Community Approach for Sanitation

An Approach to Address Water and Sanitation Challenges of Rural India

Since the turn of this century, Gram Vikashas pioneered a holistic development approach named Movement and Action Network for the Transformation of Rural Areas (MANTRA). This approach was designed based on learnings derived from working with rural communities for almostfour decades. The approach uses "Water and Sanitation" asan entry point for development activitiesand a medium by which an entire community could come together for an important collective goal that has a lasting impact. The major tenets of this model include100% inclusionof the target communities, creation ofself-managed community institutions, focus on ensuringsocial and gender equity,cost sharingandsustainabilityof the interventions implemented.

With 650 million people who lack toilet facilities inIndia, the launch of "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan"on2ndOctober, 2014is timely and systematically intends to address the gigantic problem of sanitation in the country. However, an aspect that has largely been missing from the discussions about the campaign pertains to how well the concerns regarding social inclusion will be addressed by the programme. With social inclusion at the core of its values, Gram Vikas has built a scalable and adaptable model which could be replicated across the country. Gram Vikashas already impacted more than1,200 villagescovering over75,000 familiesand400,000 individuals. Gram Vikas' MANTRA model has been implemented in 24 districts of Odisha and piloted insix other states.

"Our village is better than the town. We have 24*7 piped water supplies to all families, without exception. Every family has its own toilet and bathing room as well. When we seek marriage alliances, our daughters ask us - 'would there be similar facilities there as well?'," excitedly sharesLalita Malik, one of Gram Vikas' beneficiaries from Tamana village in Ganjam district, Odisha, when asked what changes they see in their lives in the recent years.

Challenging the notion that rural masses need only low-cost (almost always taken to mean low-quality) solutions to their problems, Gram Vikas is systematically eroding the feeling of helplessness that has enveloped the minds of the rural poor due to their inability to even attain a basic level ofquality of life. Gram Vikas' MANTRA approach is holistic and hence involves a deliberate cross-cutting across several verticals of intervention. This involves developinginstitutional mechanismssuch as consensus building, creating corpus fund, developing village executive committee and designing maintenanceand sustainability plan. The approach enables marginalised sections of the community to sit together with the more powerful sections and negotiate issues regarding the village on equitable terms.

By treating rural communities aspartners, Gram Vikas attempts to address their critical needs of safe drinking water, health, sanitation, housing, livelihoods and alternate energy.Shubhasis Pattnaik, Executive Director - Gram Vikas feels that Gram Vikas' biggest achievement has been in influencing the behavioural change in the rural communities.He further adds that Gram Vikas' proven processes, knowledge base and methodologies have matured over the last 35 years and have been instrumental in catalysing sustainable rural development.

Source: PRNewsWire

Read More Related Content On This Topic - Click Here

Media

Taxonomy

• Water Supply
• Sanitation & Hygiene