Additional Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India
INDIA’S STRUGGLE FOR safe sanitation spans decades, with far-from-satisfactory results to show for it. Until 2014, that is. As reflected in the negligible fund allocation towards this cause, rural sanitation did not feature anywhere on the investment horizon in the first five plan periods. It did receive prominence from the Sixth Plan (1980–85) onwards amidst the launch of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade in 1980. In addition, responsibility for rural sanitation at the Central level was also shifted from the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization to the Rural Development Department.
In 1986, the Rural Development Department initiated the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP), India’s first such programme on rural sanitation. The CRSP interpreted sanitation simply as the construction of household toilets, and focused on promoting the pour-flush toilets through hardware subsidies. However, the key issue of behaviour change to end open defecation and promote the use of toilets was not addressed adequately. As a result of this supply-driven approach the programme’s impact in improving rural sanitation coverage was limited. Although more than Rs 660 crore was invested and over 90 lakh latrines constructed, rural sanitation grew at just 1 per cent annually throughout the 1990s. The Census of 2001 found that only 22 per cent of rural households had access to toilets compared to a rural sanitation coverage of 1 per cent in 1981.
In light of CRSP’s limited impact on improving rural sanitation coverage, the Government of India restructured the programme, and launched the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in 1999 and then the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2008. However, in the absence of strong political will and the requisite capacity needed at different levels to implement behaviour change, both these campaigns could not achieve the desired results.
Year 2014 – A Watershed Moment for Sanitation
15 August 2014 will go down in history as a watershed moment for sanitation in India, and arguably the world. In his first major address to the nation on India’s Independence Day, sanitation was brought into the national consciousness by the Prime Minister of India himself, establishing its importance in his vision for India. During the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on 2 October 2014, he urged each and every one to pledge that:
I will remain committed towards cleanliness and devote time for this. I will devote 100 hours per year, that is two hours per week, to voluntarily work for cleanliness. I will neither litter nor let others litter. I will initiate the quest for cleanliness with myself, my family, my locality, my village and my work place.
Many ‘experts’ branded this as ‘just another Government programme’. But to the people of India, it was evidently a lot more. The announcement touched the heart of the common man, and today rural India is poised to become open defecation free by 2 October 2019. What seemed like a dream in 2014 is turning out to be reality today.
Making of the Swachh Bharat Mission
SBM was designed using the learnings from the implementation of various sanitation programmes and aligned to the aspirations of people to collectively work towards achieving an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India. The task for us at the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) was to first develop the strategic framework for the programme and, accordingly, the Ministry developed the SBM-Grameen (SBM-G) guidelines in consultation with various stakeholders. We adopted a Community Approach to Sanitation, putting people at the centre of the programme. The guidelines provided flexibility to states and allowed the people to plan, implement and manage the programme as suited to their needs and conditions.
The guidelines state that a village can be declared ODF by the community itself, at a gram sabha, once it has ensured that all households have access to a toilet and no one in the village defecates in the open. Provisions were also made for concurrent verification of the ODF status by the states. Every village declared ODF had to be verified within 90 days for its ODF status using a defined set of criteria by an external team from the district, and had to be re-verified 180 days from the first verification to reconfirm the sustainability of the ODF status. Nearly 90 per cent of the ODF-declared villages have already been verified using the ODF verification protocol developed by the Ministry.
Separately, the Ministry also commissioned the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 2017–18 and 2018–19, under the World Bank support project to SBM-G, using an Independent Verification Agency that surveyed randomly selected villages across states to assess the status of access to toilets, usage of toilets, solid and liquid waste management and ODF status of villages. States were incentivized based on their performance on the NARSS, and it became a very credible instrument to verify claims of states on key sanitation parameters.
Realizing that SBM would primarily focus on behaviour change, the guidelines allowed states to appoint professional staff at the state, district and block levels as well as in gram panchayats. This allowed states to augment their institutional capacities at each level and came very handy in implementing a behaviour change programme at scale. The states created a cadre of over 6 lakh volunteers – swachhagrahis – who worked with communities to achieve ODF status by focusing on sustained Inter-Personal Communication.
A rigorous Integrated Management Information System was developed to track the programme’s progress, and monitor the sanitation access of each of the 17 crore households in rural India. Over 87 per cent of the toilets constructed under SBM-G have also been geotagged – an incredible feat in transparency.
A unique set of multipliers were brought together, catalysing progress for sanitation in their respective sectors. Inspired by the Prime Minister’s firm commitment to SBM, the state and Central governments provided sufficient funds for this ambitious programme with a tight timeline. The world’s largest government rural sanitation budget – to the tune of about INR 1,00,000 crore – was sanctioned and allocated as financial incentives to socially and economically weaker sections to construct and use toilets (@INR 12,000 per eligible household).
Business Unusual
The onerous task of providing all households access to sanitation in a given time frame called for out-of-the-box thinking and making courageous decisions. It also required working with various stakeholders and aligning them with the Mission’s objectives. A national consensus and urgency had to be built to ensure that actors at all levels understood the approach, implementation design, and monitoring and measurement arrangements of the Mission. This called for partnerships, collaboration and conjoint action at all levels. We were treading a path never travelled.
Our motto was ‘one vision one team’ as we began by engaging all related Ministries at the national level. All Ministries developed their own Swachhata Action Plan to support SBM. At the state level we started building connects with Chief Ministers to lead the programme in their states. We met nearly all the Chief Ministers personally and this helped us unify our approaches, resources and actions to achieve results at scale and speed. Chief Ministers became effective communicators and champions of the Mission. Numerous meetings were held with Chief Secretaries of states, Principal Secretaries of departments managing SBM and Mission Directors to set timelines, dedicate resources and agree on the implementation strategy. The engagement with states has been unparalleled in the recent past and this increased engagement of the Centre with states has helped in fast-tracking the programme, collective reflection and renewed action.
We realized that the district collectors’ leadership was key to ensuring speedy and effective implementation of the programme at the local level. We initiated a very informed and intensive engagement with district collectors along with the state governments to equip them with the needed technical and managerial resources to lead the programme. Workshops for district collectors, video conferences, learning lunches, etc. were organized at the Centre and in all states to build capacities.
A management dashboard was developed especially for the use of district collectors which allowed them to monitor the progress of SBM in every village in their districts on all critical parameters. ODF war rooms were established to coordinate, implement and monitor the programme in real time. Many collectors also conducted weekly review meetings with different stakeholders. These initiatives helped them identify gaps and fix issues on a regular basis.
And lastly, the sarpanchs, ably supported by the swachhagrahis, championed the cause of a Swachh Bharat at the cutting edge – the gram panchayat level. They provided local leadership, direction and inspired their communities to come together and make the Mission a jan andolan.
The sense of urgency percolated throughout the entire administrative system and ensured that sanitation remained everyone’s top priority, and everyone’s business.
Knowledge Management
A number of states undertook pioneering bold new initiatives to tackle the menace of open defecation, and made great strides towards collective and inclusive sanitation outcomes. The lessons emerging out of implementation at scale had to be effectively utilized through knowledge exchange platforms and workshops where stakeholders could share and learn from each other. Tailor-made technical support was designed to address challenges that arise during programme implementation. Knowledge was customized and distributed through a variety of channels: at learning events; by creating multi-stakeholder collaborative platforms; building coalitions; training; and facilitating knowledge exchanges. Joint annual reviews with states and districts were undertaken to assess progress, identify and propose measures to address any weaknesses, and identify and propose modalities for scaling up successes. A dedicated portal, Swachh Sangraha, was set up which helped stakeholders seek information on different aspects of programme implementation.
Regular video conferences (VCs) and workshops were conducted at the national and regional levels to get feedback from the field and promote the sharing of ideas. The VCs and workshops also helped the field-level functionaries understand the nuances of implementing such a scheme where behaviour change was the key. Champion collectors were duly honoured.
All these initiatives yielded significant increase in momentum on the ground. Further, regular calls were made to several stakeholders and updates shared on WhatsApp groups at all levels. Constant feedback from the field helped the programme immensely. Roll-out plans were meticulously formulated and critical input was welcomed at all levels.
Evolving Role of the Central Government
With SBM, the role of the Central Government changed drastically. MDWS no longer functioned like a typical Ministry, but like a Mission headquarter. Instead of allowing the Mission to proceed at its own pace, time-bound targets were agreed upon with states and requisite support was provided to achieve them. The Ministry assumed the role of co-financer, facilitator, collaborator and became an equal partner in achieving the Mission’s objectives. It also shouldered the responsibility to create a unified vision, build a sense of urgency, as well as provide techno-managerial support to states and districts to achieve results at scale and speed.
With the final lap in sight, MDWS continues its efforts to not only achieve a Swachh Bharat, but also sustain it and deliver efficient solid and liquid waste management techniques. What had seemed unthinkable in 2014 is looking achievable in 2019, and India, in the Swachh Bharat Mission, has created a rare revolution that could improve the quality of life for its 130 crore citizens and lay the foundation for a truly prosperous future – one that will positively impact the country and its people for generations to come.