Nirmal Bharat: Total sanitation for all

                          "Sanitation is more important than Independence."

                                                                                           - Mahatma Gandhi

Sanitation literally denotes measures significant for improving and protecting health and well-being of the people. It is a system that promotes appropriate disposal of human wastes, proper use of toilets and discourages open space defecation. It is hard to imagine life without toilets for us but it is a reality for approximately 2.6 billion people in the world. An estimated 40 per cent of world's population still do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities. It has been often seen that lack of sanitation facilities are main cause of some of the life-threatening diseases. Hence, sanitation facilities are often related to one of the key elements in sustaining human lives.

Importance of sanitation and WHO
Emphasising the relative importance, father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi had once said, "Sanitation is more important than Independence." India has done a commendable job in improving the sanitation facilities and providing clean drinking water to all.
India has acknowledged the fact that sanitation is a cornerstone in the well-being of a person as unsanitary surroundings form the base for spread of numerous diseases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) observes that polluted water is the root cause of 80 per cent diseases, a result of inadequate sanitation and sewage disposal methods. A huge number of people even today relieve themselves in the open contaminating water bodies and other natural resources. This shows that people need to be educated on the importance of sanitation and its use in rural and urban areas alike. Inadequate sanitation facilities and lack of awareness often result in a number of health problems such as intestinal worms, most commonly the human roundworm and the human hookworms. Occurrence of these diseases is generally very high in low-income semi-urban and rural areas. Therefore, sanitation is the basic infrastructure component that could contain excreta-related diseases.
The Central and State governments have now increased activities and funding to achieve the sanitation MDG (Millennium Development Goal) target. Water supply and sanitation is a State responsibility under the Constitution of India and following the 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional amendments, the States give the responsibility and powers to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to implement them.

Towards Nirmal Bharat: Vision and Strategy
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation  has formulated the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy for the period of 2012 to 2022. The main purpose of this strategy is to provide a framework to realize the vision of Nirmal Bharat, an environment that is clean and healthy.
A Nirmal Bharat  is a dream of clean and healthy nation that thrives and contributes to the welfare of our people. This vision seeks to visualize a nation in which the traditional habit of open defecation is entirely eliminated, the worth of every human being is respected, and quality of life is improved. To achieve this in rural areas, the department has following strategies and goals to meet in coming years.

• Completely eliminating the traditional habit of open defecation and making this a relic of the past.
• Operationalizing systems for the safe management of solid and liquid waste at scale.
• Promoting the adoption of improved hygiene behaviours.
• Addressing inequalities in access with special attention to vulnerable groups such as women, children, aged and disabled.
• Ensuring that providers have the capacity and resources to deliver services at scale.
• Stimulating and enabling cooperation across public sector agencies concerned with rural development, health, environment and vulnerable sections.
• Working with business, academic and voluntary partners to achieve the goals of the strategy.

Goals

• Creation of Totally Sanitized Environments - By 2017: The end of open defecation and achievement of a clean environment where human faecal waste is safely contained and disposed.
• Adoption of Improved Hygiene Practices - By 2020: All people in the rural areas, especially children and caregivers, adopt safe hygiene practices during all times.
• Solid and Liquid Waste Management - By 2022: Effective management of solid and liquid waste such that the village environment is kept clean at all times.

Report

Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy (2012-2022)

Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)

The Central Rural Sanitation Programme of the Indian government began in 1986. It has now evolved into the Total Sanitation Campaign  (TSC) which operates in various districts of States and Union Territories. TSC successfully encourages households to finance their own toilets while giving financial incentives to the underprivileged. A nationwide network of Rural Sanitary Marts and Production Centres has been established with government funds though they are run primarily by local governance, NGOs and community based organisations. These Marts and Production Centres provide the materials required for construction of sanitary latrines and other facilities. The outlets also serve as counseling centres for those interested in building a toilet on their own. This has boosted the supply chain, promoting sanitation and hygiene, catering to an estimated 138 million rural households in the country.
Lessons from three decades of a government-driven programme suggest that visionary policies and a strong institutional setting helped in reaching more households without toilets. Although progress has happened, models in West Bengal, Maharashtra and other places show how informed strategies, strong peoples participation and strong monitoring yield results. Thus, the government has also put in efforts to focus on improvement of sanitation facilities in various schools, Anganwadi centres and communities.
TSC is a success story and achieved thousands of ODF (Open Defecation Free) villages in the last few years. For the urban areas, the National Urban Sanitation Policy was launched in 2008 to accelerate sanitation provision in cities.

Nirmal Gram Puraskar

 
To give fillip to the objectives of TSC, the government initiated the Nirmal Gram Puraskar . A cash award, the Puraskar recognises fully covered PRIs and those individuals and institutions that work towards ensuring full sanitation coverage in their area of operation. The project implemented in rural areas taking district as the unit. The main objectives of Nirmal Gram Puraskar are:

• To bring sanitation to the forefront of social and political discourse for development in rural India.
• To develop open defecation free and clean villages that will act as models for others to emulate.
• To give incentives to PRIs to sustain the initiatives taken by them to eliminate the practice of open defecation from their respective geographical area by way of full sanitation coverage.
• To increase social mobilization in TSC implementation, by recognizing the catalytic role played by organizations in attaining universal sanitation coverage.

United Nation Millennium Development Goal

The 2.6 billion people, 40 per cent of the world's population, still do not have access to toilets or latrine that is why sanitation is one of the key subjects in the United Nations Millennium Development Goal  targets. The UN-backed Sanitation for all: the drive to 2015 aims to mobilize political will and collect resources to expand sanitation facilities across the globe.

World Toilet Day
In 2001, the World Toilet Organization (WTO) declared 19^th November as a World Toilet Day  (WTD). The WTO created the WTD to raise global awareness of the struggle 2.6 billion face every day without access to proper and clean sanitation.
The WTD also highlights the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endures as a result of inadequate sanitation. The WTD's popularity is gaining momentum, and in 2010 there were 51 events on sanitation facilities spanning 19 countries.