Dr. Yudhbir Singh Khyalia

PROJECT - TOTAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN (TSC)

Strategies adopted to achieve ODF status

Low to No Subsidy

•         Only Incentives were given to those associated with this campaign.

•          Subsidy was provided to only those households who were below poverty line through Gram Panchayats.

It was not easy as people expected doles if Government was asking for sanitation and cleanliness. And even if anyone has been provided any assistance, others even the well-off should be provided with same. A very specific campaign was begun to counter this and villagers were told that they do not get any help for marriages etc. then why assistance shall come to them for their own cleanliness.

Desire of financial help was also countered convincing them that just for a little financial help they are compromising modesty of women of their households who have to go for OD and sit in open fields half naked. While on the other hand they expect womenfolk to be veiled. This instilled a sense of shock and disgust among villagers and three fourth of the time the village collectively decided to come out of this sorry state within a short and specified period of time (this timeline was decided by the villagers themselves).

Initial failure after triggering of CLTS in some of the villages taught a valuable lesson to the field staff that ‘Subsidy kills collective local enthusiasm”. What they experienced earlier that:

     News of subsidy being distributed in nearby villages by other programs/projects dampens the spirit of self-mobilization by the local communities. Often such communities don’t agree to construct simple toilets but prefer to defecate in the open and wait for the toilet subsidy.

      Nonetheless, a flexible approach needs to be adopted to initiate CLTS in some villages where subsidy on sanitation hardware cannot be avoided. The individual H/H hardware subsidy could be changed to a ‘collective community reward’. As soon as a community stops open defecation totally through local action, the amount of subsidy originally allocated for the village could be given to the community.

      In villages extremely poor households have been supported to  achieve the collective goal of creating an open defecation free environment in a variety of ways. In practice, Panchayats and landed families have provided interest free loans and have made  land contributions.