Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh give contrasting pictures of the sanitation story in the country. While the latter swears by subsidised toilet building, the latter gave up the subsidy offer route long before. And, while UP is far away from total sanitation, the latter has declared itself Open Defecation Free.
Bhadeshar Mau, a village in Malihabad tehsil of Lucknow, was feted by the central government in 2008 for its work in sanitation. About Rs 3.5 lakh was spent in constructing toilets here. It has about 300 families.
Village development officer Deepak Kumar Srivastava says the success story was shortlived. “Many people now use their toilets for storage or have simply stopped using it over a span of time. The older generation is used to open defecation, which they feel is a cleaner option than toilets,” he says.
And, while miles away from being free of open defecation, the villag swears by subsidies. Says gram pradhan Dinesh Kumar Yadav, “The subsidy should be increased. It pays only part of the cost now. People should get the full cost, not just Rs 4,500.”
Karimabad in the nearby Kakori area has about 220 houses. It was designated as an Ambedkar Village in 2008-09 (the status entitles a village to get basic amenities like roads, drains, toilets, power, drinking water, health facilities and houses for the poor on a priority), but there still are families with no toilets.
“Most of the BPL (below poverty line) families had been covered in the sanitation scheme in Karimabad, but there are about 50-60 families, mostly APL (above poverty line), which are to be covered under the scheme,” says village development officer Vivek Sharma.
The UP government claims to have covered all the 52,000 gram panchayats under the rural sanitation programme. But the 2011 household census found just 5.5 million rural households have toilets in the state, against a total of 22 mn households.
The centrally-sponsored Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) aims to eradicate open defecation in India by 2017, with individual and community toilets. Since its advent in the state in 2002, about Rs 2,600 crore have been spent in UP, both central and state component.
Himachal’s zero subsidy approach is not being considered. Yet, panchayat raj officials, while swearing by subsidy, recognise that habits have to be changed. Muralidhar Dubey, the director in the department, says: “Behavioural change can happen with more subsidy and health awareness.”
Himachal's long wait for rewards
In Himachal Pradesh, on the other hand, the state government says it has achieved the goal of total sanitation . It did so through a zero subsidy approach, involving mass awareness through activists and volunteers.
The Centre is supposed to give Nirmal Gram awards to villages which achieve the Open Defecation Free status. In the state, most villages have got the status and a reward would mean Rs 5 lakh each.
The state’s rural development officials complain the central rural sanitation agencies are reluctant to declare villages in the hill state as nirmal gram panchayats (NGP), to avoid paying this prize money. “Even when these agencies find all homes have toilets, they point out that some rural schools or a market place near the villages may not have enough toilets,” said one official.
State government officials acknowledge this is an issue at some places, particularly where migrant labour moves in villages and townships despite contractors being asked to provide toilets for workers.
“Out of 3,243 panchayats in the state, 1,011 are already NGP ,” said Robin George , a senior official of the state’s rural development department. “We have asked them all to apply for this status, so that the state and central agencies can visit each and verify their claims.”
