A Clean Water and Sanitation led Strategy for Social Transformation in Rural India
Yashveer Singh
Introduction
India, the second most populouscountry in the world with over 1.25 billion people, has enormous socio-economic challenges for a majority of itspopulation.Despite being one of the largest democracies in the world, one of the foremost challenges faced by its development is its being a top down approach. Even 68 years after Independence, the quest for equitable & sustainable development in India is an ongoing process. With almost 65% of India’s population living in rural areas, the scale of the challenge is enormous. Local rural governing bodies called “Village panchayats” have been ineffective in tackling long term local development issues. The major reason is the lack of participation of people in designing & delivering developmental processes. Communities cannot find systematic platforms & opportunities to engage & work for their own village or community. Also, since rural communitiesarenot able to create opportunities in villages, there has been huge migration in recent years, putting pressure on urban areas.This has made many stakeholders believe that it is more difficult to create opportunities for people in rural areas than in urban areas because they are so much more sparsely distributed.
Current Need
Ideally, every development effort should take into account the perspective of all actors and all sectors, but in practice, in most parts of the country, this is just good intentions. Integrated development is not treated as a conceptual framework but as a policy constraint.There have been various development schemes and approaches designed by many organisations & government bodies but they are far from implementation. One of the biggest failures of these programs has been their inability to impact all sections of the society & more so in rural areas.Challenges at the village level are complex and interdependent and call for a holistic approach. Rural India aspires & needs a comprehensive development and governance program. The need of an equitable and sustainable society where people live in peace and dignity. Therefore, there is a dire need to promote processes which are sustainable, socially inclusive and gender equitable so that critical masses of the rural poor and marginalized can achieve a dignified quality of life.
Solution:The Case of Gram Vikas & its approach
Following are highlights of an innovative rural strategy developed by Gram Vikas, which means “village development”, which is a non-governmental organization that works with rural and tribal communities in India and Africa. Gram Vikas partners with rural communities to address their critical needs in education, health, safe drinking water, sanitation and alternative energy.
The way out of poverty & development could be achieved by several roads. The objective of a successful rural development approach needs to create and nurture community managed institutions which will in turn empower their own communities by implementing projects in the fields of water, sanitation, health, education, social housing and livelihoods. Gram Vikas, with over 36 years of experience working with rural and tribal communities has experienced that out of all the needs (education, healthcare, livelihoods & so on) of the community - Water & Sanitation is a universal need of every individual & household. This need offers a unique opportunity to start engaging with a community using “Water & Sanitation” as a development entry point. 100% inclusion of the target rural communities forms the core of Gram Vikas’ approach & intervention model.
Water & Sanitation as Entry Point
With this guiding thought, Gram Vikas designed its engagement strategy where every household in the village constructs a toilet, bathing room and overhead water tank for 24-hour piped water supply. The water is pumped up using a gravity flow system or pumps powered by electricity, solar, diesel or kerosene. Some of the non-negotiable critical aspects of implementing the “Water & Sanitation” program are as follows:
1.)Community ownership:The model starts with every village forming the legal status of a village society with elected representatives constituting an Executive Committee, which is registered as a legal body. This legally recognised status enables villages to leverage development resources. On average, Gram Vikas stays in a village for 3-5 years to build community capacities and to enable each citizen to participate equally. Villagers learn how to maintain public accounts, organize general body meetings and, importantly, hold elections. Jointly, they decide what needs to be carried out in the interest of their village andthus are able to access funds for programmes and other development activities.
Photo: Village Executive Committee meetings to plan various development activities
2.)Resource Mobilisation: In order to implement the program in a given community, all households in the village contribute towards a common fund for water and sanitation. An average contribution is INR 1,000 (approx. US$ 15) per household, while the poor give less and the better off give more. This universal contribution approach is very important as it ensures the commitment & sustainability of the initiative. The community bears about 60% of the capital costs of sanitation and 25% of the piped water supply system. The remaining amount is funded by Gram Vikas through government, national and international donations. The idea is to make people contribute substantially in order to build a strong sense of ownership for the assets created. 100% participation irrespective of sex, caste, creed or economic status is required for Gram Vikas to work in a village.
3.)Training & Skill Development:Gram Vikas then trains community members as masons to build toilets. Some of these masons become master masons, leading trainings in other villages, or securing contracts for work in nearby urban centres, earning two-three times the amount they would have otherwise earned.
Photo: Toilet & bathing room unit constructed by trained youth from the village
4.)Maintenance and Sustainability: To ensure that the dug wells do not run dry, water recharge and water harvesting mechanisms are installed. These follow watershed management best practices. Specific activities include pond excavation, gully plugging, continuous contour trenches and water absorption trenches to reduce the velocity of runoff water and to allow further harvest of rainwater. Villagers identify sources for an operations and maintenance fund through improved pisciculture, community horticulture plantations and social forestry in the village common lands. In some villages, a small percentage (0.25%-0.50%) of the harvest is paid into the common fund. This fund is used to meet recurring expenses for electricity and pump maintenance to keep the water supply systems functional at all times.
Photo: Village Water Supply Tank
5.)Checks and Balances: Anyone defecating in the open within 1km of the village is fined between INR 50-500. A dirty toilet attracts a fine of INR 10-25. These measures ensure 100% use of toilets. Impact evaluations have shown that ensuring 100% participation in using toilets and has eliminated 85% of all waterborne diseases in program villages.
Building on the Momentum
This approach brings together the community using water & sanitation as a vehicle for continued development.The program empowers people by bringing a “mind shift”and enabing them to meet their own needs through community-based action, including the self-governing Executive Committee. The process of building support for the water and sanitation projects helps build community cohesion. The trust that is progressively built during the 3-5 year cycle of developing water and sanitation facilities is leveraged to sustain these interventions. Villagers continue to work together as a community on further village development projects such aslivelihood improvements, education and renewable energy interventions. 80% of villages covered by Gram Vikas continue working together addressing community-level concerns after Gram Vikas has moved out of the village. In all these villages communities have started schools, vocational training centres, primary health centres and robust governance mechanisms.
Opportunities for Scale-up – Aligning Strength & Strategy with other Sectors:
As of 2015, Gram Vikas has worked in over 1250 villages in 26 districts in the state of Odisha & few neighbouring states. Gram Vikas works with the Odisha State Government, and international and Indian corporates through their Corporate Social Responsibility activities. Influencing sustainable and positive change means adopting a holistic, multi-sectoral approach to development. GramVikas model of working with different stakeholders is a perfect case to be scaled up. The model enables Interdependence between different sectors and avoids isolated piece meal solutions. The concept of an integrated approach refers not only to its multi-sectoral nature but also to the broad range of actors involved.
In October 2014, Government of India launched the “Swachch Bharat Abhiyan”(translation: )with a special focus on sanitation in Rural Areas. This is theright opportunity to scale Gram Vikas’s approach in other states and rural areas of India. This program provides initial funding for water & sanitation infrastructure building which could be quickly leveraged to scale into other development interventions.Further, in 2014 the Government of India passed a new law which mandates profit making corporates in India to allocate2% of their profits towardsCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which will be a huge source for funding and can be tapped by development organisations to meet the initial costs to scale such a model across India.
Gram Vikas’ framework for development could be an effectivemodel to involve other stakeholders in the development process of Rural India. Due to its holistic nature it helps bring together different stakeholders ranging from Government, Corporates, Social Businesses, and Other NGOs across India.
While working with different partners in Rural India, there is considerable evidence why partnershipsare needed to address issues of exclusion, area-based disadvantage and development opportunities. Gram Vikas’ model & experience highlights that working in partnerships allows integration to happen in more planned and sensible ways and synergies to be created whereby the multiplier effects of bringing policies and resources together has greater impact than when these activities are carried out on their own. The collaborative approach leads to Greater Impact, with more efficiency, is innovative and spreads the risks among stakeholders.
Conclusion
It seems almost self-evident that in this age of technology and information that an integrated approach to development is the only way possible. Any successful development plan & intervention must take into account the social, cultural, economic, environmental, and geographic realities that shape the lives of people in that region. The idea of holistic development is not a new one. But most of the development efforts were often hampered by a “one-size-fits-all” mentality, prescribing reforms from a centralized perspective, without regard for the local needs of a given population or community. In addition, they tend to keep the sectors discrete and working in Isolation.
Gram Vikas’framework & model of rural development engages every household & different stakholders in the development process of their village. With recentchanges in thepolicy ecosystem within India the time seems right to scale a model which has impacted the lives of millions in a very sustainable & inclusive manner.
About Gram Vikas:
Gram Vikas which literally means 'village development' is a non-profit organization that works with rural and tribal communities in India. Gram Vikas partners with rural-communities to address their critical needs of education, health, safe drinking water, sanitation, livelihoods and alternative energy in a manner that is sustainable, socially inclusive, gender equitable and empowering. Gram Vikas’ interventions have evolved over the years according to the needs of rural and tribal communities in Odisha & neighbouring states. Each of the programs’ and Gram Vikas’ overall contribution has been recognized over the years by various national & international bodies. In the year 2015, In the list of Top 500 NGOs of the world, Gram Vikas was recognised at an impressive rank of 24th in the World and 2nd in India by Global Geneva.
About Author:
The Paper has been written by Yashveer Singh through his experiences & learnings while working at Gram Vikas ( as “Head - Strategy & Collaborations” for more than a year. In his role, Yashveer was responsible for building and scaling up the strategy of the organisation,initiating & forging various partnerships with Government, Corporates and other development focused Organisations.