India, Science and Technology:  2008

S&T for Rural India and Inclusive Growth

 

 

 

Rural Sanitation: A step towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal No 7, Target 10

 

Kasturi Mandal

 

If water is life, sanitation is surely a ‘way of life’ and access to such facilities has an impact on the quality of human life and health. A holistic definition of sanitation includes safe drinking water, liquid and solid waste management, environmental cleanliness and personal hygiene. Failing to ensure any one of these can have direct implications on the individual/family/community’s health. Environmental cleanliness and sanitation were subjects closest to Mahatma Gandhi’s heart who proclaimed that “cleanliness is next only to godliness”.

Lack of adequate sanitation is a pressing challenge in rural India. Every day, an estimated 1,000 children under five die in the country because of diarrhoea alone. Prevalence of child under-nutrition in India (47 per cent according to National Family Health Survey (NFHS) III, 2005-06) is among the highest in the world. Child under-nutrition is aggravated by the prevalence of diarrhoeal disease, and is responsible for 22 per cent of the country’s burden of disease (World Bank 2005). Sanitation-related diseases take a heavy toll of lives, especially children’s lives, and are a drain on productivity and incomes. Lack of adequate sanitation also forces households into the continued indignity of open defecation, which is an acute problem especially for women and young girls. Improving access to sanitation is therefore appropriately included in the Millennium Development Goals. Another major problem that the country faces today is the practise of scavenging, which mostly engages women. There are 7,70,338 human scavengers and their dependents in India.

The first national program to increase access to rural sanitation on a large scale, the Central Rural Sanitation Program, was launched in 1986. Despite considerable investment, this approach failed to motivate and sustain high levels of sanitation coverage as it was based on the erroneous assumption that provision of sanitary facilities would lead to increased coverage and usage. Recognizing the limitations of this approach, the Total Sanitation Campaign was launched in 1999. The TSC moves away from the infrastructure focussed approach of earlier programs and concentrates on promoting behaviour change.

 

Fig 1: Delivery Structure (Total Sanitation Campaign)

Source: Sustaining the Sanitation Revolution, India Country Paper, SACOSAN III, 2008

 

The TSC is being implemented at scale in 590 districts of 30 States/Union Territories (UTs). Against a target of 108.5 million individual household toilets, the toilets reported ‘completed’ is about 57 million as of October 2008. In addition, about 0.68 million school toilets, 14,540 sanitary complexes for women, and 222,267 anganwadi (pre-school)toilets have been constructed.

 

 

Fig 2: Trend of increase in % of rural individual household latrine over the years

Source: Sustaining the Sanitation Revolution, India Country Paper, SACOSAN III, 2008

 

 

Fig 3: State-wise allocation released on TSC from Centre share over the years 

Source: www.ddws.nic.in

Source: Sustaining the Sanitation Revolution, India Country Paper, SACOSAN III, 2008

 

 

 

Fig 4. State wise percentage of sanitation coverage till March, 2009

Source: www.ddws.nic.in

 

To add vigour to the TSC, in June 2003, GoI initiated an incentive scheme for fully sanitized and open defecation free Gram Panchayats, Blocks, and Districts called the ' Nirmal Gram Puraskar'(NGP). The incentive pattern is based on population criteria given  in Table 1. The incentive provision is for PRIs as well as individuals and organizations that are the driving force for full sanitation coverage.

Table 1: Incentive pattern under Nirmal Gram Puraskar (in Rs. lakh)

Source: www.ddws.nic.in

 

Nirmal Gram Puraskar promotes the role of Gram Panchayats and local communities in achieving community-wide total sanitation status. Some key features of the TSC include:

• A community led approach with focus on collective achievement of total sanitation
• Focus on Information, Education and Communication (IEC) to mobilize and motivate communities towards safe sanitation
• Minimum capital incentives only for BPL households, post construction and usage
• Flexible menu of technology options
• Development of supply chain to meet the demand stimulated at the community level
• Fiscal incentive in the form of a cash prize – Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) – to accelerate achievement of total sanitation outcomes.

Since its launch, the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) has been very successful as a fiscal incentive for achievement of sanitation outcomes. From just 40 Gram Panchayats from 6 states that received the prize in 2005, the number went up to 4,959 Panchayats from 22 states in 2007. In 2008, more than 30,000 Panchayats were nominated for this prize and more 11,000 Panchayats have been selected for the award in 2008. NGPs are popular, and the numbers have risen significantly over the past two years. However, issues of sustainability need to be addressed, for the study shows that NGPs of Year 1 and 2 are slipping on a large scale. Reasons included poor construction, construction under peer pressure, and minimal emphasis on behaviour change. The suggestions were that monitoring needs to be stronger and awards could be staggered.

The TSC strategy is to make the campaign community led through leadership by the local bodies, youth and women organizations, and schools in implementing the campaign. The community is sensitized by creating awareness about the impact of open defecation and lack of sanitation on health, dignity and security especially of women and children. In rural sanitation, ‘encouraging cost-effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation’ has been one of the main objectives of the approach. The implication for technology is that this should be improvised to meet consumer preferences ‘in an affordable and accessible manner by offering a range of technological choices.

Rural sanitation coverage has received a fillip under the TSC, increasing from just 22 per cent in 2001 to nearly 57 per cent in 2008. Several strategies adopted to scale up the TSC include community-driven approach, menu of technological options and service delivery mechanisms. The role and contribution of partnerships, civil society and media to the success of rural sanitation initiatives is equally important. While the TSC has been successful in scaling up rural sanitation, the program has also faced challenges in implementation. Some of the lessons learned from this implementation experience are outlined using the framework of 4i’s i.e. Role of Institutions, Incentives, Information and Inclination.

While Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a good approach, it requires some improvements for sustaining the momentum, behaviour change and overall sustainability. These include actions at the community level (e.g., inclusion of the poorest in mapping and design; gender sensitive technologies; schools to be included) and district level (monitoring of usage, maintenance and hygiene practices, capacity building for facilitators, etc).

Open defecation is one the greatest challenges in the region and should be addressed as a priority through greater emphasis on community partnerships.  School children are important agents of change and they should be supported through hand washing initiatives in order to become advocates of positive hygiene behaviour. Three enabling actions to accelerate sanitation in the region could be community monitoring, local development planning and institutional development for sanitation can build a strong foundation for sustainable improvements.

While taking of sanitation Mahatma Gandhi was of the idea that ‘no one should clean and carry human excreta of others just to earn one’s livelihood. There must be some scientific method of human waste disposal.” Low sanitation coverage is also coupled with lack of affordable sanitation technology! There are several designs and technologies available for installing a household type sanitary latrine. But several inter-related factors play important role in installing a sanitary latrine to a rural household. This includes:

• Affordability

• Space in the home

• Geographical conditions - soil/water table etc

• Cultural habits

• Availability of water/scarcity of water

• Availability of skilled or semi skilled manpower

Therefore, it is important to give several technological options or informed choices to the user to choose and own and maintain a sanitary latrine without much external support. These options must help users to select the most suitable to them in terms of cost as well as design without compromising the criteria of sanitary latrine. For example, between indiscriminate open defecation and water seal latrine, one can identify several options by applying the sanitation up-gradation approach -- a movement from one alternative to another alternative, which is better than the previous one. This approach is takes into account the affordability of the community and at the same time it is flexible enough to allow for up-gradation e.g. a simple pit can be upgraded by lining the pit. A lined pit can be upgraded into a seat over the pit with a water seal. A single pit can be upgraded into a double pit. A suitable super structure can be built and upgraded. Table 2 gives an idea of the existing technologies in the country.

 

Table 2: Details of Technological options in Sanitation

 

Source: Technology options for Household Sanitation, UNICEF

 

 

Some Success stories

 

Sulabh Sauchalay   Technology has played a decisive role in the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. Dr Bindeswar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh International Social Service Organization is the man behind the success story. A major breakthrough in the field of sanitation took place when he developed the technology of two-pit, pour-flush toilets in the 1970 for onsite disposal of household human excreta. The technology was low-cost, could be set up with available local facilties and proved very successful for the Government of India’s programme of ‘eradication of scavenging’. Sulabh then developed a novel concept of operation and maintenance of public toilets on pay-and-use basis. Futher the organization had developed technologies for production of biogas from human waste, a method of treatment of the biogas to make it pathogen free, duckweed-based waste water treatment, Sulabh Thermophilic Aerobic Composting etc. Sulabh has built over 7,500 community toilets with bath, laundry and urinal facilities. Sulabh is now operating in 27 states and 5 union territories with over 50,000 trained and experienced workers. For sustainable rehabilitation of liberated scavengers, the programme ‘Nai Disha’ was started by Sulabh.

 

Micro-credit for Macro Change!   MYRADA, an NGO, has facilitated the setting up of all-women federations of microcredit groups in Erode district of Kerala. These federations use a seed fund provided by an international development organization, not as a grant but as a revolving fund for sanitation improvements and other activities that contribute to an improved quality of life for members. Individual members borrow money for toilet construction and the repayments are again given as loans to other members. No interest is charged. In the entire cycle once this project gets complete, the original fund remains intact to be used in other initiatives. The unique feature of the project is that the members do entire disbursal of funds, and MYRADA is only involved at the time of audit of the federations.  The motto behind this project is not only to encourage safe sanitation, but also to empower women by entrusting the implementation and management of sanitation to institutions run by them. The success of the sanitation initiative has motivated members to extend their support beyond toilet construction to support bathing enclosures, rain water harvesting structures and biogas plants run on human and animal waste.

 

The Sanitation Model   The first Demand Driven Sanitation Strategy (DDSS) of the country was conceived, designed an initiated in Medinipur district in the year 1990 jointly by the Ramakrishna Mission Lokasiksha Parishad (RKMLP) and UNICEF and implemented in collaboration with Government of West Bengal and Medinipur Zilla Parishad. RKMLP's associated Village Youth Clubs and Cluster Organisations of Medinipur district are the basic, grass-root level partners in sanitation programme planning, implementation and follow up services. Now Medinipur Sanitation strategy has been recognised as Role Model for promotion of Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in India. All most all the strategies and methodologies developed and practiced in Medinipur Sanitation Programme have been accepted by the Government of India for implementation of countrywide Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) programme under CRSP. A recent survey in Medinipur district reveals that 72% households want to upgrade their basic toilet models, 38% families want to upgrade their toilets with ceramic floor. Emphasis was on sanitation education through social mobilization. Different toilet options were provided to the community. Sanitary Mart and Production centres were established in each block. NGO and PRIs are jointly responsible for plan and implementation of TSC.  Strong policy support from the State Govt. helped in achieving the target of cent percent sanitation coverage. It is found from a study done by UNICEF in 19 villages, which reveals that 96.73 per cent of families installed toilets because delivery of materials was at their doorstep. Skilled masons were made readily available at the village level through village level network. 85.62% families who installed the low-cost toilets were satisfied and did not find any foul smell. Interpersonal contact was the most effective means of communication in the project. 84 per cent of the families accepted to be motivated by the youth club or the sanitation motivator.  Nandigram-II block of Purba Medinipur district was the first block in the country, which achieved 100% Household Toilet Coverage in 2001. Till December 2004, 8 blocks of the district have achieved 100% Toilet Coverage rank. Safai Vidyalaya was established in 1963 by the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh at the instance of Professor Malkani Committee’s Report of 1958 and under the tutelage of Padmashree Ishwarbhai Patel. The objective was to impart training in low-cost sanitation under the Bhangi Mukti (Eradication of night soil scavenger) Programme. The areas of work included rural masses, slum dwellers and peri-urban economically weaker communities. The program was multilayered and included training of masons, sanitary workers, sanitary inspectors, overseers, engineers, students, community social workers & policy makers with support from national and international funding agencies viz. Ministry of Rural Development (Rural), Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage Board (GWSSB), WHO, UNDP & UNICEF etc.  The institute has an ever growing and unique Toilet Park-cum-Museum amidst the Harijan Ashram Complex, aimed at rapid demonstration and dissemination of non-conventional, appropriate sanitation technologies with miniature models, pilot plants, gadgets, prototypes, posters and charts. As a part of this, the Environmental Sanitation Institute, an NGO that has been working since 1985 in the areas of training, construction, and supervision of environmental sanitation campaigns across India was established. Its passion to change the current poor national and global sanitation situation stems from the Gandhian philosophy of eradication of untouchability. Recently, the Institute (ESI), has started a new health initiative named Nandini Mobile Van, Sanitation and Health Van on Wheels.  The van has been designed by a city-based designer Prakash Vani, who is also a National Institute of Design (NID) alumnus, under the guidance of Ishwarbhai Patel, the director of ESI. Nandini Mobile Van is scheduled to travel through rural Gujarat and hold three-day camps in the villages to create awareness about health and sanitation. Ishwarbhai Patel told “The van has been developed with the objective of making the rural populace aware of the link between health and sanitation. It has cost us around Rs 20 lakh and a year of hard work to reach this end.”

 

 

To achieve on the holistic definition of Sanitation the issues related to solid and liquid waste management, use of waste (human and animal) for generating power and awareness generation and capacity building on innovative clean technologies needs utmost importance. There is enough traditional knowledge on waste management in the region and it was time proper attention was given to initiatives that have been successful in creating ‘wealth’ from ‘waste’ there is a need to deepen our understanding on the linkages between climate change and sanitation and to use the same for advocating policy change on sanitation.  Herein comes the role of S&T in this sector. Ecological Sanitation which aims to promote the development, implementation and dissemination of socially and culturally acceptable, sustainable, hygienically safe and ecologically sound sanitation approaches can be applied (i) to identify the appropriate wastewater handling approaches that satisfy technology, cost and institutional framework and enable maximizing the utilization of existing pipes and treatment facilities (ii) to recover the nutrients from urine and faeces for agricultural purposes and (iii) to contribute to the reduction of wastewater discharged to sewers through recycling of grey water. The alternative paradigm of ecological sanitation offers the potential of sustainable sanitation for developing countries. Thus, “sanitation” cannot be limited to toilets. The current mindset of “flush and forget” has to be transformed into “wealth from waste”. This would require sustained capacity building inputs from all stakeholders and awareness generation among the public. Convergence of several efforts both from the government, private bodies and NGOs could probably help us achieve the Millenium Development Goal to: “Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.”

 

 

 

References:

• National Family Health Survey (NFHS) III, 2005-06
• India’s Undernourished Children: A call for reform and Action, World Bank 2005
• Sustaining the Sanitation Revolution, India Country Paper, SACOSAN III, 2008
• www.ddws.nic.in
• Technology options for Household Sanitation, Unicef
• A Profile of Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Sulabh International Social Service Organization

 

 

 

 

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