It may be argued that India’s open defecation figures (both rural and urban) were the key drivers for the creation of a national-level mission on sanitation. To counter this, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) proposes to construct individual household latrines, and convert insanitary (including pit latrines) into sanitary latrines. For this, SBA offers a central government incentive of Rs. 12,000/- per targeted household in rural areas, and Rs. 4,000/- per targeted household in urban areas. At the end of 2019, it is expected that India will be Open Defecation Free (ODF). This seminar will debate the definition of ODF communities and the evolution of a suitable matrix to measure the achievement of this status under the mission.
Rajarshi Mitra is an officer of the 2012 batch of IAS. He is presently serving as the Sub Divisional Officer of Ranaghat, Nadia, and it that capacity he has had a direct role in organising, coordinating, and, implementing ‘Sabar Souchagar’, the Nadia district initiative at achieving total sanitation and sanitary health. Avirup Bose is an officer of the West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) of the 2002 batch. As the Secretary, Nadia Zilla Parishad he had an important role in organising, coordinating and implementing the Sabar Souchagar programme.
Presentation 2: Framing the questions around evaluating open-defecation free communities in India by Shubhagato Dasgupta, Senior Fellow, CPR
Mr. Dasgupta is a senior fellow at CPR and director of the Scaling City Institutions for India (Sci-Fi) Sanitation initiative. His current research focuses on drinking water and sanitation in India and the world, with particular reference to flagship government programs and service delivery challenges in smaller cities. Other major areas of work include urban infrastructure and service delivery financing, housing and slum rehabilitation, urban sector public finance, and urban environmental infrastructure planning, management, and investment, alternatives. Before CPR, he led the Support to National Policies for Urban Poverty Reduction project, a collaboration between the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to develop pro-poor urban policies. He has also worked on issues of urban development with a wide range of other public, private, multilateral, and non governmental organisations, including as Senior Urban Specialist at the World Bank, Assistant Vice President at the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and The Action Research Unit. In addition Shubhagato has also been worked on private sector participation projects in urban and drinking water programs in eastern and southern Africa for the International Finance Corporation and the Acumen Fund. Shubhagato Dasgupta was trained as an architect at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology in Ahmedabad and holds an MSc in housing and development planning from the Development Planning Unit of the University College London. He is also currently undertaking a PhD at the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
Programme schedule:
15:00 – 15:15: Introduction & Welcome
Sindhushree Khullar, CEO, Niti Aayog
Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President & Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research
15:15 – 15:35: Presentation: Transformation to an open-defecation free society through Sabar Shouchagar Movement in Nadia District
Rajashri Mitra, Sub-divisional Officer, Ranaghat, Nadia District & Avirup Bose, Secretary, Nadia Zilla Parishad
15:35 – 15:55: Presentation: Framing the questions
Shubhagato Dasgupta, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research
15:55 – 16:30: Open discussion
Moderated by Sindhushree Khullar and Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta
The Niti Aayog-CPR Open Seminar Series: aims to create a platform for deliberation on models for urban sanitation, including service delivery, through a series of thematic seminars with academic and research institutions, development partners, public and private organisations, NGOs and the three tiers of government. The seminar series will strengthen the understanding of the challenges and opportunities in sanitation by promoting evidence-based knowledge in the sector. The space seeks to initiate discussion by sharing experiences; lessons learned from successes and failures; alternative models of sanitation technologies and service delivery models; and studies of best practices. This platform will be a crucial tool to leverage the expertise of various stakeholders on urban sanitation, including service delivery, and create a feedback loop into government, aiding the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in being a dynamic and responsive programme on sanitation. The presentations and subsequent discussions will be summarized as thematic discussion briefs for wide dissemination.
CPR is implementing a policy research project that is focused on urban sanitation in Indian cities entitled Scaling City Institutions – For India: Sanitation (SCI-FI: Sanitation). The project has four thematic components focusing on national flagship programmes, action research in two medium-sized cities, sector-specific issues in the delivery of urban sanitation, and a pilot demonstration of city-wide sanitation service delivery in two small towns of Odisha state. For more information on the project please visit: http://cprindia.org/sci-fi.
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