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Union
Minister for Rural Development, Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today detailed about
the initiatives taken to boost the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in the XI Plan. Addressing media persons here today, he said
that under the Total Sanitation Campaign, the Central Government has increased
the unit cost of for construction of latrines to Rs. 2500.00, from the existing
Rs. 1500. This is the second increase made by this Government since 2004. In 2004,
the unit cost was only Rs. 625, which was increased to Rs. 1500 in 2006. This
increase has been made without burdening the beneficiary, who will continue to
pay only Rs. 300. The incentive now to be provided by the Center to BPL households has been increased from
Rs. 900.00 to Rs. 1500.00. The shares of Center, State and the beneficiary for
the latrine cost over the years have been as follows:
| Year | Unit
Cost of Latrine | Incentive
provided by | Beneficiary
Share | | Center | State |
| 2004 | Rs.
625/- | Rs.
375/- | Rs.
125/- | Rs.
125/- | | 2006 | Rs.
1500/- | Rs.
900/- | Rs.
300/- | Rs.
300/- | | 2008 | Rs.
2500/- | Rs.
1500/- | Rs.
700/- | Rs.
300/- | All houses constructed under the Indira
Awas Yojana are to be provided with a toilet under TSC projects. The toilet model being adopted
for household latrines is the “twin-pit water-seal” model, which provides for
continuous operation with minimum effort and expenditure for maintenance by the
beneficiary. When the first pit gets filled up, the second pit is opened. The
contents of the filled pit will become organic humus and safe for manual cleaning
in about two years. When the second pit also gets filled up, the first pit is
cleaned and used again. Since inception in 1999, Total Sanitation
Campaign Programme (TSC) projects have been sanctioned in 587 rural districts
of the country (total outlay of Rs 13,838 crore) with a Central share of Rs. 8,715
crore, of which Rs. 3,223 crore has been released to the districts till March
2008. The balance requirement of Central share prior to the revision of unit costs
was Rs. 5491.20 crore, which will now be revised to Rs. 6,687 crore. The State
share would increase from Rs. 3,070 crore to Rs. 4,390 crore. The share of the
beneficiary would remain the same at Rs. 2,053 crore. The Central outlay for the Eleventh
Plan has been approved as Rs. 7,816 crore for the Total Sanitation Campaign, including
Rs. 1100 crore for the Nirmal Gram Puraskar. The Government has cleared the full
provision in the Eleventh Plan period itself, with an aim to achieve full sanitation
in rural India by 2012. With the scaling up of TSC combined with higher resource allocation,
the programme implementation has improved substantially. As per the Census 2001
data, only 21.9 % rural households had access to latrines. Since 1999, over 4.62
crore toilets have been provided for rural households under the TSC. A significant achievement has also
been the construction of 6.59 lakh school toilets and 2.16 lakh Anganwadi toilets.
The success of the Total Sanitation Campaign lies in the fact that the community
has also contributed Rs. 1154.38 crore in the total outlay for TSC till now. The major growth has been
seen in the last four years, with the coverage almost doubling from that in 2004.
Of the 4.62 crore toilets provided since 1999, 3.44 crore toilets were provided
in the last 4 years only, with 1.02 crore in 2007-08 alone. This has led to substantial
increase in rural sanitation coverage from 21.9% in 2001 to about 56% in August,
2008: | Year | Percentage
of Rural Households with access to toilets |
| Census
2001 | 21.9% |
| 2003-04 | 27.35% |
| 2005-06 | 37.66% |
| 2007-08 | 53.51% |
| July
2008 | 55.56% |
The component of Solid/Liquid Waste
disposal in villages was included in TSC projects in 2006, providing 10% of
each district project cost. Segregation of degradable and nondegradable solid waste, black and grey
liquid wastewater and holistic environmental protection and cleanliness through
rural sanitation, solid and liquid waste programmes are being taken up. The sanitation
programme also aims to provide urinals and toilets in all schools by December
2008, all anganwadis by March 2009, market places and all places of public access
in the XI Plan period. The designs being
promoted are low-cost and affordable but not inferior to the urban concept of
toilets, to create the least disturbance to natural systems of water and waste. The Campaign has also brought to the
fore the crucial role of women in sanitation and is making them the “Ambassadors
of Sanitation”. They are also being trained
as masons, have taken up pan production as an income generating activity and for
self employment. The sanitary needs of
women, especially the adolescent girls are being focused on now.
Many girls drop out of school at this age due to the difficulty in maintaining
menstrual hygiene. Schools today are being provided means of disposal
of menstrual waste through simple incinerators attached to the toilets itself. Total Sanitation for All by 2012 is
a National Goal. It can be achieved only if the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)
take ownership and lead the Total Sanitation Campaign. With this in mind, Nirmal
Gram Puraskar (NGP) was first given in 2005 to honor, felicitate and encourage
PRIs, which have achieved full sanitation coverage and are open defecation free
and clean in their areas. The Nirmal Gram Puraskar has ignited
the imagination of Panchayat leaders throughout the country and made them champions
of sanitation. It has been the prime mover behind the amazing progress achieved
in rural sanitation coverage since 2005. Under NGP, the following PRIs and other
institutions have received the award in the last 3 years: 2005
– 38 Gram Panchayats and 2 Block Panchayats. 2006
– 760 Gram Panchayats and 9 Block Panchayats, 4 Institutions. 2007
– 4945 Gram Panchayats, 14 Block panchayats, 9 Institutions. For NGP 2008, 30537 applications have
been received and are being verified in the field. This year, 12 districts have
aspired to be recognized as NIRMAL, along with 30190 Gram Panchayats and 335 Block
Panchayats. Her Excellency The President of India
has graciously consented to address the awardees in 3 regional functions in 2008.
The first function will be held in Pune on 11th
October 2008,
followed by the second one in Hissar on 17th October
2008. The last
regional function will be especially held for North East States in Guwahati, followed
by a special function in Delhi on 18th
November 2008. In September 2000, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that challenged the global community
to reduce poverty and increase health and well-being of all people. Each of these
eight Goals have some targets which are monitored. The Seventh Goal of MDG is “Ensuring Environmental Sustainability”,
where one of the targets is to reduce by half the proportion of people without
access to improved sanitation by 2015, taking 1991 as the base year. The Census
1991 shows that only 11% rural households had access to sanitary latrines. With
the implementation of TSC, we have now reached a coverage of
about 56%. Rural India is on track to achieve the Millennium
Development Goal in 2008 itself, well ahead of the target date of 2015. The increased
resource allocation by the Central Government and implementation by the States,
full sanitation in rural India may be achieved by 2012. The fast pace of implementation of
the Campaign has been possible due to the cooperation extended by each State.
This fast growth has generated tremendous interest in the world. Many countries
have sent their delegations to India to study our programme. In 2007, 85 representatives
from 22 countries visited India and were taken to various parts of the country
to see the work in the field as part of an “International Learning Exchange”.
A 30 member delegation from Pakistan specially came to study the role of panchayats
in promoting sanitation. in collaboration with UNICEF-India. In 2008,
the Learning Exchange programme will take over 100 international delegates around
the country in October. To achieve the MDG and give a special focus, the United
Nations has declared the Year 2008 as International Year of Sanitation (IYS).
The General Assembly encouraged member States as well as the United Nations system,
to take advantage of the International Year to increase awareness of the importance
of sanitation to promote action at all levels. With this success in our programme,
India is also hosting the South Asia Conferences on Sanitation (SACOSAN) in the
International Year of Sanitation. Two SACOSANs has been held till date, the first
held in Dhaka in 2003 and the second in Islamabad in 2006. The SACOSANs
are high-powered ministerial conferences held in South Asia devoted solely
to the subject of sanitation. The conferences are intended to develop a regional
agenda on sanitation, enabling the learning from experiences and setting forth
action for the future. The overall goal of the conferences is to accelerate the
progress of sanitation and hygiene in South Asia to enhance peoples' quality of
life in fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals and the commitments made
in the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The theme for SACOSAN has been tentatively
decided as “Sanitation for Dignity and Health”. Ministerial level delegations
are expected from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
and Maldives. Another 1000 other delegates from Observer countries would include
NGOs, Research Organizations, Multilateral Aid Agency representatives, including
such delegates from India itself. To achieve the goal of Total Sanitation
by 2012, each district has been set monitorable annual goals. These goals have
also been communicated to all Chief Ministers, with a request to monitor progress
at their level. State-wise goals are annexed with this note, along with the project
performance. SMK/ST
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Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in the XI Plan
