From Kaushik Pal, District Water and Sanitation Mission, Deogarh
Posted 7 April 2011
I work as the district coordinator with the District Water and Sanitation Committee (DWSC) in Deogarh, Jharkhand. This promotes coordination between government agencies to scale up the School Sanitation and Hygiene Education Programme, the Total Sanitation Campaign and Swajaldhara. It supports the Jharkhand Education Project and provide water and sanitation facilities in schools. The Committee promotes local innovations to improve the physical environment of schools. It also develops monthly progress reports for UNICEF, the state and Central governments.
DWSC prepares and manages the TSC in the district. It selects the private agencies, NGOs and others for in project implementation. It trains stakeholders (including panchayat members, government officials and people from NGOs), advocates for behaviour change, hires professional support for project implementation, manages funds and promotes convergence. It documents progress and share reports with the state water and sanitation mission as well as the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission. The Committee is responsible for monitoring and evaluation of these programmes.
In Jharkhand, NGOs are the implementing agencies for the TSC and run the sanitation production centres. The government incentives for building toilets provided to families below the poverty line is paid to the production centre of the NGO concerned after the block or district level government officials have verified construction of the toilets. This means that people have to first find their own resources to build the toilets and then claim the incentives. This process sometimes creates roadblocks in the TSC. Beneficiaries usually contribute in kind and very rarely in cash.
We would like Community members to suggest:
- Where can people living below the poverty line find resources to make their own toilets?
- What role production centres can play to support them? It is viable to provide credit for hardware, for example?
- How can DWSC, NGOs and sanitation facilitators play a more meaningful role in this process?
Your inputs will help to strengthen the village watsan committees in Deogarh and the rest of Jharkhand, streamline fund flows and strengthen TSC at the grassroots.
See the below attachment for response