Abstract
Abstract Sanitation in India has received national attention for over a decade, especially with the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) making it a political priority. However, due to the lack of appropriate sanitation planning practices, there have been little long-term gains made in urban sanitation beyond the ending of open defaecation. In this paper, we analyse the key barriers to sanitation planning, in India, in the context of the emerging paradigm of Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS). A mixed method approach of shit flow diagrams, social network analysis, policy analysis, interviews and workshops at the national, state (2) and city (4) levels was conducted. Eight factors were identified as important barriers for planning including inadequate planning capacities, lack of ownership of city sanitation plans among city governments, poor community involvement, absence of a uniform planning framework, unreliable political and financial support, overlapping jurisdictions, and scheme-based funding. The paper also proposes the CWIS Planning Framework which offers a perspective at overcoming these barriers with the recommendation of bridging top-down and bottom-up planning approaches. While there is increasingly more clarity on what CWIS means, there is little understanding on how to plan for it. Therefore, this framework provides the theoretical basis for planning with the CWIS approach.
Highlights
Over the last decade, the sanitation landscape of India has been rapidly changing, with progressive laws, programmes and policies (Wankhade 2015; TERI University 2017)
Urban sanitation planning in India has largely gained prominence only since the introduction of the National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP) in 2008, which highlighted the use of the City Sanitation Plan (CSP) process (GoI 2008)
The Indian sanitation sector has witnessed an evolution with progressive policies, national-level funding, political support and the world’s largest sanitation campaign
Summary
The sanitation landscape of India has been rapidly changing, with progressive laws, programmes and policies (Wankhade 2015; TERI University 2017). The most notable among them is the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBM) or Clean India Mission, which helped the country declare itself open defaecation free in 2019 The success of this mission, as the world’s largest sanitation campaign, has prompted it to be replicated in other countries; for example the Clean Nigeria Campaign (GoN 2019). Since CWIS planning needs to be comprehensive, for example, it needs both community involvement (characteristic of bottom-up approaches) and inter-agency coordination (characteristic of top-down approach), it would benefit from the bridging of top-down and bottom-up planning approaches. Such a bridged approach is not available in the current sanitation planning landscape
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
