Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan

Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (Hindi: निर्मल भारत अभियान, Nirmal Bhārat Abhiyān, and from 1999 to 2012 called the Total Sanitation Campaign, or TSC) was a programme following the principles of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) initiated by the Government of India in 1999. It was a demand-driven and people-centered sanitation program. It evolved from the limited achievements of the first structured programme for rural sanitation in India, the Central Rural Sanitation Programme, which had minimal community participation and was not following the principles of CLTS. The main goal of Total Sanitation Campaign was to eradicate the practice of open defecation by 2017. Community-led total sanitation was not focused on building infrastructure, but on changing cultural norms to prevent open defecation. In Maharashtra where the program started more than 2000 Gram Panchayats achieved "open defecation free" status. Villages that achieved this status received monetary rewards and high publicity under a program called Nirmal Gram Puraskar.^[1][2][3] The campaigning ambassador for Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan is Vidya Balan.

On 2 October 2014 the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan campaign was relaunched as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission).

Background

Government started the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in 1986 primarily with the objective of improving the quality of life of the rural people and also to provide privacy and dignity to women.

The concept of sanitation was expanded to include personal hygiene, home sanitation, safe water, garbage disposal, excreta disposal and waste water disposal. With this broader concept of sanitation, CRSP adopted a “demand driven” approach with the name “Total Sanitation Campaign” (TSC) with effect from 1999. The revised approach emphasized more on Information, Education and Communication (IEC), Human Resource Development, Capacity Development activities to increase awareness among the rural people and generation of demand for sanitary facilities. This enhanced people’s capacity to choose appropriate options through alternate delivery mechanisms as per their economic condition. The Programme was implemented with focus on community-led and people centered initiatives. Financial incentives were provided to Below Poverty Line (BPL) households for construction and usage of individual household latrines (IHHL) in recognition of their achievements. Assistance was also extended for construction of school toilet units, Anganwadi toilets and Community Sanitary Complexes (CSC) apart from undertaking activities under Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM).

To give a fillip to the TSC, Government of India also launched the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) that sought to recognise the achievements and efforts made in ensuring full sanitation coverage. The award gained immense popularity and contributed effectively in bringing about a movement in the community for attaining the Nirmal Status thereby significantly adding to the achievements made for increasing the sanitation coverage in the rural areas of the country.

Encouraged by the success of NGP, the TSC was renamed as “Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan” (NBA) in 2012. The objective is to accelerate the sanitation coverage in the rural areas so as to comprehensively cover the rural community through renewed strategies and saturation approach.

Objectives

• Bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas.
• Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to achieve the vision of Nirmal Bharat by 2022 with all gram Panchayats in the country attaining Nirmal status.
• Motivate communities and Panchayati Raj Institutions for promoting sustainable sanitation facilities through awareness creation and health education.
• To cover the remaining schools not covered under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Anganwadi Centres in the rural areas with proper sanitation facilities and undertake proactive promotion of hygiene education and sanitary habits among students.
• Encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.
• Develop community managed environmental sanitation systems focusing on solid & liquid waste management for overall cleanliness in the rural areas.

Social media campaign

Take Poo to the Loo,^[4] was an ongoing social media campaign to combat the country's problems with open defecation. It has been praised for its innovative approach.

Times of India reported that the idea was developed and initiated in March 2014 after a sanitation conference was organised by Unicef India and the Indian Institute of Technology as part of the larger Total Sanitation Campaign, which the Indian government launched in 1999.^[5]

Activities

Major activities covered under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan were:^[6]

• Construction of individual household latrines for which the enhanced incentive for individual household latrine units has been extended to all Below Poverty Line (BPL) Households and Above Poverty Line Households (APL) restricted to SCs/STs, small and marginal farmers, landless labourers with homestead, physically handicapped and women headed households.
• Convergence with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for additional financial assistance.Provision of sanitation facilities in Government Schools and Anganwadis in Government buildings.
• Assistance to Production Centres of sanitary materials and Rural Sanitary Marts, Provision of construction of Community Sanitary Complexes.
• Solid and Liquid Waste management (SLWM) to be taken up in project mode for each Gram Panchayat (GP) with financial assistance capped for a GP on the basis of number of household to enable all Panchayats to implement sustainable SLWM projects.
• Information Education Communication (IEC) activities for sustainable demand generation for sanitation facility.
• Provision of extensive capacity building of the stake holders like Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) and field functionaries for sustainable sanitation.

Problems

Lack of effectiveness in a study of similar methods

A randomized study of eighty villages in rural (Madhya Pradesh) was conducted to determine if India's Total Sanitation Campaign's (TSC) effort to eliminate open defecation was effective in reducing diarrhea and other gastrointestinal diseases in children. Results showed that the TSC programme did modestly increase the number of households with latrines, and had a small effect in reducing open defecation. However, there was no improvement in the health of children. Although the authors point out that their results are limited as to place (rural Madhya Pradesh), type of intervention (TSC), and type of measures (self-reported open defecation and child health), they conclude: "these findings highlight the challenges associated with achieving large enough improvement in access to sanitation and correspondingly large reductions in the practice of open defecation to deliver health benefits within large-scale rural sanitation programs."^[7] However, this study may not be used to judge the effectiveness of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) overall, as the presence of subsidies may fundamentally change the effectiveness of the process.^[8]

See also

• Community-led total sanitation
• Swachh Bharat Abhiyan - Clean India Mission

References