vaults have to be large enough to keep faeces for at least a year in order to become pathogen free. The superstructure is built over both the vaults with a squat-hole over each vault which can be sealed off. The latrine can be built anywhere as there is no pollution coming from the watertight chambers to pollute the surroundings.

Supply chain management The ‘Campaign’ word in TSC implies that the programme has to be implemented in campaign mode which will result in large quantum of demand generation in short period of time. In addition, it also focuses on low-cost technology options for easy affordability at household level even for the poor households.


These two requirements of the programme call for a mechanism to manage the supply-side in TSC. That is why the provision of an alternate delivery mechanism in the form of a network of production centres (PCs) and rural sanitary marts (RSMs) was incorporated in TSC. The learning from ISP in Medinipur was incorporated in the TSC where block-level production centres were set up to manufacture squatting plates, mosaic pans, P-traps, etc. In West Bengal model, each PC used to be given about Rs 250,000 for setting up the unit and this fund could be used for installing a working shed, paying honorarium of the manager of the RSM, buying moulds and other equipments required for production as well as the revolving fund for the manufacturing activity. There were motivators linked to the PCs and RSMs for liaison with the Gram Panchayats and to generate demand among people for the toilet facilities. It has been a very functional model and the same provision was incorporated in TSC with the difference that Rs 350,000 per PC or RSM was allowed. Maximum amount of Rs 3.5 million for setting up 10 PCs in a district could be sanctioned; however, there was flexibility in using this fund for setting up auxiliary or satellite PCs. In West Bengal the PCs were managed by the NGOs only; however, in TSC it was made more flexible by also permitting SHGs, private sector, Panchayati Raj Institutions, etc., to operate the PCs or RSMs. In fact, the stress was basically on setting up an effective supply chain in the district. This flexibility was needed to suit the requirement of different states which had different institutional structures. The supply chain has three main functions: 1. RSMs supply materials for constructing the toilets at household level as well as at school and community level. Since bulk procurement and supply is always cost-effective, the RSMs can supply the material at an affordable price especially when they have been financially supported by the government. 2. A range of technology options which are available for households need to be provided by the RSM through its trained manpower which could be the motivators or the


masons. Traditionally there has been a mindset in the rural areas which prefers septic latrines over leach pit toilets. The RSMs are expected to provide the right information about the technology to the households. 3. In addition to the materials and technology, RSMs are expected to provide the services of trained masons to complete the construction work at the household level. For this purpose as well as post construction support, RSMs need to have a number of trained masons on their panel. In addition to these functions, they are required to be closely involved with the process of demand generation and there must be a linkage between the motivators and the RSMs for this purpose. The government system is so used to well-defined guidelines and instructions on every minor detail that the flexibility given to the districts in operationalizing the supply chain mechanism was not very much appreciated by many states and during interaction with them they used to ask for further detailed guidelines. For example, the money available for setting up RSM or PC could Photograph 4.1:â•…Women masons

Women from the SHG Mahila Samkhya construct a toilet in Sutihara Village (proposed NGP), Musahari Block, Muzaffapur District, Bihar Courtesy: UNICEF/India/Adam Ferguson.


be used partly for creating infrastructure and partly as revolving fund or the entire amount could also be used as revolving fund but no such percentage was decided in the TSC guidelines. It was done deliberately to give flexibility to the TSC implementing agencies to decide the best possible option as per the ground reality. Afraid of taking financial decisions, informal requests used to be made to the ministry to issue further detailed guidelines which was fortunately not agreed to and the basic character of a flexible TSC framework was retained. Because of this flexibility, different institutions are operating the supply chain in different states. If in West Bengal NGOs operate the PCs, in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh private shop owners and entrepreneurs are in a position to supply the materials in adequate quantity. In places like Orissa, Tripura and Tamil Nadu women SHGs have taken the lead in managing the PCs. In many other states, the Gram Panchayats led by their presidents have been managing the supply chain. They are mobilizing the masons and construction materials for building toilets for the whole village. A large number of satellite PCs have also come up as a result the number of PCs and RSMs in operation have become more than the numbers actually sanctioned under the TSC. Inclusion of the supply chain in TSC has been one of the most important inputs for sanitation promotion without which it would have been difficult to convert the demand generated due to social mobilization into actual construction and use of toilets.

Rural pans, augmenting manufacturing capacity Even though rural pans have distinct advantage over the traditional flat pans, their production in the organized sector is very low. Most of the big ceramic industries are not manufacturing this type of pans. Most of these are being manufactured in the unorganized sector by the PCs and are mostly made of cement, mosaic or fibreglass. As far as ceramic pans are concerned, the main manufacturing hub is in Thangadh in Surendranagar


district of Gujarat where most of the factories are located. In addition, there are few manufacturing units in Rajasthan (Bikaner) and Uttar Pradesh (Khurja). But overall very few small and medium scale industries in the organized sector are manufacturing the ceramic rural pans. For a national sanitation programme which is targeting to reach more than 140 million rural households, much larger production capacity of the rural pans are required which are eco-friendly and water conserving devices. People have a natural choice for ceramic pans which bear a good finish and are easy to maintain. In absence of adequate manufacturing capacity, cement or fibreglass pans locally produced by the PCs are being used extensively. Since supply of right type of pans was essential for proper implementation of TSC, efforts were made to work with the corporate sector and two national workshops were organized with the manufacturers of ceramic pans. The first consultation was held in November 2003 in Delhi and second in October 2005 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. These conferences were attended by representatives from both organized and the unorganized sectors who were able to understand the market potential coming up in the rural areas for their products. However, this proposition was not very attractive for the large-scale manufacturers who were involved in producing luxury and lifestyle segment of sanitary wares. But a significant number of small manufacturers based in Gujarat expressed their willingness to augment their manufacturing capacity for producing more ceramic rural pans. However, they needed some support from the government to overcome the difficulties faced by them in manufacturing rural pans which had a higher production cost compared to traditional flat pans. The higher cost was on account of two reasons—first, due to higher slope these pans required more volume as a result fewer number of pans could be baked in the furnace at one time leading to high energy costs and second, during transportation also fewer numbers of pans could be transported once again adding to the cost. Due to these factors, the production cost for a rural pan was reported to be higher than traditional pans and many states and districts were not keen on buying these pans


on price considerations. So the small manufacturers came up with a suggestion and request to waive excise duty on the low water consuming rural pans which would give them the price advantage and augment the production capacity. Inadequate production and supply of rural pans was definitely a limiting factor in scaling up sanitation programme which was complained by many states and districts. There were instances when project implementing agencies had confirmed demand for construction of the toilets but the installation process was very slow due to lack of availability of pans. During 2002–03, when Mr Chandrababu Naidu, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, had launched a massive sanitation promotion campaign in his state, more than 2.5 million household toilets were taken up for construction in a year. Since the State Rural Water Supply Department had a tough deadline of executing this work and availability of rural pan in such large quantity at short time was not possible, they preferred to install traditional flat pans which was not good in the interest of the programme in the long run. So the suggestion of the ceramic pan manufacturers for excise duty exemption was well received by the department and both Mr Palat Mohandas (secretary) and Mr Rakesh Behari (joint secretary) were very keen to get this policy decision through and accordingly a detailed proposal was submitted to the Finance Ministry by the Department of Drinking Water Supply explaining the rationale and the long-term advantages of such a decision. However, Finance Ministry could not find much merit in the proposal and no action was taken by them. The matter was further pursued in the subsequent years by the department with the Finance Ministry, but it was too small a matter to be paid attention by them. Even in the absence of any fiscal incentive manufacturers had the incentive of a captive demand for their products in the TSC projects. So many of them realized a good market opportunity and stepped up their production. As per the assessment done by us in 2003 there was a business potential of more than Rs 20 billion worth of sanitary materials only in TSC as given in Table 4.2 (RGNDWM, 2003). The workshop with the manufacturers organized in Ahmedabad during October 2005 revealed that


the total production capacity of ceramic pans in Gujarat itself was more than 10 million units per year which could be further increased if required. In addition, production capacity in the organized sector was more than 75 million pieces as indicated by Indian Council of Sanitary Ware Manufacturers Association (INCOSAMA). Since such pans are used primarily in the TSC programme only they were expecting a mechanism to estimate likely demand for such pans by various TSC project districts. TSC policy never encouraged centralized procurement of materials, as it would have been against the basic objective of decentralization, so it was felt prudent to create a platform for information exchange between the manufacturers (suppliers) and buyers who in this case were PCs and RSMs. Important information related to all the manufacturers like their contact details and products manufactured along with the manufacturing capacity were collected and hosted in the online monitoring software of the TSC to be used by all possible buyers. In addition, database related to PCs and RSMs operational in the states was also collected and included in the same website. This opportunity of knowledge sharing was helpful to a large number of project districts as well as manufacturers who were able to contact each other. One major achievement was that the constraints related to supply of rural pans was not raised that much by the states afterwards and they were able to sort out the supply problems by interacting with the manufacturers whose contact details were available on the website at one place. Table 4.2:â•…Requirement of sanitary pans and traps Category

Sanitary pans and traps (million)

Urinals (million)

BPL households 47.6 APL households 95.1 School toilets 0.627 1.88 Anganwadi toilets 0.345 Community toilets 0.190 â•… @ 5 pans per complex Total

Business (Rs in million @ Rs 150 per pan and trap 7,140 14,265 376.2 51.75 28.5 21,861.45

Source: RGNDWM agenda notes for the meeting with manufacturers held in November 2003.


Institutional structure In day-to-day work, our mind takes decisions and the physical body executes these decisions. The body acts as a medium to operationalize these decisions. Similarly for implementation of an idea or a programme, a physical medium in the form of a robust institutional structure is required at all levels—national, state and district. Central Rural Sanitation Programme used to be a small programme in the Ministry of Rural Development till launching and scaling up of TSC. Allocation-based nature of the CRSP required fund release to the states in only two instalments in a year based on the utilization certificate submitted by them. Since there was hardly any input on capacity development, awareness generation and other related software activities, not much technical support from Delhi was required for implementation of the programme. As a result very small team of staff was required in the ministry and CRSP was never treated as a full programme to be handled by an independent deputy secretary or director. With the launching of TSC, plenty of technical inputs were required to be given to the states and districts. Since for the first time demand-responsive and community-managed approaches were introduced such technical support was much more important. Unfortunately, in the development sector, government spending increases without corresponding increase in the establishment expenses including manpower and TSC was no exception. Within a short span of time, the programme expanded to 590 districts, number of NGP applications increased to about 30,000 in a year but still no additional manpower was sanctioned to handle the increased responsibility of implementing Rs 140 billion plus TSC programme spread across all the districts in the country. The desire of Finance Ministry to reduce the fiscal deficit by reducing salary expenditure has its adverse impact on effective management of social sector programmes in the field for want of adequate and qualified manpower. Increased budgetary allocation implies increased level of activity for implementation and monitoring of the programme for which additional manpower is required.


Rather than getting additional posts sanctioned, few posts under TSC were abolished because these were not filled in due time and as per Finance Ministry’s instructions if any post remained vacant for more than a year it was automatically treated to be abolished. The possible logic could be that if work could be managed even without the post for a year the same could be managed forever also. Time and tide wait for none. The growing demand of the programme also could not wait for post creation by the Finance Ministry. So the department had to request UNICEF which has been working closely with the ministry for sanitation and water supply programmes since mid-1960s. Initially, UNICEF had supported about 17 government staff who were taken on deputation from different ministries during 1997–98. This arrangement continued for five years before UNICEF expressed its strong reservation on the manner in which the government’s own staff were taken on deputation and working in the ministry. However, UNICEF was willing to provide the services of specialist consultants for supporting both Swajaldhara and TSC programmes. So in December 2002, the earlier arrangement of having government staff on deputation was discontinued and it was decided to recruit consultants with UNICEF’s assistance in RGNDWM. Initially, two consultants were recruited during 2001–02, but gradually this number increased to nine over a period of time. There have been very high turnover of consultants in the ministry but still they have been able to shoulder a lot of responsibilities if properly guided by the senior officials. For successful implementation of any programme, ownership of the state government is essential. This is possible only if the states continuously monitor the implementation process and guide the project districts to improve the implementation wherever required. Government of West Bengal had set up a state-level sanitation cell with the assistance of UNICEF, Kolkata office and this cell worked as heart and brain for TSC programme in the entire state. The state sanitation cell was set up in SIPRD, Kalyani and was primarily responsible for planning, monitoring and capacity building of different stakeholders in the state. This cell had proved its worth by playing a very critical role in


accelerating the sanitation programme implementation. Sanitation cell in SIPRD was one of the key pillars of sanitation movement in West Bengal. First time when I had the opportunity of visiting West Bengal sanitation programme in 2002, I could get an insight into the role played by SIPRD in sanitation promotion in the state. A conviction developed that similar state-level cells or units were needed in other states also and inspired by SIPRD sanitation cell, a proposal for state WATSAN cell was initiated in 2002 which after two years evolved into the Communication & Capacity Development Unit at state level in 2004. In the meantime, UNICEF came forward to support state-level sanitation cells in many UNICEF-focused states which really helped in accelerating the programme implementation. Once the CCDUs were sanctioned, they gradually took over the role of the state sanitation cell but in many places CCDUs got additional manpower of the state sanitation cell. Analysis of the progress reports of TSC projects revealed that most of the projects were taking lot of time in starting the implementation from the date of sanction. One of the reasons was lack of a functional institutional structure and also lack of clarity about the role of the different members or institutions of the District Water and Sanitation Committee (DWSC). Normally water supply and sanitation programmes are either handled by the Public Health Engineering Departments (PHEDs) through their field offices or by the Rural Development Departments through the District Rural Development Agency or Zilla Panchayat set-up. When TSC and SRP were launched simultaneously, it was envisaged that a new institution called District Water & Sanitation Mission (DWSM) would be set up to implement the programme. DWSM was expected to be a multi-sectoral institution to overall guide and supervise the implementation of both the programmes—Sector Reform Projects (for water supply) and TSC projects. An executive committee of the DWSM called District Water & Sanitation Committee (DWSC) was also supposed to be created as an executive body responsible for implementation of the project. Normally, the president of district panchayat was chairing the DWSM and district collector or CEO of the district


panchayat was chairing the DWSC. Executive or superintending engineer of PHED in the district was the member secretary in most of the cases. This institutional arrangement revealed the following problems: 1. In most of the states, PHEDs did not like the idea of working together with the district administration and Zilla Panchayat for implementation of SRP and TSC projects. They somehow tried to resist this arrangement and adopted an attitude of apathy and non-cooperation. Rather than working together they started raising questions related to roles and responsibilities of PHED, district collectors and Zilla Panchayat, etc. States which had given high priority for implementation of this programme tried to get this issue resolved to a large extent but in most of the states this issue lingered. In 2003, when a two-day review of TSC and SRP projects of Bihar and Jharkhand states in Patna was taken up by the then Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation, on the second day of the review meeting all the engineers of PHED were silently protesting wearing black badges and raising certain demands which included independent role for them in TSC and SRP implementation. The blame game between the executive engineer and the district collector/CEO/district development officer/ deputy development commissioner, etc., continued and the programme did not move in many districts and also states. The very fact that TSC needed large-scale social mobilization and required involvement of all departments and PRIs in the district, this intersectoral coordination was possible only under the leadership of either the district collector or Zilla Panchayat president. Rather than taking this new institutional arrangement as an opportunity for giving high-profile to their programme, PHED officials generally showed reluctance initially but later on as the priority for the programme increased, this organizational discord reduced and they started working together in most of the states.


2. Since DWSM and DWSC were new institutions proposed in this programme for the first time, which were nonexistent before the introduction of the programme, it was really taking time to operationalize these institutions. In most of the districts, DWSM and DWSC were basically two committees without having dedicated functionaries to look after day-to-day affairs of the programme implementation. In many districts, the programme was neither owned by PHED nor district collector and as a result Government of India was not even getting monthly physical and financial progress reports from most of the districts. Even in those states where Rural Development Departments were handling the TSC implementation, in absence of dedicated manpower, the programme implementation was suffering. Some districts in the country mostly in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu had engaged district coordinators for TSC utilizing either administrative fund available under TSC or with UNICEF support. The performance in such districts was generally better than other districts. These two were real challenges which if not handled would not have allowed the programme implementation to move forward. The very prudence of having a separate institutional structure in the form of DWSM and DWSC was questionable in the light of the 73rd amendment of the constitution where all the development functions including water supply and sanitation were to be devolved to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. The standing committee of the district panchayat designated for water supply, sanitation and health was supposed to be closely associated with the implementation of both these programmes. So it was decided to realign the institutional structure with the PRIs which were actually responsible for implementing water and sanitation related programmes. Accordingly guidelines were modified mentioning that the implementing agency would be Zilla Panchayat. However, there were few states where either the panchayat elections had not taken place or the panchayats were not empowered


enough to implement this programme. In such exceptional cases, state governments were advised or selectively permitted to have the DWSM chaired by district collector. This move combined with NGP gradually brought the PRIs in the forefront of TSC implementation which should lead to sustainability of the sanitation campaign. Interactions with the field functionaries and implementation rate in some of the better performing districts had established the need for dedicated manpower in each TSC project district for proper implementation and monitoring of the programme. It was felt that a team of four professionals having expertise in capacity development, social mobilization, toilet technology options and School Sanitation & Hygiene Education (SSHE) should be appointed on contract basis in each TSC district and accordingly the TSC guidelines were modified. It was also envisaged that all the professionals would be trained extensively in various facets of TSC implementation. This important policy decision led to engagement of district coordinators/consultants in many TSC project districts. Although, most of the districts were far from appointing four professionals as proposed in the revised TSC guidelines but at many places one or two consultants were engaged. In order to overcome the initial hesitation of the state governments to recruit the manpower at district or divisional level, UNICEF stepped in and provided manpower for the initial period in many states. This did help in acceleration of the programme but at the same time posed another challenge of managing the recruitment and quality of the consultants as in many states and districts; few retired government employees or nominees of influential people were also engaged. A lot of effort is required for enforcing the quality of recruitment and sustaining the efficiency and motivation level of the recruited professionals. If these things were planned right in the beginning when TSC was launched in 1999 it can be said with conviction that few precious years could have been saved which were otherwise wasted in struggling with finding a home for TSC at national, state and district levels.


Knowledge management and sharing In Geeta, Lord Krishna has highlighted the prime importance of knowledge by saying, ‘na hi jnanena sadrsam pavitram iha vidyate’. This means: Definitely, in this world, nothing is more pure as knowledge. Knowledge has traditionally been considered as the force of empowering individuals. Swami Vivekananda used to say that Knowledge is the panacea of all problems. The importance of knowledge in human development, both physical and spiritual, is highlighted not only by Indian saints but also Western philosophers like Socrates and modern-day writers like Alvin Toffler. Whatever knowledge a person can acquire is too little. Socrates had said, ‘The only thing I know is the fact of my ignorance.’ All time great physicist Sir Isaac Newton had observed, ‘There is an ocean of knowledge in front of me but I am only able to pick up pebbles standing on the shore.’ Knowledge is essential for our day-to-day functioning and it is one binding force which can help us solve our problems. With the growth of information technology the transfer of knowledge has not only become easy but also become very relevant. This also calls for real-time updating of knowledge if we have to keep pace with the changing world. In the words of Alvin Toffler, ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.’ So it is essential that knowledge is used as a tool for not only learning but also critical self-introspection and improving our work. We need to apply knowledge in our programme implementation in various forms. Nobody could have afforded to ignore this important aspect in building systems for TSC implementation. As already indicated TSC brought a paradigm shift in the rural sanitation programme in India. It brought into operation new concepts and approaches and incorporated new elements of community participation, social mobilization, capacity building, hygiene behaviour change and intersectoral convergence with various line departments including the important subject of school sanitation and hygiene promotion. All these ingredients


were unheard of in development programming that too at a very large scale. On the one hand, attempt was being made to operationalize so many new concepts and on the other hand, TSC guidelines were very broad in nature and to a large extent silent on operational details of the programme. Different states and districts were using the flexibility given in the guidelines to operationalize the programme in the best suited way and were achieving success also. There were many roads leading to the same highway and it was difficult to prescribe only one path to be followed to reach the ultimate goal. It would have been unfair and demoralizing for a large number of practitioners in the field who had innovated new approaches and had developed functional models for sanitation and hygiene promotion. This required that available knowledge in the programme implementation was shared with key stakeholders in a positive and constructive manner. A series of initiatives were taken in this regard which included development of technical notes, revamping of website and exposure visits to successful projects which are discussed in the following.

Development of technical notes on various themes The first in the series of technical notes was a pair of notes on SSHE. In September 2003, a one-week course on scaling up of school sanitation was organized by IRC at Delft, the Netherlands, and UNICEF had sponsored a team of 8–10 professionals to participate in this workshop. I also got the opportunity to take part in this course along with a strong team of state and districtlevel officials who were very closely involved in the programme implementation. This course focused on the key challenges in scaling up SSHE and how these could be overcome. Each country and state participating in the workshop developed an action plan for scaling up SSHE in their respective programmes. This was the only time in my four-year plus association with the Department of Drinking Water Supply when I could give 7–8 days continuously


for SSHE. Solution for most of our problems are within us provided we try to look inwards and find those solutions. We need to think deeper to find solutions to complex problems and human mind is capable enough to discover those answers. The workshop offered an opportunity to discuss, debate and also think deeper upon various aspects of SSHE over an elongated period of 7–8 days and led to preparation of a very good implementable action plan which included development of a guidance note on SSHE for the field functionaries highlighting the key elements, challenges and also design options for construction of school toilet blocks. By that time departments of DWS and DEE&L had already taken a decision to ensure provision of water supply and sanitation facilities in all rural government schools in the next two years. To meet this deadline in such a short time period while maintaining the quality of work and also observing key principles of SSHE was indeed a challenging task. Most of the states did not have even proper designs developed for construction of school toilets what to speak of other challenging issues like operation and maintenance and hygiene promotion. At that time there were few success stories available especially in Tamil Nadu and Alwar district in Rajasthan as well as experiences available with International Resource Centre (IRC), Delft, the Netherlands, which could be shared with the states and districts. Mr Palat Mohandas insisted for circulation of technical guidance notes to the field functionaries highlighting the key elements of SSHE and gender-friendly toilet design options. To be very impatient was his natural instinct and to remind the subordinates to finish the assigned work very frequently was his compulsion. He had the habit of reminding many times even before the deadline was over. The only way to avoid this was to deliver results at a pace faster than his impatience which was normally difficult but not impossible. In this case, the technical note was prepared very fast using the available inputs from IRC publications and some work done by Ms P. Amudha, UNICEF WES specialist in Tamil Nadu. Mr Manu Prakash and Ms Shipra Saxena, the two consultants, played a major role in compiling the document which was for the first time circulated among states and TSC project districts


and was really helpful in the field in triggering SSHE implementation. Subsequently many states developed new designs for school toilets and SSHE as a component of TSC got major boost and priority by the state and district officials. Later on these technical notes were further improved and revised in 2008. Next in the sequence was a ‘technical note on capacity building’ for different stakeholders in TSC. Restructured CRSP emphasized on capacity development activities but these were not taken up in a systematic way in all the TSC districts. Even the key district functionaries were not oriented about the key principles and strategies of TSC implementation. Successful implementation of TSC means close involvement of the PRI members, anganwadi workers, RSMs, schoolteachers, etc., and absolute number of these stakeholders would easily exceed six figure numbers. This also implies that all stakeholders needed to be oriented and properly trained about the TSC programme. Ahmedabad workshop held in July–August 2003 had recommended a set of key stakeholders whose capacity needed to be developed and few training modules of key programme managers were finalized. Output of this workshop was used for developing a technical note on capacity building in late 2003. This note was helpful in prioritizing the capacity development issues in the TSC programme. Based on the inputs given in this technical note, different states developed their own modules and capacity-building activities started getting priority in TSC implementation. Solid and liquid waste management was introduced in the TSC guidelines in March 2006 and there was a need to compile the technologies which could be used in the field. Mrs Sunila Basant, the then Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation had asked me to develop this technical note way back in June 2005; however, I could not devote much time on this. She again asked me to work on this technical note when I joined UNICEF in April 2006. Since I did not have to bother of handling 500 plus TSC district files, I had time to devote for development of this important technical note. Services of Dr M. M. Datta, a retired WHO professional, were engaged to visit the successful Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) projects in different states and compile the case


studies as well as key technologies and management practices. Once he compiled the base material, a workshop was organized at Uttaranchal Academy of Administration, Nainital, inviting key resource persons from various states. The compilation made by Dr Datta was heavily edited by the editorial committee. Dr S.â•¯V. Mapuskar and Mr Srikant Navrekar contributed significantly in editing and improving the content of the technical note and because of their major contribution this note could be finalized and released by Dr Manmohan Singh, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, himself in July 2007. It took a long time to develop this technical note but the end product was generally appreciated by all the users. Along with the technical note on SLWM another note on a collection of design options for household toilets for different geographical conditions was also prepared and released by Hon’ble Prime Minister in the same conference. Mr Manu Prakash who was working as consultant in UNICEF played very important role in preparing this technical note at a very short notice.

Exposure visits to best practices When TSC implementation started very few states and districts were willing to accept the idea of reducing subsidy for toilet construction. They were not even able to imagine that it was possible to construct toilets costing as low as Rs 400–450 (US $10–$11) only. They were not able to realize the importance of social mobilization which could transform the thought process of the people in the villages and influence them to feel the need for toilet and construct low-cost toilets for themselves. Sanitation promotion was not a mechanical approach but needed involvement with full compassion. The implementers needed to believe in the key principles enshrined in the TSC. Without internalizing those principles in their feelings, thoughts and actions it was not possible to replicate that in any other part of the country. Success in Medinipur was a living example of what could be achieved by putting the heart and soul together in any


social development programme. It was a live demonstration of the collective power of the Panchayati Raj Institutions, nongovernmental and youth organizations as well as the government in making things happen in a difficult and complicated sector like rural sanitation. It was a ray of hope for the practitioners of rural sanitation to replicate this success in other parts of the country. Whenever arguments against low subsidy and social mobilization were given by the state governments or any other organization the example of Medinipur was quoted and they used to be requested to visit the place and see for themselves. Gandhiji had said, ‘A rose does not need to preach. It simply spreads its fragrance. The fragrance is its own sermon’ (Bajaj, 2007). The sermon of Medinipur reached a large number of states and districts through a series of exposure visits and training programmes conducted and co-ordinated by Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad. Later on as the programme implementation spread, new states, districts and villages became open defecation free and offered new models for replication. Not only this, a series of innovations were done in various places. A large number of exposure visits covering various themes of sanitation and hygiene promotion were organized in different parts of the country. West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc., hosted a bulk of such visits for senior officials as well as PRI members which has been an eye opener for many and helped in cross learning. If one single initiative has to be named in TSC which helped in building capacity and motivating implementers, without any controversy exposure visits will top the list.

Development and revamping of website In the past 10 years we have seen rapid expansion in availability of Internet services across the globe and India has not been any exception, rather India has witnessed one of the fastest growth rates in Internet expansion. Most of the government departments and ministries had developed their own websites for informing


people about their programmes and policies. Department of Drinking Water Supply which is a part of the Ministry of Rural Development in Government of India did not have its own separate website till July 2002. Some very basic and minimal information related to few programmes of the department were included in the main website of the Ministry of Rural Development. The website is an effective medium of knowledge exchange and management in the modern times and must be used effectively. Since the objective of the department is to spread awareness about its programmes and policies and build capacity of different stakeholders, an informative, properly managed and updated website can further facilitate and accelerate this process. After joining the department in November 2001, I was also entrusted with the responsibility of managing the computerization programme and liaisoning with National Informatics Centre (NIC) which has a separate unit for the Department of Drinking Water Supply. The team of NIC was led by Mr D. C. Mishra, and other team members like Ms Seemantini Sengupta, Mr Omprakash Agarwal and Mr G.â•¯V.â•¯S.â•¯N. Murthy were quite dedicated in their work and were willing to take up new assignments. The first thing decided was to develop a website for the department with the readily available information and it was expected that the website will slowly get more information as the time progressed. It was decided not to wait for all the needed information for designing and hosting the website as it was difficult to get information in public domain from all sections of the department as some were quite possessive of the information available with them. Information is power and not all people want to give up such power. A rough structure of the website was designed by NIC and they started adding data and documents to the website which was initially hosted on the intranet site and was not open to the public. Dr Panda, the joint secretary, wanted the content of the website to be cleared by him first and then only it was expected to go in public domain. Even after lapse of considerable period of time, due to his busy schedule neither was he able to review the contents nor was the website getting hosted on the Internet which was quite frustrating for the website designing team. One day he spent some time reviewing


the site but his elaborate comments and suggestions amounted to rewriting the content and redesigning the website. It was well understood that the website needed improvement but was good enough to go in public domain in existing form with the condition to regularly update that. After joining Indian Administrative Service when for the first time as a probationer I reached Agartala, the capital of Tripura (the cadre to which I was allotted), I saw an interesting behaviour of the traffic constables. The traffic constables used to carry a small placard of the size of a table tennis racket with ‘go’ written on it. The traffic was supposed to flow in the direction in which the traffic police showed this placard. But very often the reverse used to follow. On numerous occasions I saw that people used to violate the traffic sign and whenever such violation used to happen rather than regulating the traffic, the constable used to gently turn the placard in the direction in which the violator had gone as if no violation had taken place and the traffic was following his instructions only. On many similar occasions ‘Tripura traffic police’ syndrome is noticed in the government. It tries to regulate only the persons who obey the law or decisions and the moment somebody violates the law or the decisions, the government changes its stance like the traffic police as if no violation had taken place and everything was all right. Fully believing in this syndrome, Mrs Seemantini Sengupta was advised to launch the website in the public domain silently and the idea of having a formal launch was given up. Had it not been done in this way, it might not have seen the light of the day. It was the first website of the department which started with few documents only but slowly new documents started getting added and very soon it became a very rich website communicating plenty of information including various online monitoring softwares developed by the NIC. Most of the important documents which are usually buried in the heaps of files due to lack of institutional memory in the government got electronically stored in the website and were just a click away for the users. A year later it was felt that the website needed a better look along with reorganization of information. A professional agency was hired


through NIC for this purpose and both the consultants, Manu and Shipra, worked very hard with the NIC as well as the hired professional agency to have a revamped website. They did a very good work and the refurbished website was widely appreciated. Slowly it had so much of information that on an average it was getting more than 1,500 hits per day which is quite high. Not only this, as per NIC officials on an average more than 5,000 visitors visit the site more than once every month.5

Advocacy for sanitation: different target groups It is essential that district officials have not only faith in TSC principles and strategy but also interest and motivation in implementing the programme. For generations very low esteem has been associated with the words toilet, excreta and scavengers in Indian society and sanitation has been treated as a taboo resulting in very few professionals, NGOs, government officials and Panchayati Raj Institutions getting involved in sanitation promotion. There were a handful of persons working for rural sanitation who were inspired by strong sense of idealism and fired by the passion to do something meaningful for rural people of India. In most of the TSC projects key programme managers including government officials, PRI members and NGOs were actually not convinced of the new principles enshrined in the TSC guidelines. For many of them, it was a wishful thinking to promote toilets and hygiene behaviour without giving adequate subsidy. Outside West Bengal, there were very few takers of this theory of decentralized management and low subsidy. In April 2002, out of about 140 TSC projects sanctioned, only 25–30 projects were submitting non-zero progress reports in at least one of the components of TSC. The worst part was that most of the district officials including collectors and CEOs, Zilla Panchayats were having apathy towards this programme. This is primarily because

5

Source: Seemantini Sengupta, Technical Director, NIC.


sanitation has never been a glamorous subject and people were not comfortable in dealing with it. I distinctly remember, even couple of my friends who were district collectors at that time preferred to talk on some other subject rather than sanitation when I approached them in connection with accelerating TSC implementation. It was a challenging task for the department to motivate the key programme managers at the district and state level in implementing TSC. Dr S. S. Meenakshi Sundaram who had taken over as Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation in August 2002 was very committed for sanitation promotion and had very clearly defined his priority for TSC. He decided to initiate direct interaction with the district officials to understand their problems as well as get an opportunity to motivate them in this important area which needed proactive involvement from the Government of India. A series of four regional workshops were conducted during October and November 2002 at Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. State secretaries in charge of TSC as well as key functionaries from all the TSC-implementing districts were invited in these conferences. In addition, resourceful persons like Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel, Mr C. C. Dey, Dr S. Ponnuraj and Mrs Sumita Ganguly used to be invited in these conferences to talk to the participants on different facets of sanitation promotion. The unique feature of these conferences was continuous presence of Dr Meenakshi Sundaram which definitely sent the correct signal to the state secretaries that sanitation was bigger priority than water supply in his scheme of things. The district officials involved in TSC implementation could also understand the extent of importance given to sanitation by the Government of India. It was a morale booster for those officials who had understood the importance of sanitation for improving the quality of life and dignity of human beings in rural India. The element of national pride, dignity of human beings, privacy of women and the associated health hazards emerged as the key motivating factors for the district officials to take the sanitation programme forward. After each regional conference we were able to see the change in mindset of at least few


district collectors and other key functionaries who used to be fully wedded to the sanitation programme resulting in good physical achievement in 2002–03. Whereas in first three years (1999–2002) only 500,000 toilets were constructed, in one year span of 2002–03 about 2 million household toilets were constructed. Sanitation was not a routine government programme to be implemented in the business as usual approach. It needed drivers at the district, block and village levels who had enormous amount of faith and conviction about the necessity of sanitation promotion and had the compassion to work for the programme ignoring the low self-esteem attached with it in the prevailing situation. The difference between a successful and unsuccessful project is only the existence and non-existence of faith in the programme principles and strategies. Faith and conviction help do everything. This has been experienced during evolution of the programme and is being experienced now also. Dr Meenakshi Sundaram had a short tenure in the department but it was a memorable one in the sense that he had kick-started the TSC implementation in the country by leading it from the front. In March 2003, Mr Palat Mohandas replaced Dr Meenakshi Sundaram and continued till August 2004. Mr Mohandas had earlier (1996–99) worked as joint secretary in the RGNDWM and worked under Dr N.â•¯C. Saxena who was the Secretary, Rural Development at that time. During this period, under the leadership of Dr Saxena, CRSP was restructured and TSC was launched. Mr Mohandas was quite passionate about both Sector Reform and TSC Projects; however, he always gave higher priority to TSC. He decided to continue with the tradition initiated by Dr Meenakshi Sundaram to hold regional conferences with the state and district officials to maintain the continuous dialogue with them. By the time Mr Mohandas was saddled with the new responsibility, the number of TSC districts had increased significantly as a result this time the number of regional conferences had increased from 4 to 11 which were organized during May 2003–August 2003. In each conference, officials from two to three states were invited. This time these conferences were organized for two days—first day devoted for TSC and second day for Swajaldhara. Preference


was given to TSC over Swajaldhara in these meetings to send the right signal to the state and district officials that sanitation was important. These 11 regional conferences were organized at Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Karnal, Bhopal, Lucknow, Patna and Jaipur. When the firewood burns for a long time layers of ash get accumulated which reduce the heat of the fire and at times the fire is not visible also. However, if these layers of ash are removed one can easily notice the fire. In our thoughts and actions also the ash and dust get accumulated dampening the fire within us to discharge the public responsibilities in the right earnest. So there is a need for periodically removing the ash. Periodic organization of the conferences and discussion on important aspects of TSC and Swajaldhara with the state secretaries and district officials was able to achieve this and it was helpful in rejuvenation of vigour and enthusiasm of everyone implementing the programmes. These workshops were quite useful in communicating the message of the Government of India and setting the priorities right for implementation of both Swajaldhara and TSC. The workshops functioned as good tool for advocacy as well as capacity building of key officials and helped in sharing best practices and clarifying various doubts the district officials had about TSC implementation. As far as we in Government of India were concerned, we got the opportunity of understanding the weaknesses in programme implementation especially the information gap prevailing between Delhi and the districts which helped in plugging the loopholes by strengthening the systems and further refining the key building blocks. The utility of these conferences was amply proved in increased coverage and higher rate of implementation of all components of TSC in the year 2003–04 compared to the previous year which may be seen in Table 4.3. In addition to the meeting with the district officials, a system of regular interaction with state secretaries of both water supply and sanitation programmes every six months was put in place which helped in sharing the new developments in the sector by the Government of India with the state governments in the right perspective. New developments like modification in TSC

202â•… Squatting with Dignity Table 4.3:â•…Year wise household toilet construction Financial year

Total household toilets

1999–2002 2002–2003 2003–2004 2004–2005 2005–2006 2006–2007 2007–2008 Total

638,660 662,130 6,197,878 4,453,868 9,811,582 9,893,316 11,527,890 43,185,324

Source: TSC online monitoring software—www.ddws.nic.in.

guidelines, development of CCDU guidelines, system of NGP and the process of memorandum of understanding were explained to the state officials. The meetings also helped in getting their feedback in modification of guidelines wherever required. In addition a series of workshops on various themes were organized to institutionalize various elements of TSC and build the capacity of key programme managers. These workshops turned out to be a good tool for advocacy as well as capacity building.

Strengthening of project sanctioning mechanism Total Sanitation Campaign projects used to be sanctioned with the objective of saturating the sanitation facilities requirement for household, school and anganwadis in the whole district. The district was chosen as the unit for implementation with the primary objective of using the available thin resources in a more focused manner and for deriving the maximum results. So it was not possible to take up the TSC projects throughout the country at a time but few projects could be set in motion every year. Normally in the initial few years about 40–50 projects used to be sanctioned every year but later on the number increased significantly. In order to have equitable distribution of projects among the states, normally number of projects per state used to be indicated by the Department of Drinking Water Supply. Based on this allocation,


state governments were expected to identify districts where TSC projects could be initiated. The selected districts used to prepare a project report for TSC for the whole district covering the requirement of households, school, anganwadi and community toilets along with the software requirement of awareness creation and capacity building. The task of project preparation used to rest with the district officials of the line department who in some cases used to consult with other related departments like Education or District Administration. Government of India used to receive these projects through the respective state governments. These proposals were appraised by the department and placed before a National Scheme Sanctioning Committee constituted for this purpose. After sanction, first instalment of fund used to be directly transferred to the project districts from Government of India. Unlike CRSP, fund in TSC is released to the districts directly which has been a major shift. This ensures that districts receive fund immediately without going through the bureaucracy of state finance department.

Constitution of NSSC The National Scheme Sanctioning Committee (NSSC) was constituted for approval of TSC projects with Secretary, DWS in chair, additional secretary and financial adviser of the Ministry and Joint Secretary, DWS as other members. In addition, two experts in the field of rural sanitation were also included in the committee to properly guide the process of sanctioning of TSC projects. Initially the two experts selected were Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel from Safai Vidyalaya, Ahmedabad and Late Mr Shib Shankar Chakraborty from Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad. Both were renowned experts and had devoted their lives in propagation of sanitation in rural areas. Late Mr Chakraborty was the real brain and heart behind the successful implementation of the ISP in Medinipur district. He was a strong proponent of zero subsidy in the sanitation programme and in his opinion


sanitation could succeed only without subsidy. His conviction about zero subsidy was borne out of the actual field implementation of ISP in Medinipur district, West Bengal. A very sober and thorough gentleman, Professor Chakraborty was a real guiding force for the National Committee. Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel had also spent his life in propagating different sanitation technologies in rural parts of India and had a vast experience behind him. His institution was also one of the few resource centres available in India for capacity building of professionals in rural sanitation sector. Later on in 2001–02 two more expert members were added to the NSSC. These members were Dr S. Ponnuraj from Gandhigram Rural University in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu and Late Dr M.â•¯D. Naraina Naidu from Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh. While the former was a medical doctor by profession and closely involved in rural sanitation promotion the latter was basically an educationist. The NSSC meetings used to take place normally once in two to three months and usually all members used to attend the meetings. It was the real commitment of the NSSC members in the sanitation sector that used to drive them to these meetings even without getting any remuneration for spending their time on a regular basis. As per the strict financial norms prevalent in the ministry, non-official members of the NSSC used to be given just to and fro air fare.

TSC project appraisal format The NSSC was burdened with the onerous responsibility of sanctioning TSC projects in the country. At that time Mr Gopalakrishnan was the only Office Assistant working in the CRSP section in DDWS who was on deputation from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and was one of the solid hands in the section and used to single-handedly process all the TSC proposals received from the states. His support to the NSSC was so overwhelming that he almost used to take all the decisions himself and put up just a sheet of paper containing


summary of each project required to be approved. He never used to give any trouble to the NSSC members of further probing and scrutiny of the data related to what was originally requested in the proposal, what was the baseline data, whether the proposal included 100 per cent coverage at household, school and anganwadi level, whether the number of PC/RSMs proposed was adequate, whether a plan for awareness generation and capacity building was prepared or not? He used to simplify all these issues and present the final table containing physical and financial items to be sanctioned by the committee. Expressing full faith in his abilities, the committee used to sanction the proposals processed by him and in this process about 125 TSC projects were sanctioned during 1999–2002. I got the opportunity of dealing with the TSC projects from January 2002. While I appreciated the existing approach of sanctioning TSC projects, I was more inquisitive about some of the issues mentioned in the previous paragraph and to see whether those issues were answered while sanctioning the TSC projects. Cursory scrutiny of the approved proposals revealed that many projects were not sanctioned with the objective of attaining full sanitation coverage. For example, projects in Assam were prepared for few blocks only and not for covering the whole district. On further probing, it transpired that the state government was not willing to take up a bigger project for fear of giving more state share. Similarly, in large population districts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc., usually not more than 100,000 households and 500–1,000 school toilets were sanctioned initially. This number was good to begin with but definitely not sufficient to plan and implement for the whole district. There were two glaring deficiencies—first, funds required for IEC and capacity-building activities were being sanctioned as a simple ratio (15 per cent) of the total project cost rather than based on an actual plan for implementation of the software components in the TSC project and second, no questions were asked about uncovered households among the APL families. Since the objective of TSC was to attain full sanitation coverage, APL families needed to be monitored and the communication efforts had to be targeted


towards them also. There was a need to critically examine all the project proposals with reference to the actual baseline data in the district and the requirements for 100 per cent sanitation coverage. This analysis was not possible with that simple summary sheet prepared by Mr Gopal. So a new format for appraising the projects was developed and all the technical officers in the ministry were advised to scrutinize the proposals for the states they were functioning as area officers. While scrutinizing the proposals new issues emerged. Most of the project proposals were not indicating the baseline data, the actual project implementation plan, including the capacity development and IEC plan. Even the institutional structures for implementation of the project was not mentioned in some projects. Lack of this information also revealed that the project districts were clueless about the programme implementation and as a result even if the projects were sanctioned by the committee, subsequent implementation was very slow and tardy. Overall the situation was such that most of the project districts were not applying their mind fully in developing the proposals. This had two negative effects—first, a project which was not well planned could never be properly implemented and second, there was not much ownership and commitment from many states and project districts as very ordinary project proposals were getting sanctioned in routine manner. It’s human nature that something which is easily available is seldom respected. TSC projects which were sanctioned in the routine manner without direct involvement of state and district officials were also treated with the same contempt once the projects were approved and fund released. In order to overcome these two problems, first, it was decided to invite the state secretaries or the district collectors in the meetings of the NSSC to explain the proposal in detail and also to have their greater involvement in the project preparation and implementation. This at least ensured that they were aware of the project proposals. Second, a detailed format for appraisal of the projects was made for internal use by the officers appraising the TSC project. During the process of appraisal many officers pointed out that all the required information was not given in most of the


projects and in addition there was problem of data inconsistency. To take care of this problem, a detailed project preparation format was developed for use by the district officials which simplified the project preparation, appraisal and sanction procedures. The original TSC guidelines had made a provision of giving start-up grant to the districts for conducting the baseline survey and preparation of project proposal. But by default such a system had developed that first project was getting sanctioned based on some existing crude data available with the districts and later on they were conducting baseline survey. Many districts had not even done their baseline survey after sanction of the project. So a decision was taken by the department in 2003 to first sanction start-up grant of Rs 2 million to a district willing to submit a TSC project to the Government of India. The district was supposed to open the bank account, define institutional structure of implementation, conduct the baseline survey of the sanitation facilities and a sample KAP study and prepare a TSC project proposal based on these findings. The system ensured that the start-up activities were actually put in place and once the project was sanctioned the district could immediately start implementation.

Project Implementation Plan (PIP) format Total Sanitation Campaign project was expected to be implemented over a period of 4–5 years and there were no annual targets prescribed in the programme because of its demand-responsive character. However, each district was expected to have its clear and well-defined project implementation plan for all components of TSC—hardware as well as the software. It was quite an innovative programme having distinct approach and implementation strategy compared to other social development programmes implemented by various ministries. The government’s institutional structure has usually been tuned to implement a targetdriven programme since time immemorial and it’s not easy for government machinery to change gears just by mentioning new


approaches in the programme guidelines. Lot of orientation and capacity building of the functionaries is required to explain them the rationale of each innovation and make things happen. During a series of review meeting organized in 2003, Mr Mohandas and Dr Panda used to ask the districts officials about their PIPs. Most of the district functionaries used to hear about the PIP for the first time and either expressed their ignorance or bought time for PIP submission. Noticing that district officials were not aware of PIP, secretary and joint secretary both used to be very aggressive towards them and also sermonize them. This was quite baffling for me as from Government of India we had never communicated anything to the districts related to preparation of PIP. Dr Panda had suddenly found a new stick to beat the district officials. To keep him happy few smart district officials used to submit a one sheet paper immediately after the meeting as their PIP. Obviously it used to contain very sketchy information related to number of toilets to be constructed over the next 4–5 years without giving any attention to key software elements. The developments in these review meetings definitely articulated the need for more clarity on preparation of a project implementation plan and what all could be the components of a good PIP. Based on my field experience and understanding of TSC project implementation, I developed a draft PowerPoint (PPT) presentation on different issues to be considered while developing a PIP. Dr Panda was initially not much impressed and reluctant in presenting this PPT during the workshops. It was slightly irritating to note that we were not handling the exact problem. It is the root of a tree which needs to be watered and not its leaves. In social sector programming also we need to be very precise and well targeted towards the problem. However, just before the Lucknow workshop Dr Panda finalized the PIP structure and presented it before the district officials in Lucknow. Contents of this presentation formed the basis for development of full-fledged project implementation plan template. Mr Manu Prakash and Ms Shipra Saxena worked with me to develop this PIP template. By the time this template was developed, new joint secretary, Mr Rakesh Behari, had joined the department


who at that time was very open to new ideas and incorporating his suggestions the PIP template was finalized and circulated among all the states. This template was slightly modified to develop project proposal by the new TSC districts. Along with the PIP template a format for conducting baseline survey in the villages was also developed and circulated. Most of the districts completed their baseline survey using this format and with this baseline data developed their PIPs. The submission of PIPs was closely monitored and in a very short span of time most of the districts submitted their PIPs. This was a great learning for us that if guided properly, district officials were willing to give matching response. It also established the fact that if district officials were told in clear terms what was expected from them, they had the capacity to deliver and this has been demonstrated time and again. In addition, a number of other formats and templates were developed to streamline project preparation, appraisal and sanction. These included templates for TSC project revision, preparation of SSHE action plan and preparation of CCDU proposals.

5 Geographical Spread

A

s already indicated earlier, Total Sanitation Camapign (TSC) projects were initially sanctioned in 67 districts covering almost all the states where Sector Reform Projects (SRPs) were also taken up. With passage of time more TSC projects were sanctioned in other districts and slowly the number increased to about 590. However, one of the most glaring features of TSC expansion has been that different states came on board at different times and the process of TSC projects implementation had unique story in different states. The trigger factors varied from state to state. Despite lapse of 9 years in TSC implementation, programme implementation is yet to take off properly in states like Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam. If some states are moving slowly, some are racing ahead and are on way to achieve full sanitation coverage. It will be relevant to analyze the process of sanitation programme initiation in few major states which is discussed in this chapter.

WEST BENGAL SHOWS THE WAY: SIMPLICITY IS THE ESSENCE OF UNIVERSALITY Sanitation movement in West Bengal primarily started with launch of Intensive Sanitation Project (ISP) in Medinipur in the

Geographical Spread

211

1990; however, prior to that there were limited interventions by Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad (RKMLP) supported by UNICEF in few pockets of North and South 24 Parganas and Medinipur districts. These limited interventions had given a confidence to RKMLP that through people’s involvement and awareness creation, sanitation and hygiene promotion could take place in the rural areas also. Considering its strong ideological foundations and track record of selfless service in the rural areas, UNICEF and Government of West Bengal requested RKMLP to implement ISP in Medinipur the details of which are already discussed earlier. The key strategy adopted in ISP included: awareness creation and social mobilization for demand generation, setting up of production centres and rural sanitary marts (RSMs) to meet the demand of toilets, capacity building of different stakeholders, zero or low subsidy for households for constructing toilet, etc. In order to make toilets easily affordable by everyone, the simple low-cost technology of direct pit pour flush toilet costing as little as Rs 230 was emphasized which was within means of even the BPL families. The stress was given on vertical upgradation of the toilets once the behaviour change had taken place to use the lowest model of sanitary toilets. Initially the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) were not involved in ISP but a network of youth organizations under the leadership of Mr Chandi Charan Dey, sanitation coordinator of RKMLP, was spearheading the programme. In this effort, RKMLP was fully and actively supported by Mr Chandan Sengupta, Project Officer, UNICEF in Calcutta office, Dr M. N. Roy, the then district magistrate and collector, and Dr S. K. Mishra, the then Zilla Sabhadhipati in Medinipur district. Non-involvement and resultant lack of ownership of the programme by PRIs even led to active resistance to RKMLP’s functioning in the district. However, this problem could be resolved by continuous dialogue with the PRIs by the district administration and Zilla Panchayat. In the words of Dr M. N. Roy, PRIs were convinced that sanitation promotion effectively amounted to social marketing of toilets in the villages. Since so many products were sold house to house by various companies and traders, NGOs must be allowed to market the toilets

212


for overall development of the villages. Panchayats could play a role of deciding few key policies but the production and marketing should rest with the NGOs. Continuous dialogue led to acceptance of this programme by PRIs who slowly got involved in ISP implementation. Over a period of time role of NGOs and PRIs were clearly defined which helped in accelerating implementation. Thus, PRIs took the central role and NGOs provided the back up support in the form of managing supply chain and helping in capacity building as well as demand generation. Involvement of PRIs was necessary not only to overcome the prevailing conflicts but also to accelerate the programme implementation. Even RKMLP—a reputed social service organization—was not able to reach all the villages in Medinipur district. Even after mobilizing its entire youth clubs it had presence only in about 30 per cent of the villages of Medinipur whereas the PRIs were present in all the villages and were involved in implementation of various rural development programmes. So it was necessary to involve them in order to increase the reach of the ISP in Medinipur district. With the involvement of the PRIs, the ISP and later on TSC could be taken to scale in all the villages of the district. During early 1990s, Dr M. N. Roy was posted as joint secretary in Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Department after completing his tenure as district magistrate of Medinipur. Since he was closely involved with the ISP, he felt the need for expanding the sanitation programme in few other districts also. By this time Dr S. K. Mishra, Ex Sabhadhipati of Medinipur Zilla Parishad also became Minister, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development. During 1993–94, it was decided to set up RSMs in 14 blocks of other districts which included South 24 Parganas, Bardhaman, Howrah, Bankura, Purulia and Nadia districts. NGOs affiliated to RKMLP, Tagore Society and Swami Vivekananda Gram Seva Sansthan were selected to plant the Medinipur strategy in these blocks. At that time UNICEF and Government of West Bengal developed a business model of RSMs costing about Rs 250,000 which included funding for honorarium of mart managers, revolving fund for the mart, cost of mould and shed. Thus, the sanitation programme

Geographical Spread

213

implementation crossed the boundaries of Medinipur. Not only this, the RSM experiment of Medinipur found expression in the first revision of CRSP guidelines by the Government of India in 1993. So the ripples of Medinipur experiment started crossing the state boundary as early as 1993. At that time, UNICEF tried to experiment Medinipur model of integrated project planning and execution in another district, Hooghly, involving the district panchayat in place of a districtlevel voluntary agency. It was deliberately decided to engage PRIs to manage the programme without the support of NGOs and to test whether it could be properly implemented or not. Panchayat-managed RSMs were opened in every block and district and block panchayats were to manage the responsibility of full programme implementation. However, the programme could not take off as expected and failed miserably primarily because of poor management of the programme by the district and block panchayats and also financial irregularities. It somehow became a routine government programme without the extra punch needed for success of such programme. At that time both the UNICEF and state government realized that the RSMs could not be managed by panchayats which lacked professional skills for running a business establishment so for proper management dedicated institutions like NGOs were required. The panchayats could be given the responsibility of mobilizing the community and it was also felt that synergy between NGOs and panchayats would be required for proper sanitation promotion. With this realization, the panchayat-managed production centres were transferred to the selected NGOs and state government adopted this as a statewide strategy. Panchayats came in the forefront of programme implementation with the support of the NGOs in social mobilization. This also helped in defining the role of NGOs and panchayats separately which formed the basis of the institutional structure for TSC implementation subsequently in the state. This experiment ultimately resulted in bringing the panchayats and NGOs together and made the panchayats realize that NGOs involvement was essential for success of the programmes which later on helped in proper synergy among them and active support from panchayats

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to the NGOs. From this experience, Government of West Bengal approved a policy that sanitary marts would be managed only by NGOs or cooperatives. Following the new strategy, every year few production centres were opened in new blocks and by 2000 almost all blocks in West Bengal excluding areas in Darjeeling and Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) were having a production centre. Bulk (2/3) of the production centres were financially supported by UNICEF. Initially there was no subsidy for household toilets in Medinipur project and more than 50,000 toilets were constructed without subsidy. Subsequently after lot of debate, a modest subsidy of Rs 200 was introduced to accelerate the ISP implementation which was also followed in TSC implementation. Like in many other states, in West Bengal also the subject of rural sanitation was initially with PHED which didn’t find it lucrative enough for implementation. For success of any programme role of the nodal department is very crucial as all the key policies and strategies are to be formulated by them only. An important decision was taken by the state government in 1993–94 of shifting the subject of rural sanitation from PHED to the Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Department which really helped in fully integrating the PRIs in sanitation promotion in West Bengal. With the launch of TSC, West Bengal took the lead in its implementation. The first set of TSC projects were sanctioned during 1999–2000 in Medinipur and North 24 Parganas districts and slowly all the districts were brought under TSC implementation by 2003–04. The last district to get TSC project sanctioned was Purulia. Over the years more than 6.5 million household toilets have been constructed in West Bengal in all the TSC districts. The whole concept of NGP originated from ISP experience in Medinipur when Nandigram II block became first open defecation-free block in the country. It was an excellent example of PRIs involvement in sanitation promotion which sowed the seeds for the national-level incentive scheme for involving the PRIs in TSC implementation. It is well known that NGP as an incentive has been well accepted by the PRIs across the country and has also been of interest to the visiting international delegations to India.

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West Bengal sanitation project has not only influenced the national sanitation policy and programme but also helped in institutionalizing the implementation of TSC in other states through knowledge dissemination. Many TSC project districts in other states learned from the West Bengal experience. Delegations of government officials as well as the PRI functionaries from almost all over the country had visited West Bengal to learn the social mobilization process and various components of TSC implementation. RKMLP and SIPRD, Kalyani, the two institutions from West Bengal were identified as national key resource centres which hosted a large number of exposure visits for functionaries of other states and played pivotal role in operationalization of TSC across the country. Despite the successes, there have been few challenges facing sanitation movement in West Bengal which need to be tackled, and the state government seems to be conscious of handling those issues. When ISP was launched in Medinipur, it emphasized upon sanitation as a complete package which included construction of household toilets, solid and liquid waste management and household-level toilet-linked biogas plants and smokeless oven. With strong focus on accelerating household sanitation combined with the fact that these items were not part of TSC initially, these components were subsequently neglected in programme implementation and the focus was primarily on household sanitation coverage. Even the important aspect of school and anganwadi sanitation was relegated to the second place in TSC implementation which is now being given priority by the state government. Even though West Bengal had a good institutional structure in the form of State Sanitation Cell which also influenced the national policy of setting up CCDU at state level, the institution needs to be more vibrant and similar proactive cells at the districts are required. It has been noticed that few districts are not having proper institutional structure and committed manpower which affect the quality of the programme implementation and also sustainability. Even though the state has quite effectively implemented IEC activities, still there is a reluctance among many district functionaries to optimally utilize the resources available

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for the software components primarily because there are hardly any tangible benefits to be seen immediately of such intervention. Unfortunately, the progress of TSC implementation has been found to be quite uneven within the state. On the one hand, South Bengal districts have raced ahead in TSC implementation and on the other hand, North Bengal districts are lagging behind. The districts having tribal population like Purulia and Bankura are having very low sanitation coverage.

TAMIL NADU: A STORY OF INNOVATIONS Tamil Nadu was one of the states which had taken up the implementation of the school sanitation programme even before launch of TSC. It has always remained in the forefront of the reform initiatives in water and sanitation sector. In 1999, TSC projects were initially taken up in four districts—Vellore, Coimbatore, Cuddalore and Perambalur. Later on these projects were extended to all the 28 rural districts. Rural sanitation coverage in Tamil Nadu has traditionally been extremely low and even in 2001 census, only 14.6 per cent rural households were having toilet facilities. Tamil Nadu was the second state after West Bengal which started TSC implementation immediately after sanction of the projects. Since the project director, District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) and district collectors were directly involved in implementation of all the rural development programmes, TSC implementation also was entrusted upon them. The state government had given very high priority to this programme both at the political and administrative levels. They had taken a decision to provide women community sanitary complexes in all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) of the state and the responsibility of operation and maintenance was handed over to the SHGs which facilitated in creating an enabling environment for the programme. The use of the community sanitary complexes subsequently triggered the demand for household toilets also. The state had a strong network of SHGs which was effectively used to accelerate the campaign

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by involving them in various activities which included social mobilization, managing sanitary marts and production centres and micro credit for toilet construction. This network of SHGs provided an easy platform for scaling up of TSC in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu has a track record of making a large number of innovations in TSC and few of them were later on adopted at the national level also. Mrs Santha Sheela Nair, the then Principal Secretary, Rural Development, played a key role in operationalizing TSC in Tamil Nadu by taking a number of initiatives with the support of Mrs Periasamy Amudha—an IAS officer who worked in UNICEF, Chennai office, during 2002–05. The first and foremost of the innovations have been the introduction of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in the sanitation campaign. As part of this initiative, awareness creation among adolescent girls and rural women about MHM, production and marketing of sanitary napkins as well as systems for disposal of used sanitary pads were taken up. These three components made it a complete programme worth emulating in other states also. SHGs were trained to manufacture sanitary napkins and linkage with Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar (SGSY1) programme of the Ministry of Rural Development was established to provide employment generation opportunities to the women. A large number of SHGs took up this initiative earning upto Rs 2,000 a month. In the words of Mrs Nair, this innovation had practically forced the MNCs to reduce the cost of sanitary napkins of their brands in Tamil Nadu. Now this initiative is being extended to other states also in the country. UNICEF has helped in initial capacity building of few SHGs and NGOs in its focus states. Nari Jagriti Abhiyan (NJA), women’s empowerment wing of the mass-based spiritual organization All World Gayatri Pariwar, has also taken this up in Uttar Pradesh and it is expected that the motivated team of NJA volunteers will be able to take this programme to scale not only in Uttar Pradesh but also in other states. Tamil Nadu also took the lead in solid waste management initiatives. UNICEF and Exenora-initiated Zero Waste Management 1

SGSY is a bank linked self-employment programme.

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Programme in Gandhi Nagar town panchayat of Vellore district has been one of the most inspiring projects which is slowly being adopted by other states also. Similarly initiatives in the area of household and community biogas plants, decentralized waste water treatment systems, etc., have been some of the initiatives which deserve special mention. The state also took the initiative in introducing eco-sanitation in some pockets of Trichy district and tsunami-hit areas especially Nagapattinam district. Trichy-based NGO Society for Community Organisation and Peoples Education (SCOPE) had taken the initiative of piloting eco-sanitation toilets in Musri village of Trichy district which is slowly getting scaled up to other districts and even few other states are showing interest in adopting eco-sanitation as an alternative technology for flood affected and high water table areas. SCOPE has set up first community eco-sanitation toilet based on ‘use and get paid’ concept. It has introduced the concept of users paying for using eco-sanitation toilets. The nutrients collected from the human urine are now sold to the local households for use as fertilizer. During 2002–03, Government of Tamil Nadu initiated a proposal for World Bank-funded project in Water and Sanitation sector. At that time, World Bank brought the concept of sector-wide funding. To operationalize this concept, it was being considered to dovetail all financial resources in water and sanitation sector including ARWSP, TSC, Swajaldhara and World Bank finance at one point in the state government and transfer funds to the districts from this pool for implementing the programmes. This posed two problems. First, water and sanitation subjects were handled by two different departments in Tamil Nadu; as a result it was not easy to dovetail these resources of two different administrative departments. Second, as per the principle of decentralization adopted in TSC, funds were supposed to be given directly to the districts rather the state. Sector-wide approach warranted these funds to be transferred at state level which was very much against the TSC approach and any relaxation for one state would have triggered similar demands from other states also. Already similar requests were made by few states like Punjab and Jammu

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and Kashmir. There was strong resistance from the Rural Development Department in Tamil Nadu about this approach; as a result later on it was decided to keep TSC out of the purview of this approach. With the introduction of NGP, Tamil Nadu was in a position to motivate the PRIs especially the panchayat presidents in making their villages open defecation free. A large number of GPs of Tamil Nadu have already received NGP. As per the physical progress reports available, the state has made significant achievements and is likely to achieve MDGs comfortably; however, it faces major challenges in sustaining the initiatives as there are reports of non-use of toilets in many NGP villages. Due to lack of proper institutional arrangement for sanitation promotion, the programme has suffered on account of continuity in priority over the years. Functional state and district-level sanitation cells are required to properly implement the programme.

MAHARASHTRA: AN ELEMENT OF MARATHA PRIDE Maharashtra has a long history of sanitation movement as well as Bhangi Mukti Abhiyan during pre-independence as well as post-independence periods. Maharashtra had produced a large number of followers of Mahatma Gandhi like Late Mr Appa Saheb Patwardhan and Late Mr Krushnadas Shah who passionately took up the noble task of sanitation promotion as well as Bhangi Mukti. Not only this, Maharashtra had the legacy of great saints like Sant Gadge Baba Maharaj and Sant Tukdoji Maharaj who spread the messages of sanitation and hygiene in Maharashtra villages. Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Pune did the pioneering work in liberation of scavengers and conversion of dry latrines. However, there was not much focus on rural sanitation coverage. Even in 1991 only 6.25 per cent rural households in Maharashtra had access to toilets. It was only in 1996 that the Government of Maharashtra decided to give emphasis on rural sanitation and accordingly this subject was transferred from the Department of Rural Development

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to a newly created Water Supply and Sanitation Department. An ambitious plan of constructing 2 million household toilets during 1996–2000 was taken up by providing Rs 3,500 as subsidy for a unit cost of Rs 4,000. During 1996–2000, about 1.66 million individual household toilets were constructed by spending more than Rs 5 billion.2 However, the use of toilets as per a random sample survey was only 57 per cent. The sanitation programme prior to 2000 primarily focused on supply driven approach where hardly any emphasis was given on awareness generation. In the year 2000, Government of Maharashtra launched an innovative incentive scheme—‘Sant Gadge Baba Village Sanitation Campaign’ (SGBVSC)—in the memory of great Maharashtra saint who mobilized the community during 20th century to adopt purity and cleanliness of mind, body and environment. This was an incentive scheme for the panchayats, blocks and districts which scored the maximum points against a set of prescribed indicators. The award used to be given for the top three panchayats at block and state levels and two panchayats at district level. This initiative has helped in mobilizing people for achieving the goal of rural sanitation programme such as adoption of the toilets to make villages free from open defecation, solid and liquid waste management, and safe and pure drinking water on a sustainable basis. Very remarkably, the SGBVSC could bring two important sets of functionaries together—people’s representatives and the government official at all levels—which later on helped in accelerating TSC implementation. First set of TSC projects were sanctioned in 1999 along with the Sector Reform Projects (SRPs) in Raigad, Amaravati, Dhule and Nanded districts. The TSC implementation in the state had been very slow till 2002. Even though SGBVSC was initiated in 2000, the TSC implementation had not taken off and usual concerns regarding lack of demand from the people for construction of low-cost toilets used to be raised by state officials. Continuous prodding from the Government of India from the beginning of 2

Source: Government of Maharashtra reports.

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2002–03 combined with strong and committed leadership both political and administrative at state level helped in slowly operationalizing TSC in the state. Mr B. C. Khatua, the then principal secretary, and Mr Sudhir Thakre, deputy secretary in the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, took the lead in operationalizing TSC in Maharashtra. A state level workshop was organized in August 2002 at Pune by the state government which was attended by officials from the Government of India, UNICEF and WSP-SA. Representatives from few other successful sanitation projects like Medinipur in West Bengal, Rajshahi in Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu participated in the workshop and after detailed deliberations state-level operational implementation plan was worked out which focused on demand generation by awareness creation and also targeting the whole panchayat for becoming open defecation free. Till that time even SGBVSC was not focusing on 100 per cent sanitation coverage in the villages but the weightage for toilet use was only about 50 per cent. This workshop really helped the district functionaries discuss over the issue of poor sanitation in detail and many of the district CEOs went back to the field with high motivation and slowly TSC implementation took off in the state. Gradually new districts were included in the TSC and by the year 2003–04 all districts in Maharashtra were implementing TSC. Government of Maharashtra took up the campaign very seriously and made all efforts to build systems for smooth implementation of the programme. The government could involve different stakeholders like anganwadi worker, teacher, student, sarpanch, PRI members, Gramsevak, youth, women and SHG members through decentralized institutions like PRIs. Women specially the SHGs have been quite actively involved in sanitation and hygiene promotion. The schoolchildren were effectively used as messengers of sanitation and the concept of ‘Swachata Doot’ was launched to spread the messages related to safe sanitation practices such as washing hands before eating, cooking and after defecation, nail cutting, water handling, use of toilets, waste management and personal hygiene.

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Communication and Capacity Development Unit was fully operationalized and a very proactive officer, Mr M. S. Kalshetty, was given the responsibility. Mr Kalshetty worked as Deputy CEO, Zilla Parishad in Sangli district which did quite well in implementing TSC. He is one of the champions of sanitation movement in Maharashtra and this CCDU is rated as one of the best in India. Good communication materials, training modules, etc., were developed by the CCDU. In addition to this, a network of 38 resource centres at state level was identified to implement the capacity-building activities as well as monitoring of the NGP applications. The state government made full use of the national Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) in combination with SGBVSC to gear up social mobilization in the villages for sanitation and hygiene promotion. This initiative paid rich dividends making Maharashtra the leading state in getting NGP. The number of NGP awards in the state increased rapidly from 13 in 2004–05 to 4,303 in 2007–08. The sanitation campaign in the state received good patronage from the political leadership right from the chief minister to the PRI functionaries who have taken it as a challenge to their Maratha pride to make Maharashtra open defecation-free state and have progressed fast in the right direction. Mr R. R. Patil and Mr Ajit Pawar who have been the ministers in charge of Water Supply and Sanitation Department during these years have provided full political ownership of the programme. Mr V. K. Dhumal who succeeded Mr Khatua and Mr Sanjeev Kumar who succeeded Mr Thakre both further accelerated the momentum generated in TSC. They were ably supported by officers like Mr Praveen Darade and Mr M. S. Kalshetty. A number of dedicated NGOs like Nirmal Gram Nirman Kendra in Nashik represented by Ms Nalini Navrekar and Mr Srikant Navrekar and Appa Patwardhan Safai o Tantra Niketan represented by Dr S. V. Mapuskar played a very key role in scaling up TSC in Maharashtra. Today Maharashtra is one of the few states in India which can comfortably achieve 100 per cent sanitation coverage.

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UTTAR PRADESH: SLOW BUT STEADY In Uttar Pradesh some activity on sanitation promotion has been going on in the post-independence period even before launching of TSC. Planning, Research and Action Institute (PRAI), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh had taken the lead in developing the pour flush latrine which is being promoted in TSC. Not only this, PRAI had taken up various action research projects; notable among them was development of low-cost underground drainage system for waste water management in the villages which is now being scaled up by the state government dovetailing 12th Finance Commission Grants as well as states’ own plan resources. As per census 2001, rural sanitation coverage in Uttar Pradesh was only 19.23 per cent, which also includes some insanitary toilets, for example dry latrines. A comprehensive state-wide baseline survey was conducted by Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2003–04 which revealed that actual rural sanitation coverage was only 17.81 per cent which has increased to 45 per cent during 2007–08 and the state is targeting for Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by the end of 11th Five Year Plan (March 2012). TSC was introduced along with SRPs in four districts of Uttar Pradesh in 1999 and gradually by 2004 it was extended to all the 70 districts of the state. Since the track record of Government of Uttar Pradesh in releasing state share for the TSC projects was extremely good, Government of India had no problem in sanctioning additional TSC projects and bulk of projects were sanctioned in the state by 2003. Government of Uttar Pradesh was implementing TSC since beginning and no extra advocacy efforts were needed by the Government of India; however, it continuously demanded for increase in subsidy. Very high subsidy of Rs 2,375 was provided for construction of household toilets in Uttar Pradesh before introducing TSC. The state was interested in promoting pucca superstructure which they considered to be essential for ensuring use of the toilet so higher construction cost was needed. Hence, increase in subsidy was frequently demanded by the state government

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which was always strongly denied by Mr Palat Mohandas. At that time Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh showed interest in promoting sanitation and was also of the view of promoting pucca superstructure in the villages which required more money. Accordingly, Government of Uttar Pradesh was willing to increase the state share for TSC if Government of India was averse to increase the subsidy. Mr Anees Ansari, principal secretary, Panchayati Raj in the Government of Uttar Pradesh, used to forcibly argue in the meetings in Delhi for increase in subsidy where he had a very strong counterpart in the form of Mr Mohandas who was just not willing to budge even an inch. Having seen the stand of the Government of India with respect to the Government of Punjab regarding their high subsidy scheme—Rajeev Gandhi Pendu Jan Sehat Yojna—Government of Uttar Pradesh was not willing to take the risk of antagonizing Government of India. However, at the same time they were trying to find out a via media which could solve their problems. Uttar Pradesh at that time was ruled by a political party different than the one ruling at centre. Very often in such situations even though the political establishment doesn’t display hostility towards each other, sometimes government officials tend to take such stand which amounts to reflection of a sort of political rivalry between two different party-ruled governments. Apprehending that Mr Mohandas’ stand of low subsidy with respect to the request of the UP government might have roots in such perceived rivalry, Mr Ansari appeared to be little cautious. Since he was aware of the stand of the secretary and joint secretary, he discussed the matter with me and sought my opinion whether increasing subsidy from the state budget would be viewed negatively by the Government of India. Of course, I could not have taken any other stand than what was stated by the secretary but I did share my views on this issue. Knowing how the bureaucracy operates in the Hindi heartland of India especially its commitment and passion for delivering results in social sector programmes, it would have been too naive to have hopes of West Bengal-type social mobilization in Uttar Pradesh. I insisted on two things—first, large-scale involvement of PRIs and social

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mobilization in the villages making them aware of the need for sanitation and second, willingness as well as ability of the state government to provide increased subsidy to everyone below the poverty line who needed toilet so that there was no scope of pick and choose at village level. Universalization of the sanitation promotion was the key objective. Government of Uttar Pradesh was fully agreeable to these two suggestions and bearing in mind the precedence of Andhra Pradesh, they increased the subsidy for the household toilet in 2004–05 in the form of special incentive. The unit cost was increased to Rs 1,900 which included single off site pit toilet with brick-walled superstructure. Rs 1,500 was given as special incentive from the government and individual households were expected to provide Rs 400 as their contribution. Subsidy from Government of India remained as Rs 300 and the state government gave Rs 1,200. It was interesting to note that the additional state share to the individual beneficiaries was routed through GPs as GP contribution. Technically this meant that state government was not giving any additional subsidy but the local self-governments were giving additional incentive to the eligible households out of the grants received from the state government. This additional grant was given to the panchayats to enable to discharge their responsibilities towards sanitation promotion. In this exercise, Government of Uttar Pradesh decided to give subsidy to few APL households also who were very close to the poverty line. Since then Uttar Pradesh is implementing TSC with this funding pattern and the state has been able to construct more than 9 million household toilets so far. Now the state is aiming at constructing more than 3 million toilets every year to fully eliminate open defecation from the state by 2012. If we see in retrospect, the decision taken by them actually delivered results and sanitation coverage increased in Uttar Pradesh. Of course, there have been other elements also which helped in scaling up the programme in the state. Uttar Pradesh has been a good example of systematic development of the TSC programme despite plenty of administrative and political problems including very frequent transfer of senior officers. It was Mr A. K. Singh, deputy director of Panchayati Raj,

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who was the backbone of the TSC in Uttar Pradesh and continued with the programme braving the heat on many occasions. The good thing was that many of the senior officers supported him strongly in managing the programme. Since TSC was managed by the Panchayati Raj Department itself, there was no clash of interest in involving PRIs fully in programme implementation. As per the State Panchayati Raj Act, village panchayats were responsible for the promotion of sanitation in rural areas. Village panchayats were made accountable for the social mobilization, demand generation and construction of sanitary facilities with the involvement of community. Concept of Gram Panchayat Environment Plan (GPEP) was introduced in TSC based on the experience gathered in UNICEF’s Child Environment Programme. The institutional structure for programme implementation was strengthened both at state and district levels. Since the CCDU was located in the water supply sector which was not contributing to sanitation programme, a separate state sanitation cell was set up with the support of UNICEF. In addition, division level TSC coordinators were appointed who helped in providing technical support to the districts as well as monitoring of the programme implementation. In each district, TSC coordinators were also appointed who helped in accelerating TSC implementation. For awareness creation, village motivators were engaged and districtlevel IEC plans were developed and implemented to a significant extent. Masons were trained in each village to strengthen the supply chain and construction of toilets. School sanitation was given good priority and dovetailing resources from the 12th Finance Commission (FC) award, lot of new initiatives were taken which included running water supply using force-lift hand pumps, providing hand washing facilities in all schools, construction of new child and gender-friendly toilet facilities, etc. Since the Panchayati Raj Department was responsible for managing the 12th FC grants, it used the grants in the best possible manner to strengthen sanitation promotion. In many cases, GPs were also in a position to supplement fund requirement from panchayat’s own fund if needed.

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Over the years, despite various challenges, there has been slow and steady progress in Uttar Pradesh which is the most populous state in the country and its share in achieving full sanitation coverage in India is approximately 14 per cent which implies that if India has to succeed, Uttar Pradesh too will have to succeed. NGP movement has slowly caught up in the entire state. Against nil NGP in 2005, the state received 40 NGP awards in 2006 which increased to 488 GPs in 2007. PRIs from 55 out of total 70 districts received award in 2007 and in 2008, 729 GPs belonging to 60 different districts received NGP award. One of the major social gains of TSC in Uttar Pradesh has been increased focus on eliminating the inhuman practice of manual scavenging. With effective advocacy and communication at household level, in more than 2,000 GPs having practice of manual scavenging throughout the state more than 100,000 dry latrines have been converted into pour flush water seal latrines and more than 15 per cent GPs have achieved the status of open defecation free and are in the process of claiming NGP.

ANDHRA PRADESH: LINKAGE WITH FOOD FOR WORK PROGRAMMES Total Sanitation Campaign projects in Andhra Pradesh were sanctioned initially in four districts—Khammam, Nalgonda, Chittoor and Prakasam. Andhra Pradesh was the first state which took a bold decision to scale up TSC in all its districts and by mid 2003 TSC projects were sanctioned in all districts of Andhra Pradesh. The then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, took lead in sanitation promotion in Andhra Pradesh by incorporating this component in his ‘Janmabhoomi programmes’. Even before launching TSC, Government of Andhra Pradesh was following a high subsidy approach and to meet high subsidy obligations it had mobilized additional resources by taking loan from Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO).

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As there was low subsidy for household toilets in TSC, a decision was taken to provide additional subsidy from the state governments’ resources to accelerate household toilet construction. Since the ruling Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh headed by Mr Naidu was a key ally of the National Democratic Alliance led by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee at Delhi, Mr Naidu had always managed to get a larger share of the cake. Under Food for Work Programme of the Ministry of Rural Development, Andhra Pradesh was one of the biggest beneficiaries and had huge surplus stock of rice. The state government came up with a novel idea of providing subsidy to the BPL households in the form of two and half quintals of rice and Rs 750 in cash. This amounted to a total subsidy of Rs 2,750 per household toilet. In this programme not only a toilet but also a bathroom attached to the toilet was being constructed. In the year 2003–04 itself, about 2.5 million household toilets were taken up for construction in Andhra Pradesh which was a major achievement. However, this decision of the state government was heavily criticized by the experts and all those who believed in low or no subsidy regime. There was a concern in the Government of India also, but this concern was not expressed officially in any explicit terms to the state government. This was primarily because of the fact that even though high subsidy was provided, toilets were being constructed in large scale for the first time and a strong sanitation campaign was building up in Andhra Pradesh. Although there were technical fallacies in the design and construction of toilets, but for the first time a state government other than West Bengal had taken sanitation programme on such a large scale. Any step to dampen the spirit of the state government and district officials would have been more counterproductive. Interestingly, few Review Missions consisting of independent experts who visited the state during that period gave positive feedback about the sanitation programme in Andhra Pradesh. However, the Review Missions pointed out that only few toilet options were being provided in the programme for all income category population and there was inadequate social mobilization. Promotion of a particular type of toilet-cum-bathroom model had limitations in

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acceptance from very poor families who also had to contribute significant amount over and above the subsidy provided by the state government. Since the campaign was taken up under the overall diktat of the chief minister himself and a very tight timeline was given to the officials not much emphasis on capacity building of different stakeholders was given; as a result toilet construction suffered from technical fallacies like installation of vent pipe in leach pit toilets, pits being constructed just in front of the entrance door, inadequate arrangement for disposal of waste water coming out of the bathroom leading to water logging in the village, etc. These issues needed little extra planning and capacity building; however, in the hurry of achieving the targets the finer issues were ignored. Mr G. Asoka Kumar, collector of Nizamabad district, was one of the most enthusiastic district collectors who had taken up the challenge of constructing 100,000 household toilets in two months time in 2002. To achieve this goal he had put lot of efforts including a decentralized supply chain mostly run by local entrepreneurs and significant achievement was made. However, this was strongly criticized by the sector professionals who termed this as a construction drive and its efficacy in bringing about the real behaviour change was very much questioned. Had this initiative been combined with a robust capacity building and social mobilization drive it would have been a praiseworthy initiative in Andhra Pradesh. One positive aspect of this campaign was that the state government was willing to provide additional subsidy to all those who needed rather than following a pick and choose policy which was very much against the objective of achieving universal sanitation coverage. The negative side was that due to lack of social mobilization all the APL households not having toilets were not much involved in this initiative; as a result even though a large number of toilets have been constructed in Andhra Pradesh, number of NGP villages have been low. Another positive element of TSC campaign in Andhra Pradesh has been the involvement of the GPs in sanitation promotion which has not been noticed on the same scale in many other states. The funds for construction of toilet were routed through the GPs

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and not through the NGOs or Rural Water Supply Department functionaries. The supply of the rings for the leach pit and other sanitary materials were largely managed by the local private entrepreneurs and shops rather than organized production centres and sanitary marts as envisaged in the sanitation campaign. However, with change in government in Andhra Pradesh in 2004, the campaign spirit got dampened after the massive initiative taken during 2003–04.

GUJARAT: RAPID ACCELERATION Even though TSC projects were sanctioned in few districts of Gujarat as early as 1999 the state was not showing much interest in programme implementation. One of the reasons was the prevailing high household toilet subsidy in a parallel programme implemented by the state government. In this programme, Gujarat government had approved a unit cost of Rs 4,900 per toilet and out of this, Rs 3,900 was given as subsidy to the individual households and Rs 300 used to be given to the nodal NGO and other organizations involved in implementation as programme management cost. This had led to growth of a different kind of vested interest in the system which was interested in continuance of high subsidy programme. The state was not willing to accept low subsidy programme; as a result TSC implementation was lagging behind and in fact had not taken off. The physical progress in TSC projects was abysmally low. What was more interesting is that nobody in the state government was really serious about this programme at that time. Mr Kashi Ram Rana who became the Minister for Rural Development in Government of India in June 2003 belonged to Surat district in Gujarat which was also a TSC and Sector Reform Project district. So he was keen to see that TSC implementation improved in his state but at the same time was not convinced that toilets could be constructed with only Rs 500–600 as subsidy. He wanted the subsidy to be increased to Rs 1,500 but Mr Palat Mohandas who was the Secretary, DWS

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was against any increase in the subsidy and used to have arguments with the minister over this issue. Mr Mohandas was very keen to see that TSC implementation in Gujarat actually started. So he decided to strongly take up the issue with the state government. One fine morning in later part of 2003, I got a telephone call from him asking me to provide key socio-economic indicators of Gujarat vis-à-vis India. Accordingly a datasheet was prepared and handed over to Mr Mohandas. As per this, even though the economic indicators for Gujarat were encouraging, the state was not doing well on many social indicators. Interestingly, 72 per cent of rural households were having electricity but only 21.7 per cent3 rural households were having toilet facilities. Mr Mohandas used this and some other data to do some plain speaking with chief secretary of Gujarat. He went to Gujarat specially for this purpose and using all his communication skills was able to convince Mr P. K. Lahiri, the then chief secretary, who did realize the need for sanitation promotion. Mr Lahiri responded to this meeting in a very positive manner and conveyed his priority to the newly appointed Secretary, Rural Development, Mr A. M. Tewari, who was widely known for his hard work and dynamism. At the same time, first South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) was being organized in Dhaka in October 2003 which was to be attended by Mr Kashi Ram Rana, Minister for Rural Development. A small delegation of officials from Government of India as well as few state governments accompanied the minister, which included Mr Tiwari also. After attending the conference and interacting with various other delegation members and continuously thinking over sanitation for 3–4 days in Dhaka, he was quite convinced of the futility of the state-run high subsidy programme in Gujarat. He was quite committed to scale up TSC in his state and started working out the way forward in detail. At this time, he involved Mr K. K. Jadeja who had retired as Engineer in Chief of Gujarat Water Board and has been known for his energy, vigour and dynamism. The first action 3

Source: Census 2001 data.

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taken by this team with the support of chief secretary and chief minister of Gujarat was to reduce the subsidy and bring at par with TSC norms. This decision paved the way for scaling up of TSC in Gujarat. A group of NGOs which were the beneficiaries of the high subsidy programme did complain about this initiative but slowly reconciled to the low-subsidy regime. In one NSCC meeting, 20 TSC projects for Gujarat were sanctioned by the Government of India in mid 2004 and TSC in Gujarat was formerly launched in a two days’ conference by Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the new Minister for Rural Development, in August 2004. Probably this was the first official function outside Delhi for Dr Singh ever since he assumed the office of Minister for Rural Development in Government of India. District TSC managers, selected representatives of GPs from each district and NGO representatives participated in the multiple events of workshop, conference and exhibition of models, live demonstration of IEC tools, etc. All issues related to scaling up of TSC were deliberated in the conference. Gujarat was able to develop the key building blocks very fast and has been a good example of scaling up of TSC in a very short time. The state immediately developed state-specific operational guidelines and circulated among all district functionaries. Realizing the importance of awareness creation and IEC activities, Gujarat prepared a statewide strategy and also ensured that all districts had a district-specific IEC plan. IEC strategy of TSC in the state was formulated by involving experts and institutions like Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA), Documentation Unit of Indian Space Research Organisation (DECU-ISRO), Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), UNICEF and Government of India. A state-level workshop for finalizing the district-level IEC plan was organized in later half of 2005. The state also adopted new means of social mobilization by involving spiritual leaders like Murari Bapu. In early 2006, a state-level meeting was organized inviting all the panchayat presidents to motivate them about the sanitation programme which was attended by Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Union Minister for Rural Development, Mr Narendra Modi, chief minister of

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Gujarat, Mr Murari Bapu, a spiritual leader, and Mr Navjyot Singh Sidhu, famous cricketer turned politician. This programme was telecast live on Doordarshan and all the panchayat presidents who had not come to Ahmedabad to attend the function were advised to assemble at one place and see the programme at the panchayat offices with other members. This programme had lot of motivational impact on the PRIs which was reflected in sudden acceleration of TSC implementation in Gujarat. The team of Mr K. K. Jadeja and Mr Vipul Mitra, secretary, Rural Development played a key role in managing the scaling up of TSC. In order to institutionalize the NGP process and accelerate implementation of TSC, Government of Gujarat took up special campaign for educating the PRIs about NGP, its key features and steps required for open defecation-free GPs. This special campaign was taken up during August 2006 which was very much helpful in creating mass awareness about NGP. In 2006, just four GPs had received NGP while in 2007 the number increased to 576. Buoyed by this success the state government took a decision to celebrate 2007 as ‘Nirmal Gujarat Year’—an initiative first of its kind in the country.

TRIPURA: FAST PROGRESS This north-eastern state of India was one of the first few states to have taken TSC seriously. Mr Ajeer Vidya, the then principal secretary in charge of the Rural Development Department in the Government of Tripura, was very much convinced of the importance of sanitation promotion to prevent the frequent bouts of diarrhoeal diseases which used to spread in the tribal areas of the state during the lean period. Due to poor sanitation and hygiene practices, tribal population used to drink water from the small rivulets passing through their hamlets and the same rivulets were used for defecation and ablution purposes also. So the population living in the lower heights was adversely affected because of the pollution of the river stream.

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Mr Vidya took the initiative and got TSC projects sanctioned by the Government of India in all the four districts by December 2001 but nothing was actually happening on the implementation front. My friend Rakesh Ranjan who was the district collector in South Tripura district had organized a district-level TSC workshop in summer of 2002 which I attended along with Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel. Till sanction of TSC, Rs 3,000 as subsidy was given for construction of toilet in Tripura. The moment we talked about the reduction in subsidy, there was a strong reaction from the participants which included the block development officers, junior engineers and elected members of PRIs. It was difficult to fully convince them about the rationale of low subsidy in a conference by describing the success of Medinipur, so it was suggested that a team of government officials and PRI members should visit East Medinipur district in West Bengal and Mr Chandi Charan Dey was requested to coordinate the visit. Immediately after the exposure visit, we had a new team of converts who were fully wedded to the idea of low-cost sanitation and had understood the power of social mobilization in influencing households in their decision-making. Inspired by this exposure visit, the district chalked out a detailed action plan and implemented it faster than even East Medinipur district. The state had one major advantage that there was lot of awareness about using toilets but people were not aware of the concept of sanitary toilets. Most of the households were having borehole latrines and open defecation was not common. As per census 2001, about 78 per cent rural households were having some form of toilets but only 4.6 per cent households were having water seal toilets. This needed dissemination of technology and making materials available but behaviour change communication was not much required. However, the enthusiasm remained confined in the two biggest districts only—South Tripura and West Tripura districts. The South Tripura district almost attained 100 per cent sanitation coverage in about one year timeframe. They were in a position to effectively utilize the services of a large number of SHGs both for demand generation and meeting the supply requirements. One of the major lacunas of the programme in

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Tripura was inadequate emphasis on hygiene promotion which was very much essential for improving the health condition especially in the tribal areas. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that due to increase in sanitation facilities, the incidences of diarrhoeal deaths came down.

SIKKIM: TOWARDS FULL COVERAGE Sikkim has been one of the smallest but most progressive northeastern states in the country. It had shown its keen interest in TSC implementation since its inception and was one of the first few states to take up sanitation projects for all the districts. Being a small state, Sikkim has only four districts and TSC projects were sanctioned in all of them by 2001–02. However, the projects were not properly designed to include 100 per cent coverage for household, school and anganwadi toilets. So later on in the year 2004–05, these projects were revised and state government started its implementation in the right earnest. Responding to the call of Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Government of Sikkim was the first state to take up amendment in its State Panchayati Raj Act to make it mandatory for contestants of local self-government elections to have toilets in their houses. In 2005, the state under the dynamic leadership of Mr Vijay Bhushan Pathak, Secretary Rural Development, and overall patronage of the Chief Minister Mr Pawan Chamling took the decision to become a Nirmal State in this country. This dream was realized very soon when her Excellency Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil, President of India, awarded the state government in 2008 for achieving this feat.

KARNATAKA: LATE STARTER BUT FAST MOVING Karnataka government had been very reluctant in implementing TSC till 2004–05. This was primarily because the state was

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unwilling to accept the concept of low subsidy for household toilet construction. Karnataka had consistently been of the view that low-subsidy toilets could not be promoted. There was a parallel programme of the state government which was providing Rs 2,000 as subsidy and due to this the state government was not willing to implement a low-subsidy programme having two sets of subsidy pattern. Not only this, even in the World Bank-assisted Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project also subsidy to the tune of Rs 2,000 was being provided. The project director of Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (KRWSSA) was entrusted with the responsibility of implementation of TSC, Swajaldhara as well as World Bank-assisted water supply and sanitation project. Since the World Bank project extensively focused on process parameters, initially KRWSSA lacked interest in implementing TSC which also required equal amount of effort for social mobilization in the villages. The efforts in mobilizing the community were expected to increase further due to low subsidy available in the programme. So after sanction of initial three TSC projects in Mysore, Bellary and Dakshin Kannada districts the state government practically refused to submit any new proposals. With the advocacy efforts of Mr Palat Mohandas, combined with the initiative of Mr V. P. Baligar, the then Principal Secretary, Rural Development, and Mr L. Atheeq, the then Director, KRWSSA, Karnataka government decided in 2004–05 to implement TSC in the entire state and submitted TSC proposals to the Government of India for sanction. During the year 2005–06, TSC projects in all districts of Karnataka were sanctioned by the Union Government. After this, Karnataka started TSC implementation and to give further impetus to the programme, an additional director was appointed to exclusively manage TSC at state level. The team of Director Mr S. D. Meena and Additional Director Mrs T. Abroo pushed the TSC programme considerably in the state. Building on the SHGs movement, a network of professional NGOs like Myrada & Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) and Total Literacy Campaign volunteers, TSC programme in this state slowly started spreading from 2005–06 onwards. For the first time, about 102 GPs

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received NGP in the state in 2007 and so far more than 1.7 million household toilets have been constructed in various projects of the state. The pace of implementation is better in South Karnataka districts and Dakshin Kannada and Shimoga districts are on way to achieve full sanitation coverage shortly.

LATE STARTERS: BIHAR, CHHATTISGARH, RAJASTHAN, JHARKHAND Track record of rural sanitation implementation in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan has not been very good since the CRSP days. Rampant open defecation and lack of priority accorded by respective PHEDs ensured that the rural sanitation coverage remained very low in these states. Even after launch of TSC, there was a general reluctance in taking up new projects and even if the projects were taken up there was unwillingness to implement them. Even though the approach of low to no subsidy and community-centred sanitation programme was accepted in principle, there was lot of gap between their beliefs and actions in these states; as a result programme implementation remained tardy till 2005–06. However, with the introduction of NGP some of the PRIs in these states did get motivated to take up sanitation promotion activities. In March 2006, for the first time four PRIs from Bihar and 11 from Chhattisgarh could get NGP award. The accounts of Jharkhand and Rajasthan PRIs were opened a year later in May 2007. Continuous follow up by the Government of India and the environment created by NGP has generated some amount of political ownership of the programme in these states especially in Bihar where Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar is also strongly advocating for TSC implementation. Most of these states have now resolved the conflict between different institutional structures and issued operational guidelines defining roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders which are helping in TSC implementation. However, there are frightening challenges in these states

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and it may not be possible for them to achieve 100 per cent rural sanitation coverage if the programme is not accelerated now.

NON-STARTERS: PUNJAB, ASSAM, JAMMU AND KASHMIR Punjab has been a classic case of state apathy towards sanitation promotion. One of the richest states in the country which steered the green revolution and fed a significant portion of the country by producing enough food grains is still struggling with promoting sanitation and hygiene in its villages. As per census 2001, about 41 per cent rural households were having toilets which implied that 59 per cent used to defecate in the open. As per the same census data 49.5 per cent households were having electricity, 61.3 per cent households having television sets, 27 per cent having scooter, motorcycle and moped and 45.7 per cent availing banking services. The percentage of people below the poverty line has been only 6.16 per cent. The per capita income of Punjab is almost 40 per cent higher than the national per capita income. A large number of people from Punjab have migrated to Europe, USA and Canada over the past many years and these NRIs are bringing not only wealth but also new ideas and thinking in the state. Despite this, sanitation coverage in Punjab is lower than poor states like Tripura and Mizoram. Probably it has been the poverty of feelings, thoughts and actions in Punjab due to which no urgency was felt to tackle this extremely necessary social problem having adverse health impact in the society. The subject of rural sanitation in Punjab used to be handled by the Rural Development Department until 2003. When Government of India requested the states to ensure that only one department was handling water supply and sanitation programmes, PHED took over this programme also. However, their heart was not in this programme and nothing meaningful was done except getting TSC projects sanctioned for all the districts. The state couldn’t get even a single NGP award for open defecation-free village till 2007. The state’s officials continuously demanded for

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higher subsidy for household toilet. They always gave routine excuses for non-performance and claimed that people were not interested in constructing low-cost toilets as if they were in continuous dialogue with them. The PRIs were not involved in the programme and the concept of NGP was also not shared with them which could have motivated some of the PRIs to come forward for sanitation promotion. The people of the state who made the whole country self-reliant in food production, I am sure, are capable enough of leading sanitary and hygienic life provided that message is allowed to reach them. After not doing anything for TSC implementation over the past 4 years, again the PHED has transferred the subject of rural sanitation to Department of Rural Development in the state government. It’s pity that even a rich and prosperous state like Punjab adds to the national shame of people defecating in the open. Hopefully a day will come when the pride of Punjab will get stirred and the state will be able to eradicate the menace of open defecation. Assam is another state where TSC programme has been a victim of state apathy. As per the census 2001, Assam had 55 per cent rural sanitation coverage. Traditionally in Assam people were using borehole latrines which were not sanitary in nature but at least majority of the people had the habit of using toilet and excreta was not disposed in the open. In such a situation, half of the battle was already won because there wasn’t much challenge of changing behaviour of people to accept fix-point defecation. But despite this unique advantage, the state PHED did not show enough inclination to implement the programme in the right earnest. First, unusual delay was made in release of the state share for TSC. Second, not enough effort was made to strengthen the systems for programme implementation. The role clarity of panchayats, PHED and NGOs was not made; as a result none of the institutions were taking ownership of the programme in the field. Even though the deputy commissioners in few districts were interested in implementing the programme, they didn’t want to take the lead for want of clarity about their role in the programme from the state government. We can be sure that if all stakeholders are involved in the programme, a powerful and effective social

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mobilization can take place in Assam which can produce a better example than even the Medinipur project because of the unique advantage the state possesses. There has been lack of enthusiasm in the leadership at the state level for this programme in some of these slow-moving states. As a result hardly any effort was made to set up systems and involving different stakeholders in programme management and implementation. Large-scale motivation and orientation of government functionaries as well as NGOs and local body functionaries is required if the programme has to take off in these states.

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he rapid growth of rural sanitation in India resembles the story of Matsyavatar1 in Hindu mythology. We are witnessing a similar example in India which astonishes everyone by its very fast expansion. Launched in 1999, till 2001–02 except West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, hardly any other state was serious about TSC implementation. Now the programme has not only been well accepted but also being given very high priority by almost all the states in the country. In the beginning, not even 100,000 households were willing to construct and use toilets in a year. Now about 10 million households2 are enthusiastically constructing toilets every year. The programme which started with a very small budgetary outlay has now an outlay of more than US$3 billion which could not have been conceived even a few years back. The programme which was started in only 67 districts of the country has been scaled up to almost all the 600 districts. Earlier the toilets were constructed but without achieving the objective of completely eradicating the practice of open defecation from the villages. Not even a single Gram Panchayat (GP) was open defecation free in 2002–03. The same number has phenomenally increased over the past 3–4 years. Starting from merely 40 GPs in 2005, the number of NGP-awarded panchayats increased to 769 1 Matsyavatar was the incarnation of God in the form of a small fish which expanded its size rapidly to occupy the entire ocean. 2 Source: TSC online monitoring software at www.ddws.nic.in

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in 2006, 4,959 in 2007 and 12,000+ in 2008. The NGP award function which was originally planned in one of the small rooms of Vigyan Bhawan was shifted to the main hall of Vigyan Bhawan and finally to a football stadium (Ambedkar Stadium) in 2007 and in four different locations in 2008 to accommodate the everincreasing number of NGP awardees. The number of applicant PRIs claiming to be attaining NGP status has been increasing at a faster pace and for 2008 NGP award more than 30,000 PRIs submitted their applications out of which more than 12,000 were awarded. Isn’t it comparable to the famous Matsyavatar when God in the form of a fish took birth from a handful of water and slowly occupied even the whole ocean? What has been achieved today was beyond imagination of many sector professionals even in 2003–04 when almost all the plans, policies, resources and building blocks for scaling up of TSC were in place. During 2003–04, Government of India had officially decided to work towards achieving open defecation-free India by 2012. In one of the annual review meetings of the Child Environment Programme (CEP) of UNICEF held in Delhi in early 2004, I had the opportunity of interacting with the UNICEF’s CEP team. My colleague Mr Sunil Kumar who was managing the Swajaldhara programme at that time was also present during the interaction. We were sharing the overall thinking in the government about the goal and strategy of scaling up TSC and Swajaldhara in India and mentioned about the bigger goal of eradicating open defecation by 2012. For any ordinary human being this statement was like daydreaming and definitely deserved a contemptuous laughter. So was the reaction of one UNICEF project officer working in the Bhubaneswar office—Mohd Abul Kalam. I am yet to forget his derisive laughter at the goal of open defecation-free India as outlined by us. Considering the status of TSC in India at that time he was not very much off the track and at the same time he was not expected to have the vision for future of India. Three years later on 4 May 2007, the day third NGP was being distributed in Delhi, website of UNICEF India country office carried a lead story titled, ‘Hundred Percent Sanitation is Possible in India’. It was a sweet surprise for me to see that within

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three years of time, UNICEF was at the same wavelength. It had read the writing on the wall. Such humanly impossible achievements are made only with divine support. If we look back into the history of India and the world, there are many such examples where humanly impossible feats have been achieved by individuals through divine inspiration and support. A recluse like Lord Buddha mobilized the required human and financial resources for one of the biggest religious reforms which impacted a large number of countries in the world. The unique feat of Gandhiji to mobilize ‘satyagrahis’ to oust from India the mighty British Empire also belongs to similar category. If reversing the flow of a river is considered to be impossible, how is it possible to reverse the thought process and the age-old mindset of millions of people in India in a short span of time to give up open defecation and poor hygiene practices? Of course human efforts are essential but the support of the divine power to convert the difficulties into opportunities is also important. Like Matsyavatar TSC also has only one desire—to expand and expand. It has to expand to every nook and corner of rural India. Big initiatives start in the form of a small seed and slowly expand like a huge banyan tree. A sanitation movement which started in a district called Medinipur slowly expanded to other districts of West Bengal and influenced the policies in other states one after another. The states like Bihar and Assam who were the most reluctant in implementing TSC at one point of time are also showing great amount of enthusiasm. The movement developed new partnerships and brought in its fold different cross sections of the society which have strengthened the movement further. It received support and patronage from all quarters as a result its reach, acceptance and success is continuously increasing. This process of expansion is not likely to stop easily and India is marching towards the goal of 100 per cent sanitation. All that is required is the faith in our abilities to achieve the goal. It’s the faith which makes the impossible as possible. Gandhiji had observed, ‘We are daily witnessing the phenomenon of the impossible of yesterday becoming the possible of today’ (Bajaj, 2007). TSC is no exception to this.

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World history has witnessed that riding the wave of selfconfidence and conviction many individuals and organizations who initially had very limited physical and financial resources could mobilize enough resources to achieve huge success. Bhoodan Movement of Acharya Vinoba Bhave has been one of the most inspiring examples of recent times. Similar thing happened in TSC programme. The decision to scale it up throughout the country was taken even without resources being tied up but the objective was so noble that all right thinking people willingly came forward and supported the programme making it one of the largest sanitation campaigns ever taken up in any country of the world. If there is genuine desire to do something, physical constraints cannot limit any programme—this has been a loud and clear message. Like River Ganges, which receives a continuous supply of water from the glaciers in the Himalayas, sanitation movement in India has been receiving continuous patronage and financial resources from the Government of India. Planning Commission has been extremely helpful and supporting in providing the funds for expanding the programme throughout the country. Seeing the commitment and conviction of the team of professionals implementing TSC in the country, Planning Commission most willingly loosened its purse strings releasing hundreds of millions of rupees for the programme. TSC was the only programme whose 10th plan outlay was more than doubled during the mid-term review of the plan. Initially there were very few states willing to contribute towards the state share of resources but over a period of time the state share has come in such huge quantity that in few states it has been even more than the contribution made by the central government. There have been a number of factors which helped in spreading this movement which are being analyzed in the following sections.

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT Ideas are like babies which need support till they grow strong. Till such time they need an enabling environment for survival


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and growth. Sanitation promotion in rural India was such an idea which was strongly felt by the turn of the century. This idea was planted in 1999 by launching of TSC. There was an enabling environment for sanitation movement at the national level since beginning which later on spread to states and districts. Due to this enabling environment, a programme which had been so low on the agenda of the country as a whole since ages could turn into a massive campaign across the length and breadth of the country in a short span of time. The recent resurgence of Indian economy combined with India emerging as a global power in the field of information technology and human resources has added to the self-confidence of the country as a whole. India’s advancements in the field of space and nuclear technologies and joining the league of a few select nations having nuclear power have definitely boosted the morale of the nation. India’s desire to be part of the United Nations Security Council and join the league of developed nations cannot be fulfilled with millions of Indian population defecating in the open, along the roadside, along the railway track. The dichotomy of having an economically fast-growing country and at the same time a nation lagging behind in such basic amenities like sanitation has not been easily digested by the top decisionmakers in the Government of India. So whenever they have been made to think over these harsh realities, their conscience has been challenged ensuring adequate priority in the form of policy and resources are given by the Government of India as well as state governments. These things have ensured that India strives for attaining 100 per cent sanitation coverage and wipe out the disgrace of being one of the most insanitary nations in the world. Changing the centuries old behaviour pattern of more than 600 million rural people cannot be an easy task. Successful implementation of low-cost sanitation programme in Medinipur and few other states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had given hope and confidence for scaling up TSC. Introduction of incentive scheme NGP for the PRIs generated an enabling environment for sanitation movement to prosper. A band of dedicated professionals both in the NGOs, PRIs and government sector really believed in the need for sanitation promotion and implemented the programme with full zeal and in right earnest.

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BUILDING ON EXISTING CAMPAIGNS The heritage of Gandhiji, his select band of followers and sanitation movements spearheaded by saints like Gadge Baba and Tukdoji Maharaj in Maharashtra definitely provided the necessary motivation and encouragement. Bhangi Mukti Abhiyan had produced champions of sanitation in the form of dedicated organizations like Safai Vidyalaya, Sulabh International, Nirmal Gram Nirman Kendra and Appa Patwardhan Safai o Tantra Niketan which had enough motivation and capability to train professionals for implementing TSC. In addition, the low-cost sanitary toilet technology was in place due to this movement. This was further strengthened by just-concluded massive awareness programme—Total Literacy Campaign (TLC)—which was implemented in almost all the districts of the country to improve the functional literacy levels in the villages and towns. TLC campaigns were area-specific, timebound, volunteer-based, cost-effective and outcome-oriented. The thrust was on attainment of functional literacy through prescribed norms of literacy and numeracy. The programme had focused on massive social mobilization and imparting practical literacy to illiterates between the age group of 15–45 years in the late 1980s and 1990s. TLC was implemented by a network of NGOs and PRIs. A large number of motivators and literacy volunteers were selected to educate people in all the project districts. A network of resource persons in a pyramid shape was developed for capacity building. Normally one volunteer was selected to teach a group of 10 adult illiterate persons. This had led to capacity building of a large number of volunteers in the villages who were actively involved in the programme implementation. Since it was a campaign, government officials at all levels, Panchayati Raj functionaries and NGOs had developed a synergy among them and were moving frequently to the villages for supporting as well as monitoring the programme implementation. This had increased their visibility and had brought them closer to the people which was an asset for the sanitation movement also. On completion of the literacy campaign, the literacy functionaries were highly energized and looking for new avenues of releasing their energy


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and in such circumstances, TSC filled in the void in many places. There are many districts where the existing TLC infrastructure was significantly used in TSC implementation. PRIs in West Bengal, Jan Shiksha Sansthan in Dakshin Kannada, Karnataka, Jago Behna in Dumka, Jharkhand, etc., are few specific examples of TSC taking off using the literacy movement infrastructure but in some form or the other we find similar examples in almost all states.

SELF-HELP GROUP (SHG) MOVEMENT The mid 1990s witnessed another major movement in India for organizing women into self-help groups (SHGs) for taking up economic activities. These groups followed the strategy of thrift and credit and demonstrated the collective power of women in transforming their own economic and social status in the family as well as in society. A group of 5–15 like minded women form a SHG and save some money out of their normal saving which can be as low as rupee one on a regular basis. Over a period of time this saving grows into a sizeable amount. Not only this, the group dynamics develops and these women find expression in their collective power which is duly recognized by banks and government institutions who first provide an amount matching with their saving as revolving fund and then loan for taking up economic activities. This initiative has been really empowering the rural women in India which has been a timely initiative as without empowering women society cannot progress. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, ‘There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of woman is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing’ (Vivekananda, 1907). Originally promoted by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), this initiative has really transformed the lives of millions of rural women and now this strategy is supported actively by various government ministries like Women and Child Development, Rural Development. It is

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estimated that presently there are more than 1.2 million SHGs in the country involving 20 million women. More than 50 per cent of these groups are in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. The spread of SHGs led also to the formation of SHG federations which are usually registered as societies, mutual benefit trusts and mutually aided cooperative societies. Absence of sanitation both in terms of having access to facilities and hygiene practices adversely impacts women’s privacy and dignity. In fact, if the participation of women, being the primary care giver, increases in sanitation initiatives, it gets directly translated into better hygiene practice with obvious benefits for their children, the elderly, their families and the wider community. In view of these, the organized women SHGs were the potential vehicles for sanitation and hygiene promotion. During the evolution of the TSC programme, few states and districts actively used the network of women SHGs for taking up a range of sanitation promotion activities which were as diverse as social mobilization, operating production centres or sanitary marts, production of sanitary napkins, providing micro credit to its members for constructing toilets, operation and maintenance of community sanitary complexes, community biogas plants, etc. Tamil Nadu government had taken initiative in involving these SHGs in sanitation promotion in a big way. The SHGs organized by the NGO Gramalaya not only provided micro credit but went beyond and included hygiene education as one of its core activities. Adopting approaches like door-to-door survey, community interaction and group discussion in SHG meetings played pivotal role in generating demand for sanitation facility in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. Similarly NGO like Myrada has successfully implemented these approaches in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts of Tamil Nadu as well as Mysore district of Karnataka. SHGs in Karnataka have also been very active in social mobilization for sanitation promotion. In Maharashtra also SHGs have been provided micro credit for toilet construction. In states like Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Tripura, SHGs have


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been successfully involved in managing production centres and running the RSMs. In Bihar, Mahila Samakhya, active in 10 districts with 2,191 women, has intensified the process of social mobilization and helped in accelerating sanitation promotion. Each member of the Mahila Samakhya constructed a toilet in her own house before carrying the message to others. Another innovative area for SHGs involvement has been in sanitary napkins production and menstrual hygiene management in Tamil Nadu which is now spreading to all other states. SHGs are directly marketing the sanitary napkins because of their easy access to village women that in a way ensures double income from labour and share in the sale revenue. Inspired by the important role played by SHGs in sanitation movement, in 2006, Government of India took a major policy decision to further institutionalize their role by providing revolving fund up to Rs 5 million per TSC district. This fund may be used in providing micro credit to SHGs members for toilet construction. This initiative has the potential of strongly binding more than 1.2 million SHGs in this movement in a formal way which is a good sign for sanitation programme in India.

NGP: THE CATALYTIC FACTOR Introduction of the NGP to reward the PRIs has been one of the most significant policy initiatives in rural sanitation sector in India which has completely transformed the programme implementation. For the first time, the award gave recognition to the PRIs for promotion of sanitation and hygiene which was unheard of in the past. The panchayat presidents were distributed the award in a national function by the President of India which added glamour to it and the PRI functionaries received lot of media coverage which motivated other panchayats also. This award itself has become a big communication tool to motivate the PRIs to take up the sanitation promotion activities.

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The first three rounds of awards were distributed by H.E. Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the former President of India. For the first award distribution function, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister for Rural Development had requested H.E. Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, to distribute the awards. A great visionary having strong commitment for social development of rural masses, Dr Kalam gladly accepted the request despite having a broken arm due to a fall he had few days ago. By associating himself and the office of the President of India with NGP, Dr Kalam raised the profile of rural sanitation programme in India and glamourized this subject which has so far been treated as an untouchable in Indian social, political and administrative structure. What he could do in his three years of association with the NGP is many times more than what India had achieved since independence in rural sanitation. The very fact that the Hon’ble President of India himself has distributed the awards has led to lot of enthusiasm among the elected PRIs. In 2008, awards were distributed by H.E. Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil. The number of awarded PRIs has witnessed exponential growth as evident from Table 6.1. Table 6.1: Year wise status of NGP awards Year

2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08

Number of PRI applied for NGP

No. of states from where PRIs applied

No. of PRIs found eligible and given the NGP award

No. of states from where PRIs received award

481 1,680 9,990 30,000

10 18 25 28

40 770 4,959 12,382

6 14 22 25

Source: Compiled by author from ddws.gov.in.

There has been continuous increase in the number of awarded PRIs and the number of states from where PRIs were awarded. This implies that the geographical spread of TSC has been triggered by NGP. Increase in awarded PRIs has been very sharp in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh which may be seen in Table 6.2.


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Table 6.2: State wise number of GPs awarded NGP in ﬁrst three years S. No.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

State

Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Mizoram Orissa Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal Total

2005

2006

2007

No. of PRIs

No. of PRIs

No. of PRIs

1 1 13 13 1 11 40

10 1 4 12 4 6 1 381 8 119 36 40 13 134 769

143 2 3 40 90 576 60 22 12 121 226 190 1,974 3 33 23 27 296 46 488 109 475 4,959

Source: ddws.gov.in.

SANITATION COVERAGE GROWTH OVER THE YEARS Since the introduction of NGP and distribution of first award in February 2005, the sanitation coverage in absolute terms has also significantly increased which may be seen in Figure 6.1. In absolute terms also year wise number of households and schools getting access to toilets has increased significantly since introduction of NGP (Figures 6.2 and 6.3).

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Figure 6.1:

Increase in sanitation coverage and introduction of NGP


Figure 6.2:

Annual construction of household toilets


Spread of the Movement Figure 6.3:

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Annual construction of school toilets


ELIMINATION OF PARALLEL PROGRAMMES OF EXTERNAL AGENCIES Prior to launching of TSC there was no fully scaled up national sanitation programme to achieve a common national goal so many of the international agencies were practicing their own models in different states. Most of these projects were stand-alone in nature trying to experiment approaches which were usually at variance with the TSC. There used to be variation in subsidy structure, institutional structure and the whole mechanism of project management and implementation. For example, different World Bank-assisted projects were having different subsidy structure. WSP-SA an arm of World Bank was advocating for zero subsidy programme in sharp contrast to what the World Bank was doing. Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) was supporting software-intensive sanitation programme which focused more on social mobilization in few select districts of Karnataka

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and Tamil Nadu. Similarly different type of subsidy pattern was followed in KFW-assisted Apni Yojana project in Rajasthan. UNICEF projects were in general not advocating for subsidy but were mostly focused at district level without giving much thought to support the programme across the state or across the country. Most of the projects implemented by external agencies were NGOs driven where panchayats had the minimal role. With the scaling up of TSC, these anomalies in implementation of externally aided projects came to the fore and there was a strong realization that external agencies should not implement their parallel programme but rather support scaling up and effective implementation of TSC which was the national programme and had all the key elements for reforming the rural sanitation sector. A need arose to align the projects funded by international agencies with the TSC to avoid confusion in the field and promote commonly agreed messages. All the agencies responded positively to this need of the hour and accordingly re-aligned their programmes as and when the opportunity came. The first was the UNICEF to redesign its Child Environment Programme 2004–08 to keep in line with the TSC principles and support in scaling up of TSC at national level as well as 14 states where UNICEF was working. World Bank also agreed not to sanction projects deviating from the TSC principles and the strategy and at the time of signing up of Maharashtra World Bank project this issue was kept in mind. Operation of DANIDA had stopped in India but KFW agreed to respect TSC norms in its future projects. Now programmes of all international agencies were aligned with TSC which was one of the great achievements of the rural sanitation movement in India. With a re-alignment of the policies of international agencies greater focus was given on strengthening the programme at national and state levels. This not only produced synergy in the actions of both government and international agencies but also avoided wastage of energy by experimenting stand-alone small projects. This brought strategic shift in strengthening TSC implementation at national and state levels which helped in better utilization of government resources and more focus and directionality


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to achieve the common objectives. This was a big positive factor for TSC to be scaled up as every organization was talking in same voice to all other stakeholders.

CONVERGENCE WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS Any mass mobilization requires involvement of all related stakeholders. TSC was specially targeting the schools and anganwadis so intersectoral convergence with the programmes of these departments was essential. Not only this, sanitation being preventive health care initiative needed convergence with the programmes of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare too. This convergence was more relevant in view of the massive National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched by the Government of India during 2003–04. Realizing the need and the importance of such intersectoral convergence, the DWS Department initiated dialogue with the Departments of Elementary Education implementing universal education programme (SSA), Women and Child Development implementing Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme and Health & Family Welfare implementing NRHM. A series of convergence meetings organized during 2003–04 helped in broad agreement at the national level among different departments regarding their roles and responsibilities in supporting different elements of TSC and sent the correct signal to the state and district authorities which formed the basis for convergence at the field level. In the administrative structure in India, most of the development programmes converge at the district level either under the chair of the district collector or the district panchayat president depending upon the extent of decentralization in different states. Since School Sanitation & Hygiene Education (SSHE) was an important component of TSC, convergence with the School Education Department needed special attention. Mr Palat Mohandas had his first meeting with Mr Sushil Tripathi, Secretary, Department

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of Elementary Education in April 2003 to discuss possible areas of convergence in the programmes of the two departments—TSC and ARWSP of Department for Drinking Water Supply (DDWS) and SSA and District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of DEE&L. Programmes of both the departments had the mandate for providing water supply and sanitation facilities in the rural government schools. Due to lack of convergent action, many times facilities used to be created from more than one programme in the same school and at the same time some schools remained uncovered persistently. So there was a need to streamline the mechanism of sanctioning water and sanitation facilities in the schools to avoid duplication by well-coordinated decisions at state and district levels. Overall, this aspect was appreciated by both the departments and it was decided that out of the remaining schools yet to be provided with water supply and sanitation facilities, DEE&L would provide funds for water supply facility in 120,000 schools and toilet facilities in 220,000 schools and DDWS would finance water supply in 225,000 schools and toilet in 353,000 schools. Later on, DEE&L decided not to sanction water and sanitation facilities in rural schools to avoid duplication and decided to focus only on urban schools. This decision was taken unilaterally which was against the spirit of working together but from the operational point of view it was a practical decision which was by default accepted by different stakeholders. Another important decision taken was to make the toilet designs friendly for disabled children and to make water supply and toilet facilities an integral part of all new school building construction. This implied that SSA would take care of this requirement in future. Realizing the urgency of providing these basic facilities in the rural schools an ambitious timeframe of covering all primary and upper primary schools in next two years was decided. This convergence initiative also stressed on pooling of resources for operation and maintenance of school toilets and DEE&L offered that operation and maintenance grant given to the schools under SSA could be used for maintenance of toilets also. These provisions could be operationalized in many schools but at the


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same time various schools found this grant to be too insufficient to be used for operation and maintenance of toilets. Both departments agreed for focus on software aspects of school sanitation programme and decided that not only schoolteachers should be trained on important issues of water supply and sanitation but also the school curriculum could be suitably modified to incorporate the elements of environmental sanitation. National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in few states took the lead in modifying the school curriculum also. An important outcome of this initiative was to have regular interaction between both the departments at national level to monitor the programme implementation and sort out the issues among them and a letter to all the chief secretaries was sent to operationalize the decisions. Both the departments started inviting officials of other department in their respective scheme sanctioning committee meetings which helped in accommodating the concerns and requirements of both the departments while sanctioning new projects. In order to operationalize this partnership at the district and state level, the format for preparing PIP at the district level was suitably modified and a separate template for state-level action plan was developed and circulated among the states to work out a comprehensive school sanitation and hygiene education action plan covering both the software and hardware components. Most of the states were in a position to include a two days module for water supply and sanitation in the compulsory 20 days (per year) training module of school teachers under SSA. New genderfriendly designs for school toilets were developed to provide separate facilities for boys and girls in the rural schools. Many rural schools provided proper water supply and sanitation facilities and also imparted hygiene education (Photograph 6.1). To bring sanitation high on the agenda of the school education departments in the state governments, UNICEF also supported SSHE cells in most of its priority states like West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Assam.

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Photograph 6.1: Children wash hands at the primary school Hiware Bazar (NGP in 2007), Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra

Courtesy: UNICEF/India/Adam Ferguson.

CONVERGENCE WITH ICDS Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme has been under implementation since 1975 to improve the nutritional and health status of 0–6 years children, promote early childhood care and education to improve school enrolment and retention and reduce incidence of malnutrition, morbidity and mortality. A large number of ICDS centres popularly known as anganwadi centres have been functioning throughout the country. There are approximately 1 million anganwadi centres in India each having one anganwadi worker and one helper. Being from the same community, anganwadi worker plays an effective role in mobilizing community for any social development programme including literacy campaign, pulse polio immunization programme or routine immunization programme, etc. TSC which targets to reach out to all the villages in the country could’t afford not to include


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the anganwadi workers in the campaign. Not only this, the young children coming to the centres need to be trained in using the toilet as well as imparted hygiene behaviour at the very young age for which training and orientation of anganwadi workers was essential. This also entailed the installation of hardware facilities like water supply and toilets in the anganwadi centres. So in order to have harmony between both the programmes at the field level the process of convergence began at the national level through a meeting between both the secretaries—Mr Palat Mohandas and Mrs Kasturi Gupta Menon in April 2004. They agreed for convergence of efforts in both the programmes to maximize the benefits for the community at the village level. However, the cooperation faced two major challenges—first, ICDS programme had no budget for providing hardware facilities in the anganwadi centres and second, most of the anganwadi centres were operating from private buildings and even their exact numbers were unknown. So it was decided to firstly ascertain the exact number of anganwadis operating in government, private or community buildings and the status of availability of water and sanitation facilities in such centres. Mrs Menon, Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), requested all the respective state secretaries to furnish this information. In addition, baseline survey format finalized in TSC was suitably modified to collect this information. The Department of Drinking Water Supply agreed to bear the cost of providing water supply and toilet facilities in anganwadis under TSC to tide over the resource constraint of DWCD. Some states raised reservations in constructing toilets in those anganwadis which were operating from private houses. A temporary solution was found by allowing the TSC project districts to construct toilets using TSC fund and recover the amount in easy instalments from the house owner. Mrs Menon appreciated the idea of involving anganwadi workers working at the village level for motivating women for taking up the construction of toilets in their houses and issued official instructions also to the state secretaries in charge of ICDS programme. This paved the way for engaging anganwadi workers

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as motivators in TSC and in many districts they have done a commendable work. Their involvement has really improved TSC implementation. Subsequently when Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh became the Minister for Rural Development he gave very high priority to SSHE and anganwadi component of TSC and in order to further strengthen the process of intersectoral coordination and effective implementation of School and Anganwadi Sanitation Programme constituted a Central Coordination Panel headed by Secretary, Department of Drinking Water Supply. The other members of the panel were: additional secretary and financial advisor of the Ministry of Rural Development and joint secretaries of the Departments of Elementary Education, Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, Drinking Water Supply, Tribal Welfare and Social Justice and Empowerment. This coordination panel used to meet regularly initially and was instrumental in sorting out various convergence issues; however, with the passage of time the frequency of the meetings reduced. Despite these initiatives, there have been huge challenges in ensuring convergence which are discussed in the relevant chapter.

CONVERGENCE WITH HEALTH MINISTRY AND NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH MISSION (NRHM) Sanitation promotion is primarily a preventive health care measure which is usually handled by Ministry of Health and like many other countries even in India the earliest water supply and sanitation programmes launched in 1954 were managed by the Ministry of Health. So the involvement of Ministry of Health in proper implementation of sanitation programme does not need much emphasis. At the time when TSC was being scaled up and operationalized in the districts, NRHM was being conceptualized by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as the umbrella programme for all health-related interventions in the rural areas. The goal of the mission was to improve the availability of and access to


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quality health care by people, especially for those residing in rural areas, the poor, women and children. The NRHM was focusing on a synergy among determinants of good health, namely segments of nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and safe drinking water, through a decentralized management of health programmes involving community participation and ownership of assets. In order to meet its objectives, NRHM introduced the concept of community health worker called Auxiliary Social Health Activist (ASHA) who was supposed to be an honorary worker trained in various basic health care activities. Like anganwadi worker, ASHA worker was also to be selected from the community and had the potential of mobilizing rural households for taking up toilet construction as well as adopting hygiene behaviour. ASHA worker was to be paid honorarium for different types of services provided and no monthly emoluments. Her involvement as motivator in TSC was beneficial for both the programmes. On the one hand, she could get some financial support as motivator and on the other hand, her involvement would have been effective in social mobilization. So on this issue there was an immediate convergence of opinion of both the departments. Implementation of TSC at the village level was supposed to be done through Gram Panchayats and in bigger Gram Panchayats, Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) were supposed to be constituted. In NRHM also there was a provision of Village Health Committee (VHC) in every village. There was a proposal mooted by Mrs Jalaja Sinha, the then Mission Director, NRHM to have common committees at the district and village levels for both the programmes. Since in TSC, Zilla Parishad was the nodal institution it was felt that the convergence at district level might take place in the Zilla Parishad meetings while at the village level common committees could be constituted. Since, TSC implementation had started ahead of NRHM in most of the places, VWSCs were already in place in many districts. So it was decided that the existing VWSCs could also be used as VHCs. In those states where VHCs were already in existence like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, VHCs were adopted as VWSCs also. These two important decisions helped in bringing convergence

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between both the programmes and we had very good examples of ASHA workers leading the sanitation campaign in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh where due to their efforts about 11 Gram Panchayats became open defecation free and received NGP in the year 2006. There are many cases where ASHA workers have played the pivotal role in sanitation promotion.

NEW PARTNERSHIPS Great achievements are made only when the goals are pursued with right intentions and not by mere superficial actions. This requires continuous and collective actions by a large number of people. Grain by grain one can add quintals if continuous effort is made. Birds make a good nest for themselves by picking up small grass particles. Even though small in quantity but contributions made by a large number of people are always in a position to achieve big goals. Instances in history bear testimony to many extraordinary and miraculous achievements made through the coordination of human endeavour. The freedom movement against the British regime is a living example of how collective strength of a nation could get rid of the mighty British Empire from India. A programme like TSC which had targeted to spread the message of sanitation and hygiene to more than 138 million households having about 670 million people couldn’t do justice to its objectives by not involving all different stakeholders in the society. After operationalization of the 73rd amendment of the Indian Constitution, more than 3 million elected panchayat members are managing the affairs of their respective Gram Panchayats. These elected representatives are the leaders selected by the society at the village level who are in a position to influence the community to a significant extent. About a million plus anganwadi centres in the rural areas have more than a million anganwadi workers and helpers which are community workers from the same village and well-respected for the services provided by them to the women


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and children in their villages. There are more than 1.2 million government primary and upper primary schools in the countryside having more than 3 million schoolteachers who are not only role models for the society in many parts but exercise considerable amount of power in shaping the thinking of the community. Newly launched NRHM has the provision of community health worker ASHA which again will be numbering more than a million in 18 priority states where NRHM has been launched. In addition to this, there is a huge army of government employees at the field level from various departments who can play a significant role in social mobilization. Swami Vivekananda had observed, ‘Let her (new India) ariseout of the peasants’ cottage, out of the huts of the fisherman, the cobbler, and the sweeper. Let her spring from the grocer’s shop, from beside the oven of the fritter-seller. Let her emanate from the factory, from marts, and from markets. Let her emerge from groves and forests, from hills and mountains’ (Vivekananda, 1907). If India has to rise, every section of the society will have to progress and participate in the process of development. Any social mobilization initiative at such a large scale needs the support of as many people as possible and in this context TSC cannot be considered to be a sectoral programme of Public Health Engineering Departments or rural development departments only but a cross-sectoral programme involving various government programmes and functionaries as well as civil society. The intersectoral convergence attempted with other line departments had been helpful in mobilizing functionaries from different programmes for social mobilization purpose. TSC guidelines also provided the flexibility of incorporating any of the foregoing category functionaries as motivators. Not only this, youth organizations like National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuvak Kendra (NYK) were also gradually involved in various states and districts. In addition, a fleet of educated unemployed youth was identified as motivators at the village level. Effort was made to involve the SHGs also which are numbering more than 1.2 million in the country having more than 20 million women registered as members and this number is ever increasing. Even dairy

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cooperatives in Gujarat and Fair Price Shops were involved in sanitation promotion in whatever way they could contribute. An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. If these functionaries had to effectively motivate the community in adopting toilets for defecation and other hygiene practices at least they themselves must have adopted the changed behaviour and given up the practice of open defecation. The practice of open defecation has been so rampant that even many government employees were not having toilets in the villages and preferred to go for open defecation. In view of this an initiative was taken by Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister for Rural Development, in mid 2005 to request all chief ministers of the states to take up a special drive for toilet construction by the government functionaries. Not only this, he also requested the states to consider amending the State Panchayat Act to make it mandatory to have a toilet at house before contesting panchayat elections. States like Sikkim, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra initiated legislation in this direction. In order to get the full support of public representatives like Members of Parliament and Members of State Legislative Assemblies individual letters seeking their support for TSC were written by Minister for Rural Development which evoked good response from the elected representatives. Unless these various key functionaries of society include social welfare amongst their essential commitments, an environment of cooperation, goodwill and responsible conduct cannot be created which is the very basis for progress of the society. On the other hand, individuals obsessed with personal gains become so narrow in their outlook that they tend to become oblivious of their social responsibilities and are hardly concerned about the need for working collectively with other public servants. In social interaction, this phenomenon gives rise to many evils of separatist and individualistic tendencies which is not at all in the interest of collectively attaining noble goals for the society. Various efforts made under TSC by forging alliances led to involvement of a wide cross section of society in sanitation promotion. Some became active players and some provided passive support but any kind of support was useful for building the sanitation campaign.


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The campaign has generated some kind of magnetic force which has looked for and collected a group of motivated people through its magnetism. Strong motivation and desire to make TSC a successful campaign connects them with their centre of attraction. Just like iron particles near a strong magnet get attracted to it and accumulate at one place, something similar happened in case of TSC when a large number of like-minded people got attracted to the very ideal of promoting sanitation and eliminating open defecation.

7 Key Achievements and Learnings

E

ver since the sanitation movement has started in India a large number of rural households have constructed toilets. At macro level the majority of the people have been guided by one of the trigger factors like shame, pride, health and convenience. However, at household level the reason for constructing toilets varies significantly. The famous Saas (mother-in-law) Bahu (daughterin-law) rivalry had resulted in toilet construction also. In one household in Nandigram II block of East Medinipur district, I was told that the daughter-in-law used to take lot of time while going for open defecation and in her absence, the mother-in-law was forced to do household work. So the mother-in-law got a toilet constructed. Pride and dignity of the household in the eyes of would-be son-in-law or daughter-in-law also has been a trigger factor in many places. Harihar in Balrampur district had to construct a toilet in house because his son was marrying an urban girl who was not used to open defecation. Similarly, Kanu Chakraborty in West Medinipur had to construct toilet because his son-in-law was coming to stay at his house for the first time. The story of Raghubir Yadav in Panipat was little different. His son Rampal used to remain upset for not being able to invite his urban college friends to his village primarily because there was no toilet in his house and the friends would have been forced to defecate in the open. This was quite embarrassing for Rampal.

Key Achievements and Learnings

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When Raghubir learnt about the problem, he immediately constructed toilet in his house. With rapid growth in population and resultant deforestation, in many villages people don’t find adequate space for open defecation. The problem is more complicated in villages lying in peri-urban areas. There are many villages which are collectively motivated to adopt toilets primarily because of this reason. During one of my field visits, many households in few villages of Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh had cited this as a major reason for construction of toilets. At times caste rivalry appeared to have had positive impact on sanitation promotion in its own way. A bizarre incident from Kanpur Dehat district came to our notice where due to government support Dalit households had constructed toilets and started using also. The upper caste families continued to go for open defecation and when they noticed that Dalits were no longer defecating in open it hurt their pride so much that they forced the Dalits not to use their toilets till upper caste people had constructed for themselves. A skewed but positive outcome of social inequalities! The pride element has been quite a lot attached with the toilet. The vent pipe of the septic tank has traditionally been considered to be a status symbol. That is why even if it is not required in leach pit toilets, people deliberately place a vent pipe above the leach pit. Most of the households in Andhra Pradesh had installed such vent pipes primarily guided by this factor. A large number of households in western Maharashtra villages were motivated by their individual as well as village pride. Experience shows that toilets have appealed to the women the most. Once I went to a village in West Tripura district for monitoring the programme along with Manish Kumar, who was the district collector. One household had constructed the toilet but was not using the same. Some senior district official had already visited his house a day earlier. When I tried to ask the gentleman in the house reasons for not using the toilet, his wife who was listening to the conversation immediately jumped out and replied, ‘She needs the toilet and please don’t take it away.’ She thought that on the ground of not using the toilet, government may

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withdraw the sanitary materials supplied to her. She also mentioned that they were not using only because block authorities had not yet inspected the toilet. Toilets have also been a medium of bringing the women’s problem to the fore. Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad (RKMLP) volunteers had gone 18 times to a household in Nandakumar Gram Panchayat (GP) in Medinipur but the house owner was reluctant to construct a toilet. When for 19th time the same thing happened, the woman in the house started weeping which made her husband realize her problems and the husband became sensitive enough to spend money for constructing toilet. Sometimes society suffers more because of poverty of feelings than money. Richest persons on the earth are those who have self pride. In the same GP, when RKMLP volunteers approached a very poor household for contribution to construct toilet, initially the woman expressed her inability to contribute. As the volunteers were about to leave the house, the woman became very emotional and brought some grains stored in her house and offered as her contribution saying, ‘Even otherwise also we at best eat only one meal per day. Take these grains; I will manage with one meal today also.’ When the ethos of a movement occupies the heart and mind of ordinary people, the movement cannot fail. It has to succeed only. Pichhalda GP in Medinipur had another story to narrate. There was a property-related dispute among two brothers in this GP and both were not on talking terms. Because of them, their wives were almost forced not to talk to each other. When the sanitation motivator visited this house the ladies expressed inability to construct toilets on account of not having enough land with any family for constructing toilet due to the dispute. The motivator advised them to use a part land of each family and share the toilet. It was a frightening idea for them as their husbands would have made their life miserable. Anyway their need was so strong that they agreed to construct toilet and shared the contribution among themselves. When the two brothers saw this development they were also moved and the animosity got converted into brotherhood once again.

Key Achievements and Learnings Photograph 7.1:

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A proud Prabhu Devi stands inside the toilet constructed by her under TSC in Muzaffarpur District, Bihar

Courtesy: UNICEF/India/Adam Ferguson.

If the society has been insensitive to the sanitation needs for ages, it is also true that sanitation movement had touched the hearts of many. People have adopted toilets for a variety of reasons. A large number of volunteers, officials, PRI members have been involved in the programme who felt that sanitation was important for overall well being of the society. They felt the pulse of the people and could read the latent demand for toilets among the households. They had the faith and confidence that if the issue of sanitation was presented before the people in the right perspective, people would accept the toilets and the new way of life. Analysis of the sanitation movement in India so far throws up a number of learning lessons which are relevant not only for future course of sanitation programme in India but also for other developing countries struggling with the poor sanitation problem. The key lessons are discussed in the following section.

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FAITH IN TOTAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN PRINCIPLES If we want to succeed, we must have faith in what we do. It was the indomitable faith of RKMLP in basic strategy of Intensive Sanitation Programme which made them succeed. Swami Vivekananda has in very clear terms highlighted the need for pursuing an idea faithfully. He has said, ‘Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; think of it; dream of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea and just leave every idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced’ (Vivekananda, DVD). This is very relevant. For implementing Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), faith and conviction of the important functionaries at all levels in the key policies and strategies adopted in TSC was essential. In absence of belief in the policies and their internalization, proper implementation could not have been expected. Even though TSC was introduced but there were very few takers of this strategy in most of the states. There were more questions than answers from the people in most of the meetings, workshops and seminars. The low-subsidy approach as well as the decentralized delivery mechanism envisaged in TSC used to be the target of attack of most of the state governments. There were innumerable numbers of requests and pressures to change the basic character of the programme on the ground that the TSC strategy was not workable and needed a shift. It was sheer faith in the key strategies which made the Government of India not only continue with it stubbornly but also convince other state governments one by one to implement programme. Swami Vivekananda has said, ‘Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition and the acceptance. Each man who thinks ahead of his time is sure to be misunderstood’ (Vivekananda, 1907). TSC also passed through these phases. However, this faith could be strengthened by Government of India, state governments and other key functionaries through experience sharing and exposure visits to some of these successful projects where TSC principles were actually operationalized. Developing key building blocks, training a large number


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of functionaries and monitoring of the programme, etc., helped in converting this faith and conviction in actual achievement in the field. Implementation of the programme with righteous means and in true spirit by a number of dedicated sanitation workers has been able to take the sanitation messages in almost all districts in the country. There was an absolute confidence in the fact that people in the villages needed toilets and if approached properly would construct them. If there was any debate it was related to the approach to be followed. The trust in the abilities of the PRIs to promote sanitation also got amply proved with the sudden spread of Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP).

LOW PRIORITY TO SANITATION—A BOON IN DISGUISE

Low priority attached to the rural sanitation programme by most of the key stakeholders turned out to be a boon in disguise. As already mentioned earlier, sector reform in both water supply and sanitation sectors were introduced simultaneously and both Sector Reform Project (SRP) and TSC projects were sanctioned together in 67 districts in the country. The average outlay of SRP project was about Rs 400 million and Rs 60–80 million in case of TSC project. Both the projects introduced decentralized approach of project planning, execution, monitoring and operation and maintenance. The government agencies were supposed to act as facilitator rather than service provider. The panchayats or the community-based organizations including Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) were supposed to be in the forefront of decision-making. The Public Health Engineering Departments (PHEDs) and state governments in most of the states were not impressed with this approach and probably thought that it would be disastrous for their organization in the long run. Due to high priority attached to the water supply programme, and higher resources available for the sector, they first delayed the implementation and then opposed the very principle of sector

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reform and Swajaldhara. Neither the mind nor the heart was fully applied in implementing the sector reform/Swajaldhara which ultimately resulted in dilution of the reform principles and finally the programme was merged in the supply-driven Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) programme. Total Sanitation Campaign was such a low priority programme for many states that they were not much interested even in analyzing the policy and its implications for them. On the one hand, this attitude posed a serious challenge in operationalizing the programme but on the other hand, it allowed consistency in the policy because there weren’t excessive pressures from the states to amend the guidelines except for the demand to increase the subsidy for household toilets. Any new policy initiative (like Nirmal Gram Puraskar, NGP) taken up was usually not opposed by the states which helped in testing and operationalizing these policies. Changes introduced in the TSC guidelines were more to strengthen the programme whereas changes in Swajaldhara guidelines were being made to accommodate the demands of the states which were leading to dilution in the overall reform principles. So in retrospect, low priority attached to the programme turned out to be a boon in disguise and helped the TSC programme gain ground.

COMPASSIONATE FLEET OF IMPLEMENTERS Without feelings and emotions even a living human being is like a dead body which rots by itself and also pollutes the surroundings. Nothing is expected from a dead body which is recognized by only two attributes—inaction and insensitivity. It cannot even hear the scream of a person sitting next to it. Such people can be stimulated by arousing their feelings and emotions. Darkness of life also starts waning away the moment flames of compassion are set ablaze in our hearts. The restlessness generated because of sensitivity towards human problems is quite different and


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forces people to more actively work for the welfare of the society. Capacity-building initiatives in TSC tried to generate this restlessness in the conscientious people involved in programme implementation. Sanitation not being a very glamorous subject could not attract a large number of professionals, but those who opted to work for it were highly inspired souls fully sensitive of the ill effects of poor sanitation and hygiene on the health and dignity of the women and children, and to the pride of Indian as a nation. Persons like Mr S. S. Chakraborty, Mr C. C. Dey, Mr Srikant Navrekar, Dr S. V. Mapuskar and Professor Ishwar Bhai Patel, even though a small group of people, were inspired by noble ideals and hence were able to motivate many more in the field. Spread of TSC and NGP in India has witnessed emergence of a new breed of emotionally charged development administrators, PRI functionaries, sanitation professionals and grassroot-level workers who joined hands in this noble mission of making India clean. Ranging from state secretaries, district collectors, NGOs to the panchayat presidents, a strong fleet of dedicated and compassionate sanitation volunteers came up throughout the length and breadth of the country who were the torchbearers of the sanitation movement. They took it up as a challenging mission and gave the extra push required to make TSC a different programme and ensured that it was not business as usual. They were not working in TSC to earn their livelihood but to achieve much bigger goal of seeing an open defecation-free area around them.

GLAMOURIZING SANITATION PROGRAMME Due to the low self-esteem attached with sanitation because of age-old cultural influences, it has never been considered to be glamorous subject for the political as well as administrative class to be fully involved. As a result there have been very few champions of rural sanitation within and outside the government.

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Except a handful of people who have been profusely inspired by the teachings of saints like Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda very few others had joined this movement. Even when Gandhiji gave a call to the Congress workers to come forward for liberation of scavengers very few people responded to him for this purpose, while millions had joined Gandhiji as Satyagrahi during the freedom movement. A movement is never scaled up in true sense if the larger cross section of society is not involved. In the current social set-up majority of the people are attracted by the glamour associated with a programme. Only by glamourizing the subject of rural sanitation a wide spectrum of stakeholders in the society could be motivated for sanitation and hygiene promotion. Introduction of NGP and distribution of the awards by the President of India himself brought the much sought after glamour in the programme. Presidents of the GPs were enamoured by the idea of getting the NGP from the President of India and shaking hands with him. This was a big motivation for them to work for achieving NGP status implying eliminating open defecation from their villages. The NGP awardees were not only felicitated in a function in Delhi but much more followed them later on which included lot of coverage in the media giving them additional political mileage and improving their image among their people. The GP presidents became the cynosure of all eyes and really felt elated. It has definitely motivated other panchayats to work for achieving NGP status in the hope of commanding the same respect and glamour. In addition, many state governments organized state level functions to felicitate the NGP awardees and in most of the states chief ministers themselves interacted with the awardees and felicitated them. This was a big morale booster for not only the PRIs but also for the district officials who were facilitating the PRIs to attain NGP status. Review and monitoring of the number of NGP-awarded villages in districts and states became a normal feature both at the national and state level which added priority among the district functionaries. Even in those states where nothing was happening in the name of rural sanitation, pressure from below initiated the process of TSC implementation.


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INCENTIVE WORKS: EFFICIENT WAY OF RESOURCE UTILIZATION

Sanitation sector in India witnessed two important incentive schemes for sanitation and hygiene promotion in the villages. As explained earlier, NGP was one of the biggest incentive schemes defining a benchmark which if achieved by the village panchayats could be given to any number of such panchayats. The NGP motivated the PRIs and also government officials to try to eliminate open defecation and get the award. As a result number of NGP awardees increased almost exponentially. In 2000, Government of Maharashtra had launched another incentive scheme in the name of Saint Gadge Baba who mobilized rural community in Maharashtra for adopting sanitation and hygiene practices. This incentive scheme followed a competitive model where top three panchayats at block, district and state level used to be rewarded by the state government. In order to select the panchayats, criteria in the form of 11 important sanitation and hygiene-related indicators was developed by the state government. Performance of the applicant panchayats used to be peer reviewed by teams constituted from other districts. The state level award used to be distributed by the Governor of Maharashtra to the selected panchayats which was a good motivating force for the PRIs to be involved in sanitation promotion. Saint Gadge Baba campaign led to tremendous amount of social mobilization in the villages and resources were pooled from various channels which included community contribution, funds from different government programmes, and MLA and MP local area development programme. As per estimates of Government of Maharashtra, just by small amount as incentive money, community work worth Rs 2 billion (Kalshetti, 2007) was completed in the villages in the year 2000–01. This speaks volumes about the efficacy of incentive scheme in government programme. The incentive schemes reoriented the thinking of the programme implementers to focus on 100 per cent sanitation coverage in the villages to reap the real health benefit of open defecation-free

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status. This has helped in focusing the energy of the PRIs and programme managers in this direction which makes the investments more efficient and result oriented. It can be safely concluded that NGP and Saint Gadge Baba programmes have indicated that incentive works quite effectively in social sector programmes.

SYSTEMS BUILDING Gandhiji had said that if you set one corner of a square the other corners would automatically be set. Setting systems right is essential for implementing any programme on a large scale. For making a building we need to have various ingredients like bricks, mortar, sand, cement and trained masons without which the building cannot be completed. One of the common mistakes done in many government programmes is that adequate effort is not made on developing key building blocks in the absence of which not only the foundation but the whole structure of the building remains very weak. It has already been outlined in Chapter 4 that TSC focused on developing systems and key building blocks to operationalize different components of the sanitation campaign which has been one of the most critical factors for scaling up of the programme. It is worth mentioning that TSC projects were launched in 1999; however, in the initial 3–4 years the physical and financial achievements were very poor. There were very few districts which were seriously implementing the TSC programme. However, with continuous effort on systems strengthening slowly the programme implementation improved.

INCREASING THE STAKEHOLDERS The present era belongs to the majority and collective power. Even nature presents plenty of examples related to this. If birds collectively apply force, they succeed in even lifting a strong net in one


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stroke. Bricks combined together build palatial structures. Drop by drop a pot is filled up. Small bits of grass together make ropes which can even tie elephants. If we work collectively, achieving a goal becomes very easy. Even big and difficult achievements can be easily accomplished by collective action. Total Sanitation Campaign has amply demonstrated that if sanitation campaign has to be effective, involvement of all different stakeholders is necessary. It cannot remain confined as a government programme implemented by a handful of junior engineers. For making it a mass movement, involvement of various stakeholders like PRIs, SHGs, anganwadi workers, village motivators, key opinion leaders, NGOs, teachers and village-level government functionaries is required. The more the involvement, the better is the social mobilization and quality of programme implementation. States like West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat where different groups are actively involved, TSC has been considerably scaled up. On the other hand, states like Orissa, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand where line departments initially tried to keep the programme confined to their department only lagged behind in mobilizing community for adopting sanitation. Another important learning has been that unless sanitation is accorded priority by the state government, proper convergence of efforts doesn’t take place. With state priority institutional conflicts get resolved immediately and all institutions work as a team, otherwise blame game continues among different institutions.

FLEXIBILITY IN TSC GUIDELINES A diverse country like India having about 600 districts spread across 29 states with different socio-cultural and geographical conditions needs state and district-specific adaptability in programme implementation which necessitate flexible programme guidelines. The second national seminar on rural sanitation held in July 1998 before launching of TSC had also recommended

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for the flexibility in guidelines to permit local level innovations; accordingly, TSC guidelines had been made flexible enough. On the one hand, the flexibility did not suit to many such districts and states which were not willing to take decisions at their end within the overall parameters of programme guidelines but on the other hand, this came as a boon for those field-level implementers who were achievers and wanted to innovate different strategies and approaches. Over the years in TSC, we have witnessed various such innovations at the village/district levels, many of which later on got included in the main programme also. Involvement of SHGs in social mobilization, financing toilets by SHGs, milk cooperatives, banks, etc., introduction of ecosanitation and management of menstrual hygiene of women were few such examples which could be tried in the field due to this flexibility available in the guidelines. The flexibility given in managing the supply chain has led to operationalization of various forms of delivery mechanism in different states. A range of institutions like the NGOs, SHGs, PRIs and private entrepreneurs are managing the production centres or rural sanitary marts in different states which would not have been possible if a fixed guideline was given to the field functionaries. Not only this, even for construction of household and school toilets, resources have been dovetailed from other rural development programmes or Finance Commission grants which has helped in accelerating the programme implementation. There are numerous such examples throughout the country which if documented will constitute volumes.

EXPOSURE VISITS Lord Buddha had preached, ‘Believe nothing just because a socalled wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.’


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There were very few officials and PRI members willing to believe that the new TSC strategy of low-cost sanitation could actually work. Being used to implement a very high subsidy programme over the years, it was not easy to accept the new paradigm of rural sanitation without actually seeing and testing the results on the ground as taught by Lord Buddha. So a large number of exposure visits to successful sanitation projects were organized for TSC functionaries to have first-hand experience that what was talked about was not utopian but actually implemented on the ground. If TSC could succeed in few villages of one state, it could also succeed in other places. Secondly the visiting delegations could learn about the actual process of social mobilization and programme management. There was magical effect of these exposure visits on the district implementation teams. The case of South Tripura district is quite inspiring. Immediately after an exposure visit to Medinipur, district officials and PRIs realized the importance of social mobilization and relevance of low-subsidy approach. They became so enthusiastic in implementing TSC that they could reach almost 100 per cent coverage in about one year time frame. The story of South Tripura district is just the tip of the iceberg. A large number of TSC project districts and state officials visited Medinipur and other successful TSC projects in the country to understand the philosophy and implementation strategy of TSC and this really helped in operationalizing the programme in these districts. Two more national resource institutions—Gandhigram Rural University in Tamil Nadu and the Environmental Sanitation Institute in Gujarat—played very important role in organizing training and exposure visits for various states and districts. This was one initiative which was the most effective one and now with the scaling up of TSC and more than 5,700 GPs receiving NGP, every state and also many districts have successful projects where such exposure visits are being organized. Now similar exposure visits are being organized for the promotion of solid and liquid waste management and menstrual hygiene management programmes. Two more organizations, Nashik-based Nirmal Gram Nirman Kendra and Pune-based Appa Patwardhan Safai o Tantra Niketan, are facilitating such exposure visits. If I have to rate the most

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effective initiative in scaling up TSC, it is the exposure visits of various stakeholders which has helped in cross-fertilization of ideas and development of new models of implementation. Without exposure visits many implementers would have continued to work as frogs in their well and TSC would never have been scaled up to this level. Learning from this experience UNICEF and Government of India have initiated international learning exchange in water and sanitation sector for international delegates since 2006.

SUPPLY-DRIVEN SANCTION OF TSC PROJECTS— INCREASED PRIORITY OF THE STATES It has been noticed that the priority accorded by the state governments to TSC was somewhat proportional to the percentage of districts implementing TSC in the state. As long as the number of TSC projects was low in states, very few of them were actually according priority to the programme. This could be because of two reasons—first, the total financial involvement of all the projects was not very high and second, since all districts were not concerned, states were not interested in spending so much of time on implementing and monitoring a small programme. Every year limited number of TSC projects used to be sanctioned for every state. Suddenly a demand came from few states to sanction TSC in all their districts. These states felt that if TSC was scaled up to the whole state, it would be easier for them to facilitate implementation and monitor the programme as common capacity-building activities and IEC campaign could be adopted for the whole state. This was a good idea which was fully supported by the Government of India and norms for sanction of new TSC projects were modified to accommodate this request. It is worth mentioning that when TSC was launched, in the beginning of every financial year approximate number of districts to be taken up in that year used to be decided and allocated among all the states following similar norms adopted for allocation of fund to the states under CRSP. As per this criterion proportionate


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distribution of districts used to take place and there was no way additional project request from a particular state could be accommodated. This system continued for first 3–4 years. At that time it was noticed that there were two categories of states—one which were implementing the programme to some extent and another where the progress was absolutely nil over the many years. To continue with the proportionate allocation of districts despite the nil progress was not logical at all. So it was decided to accommodate the request of those states which were interested in scaling up of TSC and were also in a position to provide the required state share. This was good for Government of India also as handholding and monitoring efforts would get more focused and confined to few interested states initially. Later on when TSC projects were sanctioned in all the willing states, pressure was applied on the remaining states to submit TSC proposals so that those could be sanctioned. Effectively supply-driven approach for sanction of TSC projects was adopted which forced even the unwilling states like Karnataka, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Manipur to develop and submit TSC project proposals. Had the TSC projects not been sanctioned in this manner it would have been difficult to scale up TSC and the whole process would have been delayed by at least 2–3 more years. The key learning has been that social mobilization-intensive projects must be taken up for the whole state rather than few districts only. There is greater likelihood of success and better quality implementation if the programme is taken across the state and across the country provided that resources are available.

HIGHER OWNERSHIP AT POLITICAL LEVEL NEEDED FOR SUCCESS Another key lesson learnt has been that high-level priority from the political leadership is required for success of the rural sanitation programme. Initially very few officials and also politicians

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had shown concern for TSC resulting in low priority for implementation. However, if the political leadership fully understands the importance of the programme in improving the quality of life of the people as well as reducing the disease burden in the villages they have shown tremendous amount of ownership which gets translated in accelerated implementation of the programme. We have many such examples from the states. West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, etc., were the states where full priority to sanitation was accorded both at the political and administrative level which reflects in their good performance. There was always higher political ownership of TSC programme in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. When Mr Chandrababu Naidu was Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, under the Janmabhoomi programme implemented by the state government, sanitation was given high priority; as a result TSC implementation had very much accelerated in those days. Since 2004, when Gujarat government attached priority to the rural sanitation programme and both chief minister and chief secretary actively supported the programme, implementation at ground level had increased manifold. TSC acceleration rate in Gujarat may be considered to be one of the fastest in the country. Similarly, in Uttar Pradesh also sanitation had been accorded high priority during 2003–04 by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, the then chief minister, in his own way which led to increased budgetary allocation for the programme and more than 9 million households have got access to toilet facilities in Uttar Pradesh alone in the past 4–5 years. In the Government of India fortunately most of the ministers and secretaries had accorded high priority to the programme. However, under the leadership of Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister for Rural Development, TSC has seen new heights because of his strong involvement in the programme. Not only at national and state levels but also ownership at district level by the key functionaries is essential for success of the programme without which implementation does not take off. The quality and pace of implementation in West Bengal, Maharashtra, etc., is proof of this hypothesis.


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FOCUS ON ACTIVITIES RATHER THAN ONLY RESULTS In Geeta Lord Krishna has said, ‘Karmanyevadhikaraste maphalesu kadachana, ma karma-phala-hetur bhur ma te sango ’stv akarmani’ (Shloka [stanza] 47 from Chapter 2 of Srimad Bhagwad Geeta). This means, ‘Your right is only to perform your prescribed duty, but you never are entitled to its fruits. Do not be motivated of the results of your activities, and do not have any attachment for not doing your duty.’ We have the right over our actions only and we should not care for results. Without caring for the results we should fearlessly do our job. Unfortunately, in most organizations and programmes, there is a tendency to see the results only without putting efforts in achieving those results. The desire to get cheap applause overshadows the need to build systems which can help in achieving programme objectives. This has been a major problem in government programmes when we only want to see the good results but have no patience to work hard to create systems and situations that will yield good results. Without controlling our actions desirable fruits cannot be achieved. Even in UN organizations there is too much emphasis on results-based framework which at times undermines the key actions needed to achieve the key results. The initial programme managers of TSC steered clear of any temptation of short-term gains and personal glory and focused on systems building as outlined in Chapter 4 of the book which helped in operationalizing TSC effectively and has been an important learning for success of any programme.

8 Key Challenges

D

espite achieving so much and spreading across the entire country, rural sanitation programme is not without challenges. The statewide variations in socio-economic conditions and administrative structures add to the complexities of programme implementation. Despite best efforts made by different stakeholders, Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) faces a large number of challenges which if not handled timely and boldly have the potential of not only slowing down the progress but also adversely affecting the sanitation movement itself. There are a number of issues related to sustainability of Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) and use of toilets and adoption of hygiene behaviour by households. Still there are states where institutional structure is not fully defined and role clarity among various institutions is required for want of which programme implementation is affected. Gandhiji had observed, ‘Dignity of human nature requires that we must face storms of life.’ Without facing the challenges, we cannot grow further in a dignified way. With patience, courage and systematic response any problem can be easily faced and even in the middle of any difficulty, opportunity may be seen. If we want to improve ourselves we must look inwards and try to understand the problems in programme implementation. Such introspection and critical evaluation requires courage on part of the programme managers. We also need to analyze the failures in the sanitation movement and take corrective measures which

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alone can help us in achieving our goals. An error ceases to be error when it is corrected. The challenges in sanitation movement and key failures have been analyzed in this section which needs to be understood so that similar errors are not repeated in future in other programmes.

Verification system of NGP and organization of NGP function At the time when NGP award scheme was about to be announced by the Government of India, need was felt for having a verification system of the NGP applications submitted by the PRIs. Within the department, informal consultations were going on between myself and Mr Sunil Kumar regarding the structure as well as the institutional mechanism of the verification process. Overall there was a firm view in favour of engaging reputed monitoring agencies for this task. A panel of independent professional agencies was being considered which could be assigned the task of verification as soon as the applications were received. It was felt necessary to have a verification process managed by the Government of India in order to maintain the sanctity and credibility of the award. At that time itself suddenly Mr Palat Mohandas called a meeting on the subject and decided against engaging an independent agency but relied more on teams of professionals drawn from Government of India, state governments, UNICEF and other leading NGOs working in sanitation sector. His decision was more guided by reducing the procedural pain in getting third party on board and ensuring that the spirit of NGP was maintained if professionals working in the sanitation sector were engaged in the verification process. So three teams of professionals led by secretaries in charge of West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were constituted to verify NGP applications. Based on the performance of TSC projects in the country it was expected that the applications would initially come from three main zones—north and east zone which included West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, south


zone which included Tamil Nadu and west zone which included Maharashtra. However, this was not a very practical idea as teams of state secretaries and Government of India officials could not have been expected to stay in field for more than 5–10 days a year for such verification process. With the anticipated increase in the NGP applications over the coming years this system was bound to fail. Not only this the verification process in the field required scientific statistical sampling of the households for verification purpose for which only an independent professional agency was the answer. Knowing the aggressive style of functioning of Mr Palat Mohandas, reluctantly his diktat was accepted and formal government orders were issued making three state secretaries in charge of the verification system. A national committee headed by Secretary, DWS was constituted to sanction the NGP awards. This committee had among other members, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor of the ministry, two experts—Mr Chandi Charan Dey and Prof Ishwar Bhai Patel—and two state secretaries nominated on rotation basis. On 2 October 2003, formally the NGP award scheme was announced through advertisements in the newspapers and applications were sought from eligible PRIs. All the states were informed about the NGP award in writing and requested to encourage the PRIs to apply for the award within the cut-off date and also motivate them to improve the sanitation coverage in their panchayats to attain NGP eligibility. Reasonably good response was received in the first year and about 400 NGP applications were received by the ministry. In order to process the applications a computerized database was developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) unit in RGNDWM and Mr G.â•¯V.â•¯S.â•¯N. Murthy, the programme officer of NIC, was entrusted with this task. Mr Murthy quite closely worked with me and was able to modify the software as per the changing needs and now it is able to handle even large number of applications. I found NIC to be quite effective in developing softwares related to government’s social development programmes which require continuous updating and improvement keeping in line with the evolution of the programme itself. Had this programme been outsourced, it could have been difficult to


continuously update the software keeping pace with the growth of the programme. Field verification of 400 applications by three teams of government officials was not an easy task. Approximately 125–150 applications were to be verified by each team and even if half a day (which was insufficient for the verification) was devoted by the team this would have required more than two months work. As anticipated earlier, this process was not found to be appropriate and practical and it was decided to engage some of the monitoring agencies already working as district-level monitors for TSC and Swajaldhara programmes. Monitoring division in the Ministry of Rural Development was approached for this purpose which earmarked about 15–20 agencies to take up the verification work. A short training for the verification agencies was conducted to explain them the key elements of NGP. A set of indicators were quickly finalized for the verification purpose but no format for conducting household survey or focus group discussion at the village level was prescribed. As a result the verification reports varied in format as well as the quality. A lot of difficulties were faced in scrutinizing the verification reports during the first year in Delhi as all the reports had not focused on all the key elements. Since the number of applications was small in the first year, the scrutiny could still be managed by spending more time. Anticipating the problem in the coming years, a detailed format for submitting the verification report as well as a detailed verification process including the sampling plan was prepared and circulated to the verification agencies in the subsequent years and accordingly the NGP software was also modified to capture the data received from the field. Originally, it was intended that the Gram Panchayat (GP) should be allowed to submit the application for the award only when it sustains the achievements for six months after attaining NGP eligibility. This would ensure the sustainability of the efforts made in the GP. However, in order to scale up TSC and NGP, this crucial criterion was missed out. As the number of applications increased, the verification and scrutiny process of NGP applications has become a challenging task to ensure that


key principles of NGP are fully respected as well as NGP operates as an incentive scheme for other PRIs to adopt sanitation and hygiene promotion. Quality and motivation of the verification agencies is another major challenge in NGP verification process. Due to rapid increase in applications, number of verification agencies is continuously increasing which is compromising with the quality of verification. Some agencies are reputed ones having professional team of field supervisors and enumerators while few are small agencies lacking professionalism who hire less qualified people and try to economize on every aspect of the verification process. Not only this there have been instances when some of the agencies have asked for gratification from district and PRI officials for recommending NGP award for PRIs. In Chhattisgarh, even police case was filed against one agency for seeking gratification. Although these complaints may not be in large number but some of these have been corroborated during field visits which is a matter of serious concern and the whole verification process needs to be streamlined and made credible. On the contrary, there have been instances when actually 100 per cent covered PRIs were not recommended by some of the agencies who were denied any form of gratification by the PRIs or the district officials. Even though the numbers may not be large for such aberrations, they pose a challenge of getting multiplied in the coming years with increase in the number of applications. Our experience has been that whenever review missions used to go to the states plenty of activities at ground level used to start and re-energize the TSC implementation machinery. The whole verification process of NGP applications can also be used as a tool for social mobilization and awareness creation in the villages. With the increased number of applications which have crossed 30,000 mark in 2007–08, the verification process itself can strengthen the programme if adequate time for verification is given in these villages and all aspects of sanitation and hygiene are discussed in detail with the community in the Gram Sabha or focus groups by the verification agencies. For this purpose, it is necessary that the verification agencies spend sufficient time in each GP. This is


more required for the villages which have not attained the NGP eligibility to explain them about the whole concept, principles and indicators of NGP. As planned in the verification process of NGP, each agency is expected to spend at least two person days for this purpose. But the experience has been that the agencies tend to finish the work very fast and especially when they find that the GP does not satisfy the eligibility criteria they have a tendency to reject the application and skip the village. This is no good and will not help in building up the movement in the villages. To keep pace with the increasing number of applications and also maintaining the quality an alternate verification system using the peer-review by TSC professionals working in different states need to be explored which may not only help in proper verification and mobilization of the community but also help build capacity of the TSC professionals undertaking the verification process which in the longer run will yield rich dividends for sustainability of the sanitation programme.

NGP: individual and organization awards Nirmal Gram Puraskar was designed not only for PRIs but also for individuals and organizations which were responsible for making the PRI eligible for NGP. At the time of formulation of NGP, Integrated Finance Division (IFD) had warned that it would be difficult to administer this award for individuals which would ultimately lead to more dissatisfaction than being an incentive. This observation was based on the premise that in such kind of social processes a large number of motivated individuals would be involved and it might be difficult to reward all of them. However, on our insistence Mr R.â•¯P. Nath, Director of Finance, had agreed to concur this proposal. In retrospect, the apprehension raised by IFD turned out to be correct. Since there was a provision of award for individuals and organizations, almost all the PRI category applications were accompanied by individual and organization category applications too related to that panchayat. In


most of the cases, in a routine matter applications for rewarding the motivator, panchayat president, panchayat secretary, etc., were sent. In case of organizations numerous applications for local NGOs, production centres, rural sanitary marts, etc., were sent and the number of such applications were almost equal or more than that of PRI applications. It was a big challenge to take a decision about these applications. To make things simple, it was decided in the first year not to sanction any award for individual and organization category. However, the problem was not going to end and the next year we were flooded with more such applications. In one of the scrutiny committee meetings, it was decided not to sanction the award for the individual category and in case of organizations only such cases could be taken up where the organization had made a huge impact at state level and fresh recommendations were sought from the state governments. Following this process for the 2006 NGP awards, four reputed organizations were identified who had made significant contributions for sanitation promotion in their respective states. These were Ramakrishna Mission Lokshiksha Parishad in West Bengal, Nirmal Gram Nirman Kendra from Nashik, Maharashtra, Appa Patwardhan Safai o Tantra Niketan, Pune, Maharashtra and SCOPE, Trichy, Tamil Nadu. The first three organizations had played significant role in sanitation promotion at national level also and have been working selflessly for sanitation promotion in the true spirit of public service. It was in the interest of any fair system to look for such organizations and reward them which might not have increased their credibility but definitely enhanced the credibility of NGP award system. However, there is a need for an objective criterion for assessing the eligibility of organizations for the award of NGP in absence of which there is likelihood that small-time organizations without having much commitment through political backing may try to get the awards sanctioned. By seeing the profile of some of these organizations which received NGP awards in 2007 this apprehension gains more weight. Now since NGP process has significantly picked up in the country, it is advisable that incentives for individuals is done away with.


Sustainability of NGP: real incentive or peer pressure

An aspect which causes concern is the key motivation for the PRIs to work for NGP award. There are a set of PRIs which are genuinely concerned and motivated to make their villages open defecation free and improve the quality of life of the people. Such PRI leaders have understood the linkages between sanitation, health and hygiene and have made efforts to ensure that their villages are open defecation free. They have realized the shame and disgrace associated with open defecation and tried to reverse that situation by attaining NGP status. The distribution of award by the President of India to these PRIs has added glamour to the programme so much that there is a competition among them to get NGP. In the first two NGP ceremonies, all the PRI members individually reached the dais and received the award from the president and proudly displayed the photographs taken during the award distribution ceremony. In 2007, due to large number of the NGP awardees only few were allowed to personally receive the award from the President of India. For the rest, the photographers did the magic. Using the modern computer tools, they produced photographs of individual PRI members shaking hand with the President of India just as Lovely Singh used to do in the film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. There was a serpentine queue outside the photo shops in Bengali Market immediately after the NGP award distribution ceremony was over. This glamour and desire of getting photographed with the President of India and get personally glorified has led to an unhealthy competition among many PRI members to work towards NGP. As a result, the motivation continues only up to receiving the award and not beyond that which is a serious threat for the sustainability of NGP status of the GP. Having full confidence in the premise that government programmes and systems degenerate over a period of time, few PRIs have tended to adopt short cuts of success. This has been actively supported and encouraged even by some districts and states. There are instances that NGP applications are


submitted even before actually attaining the eligibility criteria in anticipation of making the GP open defecation free by the time actual verification in the field takes place. Even if the eligibility is not met, efforts were made to influence the verification teams in recommending the award. During my field visits, I have seen this in few states like Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and to my surprise even in West Bengal. Similar reports are coming from states like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra also. This poses a serious challenge to the whole process which if not checked can negate the very objective of the initiative and an undesirable process may get multiplied in the field. This warrants for immediate remedial measures to ensure that the very application and verification system takes care of this factor and only such applications are considered for award where NGP eligibility criteria has been met at least for more than a year. Not only this, the PRIs need to be more proactive in ensuring that the NGP status is maintained subsequently also and for this purpose mandatory resolution to penalize open defecation in the NGP awarded villages is required. This resolution by panchayat may be backed by a legal amendment in the State Panchayati Raj Act. In order to assess the sustainability of NGP status in awarded panchayats UNICEF had engaged Taru Leading Edge Pvt Ltd to undertake a study. The study tried to find out the sustainability of key NGP principles. The study was conducted in selected NGPawarded panchayats in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The findings are interesting which, on the one hand, indicate the efficacy of the incentive scheme and on the other hand, raise issues on their actual operationalization and sustainability. As per the study findings, presented in Table 8.1, in only 6 out of 162 GPs there is no open defecation and in another 64 GPs less than 20 per cent people have been resorting to open defecation. This situation, however, was relatively better in case of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal and worse in case of Chhattisgarh where open defecation was found to be very high.

Key Challengesâ•… 293 Table 8.1:â•…NGP-awarded GPs reporting open defecation State

Proportion of people going for open defecation None

80% 1 4 5 1 6 7 1 9 5 2 6 1 3 2 29 20 4

10 10 60 33 15 34 162

Source: Taru Leading Edge Primary Study at the behest of UNICEF (2008a).

Similarly, analyses of data related to access and use of toilets in these states reveals that only 81 per cent households had actual access and 63 per cent households were regularly using the toilets which may be seen in Figure 8.1. At individual level 64 per cent were using household toilets, 6 per cent community toilets and about 30 per cent were going for open defecation which is quite substantial considering the fact that these GPs were awarded the prestigious NGP. These two findings imply that even at the time of application all households had not constructed toilets and many GPs had not met this important criterion which is a serious challenge for the programme. Around 28 per cent of the households (Figure 8.2) show ignorance towards any social mobilization process followed which indicates the inadequacy of the social mobilization in reaching out to all households resulting in low usage and adoption of hygiene behaviour. Monitoring of Open Defecation Free (ODF) status at village level too is a mater of concern as very few GPs had their own monitoring mechanism before getting NGP award primarily led by the PRI members and/or SHG/local NGOs. This in many cases has changed or the interest levels declined after achieving the award. Around 16 per cent households reported that no one was monitoring the ODF status before NGP award. This perception went up and 43 per cent households mentioned (Figure 8.3) that no one was monitoring the ODF status in the panchayat after receiving the award.

294â•… Squatting with Dignity Figure 8.1: IHHL being used as regular and functional toilet

Source: Unicef (2008a).

Figure 8.2:â•…Social mobilization process in NGP-awarded GPs


Key Challengesâ•… 295 Figure 8.3: System for monitoring to ensure Open Defecation Free (ODF) status


Inclusiveness of TSC and NGP? The very design of TSC and NGP has been socially inclusive. It takes care of the requirements of the marginalized communities like the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST). NGP by its very definition can be given to only such panchayats where all households have access and use the toilet facilities and nobody defecates in the open. All households means that people residing in all hamlets of the GPs irrespective of the caste, creed


and profession are having access to the sanitation facilities and have been involved in sanitation programme. TSC gives priority to SC and ST households for toilet construction and as per TSC guidelines 25 per cent of all household toilets are expected to be constructed for such families. In addition 3 per cent toilets are expected to be constructed for physically challenged households. The limiting factor for these provisions could be an important principle of TSC—its demand-responsive approach that is neither target nor supply driven. Since there are no annual targets and if adequate demand is not generated for such excluded households there is likelihood of further social exclusion being practiced in this programme. Even though the award can be given to any panchayat but only if all households including SC and ST are accessing and using the facilities. There is a possibility that SC and ST-dominated villages may not even apply for NGP. These issues need to be kept in mind which may pose serious challenge to the very inclusive nature of TSC and NGP. The analysis of the TSC and NGP performance so far fortunately does not reveal an unpleasant picture as far as social inclusion aspect of the programme is concerned. Out of the total 22.36 million household toilets constructed for poor households under TSC till December 2007, 5.38 million were for SC and 2.30 million for ST families which implies that 34.35 per cent of SC and ST households got the benefit of TSC so far against the minimum 25 per cent earmarked facilities. Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Orissa, West Bengal, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh show higher proportion (more than 35 per cent) of SC and ST households gaining access to toilets which is quite encouraging (Figure 8.4); however, the corresponding figures for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh indicate that this aspect needs to be looked into carefully by states. Nirmal Gram Puraskar impact assessment done by Taru Leading Edge indicates that access to individual household toilets is marginally low among SC/ST groups (73 per cent) compared to other castes (81 per cent). This also results in marginally higher open defecation practices among SC/ST community (19 per cent) as compared to 15 per cent by others.

Key Challengesâ•… 297 Figure 8.4: State wise percentage of SC and ST households gaining access to toilets


However, the number of physically challenged persons getting access to toilet facilities has been quite low—only about 54,000 out of 22 million households. This warrants an investigation into the causes of low coverage of physically challenged persons which may require developing inclusive designs for use by such people. Detailed analysis of 5,4001 NGP-awarded panchayats reveals that 700 panchayats were having SC and ST population more than the general population and the SC and ST population in NGPawarded panchayats was more than 36.4 per cent which is higher than national average (about 25 per cent) and also implied that traditionally excluded groups are generally being included in the NGP process. Still, it is necessary that the issue of social inclusion is effectively looked into so that the vulnerable sections of the society get the full benefit of the programme.

1

Out of total about 5,700 GPs awarded till 2007.


Involvement of PRIs—conflict of role between NGOs and PRIs Total Sanitation Campaign requires a large amount of social mobilization which needs the involvement of all key stakeholders at the village level and in such case role of the PRIs becomes paramount. That is why active involvement of PRIs in TSC implementation has been clearly emphasized upon. In most of the states, TSC is officially being implemented either by district panchayats or the DWSMs presided over by the district panchayat presidents. Usually the executive engineer of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) or the Rural Water Supply Department functions as the member secretary. Even though on paper this arrangement exists, in practice it is causing serious challenges in most of those states where TSC is implemented by PHEDs. Traditionally these departments have not worked with the PRIs and there has been great amount of reluctance to involve the PRIs and even the NGOs in some states. There is a tendency to keep the programme confined within the available institutional structure of the PHED rather than extending it to other line departments and elected bodies which will help in developing a campaign in the district. Because of this tendency, even the fund flow in few states is not routed through the PRIs but preferences are given either to the NGOs or production centres or departmental machinery. Even conflict of interest is being noticed in some states at the district level among the executive engineer, PHED, district administration and Zilla Panchayat. Rather than having a convergent action, some sort of blame game is also taking place in many such states. Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, etc., are some of the states where these challenges are quite visible. Rather than seeing these different agencies as partners often they are mutually being treated as rivals leading to not only slow implementation but also dampening of the enthusiasm generated by a few dedicated individuals. Small and local NGOs are being preferred over the PRIs as second best option by the PHED as many of such NGOs are behaving


as contractors rather than voluntary agencies. This conflict in the institutional structure is posing grave challenges which if not tackled strongly at the national and state levels will jeopardize the implementation process. Few states have tried to tackle this problem by issuing detailed operational guidelines delineating the roles and responsibilities of different institutions in the district. Some of these states are Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa. The flexibility in the TSC guidelines for routing of funds needs to be curtailed and strong focus on the fund management and distribution of back-ended subsidy/incentive needs to be put in place.

Key technology-related challenges Despite the fact that a range of cost-effective technology options have been prescribed in TSC which can be easily constructed at the village level, there has been a tendency in a number of projects to prescribe only one or two types of the design options which limits the choice of the people. Still a mindset of having preference for septic latrines over leach pit latrines exists in the rural areas. If the high-cost option is promoted, a segment of households having low income faces problems in constructing and adopting toilets. Bulk of the capacity building and awareness creation activities have centred on demand generation and hygiene promotion but inadequate attention is being given on training of masons and monitoring of the technical quality of the leach pits, squatting area and superstructure. This results in a variety of defects in construction of toilets in different parts of the country. The common problems faced in execution of the toilets in varying degree in different states are summarized as follows: 1. The leach pit toilets operate on the principle of anaerobic decomposition which means that the decomposition of excreta takes place in absence of oxygen. Due to the heat generated in the pit, the excreta starts decomposing and


excess water and gas generated get absorbed through the pores of the soil in the leach pit. Due to the porosity of the soil, gases easily get absorbed and no vent pipe is required to be provided in the leach pit for evacuating the gases as required in septic tank latrines. But unfortunately, due to poor training of the masons as well as inadequate awareness about the technology options, in a significant proportion of such toilets, vent pipe is installed which is against the basic principle of anaerobic decomposition. Provision of vent pipe ensures that enough oxygen is available inside the pit facilitating production, survival and growth of mosquitoes. This also delays the process of decomposition of the excreta in the pit. This problem has been found to be rampant in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa during my field visits. In most of the cases, it is reported that people want a vent pipe to be installed probably as a status symbol. 2. Normal size of the leach pit is about 4 feet in depth and 3 feet in diameter which is sufficient for about 4–5 years for a normal family size of 5–6 persons. After this period, second pit may be used and the night soil collected in the first pit will get converted into manure. A tendency to construct very big size pits among the rural households has been noticed. There is a misconception that if a very big pit is dug it won’t get filled up easily and may last long. However, this poses three-fold problems: (a) The cost of the pit including its lining and cover increases. At times this high cost is perceived as a deterrent for people to adopt toilets. (b) The risk of pit caving in or becoming unstable increases with the increase in the size. (c) The risk of pit getting closer to the water table increases which may contaminate the ground water. 3. Whenever two pit latrines are constructed the junction chamber needs to be properly installed so that when one pit is filled the flow of night soil is smoothly diverted to other pit using this ‘Y’ junction. On many occasions, this junction chamber is not constructed properly. In case of single off site pit toilets, in many instances the pipe is


4.

5.

6.

7.

directly connected to the pit without passing through a junction chamber which will pose problems when the need to connect the pipe to the other pit will arise. So it is essential that the junction chamber is constructed properly even if only one pit is constructed initially. Rural pan has been specially designed to consume less water while flushing the excreta. Rural pan is appropriate not only for water-scarce areas but also for water-surplus areas. If too much water is poured in the pit it may not be able to absorb water beyond its absorption capacity. Even though lot of awareness has been spread about rural pan in TSC, due to various reasons it is not yet fully accepted and used in all TSC projects. There is a need to not only further spread awareness about rural pans but also augment their production capacity. In order to avoid contamination of groundwater due to presence of leach pits, a safe distance of about 10 metres between water source and the pit needs to be maintained. However, not much attention is paid to this requirement. In case there is safe distance between pits it is more because of coincidence than any scientific sanitary surveillance system in place. With the increase in sanitation coverage, the risk of groundwater contamination may be more if the safe distance from water body is not maintained. For leaching effect to take place there is a need of proper honeycombing in the pit. In case cement rings are used for stabilizing the pit, rings must have adequate number of holes to allow smooth flow of liquid and gas for absorption in the soil. In many production centres or sanitary marts there is a tendency to avoid holes in the rings which ultimately affects the absorption capacity of the pit. It has been noticed during field visits that rodents are also damaging the pits in many cases. In case twin pit toilet is constructed and the second pit is yet to be used, this becomes safe haven for the rodents who dig many holes and very frequently this pit collapses due to their action. Even in case of single pit toilets, rodents menace is equally


daunting. The problem is more in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, etc. A viable solution to this problem needs to be identified. Technology defects in construction have adverse impact on use of toilets. Primary research taken up in few NGP panchayats reveals that poor or unfinished installation accounts for 31 per cent of toilets not being used2 and this is the dominant reason for non-use of toilets. In addition, poor maintenance is also a major problem. The same study shows that 26 per cent of the households were not using toilets because of choked pans and drain pipes (Figure 8.5). It’s necessary that proper technology is propagated in the field and the construction of toilets follows sound scientific principles otherwise the desired objectives of the exercise cannot be achieved. These challenges can be easily tackled by properly training the masons and reorienting already trained masons. In addition, the social mobilization must focus on awareness creation about salient technology issues. Regular technical support and monitoring by experts will also help overcome these problems to a large extent.

Interstate disparity in programme implementation An analysis of the implementation of TSC reveals that there is huge interstate disparity in programme implementation. Even though about 50 million3 household toilets have been constructed under TSC since its inception, the bulk of the achievement is confined to few states only. Similarly if we analyze the distribution of NGP awards to the states the disparity comes out much more strongly. The majority of NGP awards in the first three years have been bagged by the PRIs in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. The number in other states is quite low as evident from Figure 8.6.

2

3

Source: TARU Primary Study, 2008. Upto December 2007.

Key Challengesâ•… 303 Figure 8.5: Reasons for toilets being non-functional


This disparity is also reflected in the coverage rate in the states. Extrapolating the achievements made in TSC in the census coverage figures gives us a good indication of the current sanitation coverage rate. An analysis of the implementation and sanitation growth rate in the states has been carried out as on January 2008 based on the progress reports available on Department of Drinking Water Supply website www.ddws.nic.in. This analysis further highlights the uneven pace of implementation across the states and the time required by them to achieve full coverage varies hugely. As per current rate of acceleration, by 2012, 7–8 most populous states in the country will be struggling even to cross 50 per cent sanitation coverage marks (Figure 8.7). Some of these are Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Punjab and Rajasthan. If states like West Bengal, Haryana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are well

304â•… Squatting with Dignity Figure 8.6: State wise share of NGP awards


on track to achieve full sanitation coverage by 2012, states like Bihar and Jharkhand are likely to take another 50–100 years more (Figure 8.8). As per the projections, Punjab is likely to take three more millenniums to achieve full coverage given its inaction in TSC implementation. Figure 8.9 indicates the share of each state in achieving full sanitation coverage in India. This indicates that a lot of work is required in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the coverage rate is still low. Such interstate disparity in programme implementation may be attributed to a variety of reasons including (a) delayed start of TSC implementation in the slow-performing states, (b) lack of ownership of TSC by the respective states, (c) non-belief in the key TSC principles resulting in low priority by the states and

Key Challengesâ•… 305 Figure 8.7: Projected sanitation coverage in states by 2012

Source: www.ddws.nic.in. Figure 8.8: Projected year for full sanitation coverage in states


306â•… Squatting with Dignity Figure 8.9: Share of states in achieving full sanitation coverage at the national level


(d) conflicts of interest in different institutional structures and nonexpansion of the number of key stakeholders. If India as a whole has to succeed in eliminating the practice of open defecation, all states will have to be made equal partners in TSC implementation and more emphasis needs to be given on the slow-moving states. If the train has to reach the destination, all bogies must move together. Similarly all states will have to implement TSC with the same zeal and enthusiasm if the dream of achieving full sanitation coverage is to be realized.

Institutionalization of third-party process monitoring system Total Sanitation Campaign has been a process-driven project aiming to achieve behavioural change of a very large cross section of rural population. If the means are not good the ends also cannot be. So it is very necessary to monitor the means—the processes adopted for sanitation and hygiene promotion—and also the


end results. In addition to the processes, monitoring of the actual behaviour change taking place in the village community is also essential. As already discussed in the foregoing chapter, third-party monitoring system was introduced by the department investing huge money. In the initial round, when about 400 districts were taken up for monitoring purpose, every quarter the department was spending Rs 50 million (US$1.2 million) which was quite substantial amount and also indicated the high priority attached by the department to monitor these key processes. The original concept note prepared for introducing this monitoring system had envisaged of one monitoring agency for each state and a national nodal agency which would monitor the statelevel agencies and also analyze the reports and feed the inputs to the department as well as to the state governments. Once this task was delegated to the monitoring division of the ministry, they didn’t take the task very seriously and engaged more than one agency in every big-sized state. Since the quality of the agencies differed drastically, this led to variation in the monitoring reports received for two or three sets of districts from the same state questioning the very credibility of the data. Not only this, many of the agencies were not well conversant with collecting hygiene behaviour-related data which required observation in addition to the direct questions to be asked to the households. In absence of observation, the data collected was not proper and gave absurd figures—either very high or very low values and both these were far from the ground realities. Initially no nodal agency at national level was appointed but later on when such an agency was appointed it turned out to be quite substandard one and was not able to deliver the desired results. Since the whole system was not delivering desired results, despite huge sums of money invested, it was considered better not to continue with this kind of monitoring so the whole system was discontinued after testing the third-party monitoring system for 3–4 quarters. The inability to straighten out small problems led to a complete failure of the system which otherwise could have been a robust


monitoring system. It only reminds of the fact that if the intentions are not righteous, the desired end results cannot be achieved. Till today there is no credible system in TSC to monitor use of toilets and various other hygiene indicators which is one of the primary objectives of TSC.

Use of toilets and hygiene promotion As already discussed earlier, the problem of poor sanitation doesn’t end at constructing the toilet but by ensuring the use of the facilities. So it is necessary that focus is given on both access and use of toilets. Due to age-old practices, even if the households adopt the toilet facilities, 100 per cent use of the same becomes a major challenge. The challenge is much more if the social mobilization process is weak and the households are not fully involved in construction of toilets. In such cases use of toilets suffers severely. In the hurry of attaining NGP status and receiving the prestigious awards at the hands of the president, many panchayat presidents are adopting short cuts in social mobilization which is being actively encouraged and abetted by some district and state officials also. The process of social mobilization must lead to internalization of the need and importance of sanitation and hygiene for overall well-being of the households. In case, the toilet is constructed without the real felt need, likelihood of its use reduces. Sample survey in NGP villages (Figure 8.10) also revealed that out of 81 per cent households having access to toilets only 64 per cent were using household toilet implying that 17 per cent toilets had gone in disuse (UNICEF, 2008a). Since the ultimate objective of the programme is to ensure access and use of the toilets this issue needs to be looked into more seriously in the programme. Disposal of child faeces is another major challenge. Most of the communication drive is targeted towards toilet construction and use by adults, and inadequate focus is on children. Interestingly, disposal of child faeces even

Key Challengesâ•… 309 Figure 8.10:â•…Use of household toilets in NGP-awarded GPs


in NGP-awarded GPs is very low. There is a mindset in rural areas which doesn’t consider child faeces to be very harmful. As a result people are not too concerned about its safe disposal. Further, since privacy is not a major issue for children people are allowing children to defecate in the open. In only 51 per cent of the households either children are using toilets or child faeces are disposed in the toilet. Forty-one per cent households dispose faeces in open space or along with solid waste, while 3 per cent drain out faeces in drain. Disposing faeces in open or along with solid waste is highest in West Bengal followed by Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. More people wash hands with soap after defecation compared to those washing hands before eating (Table 8.2). Fewer people wash hands after cleaning child faeces. This amply proves that hygiene promotion and adoption is a major challenge even in NGP villages so the norms for award of NGP need to be made more stringent incorporating hygiene behaviour change as a nonnegotiable criterion.

310â•… Squatting with Dignity Table 8.2: Hand-washing practices among adults in NGP-awarded panchayats State

None

Only water

With soap

With ash

With mud

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