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In order to make a Swachh Bharat a programme enpost_titled 'India WASH Submit' was organised at New Delhi, recently. A good number of practitioners were there in this submit to explore certain concreate solutions to achieve one of the pious objectives (Swachh Bharat) of the government of India. Two giant ministries of the Government of India - Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation and Ministry of Urban Development â were the major collaborating agencies of the programme apart from 17 other partners who made this programme possible, in some other ways. Since the platform was big so it also tried to accommodate a good number of presenters in not less than in 17 sessions (15 technical and 2 plenaries).
More than 450 participants from different corners of the India (and some from the globe also) attended this mega event. This huge gathering was motivating each other to make a clean India. The representative of the World Bank, in one of the sessions, very categorically shared that several people met him, during the last one year, with very brilliant ideas to make India cleaner. And that is why the bank is giving its full support to this mission, added the representative of the World Bank. Surprisingly, the motivation was not coming from the side of the ministries who were joining their hands in this programme.
It was a wonderful experience and surprise also, to know that institutions like Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is also engaged in promotion of sanitary pits since 1995. But the shocking thing was that the DRDO has not been very successful in bringing out its output for the community purposes, on a low cost. That is what was highlighted by the Minister of Rural Development and Drinking Water & Sanitation, Government of India in the opening plenary of the programme who shared for villagers we need âlow cost solutionsâ.
During the discussion most of the participants shared, very openly, that the issue of Water and Sanitation is closely related with women but there were several sessions where not a single women made any formal presentation.
It was also realised that most of the people were from India (urban part of the country) and they were taking about Swachh Bharat (rural part of the country). It was looking as they were filling the gaps created by the Ministry of Urban Development as the representation of the Ministry was not visible at all in the three daysâ long programme (though they were one of the hosts).
Very few representation was there from the community (language was obviously one of the barriers and that was realised in the speech of Minister for Rural development, Drinking Water and Sanitation also.
Some of the participants were sharing that fee must be levied on the water. Perhaps they were ignorant that most of the urban people are getting water from the rural areas and that is on very minimum cost (without paying a single penny as royalty to the villages). Some others were also talking about penalty that should be imposed on the people, by the panchayats, who are urinating or defecating in open. They were not pro-panchayats people as they were not aware that panchayats can levy penalties also provided that municipalities start penalise the people who are living in âsmarterâ areas but making them filthy.
Another important thing that was realised during the programme was that multilateral agencies are also facing problems while making collaborations with the corporates in India. The way corporates started pouring in resources after the speech of the Prime Minister of India (on 15th August 2014) it was expected that the corporates will come forward and share their views in the programme. This expectation was not wrong also as the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation was involved in this programme and they should have ensured that the corporates must share the platform with the practitioners. Since it did not happen in this submit and therefore it left some questions before the practitioners that whether corporates want to please governments or want to collaborate with the communities and practitioners. In the absence of partnership what will happen to the objective of Swachh Bharat.
Finally, most of the presenters used very heavy and technical terms in their presentations. It was evident as most of the participants were not feeling comfortable with those terms. So how that will going to serve the purposes of the people who are living in Bharat (rural part of the country) and who have little exposure towards formal education system. When the time will come where people will be talking in the language that could be understood by the common people?
PRIA’s MobiliseHER team traveled to Bangalore during the week of June, 10 – 14, 2024. The aim of the visit was to gain relevant insights into the civil society ecosystem in Bangalore and meet different organisations to understand the city through a lens of gender and inclusive mobility.
Working at PRIA, often leads us to various cities across the country. Each trip is an opportunity to witness firsthand the challenges and triumphs of different communities.
Mr. Yedukrishnan V has recently joined PRIA after gaining valuable experience in the development sector. Drawing from his journey in the social sector and personal encounters in Kerala, he emphasises the importance of participatory governance and research in empowering marginalised communities.'
