Introduction: In one of many lectures that I attended across various discipline of social sciences taught me interesting phrase for any achievement in sector. All achievement is always “in the Being” and not “Been”. And so open defecation free status must also been taken into that spirit of being and not been.
It has been a tremendous travel for Bihar and Sitamarhi and
there is this whole journey starts to keep the district ODF. This blog outlines what I know about the district, its campaign leaders- two District Magistrates and the campaign insights from the ground.
Demographics: Sitamarhi is among top 100 districts in India in terms of population with 3.5 Million people (Census 2011) with 3,89,592 households to be covered out of total 5,11,987 households at baseline. The district has rivers crisscrossing its geographies all over with perennial floods from water flowing from Nepal.
Leadership: Sector has interesting anecdotes on implementation of CLTS which is often called Collector Led Total Sanitation opposed it its actual connotation of Community Led Total Sanitation. Campaign in Sitamarhi given another evidence to strengthen this hypothesis.
The campaign leadership at the district level shown tremendous commitments of governments engagement with the community. Mr. Rajiv Raushan led the team form front. He has many feathers in his cap- led first ODF Gram Panchayat in Khagaria under Swachh Bharat Mission, given first ODF Sub Division in Sitamarhi.
Dr. Ranjit Singh, who had to his credit leading campaign for
first ODF district in Gujarat led coverage of last miles under his leaderhip and repeated his Gujarat success quite literly. He repeated his success and made district achieve distinction of first ODF district in Bihar.
Process and milestones: Open defecation is mediated through many layers and social processes in society. Poverty, if not social acceptance of open defecation there is no outright social condemnation of the same, majority religion which has very strong sense of purity and pollution, and inability of previous campaign to reach out to them left this practice being prevalent out there.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBM) didn’t have great start to start with in Bihar. The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) was the implementing department and the history of sanitation campaign led by PHED was not great in Bihar. In the middle of 2016, Govt. of Bihar decided to transfer the implementation to the Rural Development Department (RDD) which has more legs on ground to implement the campaign. Sitamarhi was the first district to systematically plan, implement, and monitor huge mobilization.
Planning & Implementation: District Water and
A three-day Refresher training on CLTS for the trained motivators was organized by District Administration, Sitamarhi between 27th and 29th June 2016. This was the beginning of second big leap in the massive campaign towards ODF Sitamarhi. This is to highlight State has already trainer 800 motivators before and they were not being effectively utilized then.
From there on district never looked back and marched step by step
achieving open defecation free status for its villages, gram panchayats and by the end of 2016, they were able to achieve Belsand sub division ODF. By the middle of 2017, they were on the verge of declaring the entire district ODF and then flood hit the district hard. It halted the community process and lot of damage done to the structure.
Post flood, the campaign again started albeit at slow pace and picked momentum at the start of 2018 and been able to achieve the final milestone this month.
The graph below indicates the steep increase in coverage during 2016-17 and 2017-2018. The district mobilized entire district machinery to go all out and mobilize community to eliminate this practice of open defecation.
This is to highlight here, Bihar has been able to successfully implement disbursement of incentives only when community level outcomes are achievement. Till March 2018, beneficiaries were not eligible to receive incentive money if their Ward was not declared ODF. Currently also 50% ward level coverage is must for incentive payment. Incentive is given to beneficiaries and beneficiaries themselves construct the toilets. The achievement of the district clearly indicates strength of the campaign where over 500 thousand households constructed their individual toilets without upfront incentive payment.
1. Produced first ODF subdivision in the state- Belsand.
2. Created Limca Book of Records for highest number of Soak Pit Built in a day -2168
3. National Record for highest number of incentive payment in a day- Rs. 113 Crore & 94556 beneficiaries.
4. State record for record number of MIS updating in a day
5. District Achieved ODF
What imade it to succeed:
- Extra ordinary leaderships by district magistrates and second line
- Concentration of administrative and financial resources by development partners- UNICEF and Tata Trust and district administration.
- Innovations in community organization- leaving no one behind.
- Determination to overcome fear of finishing things declaring ODF. Clearly identifying need to continuously working on sustain the gain.
Personal anecdotes:
- Mr. Rajiv Raushan managed has been able to garner support of Sima Suraksha Bal in triggering the community eliminating the practice in addition to other stakeholders. He is basically a people’s person. Easygoing, open door policy, constantly thinks how he can serve the community, explorer – never afraid of situation.
I remember seeing him surrounded by at least 1,000 people in Khagaria, when I went to meet for the first time. This was very unusual site. No one can imagine a DM talking to such a large crowd to resolve a dispute. In Sitamarhi too he was seen addressing the community late evenings on several occasions. He may be one of the most travelled DMs with in the district; I am sure he must have visited all 273 Gram Panchayats during his tenure. Very patient listener and open to ideas. If any great idea strikes to him, he will not sleep until he has realized it – take the example of constructing 2,168 soak pits in a day.
Very engaging person – On several occasions, our interactions would end beyond – 12:00 mid-night – strategizing on new approaches to scale up and reaching the poorest!
- Mr. Ranjit Singh, the current DM of the district brought a very different flavor and energy to the campaign. He had shown tremendous strength to finish what was left to be done to achieve ODF. He has successfully led a very successful ODF campaign in Gujarat. He was the District Development Officer of Narmada, which was the first ODF district in Gujarat.
The day, he joined office in Sitamarhi. He called our team and seek our support to finish last mile coverage. He was racing against time to achieve the milestone and led from front. He has also reiterated his resolve to keep invested and engaged to help the community sustain this honour and give a healthy start to the children of the district. The great quality that he exhibits in plenty is that he doesn’t fear finishing things.
Way forward: The district has clearly identified its next frontier of sustaining the gain. The ground report indicates district administration is working every day through one or other events and engagements reminding the community to honour what they achieved and sustaining it. After declaration the district has observed mass hand washing all over the district led by the DM from front.
Collaborative Author: UNICEF has been the technical assistance partners and I invited Mr. Pravin More, the outgoing WASH Specialist to collaborate for this blog. I started as outsider to participate in the planning workshop in early 2016 in Sitamarhi, as I was working with Unilever then. And had good fortune to collaborate with the district in their last mile campaign as UNICEF associate.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Narmada-set-to-become-Gujarats-1st-open-defecation-free-district/articleshow/53628426.cms
https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/bihar-set-to-declare-two-districts-odf-soon-117063001053_1.html
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