Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is Government of India’s (GoI’s) rural drinking water programme to provide functional tap connections to every household for drinking, cooking, and other domestic needs on a sustainable basis by 2024. It subsumes the previous National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP).
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief uses government data to report on:
■ GoI allocations, releases, and expenditures; and
■ Progress on coverage and
components of JJM.
Food Subsidy is provided by the Government of India (GoI) for the supply and distribution of foodgrains and other essential commodities.
With the passing of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013, nutritional security became a right. Under the Act, adequate quantities of quality food at affordable prices are to be provided to two-thirds of India’s population.
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief uses government data to analyse:
■ Allocations and releases under Food Subsidy;
■ Trends in storage/stocking and procurement of foodgrains;
■ Trends in foodgrain allocation, offtake, and distribution under NFSA and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY); and
■ Coverage under NFSA.
The National Programme of PM POSHAN, previously known as the National Scheme for Mid-Day Meals in schools (MDM), is a scheme to provide one hot cooked meal in government and government-aided schools. It aims at improving the nutritional status of students.
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief uses government data to analyse:
■ Past trends in allocations, releases, and expenditures;
■ Timing of GoI releases for recurring components;
■ Coverage and provision of meals to students; and
■ Nutrition intervention and social audits.
In Financial Year (FY) 2021-22, Government of India (GoI) restructured the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) Abhiyaan, the Scheme for Adolescent Girls, and the National Creche Scheme into Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 to converge nutrition-related initiatives across ministries and strengthen outcomes.
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief uses government data to analyse:
■ Required funds, allocations, and releases;
■ Changes in coverage and service delivery; and
■ Malnutrition status.
Samagra Shiksha is Government of India’s (GoI’s) school education programme extending from the pre-primary to higher-secondary level. The scheme was launched in April 2018 to ensure equitable and inclusive quality education. It has been recently revised to implement certain provisions under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this brief uses government data to analyse Samagra Shiksha’s performance based on:
■ Trends in allocations, releases, and expenditures;
■ Component-wise budgets, with a focus on pre-primary education and foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN); and
■ Preparedness of states to cater to challenges related to reopening of physical schools.
India’s water bodies are rife with pollution from indiscriminate disposal of untreated sewage and septage, endangering the lives of millions of people depending directly or indirectly on these rivers. According to the estimates of the National Green Tribunal vide order no.673/2018, more than 60 percent of sewerage generated by urban India is not treated. “Composite Water Management Index”, a report released by NITI Aayog (2018), pronounced that India is suffering “the worst water crisis in history’’ – underscoring the importance of instituting measures to abate river water pollution. The urban population grew to 377.1 million in 2011 from 286.1 million in 2001, according to census data; however, the rapid pace of urbanisation in the country has far outpaced the provisioning of sanitation infrastructure and services in Indian cities.
The sanitation policy ecosystem in India has evolved over the years with Faecal Sludge Management emerging as a viable solution and alternative to the conventional networked-based centralised sewer systems. Since there is an urgent need for sanitation-related interventions to abate river pollution, this requires systematic and in-depth study of the issues at play. Therefore, the objectives of this study are threefold – a) it maps out the acts, policies, environmental norms, and water quality indicators pertaining to river and groundwater pollution in India; b) it seeks to establish the relationship between pollution in river and groundwater with urbanisation levels and sanitation infrastructure; and c) it details out recommendations for river water pollution abatement.
While India’s largest cities have centralised sewage systems, complete with underground pipes, pumping stations, and treatment plants (Chaturvedi, 2017), the presence of sewer systems in the country has been limited, despite the focus of national programmes like AMRUT on the provision of the same. In the absence of a universal sewerage network, there is an increased reliance on On-Site Sanitation (OSS) systems. Many Indian cities are witnessing mushrooming of small-scale entrepreneurs who are addressing the demand for desludging and disposal of the collected faecal sludge from the existing and the newly constructed toilets under the SBM, majority of which are connected to OSS systems. These entrepreneurs provide services ranging from emptying/desludging the OSS systems, transporting the collected faecal sludge, and operating treatment facilities for the same. However, in most cases, private sector participation (PSP) in the FSM sector is laced with informality and unsafe practices like indiscriminate open dumping of faecal sludge, disuse of personal protective gears and standardised equipment, among other. Hence there is a looming need to account for the steady mushrooming of the informal private sector and analyse the prevailing business practices in this market. The existing models of service delivery across regions are diverse and exclusive, which cannot be encompassed in national policies which recommend standardised solutions. It has also been observed that local governments have a limited understanding of the prevailing gaps in their unique sanitation ecosystems, and the specific synergies that private partnerships can achieve. The situation is further complicated with recent programmes advocating for a one-size-fits-all approach. This report envisages to contribute towards an enabling environment for private entrepreneurs, which will require localised policies and programmes, pertaining to specific requirements of Page 6 of 8 the city/state, as determined by the ULBs. Through an analysis of the prevailing practices in the formal and informal markets of desludging businesses, this report outlines recommendations pertaining to economic, planning and management decisions undertaken by the ULBs, working in tandem with private entrepreneurs. These recommendations are based on the underlying principles of financial and environmental sustainability, to contribute towards outcomes that facilitate efficiency and enable these markets to further the agenda of universal sanitation service delivery.
With more and more people becoming upwardly mobile, coupled with increasing connectivity, there has been a spurt in online content consumption. The availability of a wide variety of content has attracted a large number of people, across demographics, with varying tastes and sensibilities. Easy access to low-cost smartphones and af fordable internet plans has accelerated the penetration
of digital media, especially among the economically weaker sections of society. This study involves a household survey in the slums of six big cities of India to throw light on the choices and behaviour of the urban poor population with respect to the digital space. The findings not only detail their choice of handset and recharge pattern, the preferred online platforms, the kind of content being consumed, the number of hours spent on dif ferent platforms, the preferred language of content, etc., but also how these choices vary across various socioeconomic and geographical categories. Learnings from the successful dissemination of the Swachh Bharat Mission
(SBM) campaigns are explored by comparing the performance of various traditional media with that of new and upcoming Over-the-Top (OTT) media. The study points to the necessity of building information systems to generate and use data to glean intelligent insights about urban poor communities as well as the services required for ef fective resource allocation and decision-making for universal improvement. It also talks about the probable COVID-19 influence on the OTT consumption pattern of the urban poor, OTT’s ef fectiveness as a medium to reach the last mile, and OTT platforms as an opportunity to be leveraged in times of a ‘nationally notified’ disaster.
The report concludes that OTT is an emerging media among the urban poor population across cities and has the potential to be used as an ef fective tool for reaching the underserved, especially to implement strategies related to Behaviour Change Communication (BCC).
The urban slums have reported the highest seroprevalence with 31.7 per cent, as per ICMR’s third national serosurvey in January 2021. With highly infectious nature of SARS-Cov-2 virus, the densely populated urban informal settlements, which are perpetually constrained for space, are at greatest risk. The underlying reason of the residential vulnerabilities of slum dwellers are socio-economic in nature, which also affects their ability to access proper healthcare and treatment, in case of infection. Recurring lockdowns and the accompanying income loss worsens thecoping capacity of slum dwellers, most of whom are daily wagers and self employed.
Getting approvals under the various building regulations applicable to any particular jurisdiction is often the first step in construction and development. The Report ‘Building Regulations for Faecal Sludge Management: Review of Building Regulations from Indian States’ seeks to understand how these building regulations address on-site sanitation, what kind of standards do they impose on developers, and how well do they incorporate mechanisms to enforce these standards. In this report, we look at six states: Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. We also look at other standards that are applicable to on-site containment of Faecal sludge, and the manner in which these standards get incorporated into the building regulations.
We find that context-specific attention to On-Site Containment of Faecal Sludge is only given in very few states, at least within our sample size. Usually, Building Regulations seem to rely on already existing standards such as the National Building Code, 2016. Additionally, the inconsistencies within the bye-laws exhibit a lack of understanding on the issue of FSM, amongst the policy-makers. As Faecal Sludge Management is an issue at the interface of environment, sanitation, and public health, a lack of convergence between various departments of the government is also noticed.