What is new in the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan - A comparative analysis of the NBA and the TSC guidelines

Guest post: Surashree Shome

Background

TSC has been renamed as the “Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ (NBA) with the objective of accelerating the sanitation coverage in rural areas so as to comprehensively cover the rural community through renewed strategies and saturation approach. Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) envisages covering the entire community for saturated outcomes with a view to create Nirmal Gram Panchayats with the following priorities:

• Provision of IHHL to both BPL and Identified APL HHs within a GP
• GP with access to water to be taken up. Priority should be given to GPs having functional piped water supply
• Provision of sanitation facilities in Government Schools and Anganwadis
• Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) for proposed and existing Nirmal Grams
• Extensive capacity building of the stake holders like Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)
• Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) and field functionaries for sustainable sanitation
• Appropriate convergence with MNREGS with unskilled man-days and skilled man-days

Objectives

• Year to attain the vision has been extended from 2017 to 2022. However, the vision has shifted from ‘access to toilets to all’ to “attaining Nirmal status’
• The objectives specifically mention about provision of toilet facilities in schools that are not under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, but year of achieving the target is not mentioned (Under TSC, the year of provisioning toilet facilities in school was 2013)
• Rest of the objectives remain the same

Strategy

• Strategy to achieve the objectives remains ‘community led’ and ‘people centered’
• The provision of incentives for IHHL latrine units has been extended to cover the other needy households too so as to attain community outcomes
• The guidelines accept that availability of water is an important factor for sustaining sanitation facilities created
• Wider technology options to meet the customer preferences and location-specific needs
• Involves ASHA workers and Anganwadi workers for intensive IEC campaign
• Roadmap for engagement of corporate houses is being introduced
• More transparent system involving social audit and active people’s participation in the implementation process proposed
• Convergence with MNREGA to facilitate the rural households with fund availability for creating their own sanitation facilities

Implementation:

• The Guidelines of NBA and provisions are applicable with effect from 01.04.2012
• Proposed ‘GP’ as a unit and district as the ‘project’. Under TSC, ‘district’ was a unit

Components of the NBA

Start-up activities
The budget for start-up activities is now fixed up to 10 Lakh, which will be met from the IEC funds. Additional fund requirement, if any, shall be met by the State. Under TSC, it was 5% of total project.

IEC activities

• IEC will be conducted at all tiers, i.e. Districts, Blocks, and GPs
• States are to evolve their own strategy for IEC
• Interpersonal communication and door to door contact are recognized as the most significant tools for attaining the programme goals
• To strengthen communication machinery at the village level with participatory social mobilization, guidelines for engagement of motivators (Swachhata doot/sanitation messengers) have been issued separately. (The guideline for Swachhata Doot was available before, but was not mentioned in the guidelines of TSC)
• As a part of strategy, field functionaries like Bharat Nirman Volunteers, ASHAs[

  1

  ], Aanganwadi workers, School Teachers can also be engaged
• IEC funds are also made available for post-Nirmal phase to sustain the movement. Under TSC, IEC fund was available for pre-phase only

Capacity Building

• This is the additional component added in the guideline
• This component includes training of VWSC and PRI members, block and district functionaries and grass root functionaries like ASHA and other health, education and related functionaries, Anaganwadi workers etc. Also training of SHGs in related trades such as masonry work, brick-making, toilet pan making and plumbing etc, and also for awareness raising activities
• NGOs/CBOs of repute can be engaged for this activity
• State Resource Centres and Regional /District Resource Centres should be identified for conducting such training
• The budget for the component is limited to 2 percent of the total budget for IEC and will be in the ration of 80:20 between GOI and State Government

Construction of Individual Household Latrines

• Incentive as provided under the scheme would be extended to all the BPL households as well as APL households restricted to SCs/STs, small and marginal farmers, landless labourers with homestead, physically handicapped and women headed households (Refer to

  Annexure 1

  )
• The incentive amount for BPL as well as identified APLs for construction of one unit of IHHL shall be Rs.4600 (Rs.5100 for difficult and hilly areas), which is Rs.1400 (Rs.1400 in difficult and hilly areas also) more than previous year
• Minimum beneficiary share shall be Rs.900 in cash or labour, Rs.600 more than TSC
• Ministry of Rural Development notification Number S.O.1022 (E) dated 04.05.2012 regarding convergence of TSC with MNREGAS will be mutatis mutandis applicable for convergence with NBA (

  Box 1

  ).

Rural Sanitary Marts and Production Centres

• Quality standards (where notified by BIS or by MoDWS) for each of the items of purchase should be strictly adhered to

Provision of Revolving fund in the District

• This revolving fund can be accessed by APL households not covered for incentives under the guidelines

Community Sanitary Complex
Such complexes can also be made at public places, markets, etc, where large scale congregation of people takes place. Suitable maintenance guidance may be adopted by the community to ensure proper maintenance of the complex.

Institutional Toilets

• School Toilets: Nothing has changed in this section
• Aanganwadi Toilets: Now, the Aanganwadi’s would be given financial assistance for the construction of child friendly toilet, which was an incentive in TSC. Construction of Aanganwadi toilets is to be prioritized in the 200 high focused districts to assist in tackling the issue of malnutrition (

  Box 2

  ).

Solid and liquid waste management

• Vermin composting, common and individual biogas plants are now recognized as activities which can be carried out under the component
• Project should be approved by State Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SSSC)
• Projects will be prioritized in identified GPs targeted for Nirmal status and those that have already been awarded NGP
• SLWM can also be implementing by dovetailing funds from other Rural Development programmes like MNREGS etc
• Under the TSC, GPs were allocated upto 10% of the project cost to meet the SLWM Component. Now, the total assistance under NBA for SLWM projects for GPs has been be worked out on the basis of the total number of HHs in GP, subject to a maximum of Rs. 7 Lakh for a GP having upto 150 HHs, Rs.12 lakh up to 300 HHs, Rs. 15 Lakh up to 500 HHs and Rs.2 lakh for GPs having more than 500 HHs
• Under the TSC, the fund sharing between Centre, State and GP/Community for SLWM was in the ratio of 60:20:20. Now, the fund would be shared between Centre and State only in the ratio of 70:30. Any additional cost requirement is to be met with funds from the State/GP (

  Box 3

  )

Maintenance of facilities created under NBA

• This is a new addition under the programme
• It is essential to train the community, particularly all the members of the family in the proper upkeep and maintenance of the sanitation facilities created
• The IEC activities should include awareness of the community on how to maintain the sanitation facilities
• The maintenance expenses of individual household sanitary latrines should be met by the households
• The maintenance cost of community sanitary complexes may be met by the PRIs through appropriate mechanisms like user charges etc
• The concerned departments should provide adequate funds for maintenance of school/Anganwadi toilets
• Any other appropriate funds made available by the state government to the PRIs/districts may be utilized

Administrative charges

• Money spent on training is now included under administrative charges

Ecological Sanitation

• Description of this component is not included in the NBA programme but constructions of ecosan toilet are permissible under the NBA programme
• Beneficiaries are eligible to build the toilet under the MGNREGA programme and can also access the incentive from NBA programme

National scheme sanctioning committee

Under TSC, the NSSC was constituted only to approve the project proposals for the districts. In NBA, it added a word ‘revise’, means NSSC would also revise the project proposals. However, it is not clear that how it is different from the TSC programme. Otherwise, this section remained same.

Implementing agencies

NBA has revamped this section and 4-Tier implementation mechanism at the State/District/Block/Village level has been introduced. NBA has also clarified the roles and responsibilities of SWSM, WSSO, DWSM, BRS and VWSC. I have copied the section here for the convenience of the reader.

State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM)

• As a step towards achieving coordination and convergence among State Departments dealing with Rural Drinking Water Supply, Rural Sanitation, School Education, Health, Women and Child Development, Water Resources, Agriculture etc. a State Water and Sanitation Mission should be set up at the State/UT level. It shall be a registered society under the aegis of the Department/Board/Corporation/Authority/Agency implementing rural water supply and sanitation programme in the State
• The SWSM shall be headed by the Chief Secretary/Additional Chief Secretary/Development Commissioner with Secretaries in-charge of PHED, Rural Development (RD), Panchayati Raj (PR), Finance, Health, Education, Women and Child Development, Water Resources, Agriculture, Information and Public Relations (I&PR) as members. Principal Secretary / Secretary of the Department looking after Sanitation/Drinking Water in the State shall be the nodal Secretary responsible for all the SWSM activities and for convening the meetings of the Mission. Experts in the field of sanitation, hydrology, IEC, HRD, MIS, media, NGOs etc. may be co-opted as members
• SWSM shall supervise implementation of NBA in the project districts in the State, ensure convergence mechanism between line departments, prepare the Annual Implementation Plan for each district as per the progress made by districts, receive Grant-in-aid from Centre earmarked for specific project districts and disburse to the DWSMs. All projects shall have to be approved by State Scheme Sanctioning Committee (SSSC). The mission shall meet at least once in six months

Water and Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO)

All States should set up Water and Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO) under State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) to deal with IEC, HRD and Monitoring and Evaluation at the State level Communication strategy for the State should be planned by the WSSO and should be regularly monitored for effective implementation. In states where Water supply & Sanitation are handled by two different departments, a CCDU (Sanitation) should be associated with the WSSO. Consultants from the fields of Communication, Human Resource Development, and Monitoring and School sanitation & hygiene education may be engaged.

District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM):

A District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) shall be constituted at the district level. The line departments will play the catalytic role in implementation. The composition of DWSM should be as follows:

• DWSM shall be headed by Chairman of Zilla Parishad/ District Collector/Deputy Commissioner
• The members would be –all MPs/MLAs and MLCs of the District and Chairperson of the Standing Committees of the Zilla Parishad or their representatives; District Officers of Education, Health, Panchayati Raj, Social Welfare, ICDS, PHED, Water Resources, Agriculture, Information and Public Relation; NGOs shall be identified by the DWSM and co-opted into the Mission as members
• The Executive Engineer of PHED/District Engineer of the ZP/ any other officer approved by SWSM shall be the Member Secretary
• The Mission shall meet at least quarterly

DWSM should plan and implement the district NBA project with appropriate IEC strategies and convergence mechanisms with other line departments. DWSM should also ensure fund flow to the GPs for attaining the objectives of NBA. It should review and monitor programme implementation so that the objectives of the district annual action plans may be achieved leading to sustainable Nirmal Gram Panchayats.

Block Resource Centres (BRC)

• The role of Block Panchayats in rural drinking water and sanitation sector needs to be strengthened to provide guidance, support and monitor water supply and sanitation status in GPs. Block Panchayat is the ideal unit for providing support to a GP or a group of Gram Panchayats
• To achieve this objective, Block Resource Centres (BRC) shall be set up as per Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation vide letter no. W-11042/72/2009 dated 24th August 2010. BRC shall provide continuous support to the programmes of the Ministry in terms of awareness generation, motivation, mobilization, training and handholding of village communities, GPs and VWSCs
• The BRC will serve as an extended delivery arm of the DWSM in terms of software support and act as a link between DWSM and the GPs/ VWSCs/ village communities
• Capacity building and generating awareness among the village community on various aspects of sanitation will be taken up by BRCs. It will also help the GPs in achieving Nirmal Gram status, sustaining and building on it with effective and low cost management of solid and liquid wastes

Village Water and Sanitation Committee

A Village Water and Sanitation Committee shall be constituted as a sub-committee of Gram Panchayat in Gram Panchayats, for providing support in terms of motivation, mobilization, implementation and supervision of the programme. The VWSC should play a crucial role in the comprehensive and saturation approach to Nirmal Grams.

Role of Panchayat Raj Institutions

Two more activities are added in the list of activities that Corporate Bodies can take up to address the issue of sanitation in rural areas:

•  Propagate the programme through mass media
• Adopt habitations/villages/GPs to make them Nirmal Grams

Project funding

There are few changes in the funding pattern under various components:

Annual implementation plan

NBA has included two more points in AIP:

• It should give reasons and comments for variation, if any,
• Monthly and Quarterly projected targets
• NBA has clarified the process of submission of AIP, and also emphasized that ‘AIP should be prepared following the saturation approach highlighting comprehensive sanitation and water coverage on the identification of GP that can be made Nirmal during the year/in the coming years’.

Release of funds

Release to State level

• Nothing has changed in this section.

Release from State to District level

• Nothing has changed in this section

Interest earned on finds released under NBA

•  Nothing has changed in this section

Inspections

• Nothing has changed in this section

State review mission

• NBA has included a brief description about the members to be selected for the ‘State Review Mission’. The responsibility of the State Review Mission remained same

Social audit

Sanitation day

• Nothing has changed in this section

Gram Swachchhata Sabha (GSS)

• Nothing has changed in this section

Revision in project

• Nothing has changed in this section

Reports 

• Nothing has changed in this section

Evaluation

• Nothing has changed in this section

Research

• Nothing has changed in this section

Annual audit

• The accounts of the project should be audited by panel of CAs approved by the CAG only

Project completion

• Nothing has changed in this section

Annexure 1

Based on the information given in NBA Guidelines and MoRD Notification Number S.O.1022(E) dated 04.05.2012 regarding convergence of TSC with MGNREGA

Programme	Sources of Contribution	Amount
From NBA
	Central Government contribution	Rs. 3200/- (3700 for hilly and difficult areas)
	State Government contribution	Rs.1400/-
	Beneficiary contribution	Rs.900/-
	Subtotal	Rs. 5500/-
From MGNREGA
	Unskilled labour contribution	Rs.2700/-
	Material cost	Rs.1800/- (includes skilled labour and mate cost)
	Subtotal	Rs.4500/- (maximum limit)
	Total unit cost of IHHL (1.d.+2.c.)	Rs.10,000/-

Footnotes:

1. An incentive of Rs 75/- per household toilet has been fixed as a norm to be given to ASHA workers for promoting toilet usage. Payment of the incentive may be made from the 15% of the District Project outlay that is earmarked for IEC activities under NBA (Jt. D.O.No.W-11042/7/2007-CRSP-Part dated 18.05.2012). Also refer http://ddws.gov.in/sites/upload_files/ddws/files/pdf/Agenda-Raipur.pdf