aim

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

Authored By :

Surashree Shome

Posted By : aarti kelkar kh...

Posted Date : Mon, 2012-08-20 11:56

4 Comments

TSC has been renamed as the “Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ (NBA) with the objective of accelerating the sanitation coverage in rural areas. The modifications in the NBA is analysed.

Guest post: Surashree Shome

This writeup aims at comparing the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) guidelines with the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) guidelines released on July 2012 by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) and focuses on and analyses the modifications/changes and additions included in the NBA Guidelines. Wherever TSC is referred to in the document, it is with reference to the TSC guidelines published by MDWS in July 2011. The document has followed the serial number and the title/subtitle of NBA guidelines for the convenience of the reader. The information given in the boxes is taken from the MGNREGA Guidelines.

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