Dear Members,

There is no denial that we have made significant strides towards achieving ODF in the past four to five years. The collective efforts by the Government, civil society, corporates and NGOs have lead to this ambitious mission of Swachh Bharat. In order to sustain the development we must continue and strengthen our efforts for regular usage of toilets, enabling universal access and fecal sludge management. In short we must follow the roadmap of ODF+ and ODF ++. While the definitions of these terms may vary, it is indeed encouraging to have them mentioned in the policy and advocacy dialogues.

The first step on the ODF++ ladder is to have equitable access to sanitation along with a permanent change in hygiene practices followed by effective operations & maintenance and managing the fecal sludge for closing the loop. Equitable access means universal access of toilets for everyone in the city or villages especially covering the bottom of pyramid population living in slums or informal settlements. Adequate provisions for community toilets or shared toilets with safe technologies need to be ensured by the local Govt. Even a small percentage of population without access to toilets are a huge barrier in claiming ODF. As practitioners many of us might have witnessed this in ODF cities or villages. Effective operations & maintenance services help in ensuring consistent use of sanitation facilities. Water is the key resource without which many go back to open defecation and is the reason for poor maintenance of public/community toilets. Water availability must be factored in for enabling usage. In water scarce areas technology selection should be done accordingly such as SATO Pans, Ecosan toilets, waterless urinals etc. Water recycling options at decentralised scale can help in reuse of water for toilets to a great extent.

The last but certainly not the least in the roadmap towards ODF++ is fecal sludge management. FSM is still in the nascent stage in India in terms of both policy building and implementation. The concept of FSM must be integrated from the beginning itself right from the selection of toilet models. The treatment of fecal matter starts at the sub structure of a toilet and therefore it is extremely important to have it built in the right manner. A fault septic tank or leach pit is as bad as open defecation and even worse at times. Many toilets have also been built with discharge point in the open drainage and it is going at a barren land or pond instead of a sewage treatment plant. This might become one of the biggest challenge in achieving ODF++.

In order to achieve a four pronged strategy in a multistakeholder partnership combining awareness creation, supply chain solutions, capacity building and decentralised management is essential. There has to be long term vision and time bound goals with a clear roadmap for achieving sustainability. Solutions for water reuse, fecal sludge treatment at decentralised level is a must considering the social cultural diversity in India. FSM cannot be considered a standalone issue but rather should be treated as a part of sanitation value chain for closing the loop. Demonstrating economic, aesthetic & health incentives for communities will help in bringing the users on board. A lot of capacity building at multiple levels need to be done. Collaboration of various stakeholders for making policies and in their implementation is also vital.

Regards, Sneha

Dear all,

This has been most interesting. I thank each of you for taking out time to read and respond. My special thanks for Sujoy who has led this topic and contributed immensely to the discussions.

I would like to draw attention to a posting on another thread, forum.susana.org/279-knowledge-managemen...sh-partners-in-india, that talks about a community of practice of Gate Foundation partners in India. They work mostly on FSM, one of the issues in a post-ODF world.

With this, we are starting the second topic of this discussion on manual scavengers and sanitation workers. Please visit this thread to see Ankit Tulsyan's opening comments and respond - forum.susana.org/swachh-bharat-abhiyan-i...ual-scavengers#26062. This topic will be open till 15 September.

Regards
Nitya

(Posted on behalf of Phyllis Ruth)

A great piece Sunetra, you have said it all.

Its true that for one to develop a working behaviour change communication program, one really needs to understand why people do things the way they do them, their perception on the issue you want to address and what they have been doing concerning the situation because for any health issue you will find that the community has some way of handling it no matter how primitive it may be. Having understood their perception they help them understand any gaps that may be existing and them from that point engage them in knowing how best will they handle the situation now from the point of full knowledge of the health issue.

Phyllis

To summarise the notings : 7 Nos. actions need to be done and reviewed.
Well wishes.

The Swachh Bharat Mission has opened the flood gates to get the medallion of open defecation free (ODF) status. As 2019 approaches more districts and states will declare themselves ODF. Of late the entire system is in a hara-kiri for ODF although this was not the case when the program was launched. When this happens, there will be slippages as experienced earlier in the Nirmal Gram Yojna. As we are celebrating our ODF achievement, sustainability of these achievement is a bigger challenge. Toilets that has been constructed-what are their lives? Will these toilet remain for lifelong? Are their any system for Faecal Sludge management(FSM)? Do our system have anybody (Swachhagrahi, motivator, frontline worker etc.) to undertake the constant dialogue with the community on sanitation and hygiene promotion post ODF). As we all know that our institutions (schools, AWCs, health care centres) are critical elements in our society. Inadequate and inappropriate WASH facilities with poor O&M in the institutions act as barrier to children’s attendance, performance and growth in schools, especially for girls. Also improved WASH facilities in health care centres will give less burden on health care systems.
Waste management, both solid and liquid waste are needed to be managed and for it some private houses, entrepreneurs are needed to do it. The system has to be flexible for more agencies to be roped in. Post construction, ODF sustainability is a herculean task with lot many components gets added because now you don't have a clear battle ground but surrounded by tasks that demands more of effective BCC, knowledge and localized innovations that suits our environment.
Some things that are needed to be popularized and to be done are
1. Showing the efficacy of toilet manure. Pit digging and its advocacy along with the use of the 2nd leach pit is needed to be promoted widely
2. Innovations on FSM has to be done. Treatment plants etc are needed to be established at block level or a cluster of blocks. Other wise after year wise our environment will be in danger. Private bodies can be involved with some incentives
3. Toilet life has to be defined and hence promote upgradation
4. Institutional toilets are needed to be functional and these can be a centre for developing habits on safe hygiene practices.
5. Involve more of SHGs in MHMs-production, marketing and delivery
6. Annual identification of Sanitation Icons/ODF-S icons from village level, GP level, Block level, District level to State level.
7. A dedicated worker (Swachhagrahi/motivator) is needed for an year post ODF to guide the community (as many would be the first generation users) for safe sanitation and hygiene promotion in a village. The communication channel should not break.

Dear Sanchita,

Thanks for your considered input. Yes, motivation for behaviour change has to be strong and appealing to the subject. And as is said in sports, it is easier to reach the top, than too stay there. Achieving ODF status is/has been very difficult, but sustaining the status would probably be harder.
As a District Collector said recently, 'achieving ODF was the responsibility by Government (districts), maintaining ODF will have to be the responsibility of the the GP/Community'.

The questions include :
'what all needs to be done by the Government to facilitate the ODF sustainability process?'
What should a 10 year strategy of the Government post 2019 look like?
Should the government give funds to the GPs, to the Districts?
Should manpower be provided at GP level - like paying Swachhgrahis? For how long?

These questions need answers.

Dear Aditya,

Good to learn of your experiences from rural Maharashtra. It is without doubt that , the participation of the HHs in decision making regarding their toilets leads to better quality of toilets construction, better O&M and increased usage. In a top driven approach , only one technology is pushed. The Govt has intentionally promoted the pour flush twin pit toilet as it is SDG compliant. However the 'why' also needs to be effectively communicated. That is exactly why this discussion of SBCC is important. And yes, Children can be effective communicators - specially in HHs with '1st generation school goers'.

Thank you .

Some interesting suggestions - Controlled OD area. While it may be a practical approach for some time, I do not see this being taken up by government as a policy.
Natural treatment of all streams seems a good practical solution. very practical even in rural areas.

Thank you for the message.
It is important that improved service delivery of sanitation services from government department and local bodies, needs to go hand-in-hand with SBCC. Orienting and capacitating service providers is very important.

(Posted onbehalf of Indira Dasgupta)

Dear All,
When in Rural India,
1. Try to make the the toilet twice the size you normally make . To allow
the possibility of undressing and dressing.

2. Try to make a privacy wall.

3. Make toilets separate for men and women - the family feeling on use of
toilet is based on gender rather than bet generations.

4. Do make the roof breathable ! Or make gas vent

5. A =E2=80=98chaubaccha=E2=80=99 ( bengali) would be excellent istead of =
a faucet .

6. Liquid soap dispensers may actually work better if touch free.


Bests in the onward struggle

Prof. C Indira Dasgupta
9810816150

The pluses and the S' do not change the overarching philosophy of campaigns like these. Movements that spur and shock people to shift to safe practices will continue to need the nurture and gentle push to keep at it.

Let's look at examples other than sanitation. When people choose healthy eating practices to lose weight, it is often time bound and measurable. As soon as that target is achieved (often over months), most people slip back to old habits. Other than the fact that human beings act irrationally, what could be the real cause behind falling behind despite months of mental and physical investment?

Experts would argue over and debate several factors and the science behind it whereas I would put my money on 'motivation.' How do I keep myself motivated to stay the course? How do I motivate others around me?

This applies to the sanitation situation too. I feel that a lot of investment will be required to keep individuals committed and communities motivated, to strengthen ground level institutions through capacity building and regular flow of communication.

I was reading about the IL&FS case study in the compendium by India Sanitation Coalition that highlighted how they used their CSR investments for O&M and sustainability in Gujarat. That is perhaps a model worth looking at.

Finally, the trick lies in managing the difficulty level of the campaign at this stage, which will be twice as high given that this time there will possibly be neither a carrot (incentive) nor a stick (sanctions) to influence behaviors.

My two pence,
Sanchita

Respected Sir,
I am a student of WASH in TISS, Tuljapur and I have little experience regarding the same. I don't know about the total behaviour change which you listed but while interacting with community in the villages, I realized that the safety and security of children and women of the house are the major driving force to use toilet. However, the push factor by the government is leading to poor construction but wherever the community or the individual household is involved in taking the decision independently have shown a great pull towards the regular use of toilet. It is also important to know that the community have very limited information about technologies available and cheaper alternatives which is leading towards the poor construction of toilets.
Children are the major agent of change which can infiltrate any community. The practices given in the schools can translate into change of behaviour in the family. This is a case of a student in Delhi.