World Bank to extend $1.5 bn support to Swachh Bharat Mission

The Cabinet today approved USD 1.5 billion (about Rs 9,000 crore) World Bank support for the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in rural areas.
"The project basically provides for incentivising states on the basis of their performance in the existing SBM-Gramin. Incentivisation of states was approved by the Cabinet while approving the SBM-Gramin on September 24, 2014," Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the Cabinet meeting here.
The current approval provides for the mechanism of such incentivisation through World Bank credit, he said, adding that under the approved project, the performance of the states will be gauged through certain performance indicators, called the Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLIs).

The states will pass on a substantial portion of more than 95 per cent of the Performance Incentive Grant Funds received from the MOWS, to the appropriate implementing levels of districts, Blocks, GPs etc, he said.
The end-use of the incentive grants will be limited to activities pertaining to the sanitation sector, he added.
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The project will also put in place a robust and credible independent verification system for annual measurement of improvement in rural sanitation, Prasad said.
The project will support the SBM(G) programme in achievement of its objectives of attaining open defecation-free and clean environment.
Since poor sanitation is related to ill-health, malnutrition, poor education and poverty, achievement of SBM(G) objectives will have a beneficial effect on all of these, he said, adding that it will therefore ensure a better quality of life for the rural population.

Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLIs) includes reduction in the prevalence of open defecation, sustaining open defecation-free (ODF) status in villages and increase in percentage of rural population served by improved Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM).
The total World Bank credit being obtained for the project is USD 1,500 million, of which USD 1,475 million is for providing incentive grant to the states and USD 25 million is for providing programme management and capacity support to Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS).
The proposed project is, therefore, not a new scheme, but part of the existing SBM (G) and provides part-funding to SBM (G) as Externally Aided Project (EAP) credit to support incentivisation of states.

In other words, a performance-based Incentive Grant Scheme, as part of SBM (G), is proposed to be launched through World Bank supported credit funds.
The project comes in the background of acceleration of efforts under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) which has a goal to accelerate efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage, improve cleanliness and eliminate open defecation in rural India by 2019.
The programme is considered India's biggest drive to improve sanitation and cleanliness in the country.
Under the new SBM (G), the focus is on behaviour change and creation of complete open defecation-free (ODF) villages. The objective of the proposed programme is to reduce open defecation in rural areas and strengthen the capacity of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to manage the SBM(G) programme.

The project will, therefore, support the SBM(G) programme in achievement of its objectives of attaining an open defecation-free and clean environment.