Sanitation Drive in Rural India
Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs):
- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sometimes known as the Global Goals, were endorsed by the United Nations in 2015.
- A universal call to action to end poverty, safeguard the Earth, and ensure that by 2030 all people experience peace and prosperity.
- It is a set of 17 SDGs which understand that action in one area may affect outcomes in others and that development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
- Countries have pledged to prioritizing progress for those who are furthest behind.
- The SDGs are aimed to reduce poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women.
- The SDGs framework sets targets for 231 individual indicators spanning 17 SDG goals linked to economic development, social welfare and environmental sustainability, to be met by 2030.
- The United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: It consists of 17 Goals and 169 goals as a plan of action for ‘people’, ‘the planet’, and ‘prosperity’.
- The resolution defines systems for the monitoring, review, and reporting of progress as a measure of accountability towards the people.
- Member-states submit a Voluntary National Review (VNR) to the UN’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF)
- VLRs is a tool for driving and reporting local implementation of SDGs at the sub-national and city levels.
- Access to water and sanitation is Goal 6 in the 17 SDGs.
Public sanitation programmes:
- Highly subsidized Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in 1986.
- The Total Sanitation Campaign in 1999 signalled a move from a high subsidy regime to a low subsidy one and a demand-driven approach.
- The public sanitation programme as a mission under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) to render India Open Defecation Free (ODF) by October 2019.
Data and behavioral patterns
- According to figures by the Government of India: sanitation coverage in the country improved from 39% in 2014 to 100% in 2019.
- Phase II of the SBM-G: The government plans to shift India from ODF to ODF Plus by 2024-25.
- Around 85% of villages in India have become ODF Plus.
- A National Sample poll Office (NSSO) poll (69th round): 59% of rural households have no access to a toilet
- 4% of persons who had access reported not using the facilities.
The key reasons for not employing one were:
- Not having any superstructure (21%)
- The facility malfunctioning (22%)
- facilities being unhygienic/unclean (20%)
- Personal reasons (23%).
- It indicated that 59% of families in Bihar, 66% in Gujarat and 76% in Telangana had toilet access.
- Among those having access, 38% of households in Bihar, 50% in Gujarat and 14% in Telangana had at least one person who did not utilise it.
- A higher non-use of toilets in Gujarat was owing to a lack of access to water in Dahod district.
- Study in 2020: 27% of households in survey villages in Gujarat and 61% in West Bengal did not have their own toilets.
- Around 3% of families did not use their own toilets in either State.
- One-fourth of non-user families in Gujarat did not name any specific reason for not utilising it.
- Social standards of purity dissuaded them from using the toilet.
- Quality concerns were also another key cause.
- In Gujarat, 17% of those not using toilets stated that the sub-structure had crumbled
- 50% reported that the pits were full.
- One-third of non-users in West Bengal stated that the superstructure had fallen, while another one third reported the pit being filled.
- Toilets not used for faeces are used as storerooms.
- If societal conventions forbid toilet usage on the premises, the facility is used for bathing and washing clothing.
Variations across surveys:
- National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS)- Round-3 (2019-20)(conducted by the Ministry):
- It reveals that 95% of the rural population have toilet access in India.
- Access to owned, shared, and public toilets was available to 79%, 14% and 1% of homes, respectively.
- 96% of toilets were functioning, and almost all had access to water.
- Same survey says that just 85% of the rural population used safe, functioning, and hygienic toilets.
- Same percentage of persons have toilet access as the homes, the gap rises to 10% between access to toilets and their use.
Issues highlighted by Surveys:
- The left-out households and toilets are underutilised for defecation:The left-out households are large and need to be covered in Phase II.
- The government should identify the deficiencies of the previous phase and cover the holes in the present phase.
- Economic conditions and education: toilet use depends on household size.
- The higher the household size, the greater the chances of not using the toilet.
- Overcrowding and social norms prevent all household members from using the same toilet.
Survey of 2020:
- It shows that only 3%-4% of households have more than one toilet.
- Phase II of the programme: It does not have any criteria mandating multiple toilets for households larger than a certain size.
- The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) programme was launched to provide tap water to each household by 2024.
- No relation has been observed between per capita central expenses made on the JJM and the percentage of villages declared ODF Plus across States.
Sanitation behaviour:
- It varies across socio-economic classes.
- According to NARSS-3, upper castes had the greatest access to restrooms (97%) while scheduled castes had the lowest (95%).
- According to a multi-state survey, the percentage of non-users is higher among upper castes than in lower castes.
Campaigns to modify sanitary behaviour should take into account the following actions:
- Campaign design should take into account the differences in networks throughout communities because in certain locations
- Changes in home behaviour can occur both individually and collectively in different contexts.
The Way Ahead:
- It appears that social engineering using social networks in a culture plagued by caste hierarchy and regressive norms was not sufficiently considered in Phase II of the SBM-G.
- Safe sanitation procedures are now more widely known as a result of the spike in coverage.
- Sanitation-related behavioural changes cannot occur on their own.
- It depends on social networks and general improvements in living conditions, such as better housing and easier access to essential services.
- Each of these fundamental needs has its own programme, but it is not well-coordinated.
- Despite high levels of spending on meeting basic necessities, India’s lack of overall planning has resulted in a lack of programming cohesion.
- Uncoordinated activities would result in the wasteful use of limited public funds.
- There is an urgent need for all nations, developed and developing, to take action towards the SDGs in order to eradicate poverty and other socioeconomic and environmental issues.
- Governments ought to coordinate their efforts to raise living standards and educational attainment, lessen inequality, and stimulate economic growth.
