Barely noticed and mostly ignored by the chatterati, a silent sanitation revolution appears to be underway in rural West Bengal, Rajasthan and to some extent in Madhya Pradesh. It appears that we may finally be turning a corner in our war against open defecation. Roughly half of India’s population- about 600 million-relieve themselves outdoors, a serious risk to health, resulting in illness and deaths of thousands of infants every year.
When the Prime Minister gave a call for Swachh Bharat on 2nd October, 2014, one of the components of this program was to ensure access to a sanitary toilet to every rural household. The target was to construct 6.84 crore new toilets and ensure reconstruction of 1.39 crore dysfunctional toilets in rural India by 2019.
The challenge was particularly severe in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha -accounting for nearly 50% open defecation in the country as per the Census 2011. But toilet construction alone, though necessary, was by no means sufficient to guarantee an open defecation free India. Previous experience has shown that constructing toilets without inducing behaviour change in the community results in the toilets lying unused or being put to alternate non-sanitary usage.
What is refreshing about this campaign is that it appears to be less about toilet construction, and more about changing mind-sets, deeply held cultural beliefs and practices. What is even more heartening to note is that women and children have been consciously encouraged to be in the vanguard of this campaign. There has been enormous commitment to the campaign from the political leadership of these States (West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) right from the Chief Ministers to the Panchayat representatives at all levels and this commitment has visibly rubbed off on the government machinery which appears to have put its heart and soul into the program.
Every tool in the book that can build an emotional connect with the community has been deployed to trigger the required change; for example, appealing to the sense of honour and safety of women-folk, highlighting the ill consequences upon health and nutrition status of the population and also involving faith based mobilisation to inculcate good behaviour. This is one shining example of channelizing the faith based organization for good community and civic use.
By ensuring that the supply (of cash assistance and Toilet construction materials) matches demand push generated through the induced behavioural change generated through community engagement; all links in the program chain have been completed with little left to chance. Now the constructed toilets shall be used for the purpose they were constructed for stand fairly high chances. The peer pressure and also the Gram Panchayats decreeing fine for deviant behaviour is likely to ensure that this change can be sustained.
The Swachh Vidyalaya initiative of the Government – by its insistence upon on universal separate toilets for boys and girls in every school premise – has effectively complemented in further ratcheting up the momentum under the Swachh Bharat Mission; with schools becoming the seed for a larger societal behavioural change. It would be pertinent to note that the pace of construction of toilets in rural India after the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission has doubled, with nearly 1 crore toilets having been built this year compared to an average of 50 lakh toilets in the preceding years. We are now witnessing the emergence of a generation of young people who would find it difficult to even imagine defecating in the open.
As expected, the positive externalities of sanitary toilets on health and nutrition status of the rural population are already becoming evident through third party studies. For instance, Nadia District of West Bengal – which has been declared as 100% Open Defecation Free (ODF) – has reported a decrease in incidence of diarrhoea, besides significant reduction in the number of severely mal-nourished children.
However, several challenges remain. In States with highest prevalence of open defecation, such as U.P., Bihar and Odisha this campaign is yet to pick up significant speed. We do not seem to be getting much traction and attention to this program in these States.
If we have to have an open defecation free India by 2019, we need to effectively engage with these States. Keeping in view the number of toilets yet to be constructed in these states and consequent requirement of resources, we could do well to learn from the low cost sanitary latrine model in Bangladesh if we have to fulfil the dream of Swachh Bharat by 2nd October, 2019. The campaign is also not picking up steam in urban areas and needs to be given a decisive push. The momentum generated by this mission gives us reason to believe that India shall overcome.
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)