Government of Rajasthan prepares a working draft of a rural sanitation and hygiene strategy (2012 2022)

Although significant progress has been made in terms of individual household toilet coverage in the state, usage by the population is still low at 12.9 per cent (DLHS 2007-08). Access to toilets for schools and angawandies has seen a marked increased but rural solid and liquid waste management has seen little or no attention.

In 2010, the GoR initiated the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach in selected districts with the objective of scaling sustainable sanitation in the State. Rural sanitation interventions in Rajasthan are planned and implemented within the guidelines set out by the Government of India (GoI) for the TSC. The following documents form the basis for rural sanitation in all states of India – (i) Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy, July 2011 (ii) CRSP TSC Guidelines, July 2011.

In 2010, sanitation was devolved from the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) to the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) in the state. The subject of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation is under the umbrella of Rajeev Gandhi Water Resources Development & Conservation Mission. The wings of the mission are (i) Apex Committee of State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) (ii) Executive Committee of Sanitation (iii) Programme Monitoring Unit & Sanitation Support Organisation (PMUSSO) and (iv) Capacity and Communication Development Unit (CCDU).  

This strategy document outlines a vision of a “Nirmal Rajasthan”, where everyone practices personal hygiene and maintains a clean environment that contributes to the well-being of a thriving and healthy population. To achieve this, the Panchayati Raj & Rural Development Department is committed to:

• Ensuring that whole communities are open defecation free in a sustainable manner
• Ensuring appropriate systems for the environmentally safe management of solid and liquid waste are operationalized
• Provide support for the adoption of key evidence based hygiene behaviors and practices
• Optimizing adequate financing within the GoI guidelines for sanitation and hygiene in rural Rajasthan
• Ensuring that providers and facilitators have the capacity and resources within a enabling policy and institutional environment to deliver sanitation services
• Facilitating partnerships with business, academia, civil society and voluntary organizations, to achieve the goals of the strategy including good governance and accountability within the sanitation sector

The document also states that the Panchayati Raj & Rural Development Department will -

• Facilitate the creation of demand for sanitation services and facilities
• Ensure that a viable supply chain system is in place for sanitation products
• Address inequalities in access to the sanitation facilities with special attention to women, children, aged and disabled persons
• Stimulate and enable cooperation and convergence across public sector agencies concerned with rural development programmes dealing with health and environment

The sanitation strategy

This document views the achievement of the sanitation vision in two parts; short to medium term and medium to long term.

In the

short to medium term (2012 -17)

• Strengthening of PRIs for planning, implementation and monitoring of sanitation
• Ensuring adoption of a community approach to total sanitation statewide
• Completing scale up of sanitation coverage for IIHL, institutions and SLW management
• Ensuring adequate financing, including convergence and fund leveraging from other programmes, for sanitation scale-up
• Improved monitoring systems including concurrent monitoring
• Learning and knowledge management
• Advocacy for a community approach to total sanitation
• Awareness raising for sanitation, including increased knowledge on hygienic practices

The

medium to long term (2017 -22)

• Scale up usage of sanitation facilities
• Ensure operation and maintenance systems are fully established and functional
• Hygiene practices are adopted and sustained

Partial achievement of sanitation outputs is not effective in bringing desired health outcomes. Whilst the initial priority is 100 per cent open defecation free (ODF) communities as open defecation is the most difficult to tackle and carries the highest risk in terms of health impact, other components of sanitation will also be addressed to attain total sanitation. Once ODF is achieved, this can be used as a foundation to bring behaviour change in hygiene practices, solid and liquid waste management and other components of total sanitation.

The strategy document presents the following goals –

Goal 1: Creation of an Open Defecation Free State - 

• Objective 1.1: Ensure all households have knowledge on the benefits of living in open defecation free communities
• Objective 1.2: Ensure all rural households have access to and use individual or community toilets
• Objective 1.3: All schools, Anganwadi and government institutions have functional toilets

Goal 2: Adoption of Improved Hygiene Behavior

• Objective 2.1: All rural households have knowledge on key hygiene practices
• Objective 2.2: All households adopt and sustain key hygiene and sanitation practices

Goal 3: Environmentally safe disposal of Solid and Liquid Waste

• Objective 3.1: Households, PRIs and sanitation functionaries are aware about and have knowledge on the importance of SLWM
• Objective 3.2: Rural Households manage and dispose of SLW in an environmentally safe manner to protect and improve their health and quality of life
• Objective 3.3: To create an enabling environment for communities to able demand and access SLWM options including deriving economic and environmental benefits of SLWM