India needs to have a multipronged approach towards sanitation

Initiated by the prime minister in 2014, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) aims at making India clean by 2019. This year, Rs 9000 crore was allocated for the mission. Additionally, the government is charging 0.5% as Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC) on all taxable services from November 15. The mission has a rural and an urban sub-mission, with different objectives and approaches for tackling the issue.

As per government reports, 115 cities have achieved the 'Open Defecation Free' (ODF) status and another 739 cities (out of the 4,041 statutory cities and towns) will achieve it this financial year. According to reports on the rural areas, the top five states are Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, and Uttarakhand, and the bottom five are Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Bihar, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, and Jharkhand. This year 39,309 villages out of targeted 612,157 have been declared ODF.

Since the start of the mission, 21 million toilets have been constructed in rural areas, covering only 53.6% of the total rural population of India. There is a considerable gap between the target and what has been achieved so far, which means there is a critical need to accelerate the efforts to achieve 100% coverage.

The target set for rural areas is 12 crore toilets and till date only 2.5 crore toilets have been built. At this pace the deadline is likely to be missed.

Besides toilet construction, its usage is an important factor. For promoting usage, raising awareness is important and information, education and communication (IEC) activities are vital. About 97% of the total expenditure from April 2015 to February was on the construction of household latrines, clearly indicating the neglect on IEC activities, for which merely 1% was spent in the last fiscal.

The sanitation programme of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan also ignored the importance of IEC activities and raising awareness It was reported that many villages were awarded the Nirmal Gram Puraskar, as all the households had toilets — but in reality people were still defecating in the open.

One of the focuses of the mission has been on behaviour change regarding healthy sanitation practices and usage of toilets. This change of mindset is a challenging task. Another important reason for toilets not being used is the lack of access to running water — this is a major problem in drought-affected states.

In addition to being ODF, waste management is crucial because if this is not strictly monitored, water sources could be contaminated with faecal coliform leading to grave health risks.

There is a need for integrating the mission with other water policies like the Namami Gange and Mgnrega. There is also a need for thoughtfulness and attention for developing innovative ideas for solid waste management. For the success of the mission, access to water, capacity building, implementation of IEC activities, management of waste and involving users is of as much importance as constructing toilets.