{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-post-query-tsx","path":"/news_post/sreenivasan-jain-is-swachh-bharat-repeating-mistakes-of-the-past/","result":{"pageContext":{"post":{"slug":"/news_post/sreenivasan-jain-is-swachh-bharat-repeating-mistakes-of-the-past/","title":"Sreenivasan Jain: Is Swachh Bharat repeating mistakes of the past?","date":"Nov 07, 2014","timeToRead":3,"description":"NDTV’s award winning journalist, Sreenivasan Jain,  wrote a nice column discussing [the truth and the hype of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.","body":"function _extends() { _extends = Object.assign || function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"title\": \"Sreenivasan Jain: Is Swachh Bharat repeating mistakes of the past?\",\n  \"date\": \"2014-11-07\",\n  \"template\": \"post\",\n  \"slug\": \"sreenivasan-jain-is-swachh-bharat-repeating-mistakes-of-the-past\",\n  \"postedLink\": \"https://riceinstitute.org/news_post/sreenivasan-jain-is-swachh-bharat-repeating-mistakes-of-the-past/\",\n  \"description\": \"NDTV’s award winning journalist, Sreenivasan Jain,  wrote a nice column discussing [the truth and the hype of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.\",\n  \"tags\": \"Media\",\n  \"banner\": \"ndtv.jpg\"\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"span\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"className\": \"gatsby-resp-image-wrapper\",\n    \"style\": {\n      \"position\": \"relative\",\n      \"display\": \"block\",\n      \"marginLeft\": \"auto\",\n      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\"backgroundSize\": \"cover\",\n      \"display\": \"block\"\n    }\n  }), \"\\n  \", mdx(\"img\", {\n    parentName: \"span\",\n    \"className\": \"gatsby-resp-image-image\",\n    \"alt\": \"sreenivasan-jain\",\n    \"title\": \"sreenivasan-jain\",\n    \"src\": \"/static/24a14bb23561ec00485d3b30ea7f81ef/63ecb/sreenivasan-jain-150x150.jpg\",\n    \"srcSet\": [\"/static/24a14bb23561ec00485d3b30ea7f81ef/63ecb/sreenivasan-jain-150x150.jpg 150w\"],\n    \"sizes\": \"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\",\n    \"style\": {\n      \"width\": \"100%\",\n      \"height\": \"100%\",\n      \"margin\": \"0\",\n      \"verticalAlign\": \"middle\",\n      \"position\": \"absolute\",\n      \"top\": \"0\",\n      \"left\": \"0\"\n    },\n    \"loading\": \"lazy\"\n  }), \"\\n    \"), \"NDTV\\u2019s award winning journalist, \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"https://twitter.com/SreenivasanJain\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"Sreenivasan Jain\"), \",\\xA0 wrote a nice column discussing \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/truth-vs-hype/truth-vs-hype-of-swachh-bharat-abhiyan/342691\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"the truth and the hype of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan\"), \".\"), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"India\\u2019s proposed toilet revolution is all set to repeat mistakes of the past\")), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Enter \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Ramduari\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"Ramduari\"), \" in Uttar Pradesh\\u2019s impoverished Sitapur district, and the toilets stand out in their striking white newness, one outside every home. We are told they came four months ago, under \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Nirmal+Bharat+Abhiyan\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan\"), \" (NBA), the United Progressive Alliance-era scheme to build individual rural toilets, now replaced by the prime minister\\u2019s even more ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. On paper, the \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Nba\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"NBA\"), \" seemed unexceptionable: individual demands for toilets would be routed via a district level committee to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, which would release money into the account of the gram sabha: Rs 10,500 for each latrine. It was left to the beneficiary to decide the choice of contractor, size, design and so on. \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Swachh+Bharat+Abhiyan\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"Swachh Bharat Abhiyan\"), \" adopts roughly the same demand-driven model.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"In Ramduari, however, the toilets had an unused air about them. The village continues to defecate along the banks of a nearby canal. We had come on a day when the clouds were dark with the prospect of rain. Isn\\u2019t there a risk of faeces being washed into the canal? Yes, they said. Some even drink the water, we were told, an admission that drew nervous giggles. But why not use toilets? Hadn\\u2019t they asked for it? No. They were built in one swoop by the village pradhan, identikit structures for the whole village, each roughly the size of a guard hut outside an urban bungalow. Even so, why not use them now that they are there? To this, there were no clear answers. Some suggested that they were poorly built (this was strictly not true, at least not in every case). Others had more legitimate doubts about how the toilets are meant to work. The design we came across was the basic Sulabh-tested flush latrine, with the waste emptying, successively, into two underground tanks. After three years, the waste in the tank can be emptied and used as compost. Did anyone explain any of this? Or the importance of using toilets? The health risks of open defecation? The answer was a resounding no.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"This might have something to do with the fact that the the NBA spent only four per cent of the 15 per cent it kept aside for what is known as Information, \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Education+And+Communication\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"Education and Communication\"), \" (IEC). The envisaged army of evangelists at the state, district, block and gram sabha level, who would convince or shame the populace into using toilets via plays, workshops, training sessions and monitoring visits remained largely on paper.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Our experience in Sitapur seemed to broadly match the findings of a much-quoted survey on toilet usage (or the lack of it) by the Uttar Pradesh-based RICE Institute, which surveyed 3,200 households in five Indian states to find that in 40 per cent of households that had toilets, at least one person still defecated in the open. The reasons varied from the notion that doing the business outdoors was healthier, to a reluctance to use poorly constructed \", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"sarkari latrines\"), \".\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Nipun Vinayak, today a deputy secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, is not a great believer in the subsidy-driven, nanny state approach to the toilet problem. As the CEO of the zilla parishad Jalna in Maharashtra and later as Municipal Commissioner of the city of Nanded, he was witness to the merits of a community-based approach (known as \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Community-led+Total+Sanitation\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"community-led total sanitation\"), \" or CLTS) to ending open defecation, where the focus is entirely on triggering a collective shift in social attitudes. \\u201CYou have to stand in the shit and ask questions of the village like \\u2018who\\u2019s shit is this? And \\u2018where has yesterday\\u2019s shit gone?\\u2019. At first, they think of this as drama, but then the community realises this is the same shit that is ultimately contaminating our water and we need to stop it.\\u201D\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"At the ministry, we were told that \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Clts\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"CLTS\"), \" has its merits but cannot be scaled up, a contention that blithely ignores neighbouring Bangladesh that aggressively adopted the community model to reduce open defecation from 34 per cent to three per cent in 20 years.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Swachh Bharat\\u2019s \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Iec\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"IEC\"), \" budget is three times the amount under NBA, but is a smaller proportion \\u2013 eight per cent \\u2013 of the net budget. The construction budget, by comparison is seven times greater. The overall budget of about Rs 30,000 crore a year is roughly equivalent to NREGA, about whose efficacy the new regime seems to have developed grave doubts.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"How will this multi-crore frenzy of construction be monitored, given the depredations of the past? The ministry has launched a new app that will allow beneficiaries to upload pictures of their newly constructed toilets onto its website. SBA\\u2019s target of 110 million toilets in five years amounts to one toilet every second. Three weeks after the scheme launched, the app showed about 29 uploaded images, mostly desultory views of the ministry\\u2019s offices \\u2013 empty workstations and water coolers. Tiny lettering on the top right hand corner said the app was still in \\u201Cdemo stage\\u201D.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"You can also read the full article \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/sreenivasan-jain-down-the-drain-again-114103001561_1.html\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"noopener noreferrer\"\n  }, \"here\")));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","tags":[{"name":"Media","slug":"media"}],"banner":{"childImageSharp":{"fluid":{"src":"/static/e865ca2fbccb72d5199a229f6e2169a3/29765/ndtv.jpg","srcSet":"/static/e865ca2fbccb72d5199a229f6e2169a3/55357/ndtv.jpg 200w,\n/static/e865ca2fbccb72d5199a229f6e2169a3/29765/ndtv.jpg 500w,\n/static/e865ca2fbccb72d5199a229f6e2169a3/1f218/ndtv.jpg 1000w","aspectRatio":2.5,"sizes":"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px","base64":"data:image/jpeg;base64,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"}}}}}},"staticQueryHashes":["318001574","3787687951","3787687951"]}