(GIST OF YOJANA) Sanitation Revolution : Implementation at Scale

[NOVEMBER-2018]

Sanitation Revolution : Implementation at Scale

As a country , India presents a magnificent diversity with 29 states and 7 union territories and a population of 1.3 billion people , almost 70 percent of which live in 600,000 villages, within 700 districts. However, as was the case until 2014, juxtapose that snapshots with 600 million people (approximately 60 percent of the world’s open defecators across the country. Imagine the spread of disease, loss of productivity time risk of violence especially for women and children, and the lack of basic human dignity .

Everything changed, however, on August 15, 2018 when, in his first Independence Day speech the Prime Ministers of India, took to the ramparts of the Red Fort and put India on a historic journey-the journey for an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India, a Swachh Bharat.Never before had a Prime Ministers put sanitation at the forefront of the national development agenda. From being a major cause of the world’s sanitation crisis, with about 500 million people now have access to toilets through a sanitation revolution which has taken place over the last four years. Today, India has a rural sanitation coverage of over 95 percent -a percentage that we could not have ever envisaged in our wildest dreams 4 years ago. After building a phenomenal 87 million individuals household toilets, as many as 5.1 lakh villages, 529 districts and 25 States and Union Territories are now open defecation free, Further, a recent, independent large-scale household survey under the world Bank support project found that 93 percent of the households surveyed which had toilets used them, confirming the behaviour change focus of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) therefore, had to change and amplify strategy, in order to address what we like to call, the challenge of the 4 Ss. Scale. To meet the need to change the behaviour of 600 million people, the SBM had to acknowledgement the scale it was dealing with and respond with a national Team Swachh Bharat with the caliber to change the behaviour of the individuals, as well as the community . This team today includes 120 million school students, 1 million masons(of which 100000 are women), 500,000 swachh Bharat Preraks, 20 prominent brand ambassadors; all lead by the single Communicator-in-Chief the Prime Minister of India.

Speed. A sense of urgency needed to be created to kick start and roll through the campaign. The Prime Minister’s clarion call also set a sunset clause, October 2, 2019, for the Mission, in order to avoid a drip-drip approach, and gave impetus to India’s sanitation campaign.

Speed was also required in setting up the team, which is only as good as its weakest link. By creating the team from scratch , the SBM had to first ensure each individual in the team believed This was true behaviour change in the very leadership which would take the Mission forward and gave rise to the PM-CM-DM-Vm model. The Prime Minister gave the vision of an ODF India by October 2019, the Chief Ministers led at the State level, District Magistrates prioritized sanitation and put the focus on the SBM, further empowering the Village Motivators, the swachhagraha, to partake in interpersonal communication, and the lead behaviour change in the villages.

Stigma and Myths. The SBM could not set forth in its objective of changing behaviour and attitudes of the masses without acknowledging the stigmas and myths held for generations by the different communities, There were various common myths in rural India regarding sanitation toilets are only required for women and children, having a toilet within the premises of one’s home is impure cleaning the toilet is not one’s duty, and many more.

Along with addressing these on the ground, at a central level, mass media campaigns were launched, each with their own messages nad myths busters. The Darwaza Band campaign, starring Bollywood icons Amitabh Bachchan and Anushka Sharma, moved beyond access to toilets, not just by women and children, but by each and every member of the household. The media buzz caught on with popular culture as was with the release of Toilet Ek Prem Katha, a blockbuster film starring Akshay kumar, which gave a holistic picture of the troubles, obstacles faced mainly by women, and mainly by women, and the eventually achievement of safe sanitation practises in the community .

Sustainability. With the sanitation revolution gaining momentum, the SBM also maintained its parallel focus on sustaining the jan andolan and the progress being made on the ground. The following were key elements for the sustainability strategy: ODF-Qualify (ODF-Q ): REquires every toilet constructed under the Mission to be geo-tagged. All villages are subject to a double verification system, which includes self-declaration as well as third party verification.

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ODF plus( ODF in): SBM goes beyond toilets and works towards clean villages by prioritizing solid and liquid waste management practises in ODF villages, as well as the prioritization on rural water supply for ODF villages, in coordination with the National Rural Drinking Water Programme. Our greatest sources of motivation in this ODf journey are the stories of behaviour changes- of people standing up, demanding their right to sanitation access: Here are a few instances of our SBM champions When mason’s training was offered to women, Sunitha Devi enthusiastically joined the programme and learned to build twin pit toilets in the proper way. Seeing her skill. The district administration made her a master trainer who went from vilage, training other Rani Mistris. To date, she has trained over 1600 Rani Mistress.

Not letting the responsibility of caring for her eight-member-family deter er, Shankari Maavi from Karji panchayat of Banswara district in Rajasthan became the mason had the labourer, as she constructed her own toilet. With tools in hand, as she worked day and night, without seeking help from anyone.

Shamshad Begum, an active campaigner of thee SBM-G was to get married. When she received a proposal from Tauseef Reja Ahmed, a cellphone shop owner, she agreed , subject to certain conditions- including the setting up of a proper toilet in the groom’s home in Murshidabad. SATAT initiative to promote compressed Biogas as an Alternative, Green Transport Fuel

An innovative initiative -SATAT - to setup compressed Biogas (CBG) production plants and make available CBG in the market for use in automotive fuels was launched recently by the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, with PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs ) inviting Expression of Interest (EOL) from potential entrepreneurs

Besides the potential to boost availability of more affordable transport fuels, better use of agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste, the CBG plants will provide an additional revenues sources to farmers, and 75000 direct job opportunities and lakhs of indirect jobs opportunities and lakhs of indirect jobs . Currently 42 lakhs households are getting PNG supply, and three is a commitment to cover 2 crore households in 300 districts.

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