Water and Sanitation Program: guidance note Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide March 2016 The Water and Sanitation Program is a multi-donor partnership, part of the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice, supporting poor people in obtaining affordable, safe, and sustainable access to water and sanitation services. Acknowledgments The Community Slum Sanitation Practitioners’ Guide has evolved over the years, and has had the benefit of many contributors at various stages. Most importantly, the pioneers – the leaders and implementers of these innovative initiatives in different cities – who have been extremely patient with repeated queries, and magnanimous with making time for discussions, and for making documents, photos, and other resources available for this Guide. These include but are not restricted to: Ahmedabad: Bijal Bhatt (MHT, Ahmedabad); and officials from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Bhopal: Anup Sahai (Aarambh, Bhopal) and officials from Bhopal Municipal Corporation; Kalyani/Kolkata: Shantanu Jha (Former Chairman, and officials from Kalyani Municipal Council); Kamal Kar (CLTS Foundation), Shibani Goswami (KUSP, Kolkata); Mumbai: Rajeev Jalota (AMC, MCGM), Jokin Arputhum, Sheela Patel, Celine D’Cruz and others (NSDF/SPARC, Mumbai), Anand Jagtap (OSD, SSP, MCGM) and members and officials from Pratha and MCGM; Pune; Pratima Joshi (Shelter Associates, Pune), and officials from Pune Municipal Corporation; and Trichy: D. Damodaran and Geetha Jegan (Gramalaya, Trichy), and officials from Trichy City Corporation. In addition, numerous other officers, community leaders and members of organizations, local bodies, and slum communities have contributed to this Guide. This work started with the support of the Cities Alliance under the guidance of Junaid Ahmad (World Bank, formerly WSP). Soma Ghosh Moulik (World Bank, formerly WSP), Deepak Sanan (Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Himachal Pradesh, formerly WSP) and Cathy Revels (formerly WSP and World Bank), in discussion with the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India and selected NGO partners (especially Sheela Patel and Celine D’Cruz of SPARC), had provided the initial conceptualization and direction to a note on how to ensure sanitation services for slum dwellers. Pronita Chakraborti (formerly WSP), Sara Almqvist (formerly WSP), and Vivek Raman (World Bank, formerly WSP) assisted with taking the research efforts forward to develop this further. This work was supported by the Ministry of Urban Development Officers, including M. Rajamani, A.K. Mehta and M. Ramachandran. The Task Team Leader for supervising the development of the Guide has been Joseph Ravi Kumar. Christopher Juan Costain, WSP, provided support and guidance in development of this document. The research and drafting team comprised Meera Bapat, Barkha Goel, Pravin More, Rajiv Raman, and Somnath Sen. We would like to thank all the reviewers who took the time to go through draft/s of the Guide, and suggest changes and improvements. Reviewers included Dirk Walther, GIZ; Susmita Sinha, Centre for DEWATS Dissemination; Pete Kolsky, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Raghu Kesavan, World Bank; Shyamal Sarkar, formerly with the World Bank, apart from officers and leaders from the implementing organizations of the initiatives in the cities. The responsibility of all errors and omissions rests with the drafting team. The Water and Sanitation Program is a multi-donor partnership, part of the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice, supporting poor people in obtaining affordable, safe, and sustainable access to water and sanitation services. WSP’s donors include Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and the World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are entirely those of the author and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its affiliated organizations, or to members of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. © 2015 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank Group © 2015 Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) www.wsp.org | www.worldbank.org/water Table of contents Abbreviations and Acronyms 3 Color Indicators 4 Summary 5 Section 1: Background and Objectives 13 Objectives of the Guide 13 Selection of Slum Sanitation Initiatives for the Guide 13 Target Group of the Guide 14 Section 2: The Urban Sanitation Challenge and the Response 15 Government Initiatives in Improving Slums 15 Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (2005-14) 16 Rajiv Awas Yojana 16 National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008 17 State Sanitation Strategies 17 City Sanitation Plans 17 National Sanitation Rating and Service Level Benchmarking 18 Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2014-19 19 Community Toilet Complexes as a Response to the Slum Sanitation Deficit 19 Section 3: Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives 21 1. Enabling Frameworks for Slum Sanitation (Tenure and Provision of Services) 21 2. Political Will, Executive Engagement and Local Government Institutional Capacities 25 3. Addressing Indignity and Promoting Public Health 28 4. Promote Participation of Poor and Institutionalize Special Roles for Women 30 5. Choice of Location, Technology Choice and Design Features 33 6. Frameworks for Partnerships and Contracts 38 7. Empower Communities to Take the Responsibility of Managing Community Toilets 40 8. Management Models and Financial Viability as Key Elements for Successful Long-term Operation 43 9. Performance Monitoring and Evaluation 48 10. Integration of Slums with Sustainable Services in City-wide Services 52 Section 4: Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives 54 A) Preparatory and Planning Stage 55 B) Implementation Stage 58 C) Monitoring and Evaluation Stage 62 D) List of Recommended Reference Material for Practitioners 65 Selected References 67 www.wsp.org 1 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide List of Figures Figure E1: Slum Sanitation – Generic Steps 11 Figure 1: A Sample MoU 49 Figure 2: Slum Sanitation – Generic Steps 54 Figure 3: Details of the Preparatory and Planning Stage 58 Figure 4: Details of the Implementation Stage 62 Figure 5: Details of the M&E Stage 65 List of Tables Table 1: Study Locations for Approaches to Slum Sanitation 13 Table 2: Average capital cost per seat: a comparison between Mumbai SSP and Tamil Nadu ISP 37 List of Boxes Box 1: Slums ….Defined 16 Box 2: Madhya Pradesh Sanitation Vision 2025 17 Box 3: NUSP Emphasizes CSPs to Serve the Urban Poor and Slum Settlements 18 Box 4: Public Toilets and Community Toilets 20 Box 5: Relevant Definitions 22 Box 6: Parivartan Slum Networking Program in Ahmedabad 23 Box 7: Bengaluru’s Experience with Delinking Tenure and Service Provision 25 Box 8: KMC Attempts a New Way of Addressing Sanitation 27 Box 9: Mobilizing Children around Health and Hygiene Practices 29 Box 10: The Tiruchirappalli Initiative 31 Box 11: Common Design Deficiencies 34 Box 12: A Comparison of the Mumbai and Tiruchirappalli Approaches 35 Box 13: Recommendations for Construction 36 Box 14: Mumbai SSP “Compact” Contract 39 Box 15: Innovations in Training 42 Box 16: The Tiruchirappalli Model 44 Box 17: Estimated Daily Operating Surplus in Mumbai SSP 46 Box 18: Tiruchirappalli’s Approach to M&E 50 Box 19: Torrent Power AEC leads in Slum Electrification 52 2 Abbreviations and Acronyms AEC Ahmedabad Electricity Company Limited NBA Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan AMC Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation NGO nongovernmental organization BPL Below Poverty Line NL Natural Leader BPMC Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation NOC No Objection Certificate BSUP Basic Services to the Urban Poor NSSO National Sample Survey Organisation BWSSB Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage NSPD National Slum Development Programme Board NUSP National Urban Sanitation Policy CBO community based organization ODF Open Defecation Free CBHI Community Based Health Initiative O&M operations and maintenance CI cast iron PMC Pune Municipal Corporation CSP City Sanitation Plan PT Public Toilet CT Community Toilet RAY Rajiv Awas Yojana CTB Community Toilet Block RCC reinforced cement concrete EIS Environmental Improvement of Slums SBM Swachh Bharat Mission GI galvanized iron SEWA Self-Employed Women’s Association GoI Government of India SHE Sanitation Health Education GoM Government of Maharashtra SHG self-help group HV Health Volunteer SLB Service Level Benchmarking IEC Information, Education, and SJSRY Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana Communication SNP Slum Networking Project ILCS Integrated Low Cost Sanitation SPARC Society for Promotion of Area Resource ISC Integrated Sanitary Complex Centres ISP Integrated Sanitation Project SSP Slum Sanitation Program JNNURM Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban SSS State Sanitation Strategy Renewal Mission TCC Trichy City Corporation KMC Kalyani Municipal Council (also, Kolkata TNUDP Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project Municipal Corporation) UBS Urban Basic Services KUSP Kolkata Urban Services for the Poor UIDSSMT Urban Infrastructure Development Project Scheme for Small and Medium Towns MCGM Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai ULB Urban Local Body mm millimeter USAID United States Agency for International MoU Memorandum of Understanding Development MHADA Maharashtra Housing and Area UT Union Territory Development Authority VAMBAY Valmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti Awas MoUD Ministry of Urban Development Yojana MHUPA Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Alleviation WatSan Water and Sanitation M&E monitoring and evaluation WAVE Women’s Action for Village Empowerment www.wsp.org 3 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Color Indicators In this document, three broad stages of preparation and planning through implementation to maintenance management, monitoring and evaluation have been identified in the full cycle of community slum sanitation. For ease of reading and reference, these boxes are present where appropriate drivers are presented Chapter 3 onwards. Preparatory and Planning Stage Implementation Stage Monitoring and Evaluation Stage In order to mark their relative importance, the boxes for these stages may be colored orange to signify their criticality, whereas a yellow ochre color is used when these are important although not critical. Preparatory and planning stage Implementation stage Monitoring and evaluation stage 4 Summary Background This Guide does not recommend a single set of solutions Following the launch of the National Urban Sanitation either for technology or for approaches, but serves as Policy (NUSP, 2008), a number of initiatives were taken: resource material for options on planning, implementation, states formulated their State Sanitation Strategies, and more and operation and maintenance (O&M) of community than 150 cities drafted or are in the process of drafting the sanitation solutions for urban areas. The options, tried and City Sanitation Plans (CSPs, by March 2014). The NUSP tested in these cities, have to be considered in light of the recommended development of special strategies for slums local conditions, before adapting them as relevant. and poor settlements as an integral part of the CSPs. But the significant presence of slums in Indian cities (estimated Why Community Sanitation, between 9 and 14 million – or 12 to 16 percent of India’s 79 why not Individual Toilets? million urban households), and the specific difficulties that It is well-known that sanitary facilities for each household, these settlements face in accessing basic sanitation (and other) that is, individual toilets, when constructed, used and services, demanded a greater understanding of the conditions, maintained, and cleaned properly, are the ideal solution and exploration of strategies used to address these. from a public health point of view. Based on the experience of slum sanitation initiatives However, it may be practically impossible for households implemented in a number of urban centers in India, over living in slums to have their own toilets for a variety of the last decades, this Guide draws out the critical drivers reasons including uncertain tenure, lack of space and/or that appear to explain some facets of successful community affordability constraints. Hence, this Guide concentrates on slum sanitation initiatives. Initiatives from the cities of the improvement of slum sanitation through community Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bhopal, Trichy, and Kalyani toilets or Community Toilet Blocks (CTBs), focusing on are used as the examples to learn from (based on convenience possible immediate practical action. Of course, all cities and easy availability of information). A set of generic steps must strive for a situation whereby individual toilets become are identified and described thereafter for the preparatory, possible for each household to own and use. Some of the planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation initiatives reviewed in this note have indeed included stages of community sanitation initiatives. individual toilets in slums. Audience Why not Wait for Slum Upgradation? The Guide is aimed at assisting state urban development Starting in the 1970s, a number of national and state level departments and agencies, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), programs and schemes sought to address the problems of slums Water Supply and Sewerage Boards, Public Health including provision of basic services. These included Basti and Engineering Departments, nongovernmental Improvement Programme (Kolkata); Urban Community organizations (NGOs), community based organizations Development Programmes (Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam); (CBOs) or self-help groups (SHGs), as well as the Environmental Improvement in Slums (EIS); and then in the private sector consultants, contractors and other services 1980s, the Urban Basic Services (UBS) and the Integrated providers. The Guide has been drafted such that personnel Low Cost Sanitation (ILCS) scheme. The National Slum with diverse educational backgrounds and training can Development Programme (NSDP, 1996) aimed at upgrading easily understand and, hopefully, apply it with necessary urban slums, whereas the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar adaptation, in their work. Yojana (SJSRY, 1997) sought to provide gainful employment www.wsp.org 5 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide to the urban unemployed or underemployed. The households to go in for individual toilets? Two practical Government of India’s (GoI’s)Valmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti considerations are in order: Awas Yojana (VAMBAY, 2001) had the primary objective of facilitating construction and upgradation of dwelling units in • With the launch of the SBM, the construction of slums and providing a healthy environment by constructing individual toilets to cover households without access is community toilets under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA, likely to be accelerated. However, in many locations, only Clean India Campaign). community toilets will be feasible owing to constraints of space and tenure; and In 2005, GoI launched India’s urban flagship program, • In most of the medium and small urban centers, the SBM the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission or other programs may not be possible to implement in (JNNURM) for strengthening and reforming urban the short run. infrastructure provision and service delivery, especially in 63 select cities, in a Mission mode. This comprised urban Therefore, it is with urgency that states and cities must infrastructure provision and governance reforms, and the address the acute sanitation deficits in slums, even though development of basic services to the urban poor. A national these may be transient arrangements and, for many, the program dedicated to making India “slum-free”, the Rajiv only solution for a few if not several years. Sanitation is a Awas Yojana (RAY) was launched in 2009, and targets ‘slum- daily need, and expedient responses are the only way to free India’ by encouraging states/Union Territories (UTs) to ensure healthy liveable cities in the short and long run. The tackle the problem of slums in a definitive manner. SBM provides the requisite momentum and programmatic framework to achieve this. In keeping with the vision of the NUSP and GoI’s priority to make India clean, litter free and Open Defecation Free, the Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives Swachh Bharat Mission (with separate components for rural The review of the cities led to the identification of the and urban) was launched in October 2014. Estimated at a following factors or drivers of successful slum sanitation cost of approximately INR 62 lakh crore (INR 62 billion), initiatives: SBM urban has the following objectives: 1. Enabling frameworks for slum sanitation (tenure and • Eliminate open defecation; provision of services): Municipal Acts, Slum Acts, Acts enabling • Eradicate manual scavenging; services provision such as that of utilities, and the regulations • 100 percent collection and scientific processing/disposal and executive orders thereunder recognize the slum settlements, of municipal solid waste; and define the bounds of feasible options for sanitation services. • Bring about a behavioral change in people regarding Improved services may require some changes in these. Working healthy sanitation practices; on the enabling environment involves the following: • Generate awareness among citizens about sanitation and its linkages with public health; 1. Examining the existing Municipal, State, Slum and • Strengthen ULB to design, execute and operate systems; Utility Acts and rules for type of services permissible; and 2. Examining how, by law, the framework for service • Create an enabling environment for private sector provision can be made more inclusive of households and participation in capital and operation expenditure. settlements currently excluded; 3. Examining the extent to which tenure can be delinked With such a clear indication that slums are now from service provision – the NUSP recommends this and being accorded legitimacy, and their development or a few cities have implemented it; upgradation being on the anvil, the question arises 4. Drafting and proposing changes to existing laws and as to why not wait for the slum-free project to enable regulations to enable access to individual household level 6 Summary services ideally, and community services as a second-best security and indignity, on the other, especially for women option; and and girls. In a departure then from construction of toilets, 5. Examining existing national and state level programs and slum sanitation initiatives have increasingly attempted to schemes that may be utilized for improved sanitation mobilize communities around health outcomes and safety service provision. and dignity, also a strategy for involving and empowering women through such initiatives. It is vital to think through 2. Political will, executive engagement and local certain considerations for integrating public health and government institutional capacities: Given the legal dignity in sanitation initiatives: framework, the political and executive leadership of the city, extent to which the leadership of the ULB and 1. What is the baseline condition of disease incidence other agencies is engaged with questions of slum services (especially water borne diseases such as diarrhea, and so provision, and institutional capacities and incentives for the on) in the community and what are the community’s ULB to do so, form the second major driver of successful perceptions regarding these? initiatives. This also depends on the extent of devolution 2. What are the constraints of space and concerns of safety of funds and functionaries for sanitation in general and for and dignity especially of women and children in the slum sanitation in particular, under the 74th Constitutional community? Amendment (see Annex 1). The considerations to assess the 3. What are the infrastructure and services required to drivers of leadership, engagement and capacity are: address health and safety concerns, for example, well- lit toilets with adequate water, separate and secure toilet 1. What is the structure of the local political leadership? blocks for women, child friendly features, easy availability What are the ways to have them lend support to improved of soap and cleaning materials? sanitation services to slum communities? 4. What better communication and measures can be used 2. What is the structure of the local political leadership (in to promote robust menstrual hygiene management in the the ULB, development authorities, water and sanitation community? utility/board)? How can it be mobilized to commit to 5. Are there community level and formal mechanisms for sanitation services delivery to slums? monitoring health outcomes? 3. What is the extent to which functions, funds and 6. Is there regular communication and messaging for functionaries are devolved to the ULB in the city? mobilizing the local community to adopt and use toilets, 4. Does the local body have an organizational unit or and sustain changed behavior and practices? division with specialized and dedicated personnel for dealing with sanitation issues? 4. Promote participation of the poor and institutionalize 5. What are the means of building awareness amongst urban special roles for women: Many slum sanitation initiatives communities about the necessity of improved sanitation have been sub-optimal since communities were not involved systems and practices? or even consulted in the design of the process or structure. All successful sanitation initiatives have, therefore, given high 3. Addressing indignity and promoting public health: priority to instituting participatory processes in a structured Investments in water and sanitation result in huge preventive manner right from the preparatory and planning stages. health benefits, and the importance of these benefits is far The participation of the poor households was central to more pronounced in case of slums where provision and their taking ownership of the initiatives. The special role of service levels are poor. Accessing portable water remains women in decision-making, community mobilization, health a struggle for most slum dwellers but these struggles vary promotion and maintenance management finds differing based on different local factors and influences. In contrast but definitive treatment in all successful projects. Most of though, sanitation in slums poses the dual risk of increased the projects stipulated representation of women in local disease incidence, on one hand, and personal safety, committees, and made spaces for their active participation www.wsp.org 7 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide in management and supervision. In some projects, women facilities for women, men and children in each section, SHGs were also able to establish links with their livelihoods. user responsive features, and so on, are necessary to accord The considerations for this driver are: priority to: 1. Does the initiative involve individual households to 1. Availability of land and its location to be identified along benefit or community groups or a mix thereof? with the user community; 2. What are the ways to structure the participation of 2. Access to network services including sewerage services, community members and especially provide spaces for clear access to septage cleaning machinery, electricity, and women to be in key decision making processes? so on; 3. What mechanisms can be used to ensure that community 3. Design options for sub-structure and super structure and members including women are not excluded because of their capital costs; unsuitable timing, place, and so on, of decision making 4. Sufficient separate facilities for men, women, children, bodies? differently-abled persons; 4. In what ways can the formation of women-based groups 5. Space for supervision, meetings, and other related be promoted? activities so that the toilet complex becomes an extra 5. What are the ways of linking livelihoods to construction source of revenue for the community or brings about a and O&M of toilets – especially for women’s groups? sense of togetherness; 6. Developing and utilizing innovative training and 6. Provision of fixtures and user responsive features; communication material to empower community 7. Financing, O&M management, O&M cost implications members including illiterate and neo-literate groups; of preferred option; and 7. The potential for community members being in the 8. Supervision and quality control to ensure construction driver’s seat by structuring financial and technical quality and good finish. assistance around this; 8. Identifying risks to participatory processes being rushed 6. Frameworks for partnerships and contracts: Most slum or curtailed and providing flexibility to respond to these; sanitation initiatives fall under the purview of government and rules for making budgetary allocation, and following the due 9. Understanding local community dynamics and removing process, rules and regulations for planning and authorizing barriers to success (such as local forces that may oppose expenditure. Procurement and contracting must be studied change and participation of new members). early on in the project cycle and remedial action taken, as they can pose considerable challenges in contracting and 5. Choice of location, technology and design features: implementation. Since contractors and service providers are Starting from the availability of open spaces in slums, unlikely to have experience of having creating community structure, access to safe disposal, and design features infrastructure and service projects, the ULB needs to bring that attract users, involve a host of legal and practical in expertise and develop a framework that brings parties considerations. The ULB and local communities need to together, builds trust, and provides clear risks and rewards work closely together to identify the options for location for convergent performance. The following aspects need to and size. Access to water supply, drainage and sewerage/ be considered: septic tank cleaning services need close attention while evaluating possible locations since these can have long- 1. Mechanisms to clearly identify users and user groups term cost and management implications. A well-designed that form the key community body to take ownership of community toilet needs to have good quality construction design, construction and later maintenance management, and be well-maintained to attract a steady stream of paying that is, CBOs, women’s SHGs, Water and Sanitation users, and for it to last long. The introduction of services (WatSan) or Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) (for example, water supply and power), and separate committees, and so on; 8 Summary 2. Exploring options of design and construction agencies in opening bank accounts, and so on, (as an SHG) including NGOs, private companies, existing resources especially if the registration of a CBO as a trust is likely within the ULB or state agencies; to be time-consuming and complicated in the short run. 3. Assessment of the capacity of NGOs, CBOs, public The following aspects are important: agencies and private contractors; 4. Carefully developing the Memorandum of Understanding 1. Developing a strategy for individuals and groups in the (MoU)/contracting/partnering framework such that roles community at the forefront of the initiative; and responsibilities and risks and rewards for each party 2. Identifying the appropriate composition, roles and are balanced; responsibilities of the association; 5. Reviewing government procurement guidelines and 3. Formalizing and/or registering under the relevant acts; securing special provisions in these to enable a flexible 4. Training and capacity building of the CBO members in and suitable framework (for example, the 100 percent decision making processes, maintenance of records and contract variation in Mumbai Slum Sanitation Program accounts, periodic elections, and so on; and contracts); 5. Ensuring smooth functioning of the CBO and rapidly 6. Training and deploying a team competent in managing addressing any conflicts and disputes especially in the and supervising the contractors; early stages. NGOs need to empower CBOs with the 7. Developing trust and providing an environment for all required skill-sets to ensure sustainability aspects; parties to work together – removing perverse incentives; 8. Providing flexibility in design and costs to accommodate 8. Management models and financial viability as key different types of implementation situations on ground; elements for successful long-term operation: While and the formal organization and setting up of the CBO is an 9. Supervision of implementation and robust methods important milestone, the rules and arrangements for of assessing quality at the time of commissioning and managing CTBs sustainably need also to be carefully handover. designed. These arrangements and rules or “management models” are also closely linked to the structure of costs 7. Empower communities to take the responsibility and revenues of the CTB. This is critical in ensuring long- of managing community toilets: Most successful term sustainability of the CTB in terms of institutional and community slum sanitation initiatives are based on the financial arrangements. premise that communities are best placed to carry out O&M management of the CTBs. Therefore, in case of The CTB’s running costs include electricity, water supply, CTBs, it is critical that community groups are organized, sewerage and septage clearance, cleaning tools and equipment, trained and provided support and incentives so that they cleaning materials, salaries of cleaners, caretakers, minor and can manage the technical, institutional and financial major repairs, and other contingent costs. Revenues come tasks for maintenance. The community group must be typically from user charges, as periodic/monthly passes for registered under a relevant law as a trust or society (as families, and from pay-per-use users. Additional revenues can a sanitation or water and sanitation committee) so that come from sale of soap, and so on, at the CTB. The question it is able to operate bank accounts, receive and expend of pricing is a critical one since, on the one hand, this can or money, and account for it in a transparent way to its cannot make the CTB sustainable financially and, on the other, members. Forming such an association also helps in affordability needs to be accorded attention since the CTB is ensuring accountability and preventing misuse /“capture” intended for use by slum communities (and is not just a business of the CTB. In some cases, informal committees such proposition such as public toilets in public places could be). as a WatSan committee or a women’s SHG that is not registered but trained in accounting and has leadership Water and electricity costs can be prohibitive for CBOs in skills, may be involved from the beginning, and assisted certain cases where prices and/or number of users are low. www.wsp.org 9 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide If borne by the city corporation, the maintenance burden possibility of ULBs taking care of part of the utility costs is reduced and resources can be put to other uses such may be explored; as septage clearance, solid waste management, drainage 5. Assessment of the match between revenues and costs and improvement, and other toilet or slum improvement items. detailed discussions with community members on the Waiving off utility costs (water, electricity, and so on) also pricing and necessary contributions; needs to be done carefully since this may disincentivize 6. Agreement with the ULB/local ward offices about efficient maintenance management leading to dilapidation cleaning of septic tanks, major repairs and maintenance of toilets. needs, and sharing of/contribution to water, electricity bills as necessary; Capital finance has hitherto been provided by state budgets 7. Projection and agreement of the CBO with the or private sources, and availability of capital will be crucial community on time-bound increases in membership/ in future in financing scaled-up slum sanitation initiatives. user fees; and 8. Regular review and evaluation of the management model The management models currently available are: and changes. 1. Sharing of responsibilities within CBO members; 9. Performance monitoring and evaluation: Long-term 2. Management by CBO members including supervision of benefits from improved sanitation can only be sustained if cleaning staff, and so on; households continue to use their individual toilets or CTBs 3. Appointment by the CBO of the caretaker for day-to-day are properly maintained and managed. In either case, there management along with overall supervision; needs to be a robust mechanism to track use behavior and 4. Management handed over to SHGs; and monitor whether the upkeep arrangements are satisfactory. 5. Others such as management handed over to city-level Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the performance women’s or WASH groups’ federation/s. of community toilets city-wide needs to be organized, resources provided for, and incorporated in the core service The nature of the CTB (that is, location, technology, delivery function of the ULB or the responsible agency. physical design features discussed above), management The reasons for a formalized monitoring system of CTBs model adopted, pricing of monthly pass and per use charges, are manifold: and amount of subsidy available from the ULB together determine the financial sustainability of the CTB. There i. The physical systems of the CTBs may break down are other options that could be considered as well for the requiring minor and major repairs – these have to be management of CTBs that may be more suitable. The addressed immediately as communities cannot use toilets following aspects are worth considering: that are partially dysfunctional; ii. Disputes regarding management, or amongst users, can 1. The type and design of the toilet and attendant capital jeopardize the use of the CTBs by users, and hence need cost options must be evaluated for O&M management to be resolved immediately; and cost implications in the planning stages; iii. Stoppage of services/utilities, for example, water, 2. The maturity and capacities of the CBOs in undertaking power, septage clearance, and so on, can severely management tasks – training and capacity building affect the functioning of the CTBs, and hence required for enabling them to do so; issues related to these will have to be addressed 3. Affordability of different sub-segments in the in consultation with the respective service providers; community, and potential “markets” of floating pay-and- and use population; iv. Changes in project rules and policies may be possible 4. Estimation of regular O&M costs, and contingencies for to incorporate based on actual experience of use and repairs, to arrive at monthly and per annum costs. The management in various CTBs. 10 Summary Instituting an M&E framework involves: 5. Periodic studies and assessments on user behavior, satisfaction, management and financial indicators of 1. Identification of different critical aspects and levels of CBOs, condition assessment of physical features and monitoring during the preparatory and planning phases, fixtures of CTBs, and so on; and including project monitoring at one level (usually done 6. Systematic and rapid sharing of the results of M&E with by the project/ULB) and identification of indicators of all stakeholders including CBOs, communities, ULBs, use, physical condition, CBO management, accounts and NGOs, and others members of the public. For example, finance, health and hygiene behavior changes, inclusion Yearly Public Toilet Surveys on the condition of assets, of stakeholders, at another; usage and maintenance management, revenue situation, 2. Incorporation of key monitoring indicators in the MoU users’ satisfaction, and household surveys for behavioral between parties so that these indicators become the changescould be undertaken. action items for specific partners; 3. Some monitoring indicators may need standards to be set Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives out to measure actual performance against. For instance, Under the NUSP 2008, a series of iterative steps were listed what would be the indicators of “cleanliness”? This could out as an aide to preparing the CSP. One of the detailed tasks be “no spit”, “no slime”, “no yellow pans”, and so on; in overall city sanitation planning is to prioritize sanitation 4. Identification of penalties and rewards however soft or in slums and informal settlements of the city. Even in cities hard, for achieving certain performance standards; where a CSP has not been prepared, the task of addressing FIGuRE E1: Slum Sanitation – Generic Steps Technical Assistance support: – Hire in / depute community development personnel – Collaborate with NGOs, Develop and evaluate CBOs, SHGs, etc. Enabling options environment • Legal provisions & options City-wide M&E of slum sanitation What services can be Commissioning & • Decision on in-house or • Political and provided? handover outsourced executive • Individual/Community Toilets • Testing and pilot • Periodicity leadership • Size, collection system, • MoU • Costs/budget amenities • Consensus on location, • Institutional Baseline & • Household, city/state, Govt/ULB to take size, tech specs • Role of CT committee in M&E capacity mapping of private funding decision & indicate • Sources of finance • Repairs financing • Capital & O&M financing • Cleaning & disposal slums • Conflict resolution in arrangements • Mgt rules & responsibilities • State Laws & • Technical options • User group registration maintenance phase Policy • Financial options • Municipal & Slum Memorandum of Act & Regulations Understanding • Budgets for Review experiences of infrastructure & other states and cities services Review of policies, schemes & guidelines Community Group Training Procurement and contracting • Participation & • Guidelines representation of women • Contract package • Health & hygiene • Tendering Community • Mgt systems and procedures • Contracting Engagement • Supervision/monitoring • Contract Variations if any • Location • User contribution/tariff • Space • O&M arrangements • Size & tech specs a. Management Implementation & supervision * Individual/community b. Financial • Stakeholder roles • Cost • Interface with ULB/ • Community supervision government agencies • ULB/agency supervision • Quality assurance • Completion milestones • Troubleshooting Preparatory & Implementation Monitoring & Planning Stage Stage Evaluation Stage www.wsp.org 11 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide a sanitation crisis in slum areas and informal settlements These activity clusters are presented in Figure ES1. A detailed should be taken up on a priority basis. The full cycle of description of these is presented in Section 4. activities for slum sanitation initiatives can be clustered into three broad stages: Recommendation and Review The Guide is recommended for use by states and city agencies, A) Preparatory and planning stage; as well as by NGOs, private sector organizations, and so on. Feedback on the utility of this Guide will be welcome, as B) Implementation stage; and this will help in improving and making it more useful and functional in practice. It is important to understand that this C) M&E stage. Guide needs to be treated as a framework document, needing revisions based on practice, rather than be an inflexible set Each of the above stages includes a number of activities and of guidelines. tasks, and many of these are iterative in nature, for example, the baseline and mapping of slums can either be done in one Presentation of the Guide stretch, or broken down into phases over time or areas, so Section 1 presents a short introduction to the context that it does not become a bottleneck to starting some of the of urban India and urban sanitation, followed by a brief other activities early. review of programmatic responses by GoI to improve slum sanitation services. Thereafter, the Guide draws out the It may also be noted that activity-blocks in each of the three critical factors or drivers using examples from successful stages have inter-connections with those in other stages, and community slum sanitation initiatives reported from the this is desirable for constant learning while doing. While urban centers selected for this study. A set of generic activity using information in boxes and in a somewhat liner fashion, clusters and steps are included at the end the preparatory, the intent of the sequencing is to show the connections planning, implementation, and M&E stages of community and how feedback loops can help improve planning, sanitation initiatives. implementation and monitoring. 12 1. Background and Objectives Objectives of the Guide these cities provide the basis for identifying the elements The National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP, Ministry or factors of city-wide approaches to slum sanitation of Urban Development (MoUD), Government of India approaches, that are critical for delivering sustainable (GoI), 2008) envisages the formulation of State Sanitation sanitation. Strategies (SSSs) and City Sanitation Plans (CSPs). A CSP is expected to be an integrated sanitation plan for Table 1: Study Locations for Approaches to Slum the entire city, and provision of sanitation in slums and Sanitation unserved areas is an integral component of it. However, given the acute problems suffered by residents in slum No. City State settlements, it is necessary to accord special attention to 1 Ahmedabad Gujarat identifying strategies that will lead to affordable, practical 2 Bhopal Madhya Pradesh and sustainable sanitation solutions for all of them. The 3 Kalyani West Bengal objective of this Guide is to focus attention on such 4 Mumbai Maharashtra strategies and identify crucial steps leading to sustainable 5 Pune Maharashtra sanitation for urban poor settlements. It draws lessons 6 Tiruchirappalli (or Trichy) Tamil Nadu from approaches and experiments in slums and unserved areas implemented in different towns and cities over the last two decades to apply them to the new paradigm of It may be noted that each of the above initiatives was city-wide planning, implementation and management of founded on its own context-specific objectives and strategies sanitation facilities, especially for the poor. and, hence, the lessons will need to be assessed and adapted to the local circumstances and conditions. Indeed, even the Selection of Slum Sanitation Initiatives formulation of the NUSP has benefitted from some of these for the Guide experiences, since these initiatives were pioneers in some The last two decades have witnessed a number of initiatives aspect or the other, and therefore, used in formulating some in services provision in general, as well as sanitation services of the principles of NUSP. provision in particular, from different cities in India. These have come from the metropolitan centers, Class I cities and While the Guide uses “slums”, “informal” settlements smaller cities. A smaller set of these initiatives was selected and “urban poor” settlements interchangeably, it is well for the development of the Guide, for reasons of convenience recognized that slums may have households other than and easy availability of information. poor households. The thrust of the Guide is on identifying approaches to such settlements irrespective of their As presented in Table 1, these locations range from larger cities such as Mumbai to small towns like Kalyani where composition in terms of the poor and other households. different approaches to sanitation provision to poor It may also be noted that many urban poor households settlements have been attempted. This selective set is by no do not live in slums but in dispersed locations, or are means exhaustive, nor does it purport to be representative of homeless – this Guide does not address their particular all types of urban areas, but the diversity of examples from circumstances. www.wsp.org 13 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Target Group of the Guide included the construction of individual toilets in slums, this The Guide is aimed at helping decision makers and Guide concentrates on the improvement of slum sanitation practitioners from all disciplines and training, including but through community toilets. It focuses on possible immediate not restricted to engineering, finance, social and community practical action when it is impossible to provide individual development, planning, administration, and so forth. latrines for a variety of reasons including uncertain tenure, lack of space and/or affordability constraints – a reality in The Guide shall assist state urban development departments most slum settlements in India. Of course, all cities must and agencies, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), water supply and strive for a situation whereby individual toilets become sewerage boards, public health and engineering departments, possible for each household, as this is most sustainable, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community based best in terms of health outcomes. organizations (CBOs) or self-help groups (SHGs), as well as the private sector consultants, contractors and other services This Guide does not provide a single set of solutions either providers. for technology or for approaches, but will serve as resource material for options on planning, implementation, and Individual Household Sanitation is Ideal, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of shared, community Community Sanitation Second-best sanitation solutions for urban areas. The options presented have to be further considered in light of the local While sanitary facilities for each households are the ideal circumstances and prevailing conditions, before being solution, and some initiatives covered in this note have adapted as relevant. 14 2. The Urban Sanitation Challenge and the Response The problem of inadequate provision and unsatisfactory The trouble though is that even when households have O&M of sanitation facilities is acute in the urban centers access to toilets – this is more than 80 percent of urban of India and, given the rapid urban growth rates (Census, households as presented in the preceding section – the 2011), it is more than likely to become aggravated in the safe collection, treatment and disposal of human excreta is years to come. According to Census 2011, 17.4 percent of woefully inadequate and poses major challenges to health urban India was estimated to be living in slums. The National and environment of urban India. Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) (69th Round, 2013) estimated 8.8 million households, or about 12 percent of Sanitation is more than just household access: urban Indian households, to be living in slums. However, the full cycle of safe collection, conveyance the latest Census (2011) report on housing stock, amenities and treatment/reuse is still a challenge – a and assets in slums reveals that 13.74 million out of the 78.9 bigger challenge for slum settlements whence million urban households live in slums. safe collection and conveyance pose numerous challenges. Deficiencies in the existing sanitation infrastructure and services are widespread. According to Census 2011, coverage A 2009 study of Class I and Class II towns found that of urban households by sewerage and septic tanks was 33 treatment capacities were less than 32 percent of sewage percent and 38 percent, respectively. About 14.6 percent generated. Two-thirds of this capacity was in the 35 one households were reported to have pit latrines. Further, 6 million-plus population cities, but nearly 37 percent percent urban households (4.7 million) were reported to of the treatment plants did not conform to discharge be using public toilets, with 12 percent urban households standards into water bodies (CPCB, 2013). A National (about 10 million households or about 50 million people) Sanitation Rating of 423 Class I cities, which covered 72 being forced to defecate in the open. percent of the country’s urban population, reported that 90 percent of the cities (379) had less than 40 percent of In slums, about 19 percent households had to defecate their sewage treated; and 65 percent of the cities (274) in the open and 15 percent slum households had to use had unsatisfactory arrangements for safe collection of public (perhaps including community) toilets. Every third human excreta, whether onsite or sewerage (MoUD, household (34 percent) in slums had no latrine facility within GoI, 2010). the premises (Census 2011). In slums, septic latrines and sewage systems are reported but from a smaller proportion Government Initiatives in Improving Slums of households. One of the challenges that rapid urbanization brought was the growth of slum settlements owing to failure of public This underlines the severity of sanitation deficits in slums, agencies to provide affordable housing and services to rapidly and the high reportage of use of shared and community/ growing urban populations. According to the NSSO 69th public toilets by households poses considerable challenges Round (NSSO, 2013), 8.8 million households, or about 12 for provision of sustainable sanitation solutions for slum and percent of urban Indian households were estimated to be other poor households. living in slums. www.wsp.org 15 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Box 1: Slums ….Defined In the NSSO 69th round survey, for operational purposes, slums were defined as follows: • Areas notified as slums by the concerned municipalities, corporations, local bodies or development authorities were termed notified slums. • Also, any compact settlement with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together, usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions, was considered a slum by the survey, provided at least 20 households lived there. Such a settlement, if not a notified slum, was called a non-notified slum. (Note that while a non-notified slum had to consist of at least 20 households, no such restriction was imposed in case of notified slums.) The word “slum” covered both notified slums and non-notified slums. Source: NSSO 69th Round, 2013. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal focused on improving and provisioning of housing, basic Mission (2005-14) civic infrastructure and social amenities in the intervened In 2005, GoI launched two ambitious national programs slums; promoting enabling reforms to address some of the (the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission causes leading to creation of slums; facilitating a supportive (JNNURM) and the Urban Infrastructure Development environment for expanding institutional credit linkages for Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT)) for the urban poor; institutionalizing mechanisms for prevention strengthening and reforming urban infrastructure provision of slums including creation of affordable housing stock; and and service delivery. In order to address the issues of rapid strengthening institutional and human resource capacities at urban growth and cope with it challenges, GoI decided the municipal, city and state levels through comprehensive to draw up a coherent urbanization policy/strategy to capacity building and strengthening of resource networks. implement projects in 63 select cities on mission mode. Under JNNURM and UIDSSMT focused attention was For the slum dwellers and urban poor, RAY envisages a ‘Slum- accorded to the development of Basic Services to the Urban free India’ through encouraging states/Union Territories Poor (BSUP in JNNURM cities and Integrated Housing (UTs) to tackle the problem of slums in a definitive manner. and Slum Development Program for UIDSSMT towns) in It aimed to empower communities by ensuring their the cities covered under the Mission. This included: participation at every stage of decision-making through strengthening and nurturing slum dwellers’ association/ 1) Security of tenure at affordable prices; federations (MHUPA 2011). 2) Improved housing; 3) Water supply; In sum, the situation of unsatisfactory sanitation provision 4) Sanitation; and persists despite state efforts to provide basic infrastructure 5) Ensuring delivery through convergence of other already to unserved poor areas and informal settlements or slums existing universal services of the government for in urban centers. For quite a few decades post India’s education, health and social security. independence, “slum improvement” was regarded as a short- term palliative to be implemented till all urban households Rajiv Awas Yojana were accommodated in decent housing with proper services A national program dedicated to making India “slum-free”, arrangements. Over the years, however, a more pragmatic the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) launched in 2009, marked view has been taken finally leading to the formulation of an important advance in GoI’s approach to social housing the NUSP in 2008, with the goal of transforming “urban and basic public service for the urban poor. The program India into community-driven, totally sanitized, healthy and 16 The Urban Sanitation Challenge and the Response liveable cities and towns” and ensuring proper sanitation feasible community-planned and managed toilets should be services to all including the poor and unserved households promoted. (NUSP, 2008). State Sanitation Strategies National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008 Traditional approaches to sanitation investments have Despite these efforts, a large proportion of people living in involved piece-meal asset creation focused infrastructure informal settlements in towns and cities still bear deleterious provisioning, often with very little focus on service delivery. effects of poor sanitation. In 2008, therefore, MoUD, GoI As a result, several urban projects in water and sanitation have launched NSUP with a vision to make all Indian towns and often not rendered the envisaged service delivery benefits. It cities totally sanitized, healthy and liveable for all citizens is in this context that states are building on the intent of the with a special focus on hygienic and affordable sanitation NUSP guidelines and articulating service delivery targets to facilities for the urban poor and women. The policy achieve inclusive and affordable access to sanitation in urban recognizes that some key issues related to the urban poor areas (see Annex 2). and unserved settlements need to be addressed to achieve the vision: By April 2014, about 11 state governments had formulated their state-wide sanitation service targets, and estimated • Raising awareness regarding inherent linkages between financing needs (covering both capital expenditure and sanitation and public health; maintenance costs) required to achieve these targets based • Creating an integrated city-wide approach to sanitation; on normative gaps and transition path at a household level and and at the network level. • Resolving constraints of lack of tenure, space or affordability in informal settlements. City Sanitation Plans In order to realize its vision of 100 percent totally sanitized It recommends that provisioning of basic sanitation should Indian cities and towns, NUSP envisages all Indian states be delinked from the issues of land tenure and every develop SSSs and all Indian cities formulate CSPs. The policy urban dweller should be provided with minimum levels provides the necessary framework for state governments and of sanitation, irrespective of the legal status of the land on municipalities to approach sanitation in an integral manner. which he/she is dwelling, possession of identity proof or CSPs are understood as integrated and holistic sanitation status of migration. It, however, stresses that the provision master plans for entire cities detailing out short-, medium- of sanitation would not entitle the dweller to any legal and long-term strategies. It also considers improvement right to the land on which he/she is residing (p.14, NUSP, and extension of sanitation infrastructure including toilet MoUD 2008). It emphasizes that priority should be given access, confinement, transport, treatment and disposal of to the provision of individual toilets but wherever this is not wastewater and septage together with all related technical, Box 2: Madhya Pradesh Sanitation Vision 2025 The Government of Madhya Pradesh, for example, aims to make all urban areas in in the state fully sanitized by 2025 and attempts to bring a comprehensive service delivery orientation to its implementation by setting targets that can be identified and monitored. Among other things, the Madhya Pradesh Sanitation Vision 2025 aims to: • Make urban areas in the state Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2017; • Facilitate toilet access initially with community toilets provision and migration to 99.8 percent individual toilet coverage by 2025; and • Achieve 100 percent safe disposal of waste-water generated by 2025 through a combination of sewerage systems (75 percent coverage), onsite systems (23.5 percent septic tanks + 1.5 percent pit latrines). www.wsp.org 17 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide financial, institutional and social aspects. Further, issues National Sanitation Rating and related to governance, awareness creation and capacity Service Level Benchmarking building are also detailed in the CSP. The two major national-level initiatives in support of implementing the NUSP include: National Sanitation As of March 2014, more than 150 cities were reported to be Rating of Cities (2009-10) and Service Level Benchmarking in the process of drafting their CSPs. (SLB) of ULBs. While designing the CSP, the ULB will need to ensure 1) National Sanitation Rating of Cities (2009-10) services to the poor, regardless of space, tenure or economic In order to assess the performance in urban sanitation, GoI constraints. has instituted a rating of cities on urban sanitation indicators Box 3: NUSP Emphasizes CSPs to Serve the Urban Poor and Slum Settlements Reaching the Unserved Populations and the Urban Poor Experiences from many Indian cities show that a differentiated approach is necessary to extend good quality sanitation services to the poor — the group that suffers the most in terms of adverse impacts on health and lost earnings. Participatory approaches are needed to consult the poor settlements and involve them in the process of planning and management of sanitation arrangements. Many settlements may have the necessary conditions to support the provision of individual onsite sanitation arrangements (for example, as tried out in some pockets in Ahmedabad) that are ideal; in many others, tenure and legal issues prevent provision of individual toilets and hence community toilets (CTs) are the only way for immediate succor and access (for example, as is the case with Mumbai, Pune). In some places, conventional and shallow sewers have also been tried out as alternative to on site solutions in dense settlements. Examination of legal/tenurial, space and affordability issues in close consultation with communities becomes a key step in planning innovative means that are owned by users and will be sustainably managed by them. NGOs can play an important role in mobilizing slum communities. Further, when community groups themselves take over the O&M of community facilities, then sustainable services become possible. Another segment of population normally without sanitation is those who live in dispersed urban locations not being slums or in groups of houses that have legally not been notified as slums. Innovative approaches are required to extend services to these population groups too. The Implementing Agency will need to take stock of the legal and non-notified settlements in the city and, in partnership with NGOs and CB0s, initiate a process of collaborative planning and delivery of services. At least 20 percent of the funds under the sanitation sector should be earmarked for the urban poor. The issues of cross subsidization of the urban poor and their involvement in the collection of O&M charges should be addressed. The last and not least of all obstacles is the mindset of the officers of ULBs and other citizens: biases and myths often hinder proper service provision to poor settlements. There must be a concerted effort to raise awareness amongst all stakeholders about the huge health and environmental costs that all have to bear if services are not comprehensively provided to all citizens. Source: NUSP, MoUD, GoI, 2008. 18 The Urban Sanitation Challenge and the Response for self-assessment of cities and highlight the areas where • 100 percent collection and scientific processing/disposal improvements are required. The ratings aimed to track public of municipal solid waste; health and environmental standards as two outcomes that • Bring about a behavioral change in people regarding cities must seek to ensure for their citizens. The first round healthy sanitation practices; of the rating of cities was conducted between December • Generate awareness among citizens about sanitation and 2009 and April 2010 under the guidance of the National its linkages with public health; Advisory Group on Urban Sanitation and in consultations • Strengthen ULB to design, execute and operate systems; with the state governments and ULBs. As many as 436 and cities were rated included metros, big Class I (with 1 to 5 • Create an enabling environment for private sector million populations) cities and other Class I (100,000 up to participation in capital and operation expenditure. 1 million population) cities, covering almost 72 percent of India’s total urban population (NUSP 2010). The Mission has been launched and received priority and attention at all levels, including national, state and cities Each city was scored on 19 indicators that are divided into and towns. This has provided the much-needed priority to the categories of Output (50 points), Process (30 points) and sanitation and hygiene, and has given a great push forward Outcome (20 points) indicators. to achieving clean, healthy cities as envisaged by the NUSP. The second round of Rating (2014-15) proposes to also Community Toilet Complexes as a Response measure the number of community and public toilets (seats) to the Slum Sanitation Deficit for more than 460 Class I (population with more than As noted above, individual toilets must be promoted as 100,000 persons) cities. much as possible since these are known to be the healthiest and most sustainable arrangements that households use and 2) Service Level Benchmarking of ULBs maintain (given that the toilets are sanitary and have adequate SLB focuses on service delivery and not just infrastructure disposal arrangements). Individual sanitary facilities may creation, and ranks ULBs in terms of their performance not be possible, though, in dense urban settlements due on 29 indicators across four key service sectors (water to a multitude of reasons such as tenure, space constraints, supply, sewerage, solid waste management, and storm water financial factors, and so on. In such cases, community toilets drainage). play a very large role in providing sanitation facilities to the urban poor and, to a large extent, form an effective alternative The awards and ranking from both initiatives are available for improving sanitation coverage for these households. on http://moud.gov.in. The Second Round of National Sanitation Rating of Cities (2014-15) covering more than NUSP, in a significant departure from earlier policy positions, 460 Class I cities is expected to be completed by early 2015. recommends that provisioning of basic sanitation be delinked from the issues of land tenure, so that a basic minimum level Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2014-19 of sanitation is ensured for the poor. It promotes sustainable In keeping with the vision of the NUSP and GoI’s priority service delivery and acknowledges that priority needs to be to make India clean, litter free and ODF, the Swachh Bharat given to the provision of individual toilets but, wherever this Mission (SBM) (with separate components for rural and is not feasible, community (and public) sanitation solutions urban) was launched in October 2014. Estimated at a cost need to be supported (NUSP, p. 12). of approximately INR 62 lakh crore (INR 62 billion), the SBM urban has the following objectives: In India, CTs have, in the past, been provided by the municipalities and corporations as well as by NGOs. The • Eliminate open defecation; success of these toilets has been mixed when judged on use • Eradicate manual scavenging; and maintenance aspects. Due to inadequate financial and www.wsp.org 19 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Box 4: Public Toilets and Community Toilets While both Public Toilets (PTs) and CTs provide vital sanitation services in urban areas, there is a clear distinction between the two: 1. PTs usually are located in commercial areas such as markets, train and bus stations, and so on in areas characterized by high population throughput. These are pay-and-use toilets (in some cases, free to use), and could be operated by the government, private operators or NGOs. Examples of such toilets are the Sulabh complexes prevalent in many Indian cities. 2. CTs are usually situated in or near slum locations, and have a core group of identifiable regular users. Sometimes CTs may be located near a commercial or high population throughput area but their distinctive feature is the regular user group and a management arrangement by users themselves, or someone on their behalf. PTs can be run as commercial ventures by the government or sub-contracted to the private sector, while CTs need to be accountable to user groups while being viable either through user contributions or some other ways of financing of expenses. human resources, and inappropriate institutional incentives, This note recommends individual toilets wherever possible many of the CTs are poorly maintained, fall into unsanitary since these prove to be much cheaper, more sustainable conditions and, in some cases, are abandoned by users within and more scalable compared to CTs. The NUSP and the a few years of construction. The major deficiencies of many Technology Options for Urban Sanitation in India manual of these community toilets were identified as: (WSP/ MoUD 2008) dwell on the technology and design issues for these toilets and hence readers are encouraged to a. Lack of cleanliness and poor up-keep, and lack of proper refer to the manual for further information on technology disposal facilities (septic tanks, sewerage, and so on) and design aspects. especially in the ‘free to use’ toilets; b. Poor construction standards; Where CTs are also not possible, people have to depend on c. Insufficient water and electricity supply; public toilets nearby – as is the case in densely populated d. Inappropriate accessibility due to location; slums adjacent to commercial and public places. Such e. Insecurity (especially for women users); and situations are best avoided because of poor affordability by f. Inadequate funds and arrangements for O&M. households that, in turn, is likely to force them to defecate in the open. Many of these deficiencies can be effectively addressed through better planning, design, construction,O&M – as illustrated by the cases in this guide. 20 3. Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives The analysis of selected slum sanitation initiatives helped in and dealt with, that is, either improved or developed; or how identifying some of the key factors or drivers that appear to residents in different categories or locations may be relocated have significantly contributed to the success of these initiatives. and rehabilitated in a new site. Apart from evictions that are Different strategies have worked in different locations – and a controversial issue in many cities, under-counting or non- this section attempts to describe, with examples, how these recognition of squatter or informal settlements under the drivers actually worked in practice. legal provisions of the relevant state law has been highlighted as a major issue that makes these settlements “invisible”. The importance of each of the drivers is briefly described followed by examples from different cities on how these In addition to slum acts, the municipal acts that govern ULBs, worked. The cost of not paying attention to the driver is also and those laws that create and govern service providers, for highlighted in some cases. At the end of information on each example, water and sewerage boards, together determine the driver, a set of issues or questions are listed for readers to keep kind of services that can be provided to slum settlements. in view while thinking about sanitation initiatives. A color Hence, this is the starting point of any exercise to plan slum box at the top and a para in the end also help in understanding sanitation services provision. at the stage of planning, implementation or monitoring and evaluation (M&E) the driver becomes critical. Since questions of urban land tenure are deeply contested issues, relevant state department or specialized state level Please note that drivers are the main blocks around which agencies are often responsible for recognition of slum slum sanitation can be approached – but these have many settlements, and make provisions for their development, interlinkages and are therefore not either mutually exclusive relocation, regularization, and so on. This brings into account or exhaustive. the relative roles of the state agencies and department, and the role of ULBs. The latter are typically supported 1. Enabling Frameworks for Slum Sanitation administratively by the state urban departments but are (Tenure and Provision of Services) governed by the relevant state municipal acts. These acts and rules may have provisions that have a bearing on services provision in slums too. Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and and planning stage evaluation stage For ULBs, it is often convenient to postpone service stage provision till such time that the legal tenure questions are resolved. Even though slums were not accorded attention The starting point of provision of services to slum communities earlier, in the past four decades, different states have enacted is the legal and administrative recognition accorded to them. legislation to recognize and notify slums in their cities. Slums are often “invisible” to municipal authorities in that These acts and rules also specify the method by which “re- they may not be recognized at all as settlements. The first development”, “resettlement”, and attendant services may difficulty arises in agreeing on a definition of what constitutes be provided. Therefore, the starting point of any slum a slum and what do with these settlements. Since this is a state sanitation initiative would have to be enabled by such subject, usually state government laws determine how slums a legal framework that first accords some sort of legal are defined, how these may be recognized and categorized, status to slum settlements. www.wsp.org 21 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Box 5: Relevant Definitions The Model Property Rights to Slum Dwellers Bill 2011 (Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, 2011) proposed some definitions for states to consider in their acts and rules: “Slum” or “Slum Area” means a compact settlement of at least 20 households with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions. “Untenable Settlements” are those settlements which are on environmentally hazardous sites (such as riverbank, pond sites, hilly or marshy terrains, and so on), ecologically sensitive sites (mangroves, national parks, sanctuaries, and so on), and on land marked for public utilities and services (such as major roads, railway tracks, trunk infrastructure, and so on). “In-situ Slum Redevelopment” means the process of redevelopment of slum areas by providing dwelling space and other basic civic and infrastructural services to the slum dwellers, on the existing land on which the slum is based. “Slum Resettlement” means the process of relocation and settlement of slum dwellers from the existing untenable slums to an alternative site with dwelling space, basic civic and infrastructural services. “Basic Civic Services” means services of drinking water supply, drainage, sewerage, solid waste disposal and street lighting. Source: http://mhupa.gov.in/ray/guidelines%20and%20user%20manuals.htm, accessed August 11, 2014. It may be noted, in the past two decades, that the policy Relevant Acts and Rules Enable environment has made some progress and slums have come the Type of Sanitation Services Delivery to be “tolerated” to some extent. From being regarded as The state slum acts, municipal acts, agency/board acts and “illegal and unwanted settlements” and, finally, a move has regulations may permit services to be provided fully or been made to recognize such settlements as legitimate sites partially. In the former case, the slum area and housing of housing and livelihoods, arising out of state and market unit are accorded status so that it can receive some basic failures. But this still requires attention in order to ensure services, although service delivery may be constrained by planned development, public health and socioeconomic availability of space, finances, and so on. In the latter case, security not only for these communities but also for their the law may only permit for essential services to be provided neighborhoods and the entire city. through limited means, for example, water supply through pipelines to community water points and/or Community As reflected in implementation of laws and development Toilet Blocks (CTBs). In this case, different states may schemes in practice, there are serious differences about the extent again have enabling provisions about the land on which of recognition (many informal, squatter settlements are left out such infrastructure may be located. For instance, municipal of the count), basis of recognition (cut-off dates are commonly corporations may be empowered to permit construction of used to define boundaries of legality), and what the state ensures toilet blocks on slums located on their own land or of the in terms of development inputs including infrastructure and state government or even, as in case of Bhopal Municipal service improvements, upgradation of housing, relocation, and Corporation (BMC), slums on lands belonging to private so on. These are contested realms and lie at the heart of services parties.1 provision including sanitation to slum communities. 1 In many cities, settlements are located on lands owned by Defense, Railways and other union government agencies, posing a complex and unresolved issue. 22 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives How have States and Cities Approached Tenure Bhopal and Trichy have used a project approach to plan and Service Provision Issues? and implement community sanitation initiatives that The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) utilized were first implemented as pilot projects and later sought its governing Municipal Act, to allocate finances for the to be scaled up. Tamil Nadu incorporated the Trichy improvement of health conditions in the city – and hence, Gramalaya experience into the state-wide Integrated investments in environmental services in slums in the city. Sanitation Project (ISP) under the Tamil Nadu Urban This was combined with innovative use of an executive Development Project (TNUDP). order (NOC 500, discussed below), to operationalize a comprehensive Slum Networking Project (SNP or The Government of Maharashtra (GoM) issued an order “Parivartan”) in the city. in 2005 mandating that community groups will play an integral role in planning and management of CTBs in urban Other states and cities have opted for the route of Maharashtra slums. In this manner, GoM sought to scale executive orders to enable slum sanitation services up the practices demonstrated in BMC’s Slum Sanitation provision, using the existing legal provisions in various Program (SSP) to all such slum sanitation initiatives in acts or by making minor modifications in these acts. urban Maharashtra. Box 6: Parivartan Slum Networking Program in Ahmedabad With a population of 3.5 million (2001), Ahmedabad reported more than 40 percent of its population living in over 1,600 slums and informal settlements. In the mid-1990s, a private textile mill had approached AMC to help improve slums in the mill’s neighborhood. This initiated the formulation of the Parivartan Program or SNP comprising: Physical infrastructure services including individual water supply connection; individual toilets connected to sewerage; storm water drainage; paved internal roads and lanes; street lighting; solid waste management; and landscaping; and Community development inputs including mobilization and formation of CBOs and their involvement in implementation, O&M, and for supporting health, education, livelihoods, micro-credit, and so on. The program was funded mainly by AMC. It realized that, for slum dwellers to access infrastructure services, it was quintessential to provide tenure security and urban social protection to slum dwellers. Along with this, state level enabling legislations such as an amendment to the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act, 1949 had aimed to progressively eliminate slums, prevent the reemergence of slums and upgrade and control existing slums. In Ahmedabad, water and sanitation services were not provided to communities that lacked legal tenure. An amendment to the BPMC Act, 1949 made it obligatory for AMC to spend at least 10 percent of its own revenue for improving basic services in slums. To encourage slum dwellers to continue to invest in their homes, AMC agreed to provide some sort of protection for a 10-year period to the households participating in its program. The executive orders and rules at the state government and ULB level provided an important enabling legal framework of service provision to slums. AMC started the 500 NOC Scheme aimed at helping slum residents acquire a No Objection Certificate (NOC) with a payment of INR 500. This document had the photo of the householder declaring that s/he will not claim ownership or legal claim over the house structure and services, and AMC declared that it would not demolish the structure and stop services for a period of 10 years in normal circumstances. (Only two instances of demolition were noted thereafter to acquire land for infrastructure projects. Affected communities were duly relocated.). www.wsp.org 23 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide With the help of the NOC, slum residents could now apply for legal individual sewage and water connections to their house. AMC issued NoCs for the upgradation of community and individual household facilities including water, drainage, sanitation, pavements and roads for a period of 10 years. In addition, it used the BPMC Act to systematically make budgetary allocations for improvement to health conditions of the city residents including slums. The SNP was therefore one of the first initiatives to delink tenure from services provision. This led to the willingness of slum communities to participate in and contribute towards capital cost of infrastructure development and a community level corpus fund for O&M. AMC, in partnership with a private company and NGOs (Saath and Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust), extended a bundle of services including individual toilets, water taps and drains in nearly 50 slum settlements beginning the late 1990s. Individual services were preferred and provided over community facilities, scaled up to other cities of Gujarat except Vadodara where only community facilities were provided. By 2014, only three slums (of the more than 40 slums under Parivartan project) suffered part or full relocation. This was for infrastructure projects, and did not lead to AMC revoking its NOC per se. Sources: WSP (2007); Rusling, Sara (2010), SEWA Academy/MHT 2009. It may be noted, however, that executive orders and project Some laws and administrative provisions and schemes achievements may be difficult to sustain in the absence of may actually be inimical to mobilizing communities for political and legal backing. A case in point is the continued improved sanitation practices. Under the Kolkata Urban prevalence of a different approach to slum sanitation in Services for the Poor (KUSP), about INR 9,900 was made case of Maharashtra. The Maharashtra Housing and Area available for constructing toilets in poor communities of the Development Authority (MHADA)-constructed CTBs are 38 municipalities in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (outside intended to respond to the huge deficit and demand for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation). Therefore, while service toilets in slums, using union and state government funds provision was already possible under the municipal act, KMC (not under the control of the BMC). However, the design wanted to experiment with community led health initiative of these (single-storied) toilets does not include full services that would mobilize people to build and use toilets using such as continuous water and electricity supply due to their own resources rather than opting for scheme funds. constrains of lower cost norms. In addition, there may not In the initial mobilization phase, the scheme provision have been resources available for mobilization of community actually created confusion in one of the slums in Kalyani groups for maintenance management (as mandated in the and they were not able to join in the KMC led initiative. GoM order of 2003), leading to poor maintenance. KMC, in fact, had to pass a resolution and present it to the state department that they would not take the scheme funds Delinking tenure from services delivery should be enabled. yet attain the target of sanitation service provision in slum NUSP (2008) has already made this a cornerstone of the communities using a different approach. national urban sanitation policy, and states and cities are encouraged to systematically delink access to sanitation The example above shows that the enabling framework of services from tenure constraints in slum communities. the law, policy and schemes needs to be the starting point of 24 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives Box 7: Bengaluru’s Experience with Delinking Tenure and Service Provision In Bengaluru, under the AusAID-assisted Master Plan Project, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) waived off the requirement for proof of land ownership as requirement for water supply connections, and replaced this with proof of residency. A special new water tariff slab was introduced to provide for shared connections (so that, in spite of large combined consumption of five to six families, the applicable tariff would be the lowest one, and not the high telescopic slab applicable for normal individual households). Connection fees were reduced (INR 830, down from INR 1,850) and permitted to be paid in instalments. The procedures for applying for connections, and issuance of meters, and so on, were also simplified. In this way, the BWSSB was able to delink service provision from legal tenure – the utility gaining by increased customer- base revenues, households by avoiding long queues, loss of productive time, and girls not missing schools. Source: BWSESMP, 2002. any slum sanitation initiative. While it may not be possible Critical Stages to make amendments to the law, or change administrative The enabling framework’s driver is critical in the preparatory provisions, these must be kept in view throughout the cycle and planning stage. This factor needs attention during the of preparation, planning, implementation and maintenance implementation phase as well since program and project management. Since some of these can take time to change, rules may need to be legitimized by legal and administrative indeed, the demonstration of a example such as Trichy can changes. In the maintenance and monitoring stage, legal actually build a constituency that supports such changes to and administrative frameworks need further review. The come about. last stage may also be opportune for evidence based policy changes. To summarize, the enabling environment comprises the following legal, executive/administrative, and scheme 2. Political Will, Executive Engagement and questions to be examined: Local Government Institutional Capacities 1. Examine the existing municipal, state slum and utility Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and acts and rules for type of services that are permissible; and planning stage evaluation stage 2. Examine how, by law, the framework for service stage provision can be made more inclusive of households and settlements currently excluded; Sanitation is a state subject under the Constitution of 3. Examine the extent to which tenure can be delinked India. This has been further devolved to ULBs by the from service provision – the NUSP recommends this and 74th Constitution Amendment. The actual devolution some cities have done it; of funds and functionaries for sanitation in general and 4. Draft and propose changes to existing laws and regulations for slum sanitation in particular, depends on the extent to to enable access to individual household level services which different states have ratified and given effect to the ideally, community services as a second-best option; and 74th Constitutional Amendment in their own local body 5. Examine existing national and state level programs and acts and rules. The legal devolution follows the practical schemes that may be utilized for improved sanitation consideration that sanitation is indeed a public good, and service provision.2 needs to be provided and managed locally. 2 Past schemes for slum sanitation service provision at the GoI level have included the integrated low cost provision scheme, the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana and JNNURM supported BSUP/Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programmes schemes. The recently launched RAY enables upgradation of slums leading to, ideally, household level sanitation services. www.wsp.org 25 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Given the above legal framework, political and executive The integrated functioning of engineering frontline personnel leadership of the city, extent to which the ULB and other with social development officers/community mobilization agencies are engaged with questions of slum services staff needs considerable institutional attention. Capacity provision, and institutional capacities and incentives for the building for these as well as other officers is required for ULB to do so, form the second major driver of successful imparting analytical and engagement skills to them, as well initiatives. as for their reorientation to provide sanitation services. AMC has conventionally been one of the strongest municipal The case of KMC is that of a comparatively smaller local corporations in the country due to its strong organizational body with dynamic leadership. In this case, mobilization capacities and manpower resources, and in being able to of communities with strong leadership led to community signal its strong financial foundation by being the first city volunteers and leaders themselves formulating and to issue municipal bonds. AMC is responsible for providing implementing solutions with municipality and other a wide variety of municipal services and therefore when a external agents acting as facilitators. It also showed that large dynamic, executive leadership put together the Parivartan public investment in constructing toilets was not necessary project, legitimacy of the effort was never in question. In and self-financed infrastructure was likely to be better used, fact, AMC’s partnering with Arvind Mills (which partly maintained and managed better if at the household level. financed the project in the initial stages), on the one hand, and various community groups and NGOs (MHT/SEWA, In spite of sufficient institutional capacity and resources, Saath), on the other, added to AMCs institutional capacity the desirable impacts of dynamic leadership are not always to mobilize slum communities and deliver benefits to them. possible to sustain. The dynamic executive leadership in the late 1990s of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), led The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to the development of an ambitious slum sanitation scheme is again a very large and strong local government that was for the city. This citywide sanitation program engaged all able to reach out to slums in the city through its territorial elected representatives and facilitated the involvement of divisions as well as specialized Slum Sanitation Cell. The communities. NGO and CBO partners were mobilized slums accounted for more than 55 percent of the total and budgetary allocations made by the PMC for the population of Mumbai. Both these cities showed the necessity implementation of this program. However, in the later of significant devolution of resources and responsibilities in stages, the momentum of the program suffered on account order for initiatives to become effective at scale. of a number of factors. The Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC report (2014)) mentions, “In It is important for services to slum communities to be a part Pune, the major champion pushed for the project to be of an appropriate department or division within the ULB. rushed for completion. It was because the administrator In many cases, sanitation departments look after solid waste knew that his successors may not sustain the level of scale management only whereas management of human excreta and partnership. This created distortions in the processes and does not find a place or competent staff institutionally. In because wrong choices happened, the alliance (with Mahila the context of slum sanitation provision, it is also important Milan, National Slum Dwellers Federation and SPARC) to distinguish between CTBs and PTs, the management of paid highly for that in financial and reputational terms”. In which may require a different set of organizational skills and Kalyani, too, a leadership change led to reordering of city competencies. Some ULBs and utilities have experimented level priorities. with recruiting specially trained personnel for engagement with community groups and may be in the process of In many if not most such initiatives, the leadership role of an regularizing these (consultant/on special duty/deputation) elected leader, or an officer, has been central in getting things positions such as social development officers or community moving initially. While this is a pivotal role; it is also important facilitators. to institutionalize the systems and procedures in order that 26 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives Box 8: KMC Attempts a New Way of Addressing Sanitation Kalyani was faced, in the 1990s, with a large number of settlements with toilets that were not used by residents. These toilets were constructed under different schemes for rehabilitation and improvement of the population living in bastis (slums), in which many had migrated from neighboring Bangladesh. The huge pile of solid waste littered on roadsides and on a field was coupled with the problem of indiscriminate dumping of bio-medical waste with this garbage. A rudimentary sewerage was in a state of dilapidation with the overall outcome being the image of the two cities of Kalyani, one that was rich and planned, and the other with slums, garbage and waste. After being a Notified Area Committee, Kalyani was accorded the status of a Municipal Council in 1994. On taking stock of the condition of the city and its 19 wards, the newly elected chairman was ready to initiate a series of changes in the way the municipality functioned. One of the first set of actions was to start conducting municipal meetings in camera to ensure transparency. It was also emphasized to the elected representatives that, according to the West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act, the executive powers of the municipality were vested in the chairman and elected representatives. Therefore, the role of elected representatives ceased to be representing wards and transformed into being members of a decision-making and executive authority. The second set of changes involved devolution of financial resources to the ward levels using a consensus approach (instead of a quota based one) and incentivizing improved expenditure performance locally. It was very difficult to convince other ward councilors, including those from the opposition, to formally resolve not to access scheme funds available for toilet construction under KUSP. With the municipality’s own staff, including engineers, there was the additional task of convincing them about what would be value for money but sanitary toilets. In order to engage with slum communities, the KMC leadership decided to identify and encourage Natural Leaders (NLs) from these communities. These NLs were provided special motivation and training, and mobilized around the themes of improved public health including sanitation. A number of social and cultural events were organized as this community led movement – called Community Based Health Initiative (CBHI) – of which the focus was on the outcome of ODF communities. The local municipal leadership, that is, the chairman, elected leaders as well as community leaders, were further assisted by external experts and well-wishers of this approach. Within a short period of less than two years, more than 40 communities were able to become ODF using their own resources, and no subsidy or financial support from the government in constructing toilets. Some of these communities had, in addition, constructed improved drains, platforms for handpumps and other such small infrastructure using their own resources. The NLs and volunteers would continue to monitor behavior of residents, incidents of diahorreal disease and report and discuss these on a weekly basis with the municipality. A strong municipal leadership that had attempted a fundamental change in the culture of municipal politics was therefore responsible for mobilizing communities to take ownership of their health. Source: Interview with Shantanu Jha, former Chairman, KMC, June 2014. the slum sanitation projects are implemented well, and they In summary, the considerations to assess the driver of are monitored properly later on too. Hence, while the initial leadership, engagement and capacity are: push needs leadership, many of implementation and service delivery/maintenance phases need institutionalization of 1. What is the structure of the local political leadership? monitoring and actions based thereon – and the capacities What are the ways to have leaders lend support to to do so. improved sanitation services to slum communities? www.wsp.org 27 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide 2. What is the structure of the local political leadership (in encouraging stakes/ownership, building capacities in the the ULB, development authorities, water and sanitation communities for making linkages, and getting prepared to utility/board)? How can it be mobilized to commit to manage the facilities as well as sustain behavior changes. sanitation services delivery to slums? 3. What is the extent to which functions, funds and While public health promotion and appeals to dignity functionaries are devolved to the ULB in the city? have been a continuing theme in nearly all successful slum 4. Does the local body have an organizational unit or initiatives, the examples of Tiruchirappalli and Bhopal are division with specialized and dedicated personnel for presented here. NGOs such as Gramalaya in Tiruchirappalli dealing with sanitation issues? and Aarambh in Bhopal extended health and hygiene 5. What are the means of building awareness amongst urban education to women in households and students from communities about the necessity of improved sanitation government or municipal schools (mostly living in poor systems and practices? and underserved settlements) and, to make it interesting, they have used games (like snakes and ladders) and skits Critical Stages (nukkad natak) to convey the message. These children act as This driver is also important in the preparatory and planning sanitation messengers and ensure that hygienic practices are stage, especially devolution and leadership. The engagement observed at home and in their schools. and organizational capacities become critical in planning and implementation. This continues to remain salient in the In 14 government schools, Aarambh built child friendly monitoring and sustenance of the initiative. toilets for children. Each child contributed INR 1 per month for buying cleaning materials and for minor repairs. 3. Addressing Indignity and Promoting Public Health educators visited government schools to impart Health hygiene training. In these schools, Child Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Committees were set up with Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and children acting as hygiene messengers to promote and and planning stage evaluation stage monitor hygiene and sanitation and ensure that drinking stage water was stored properly (in a covered pot kept at a height from the ground). Slum children have also been given health While investments in water and sanitation are normally and hygiene training on practices such as hand-washing and justified on grounds of huge preventive health benefits that menstrual hygiene. accrue, the centrality of these benefits is far more pronounced in case of slums. Accessing potable water remains a struggle for Many community initiatives have now adopted measures most slum dwellers but these struggles vary based on different not only to promote health and hygiene messages, but also local factors and influences. In contrast though, sanitation in provided proper mechanisms targeted at special needs of slums poses the dual risk of increased disease incidence, on women and adolescent girls. Menstrual Hygiene Management one hand, and personal safety, security and indignity, on the messages, material and mechanisms are important as a part other, especially for women and girls. In a departure then of this pillar, and must be accorded high priority in any slum from construction of toilets, slum sanitation initiatives have sanitation initiative. For example, Gramalaya encouraged increasingly attempted to mobilize communities around increased engagement in advocacy on menstrual hygiene health and safety, dignity, and community-level outcomes. and installed incinerators in girls’ toilets and, along with This has also been the strategy for involving and empowering bathing facilities, provide access to water and soap within a women through such initiatives. place that provides an adequate level of privacy. Slum sanitation programs start with a hygiene education The considerations of integrating public health and dignity and community mobilization activity. This is also a way of in sanitation initiatives are: 28 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives Box 9: Mobilizing Children around Health and Hygiene Practices Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, is a fascinating amalgam of scenic beauty, old historic city, and planned modern settlement. The “city of lakes” has a population of about 18,00,000 (Census 2011), of which about a third live in 374 notified slums. The NGO Aarambh that has been working with children since 1990s, mainly on issues of child rights, began a pilot project on sanitation in 2005. With WaterAid in partnership with BMC and UN Habitat, Aarambh launched a slum sanitation program to make slums ODF using the community-led approach. Through a Poverty Pocket Situational Analysis that focused on the poorest of poor with no access to water and sanitation facilities, Aarambh identified 17 slums in Bhopal. A total of 5,000 households were covered – 2,600 individual leach pit latrines and two CTBs were built – and 11 slums were declared ODF by the government in 2008. The community-led approach targeted women and children. The team began with door-to-door campaigns telling women about sanitation issues, wall writing on hygiene practices, septage management, performing skits (nukkad natak) to give messages on health and hygiene, celebrating World Water Day, World Toilet Day and Environment Day. Developing a sanitation solution through community participation was conceived as the first activity in the Aarambh pilot program to build toilets in Bhopal. A Water and Sanitation (WatSan) Committee comprising seven to13 persons with a third as women, was established and trained in each community. The responsibilities of the WatSan Committees were: oversee and monitor construction, O&M of the facility, set and collect user charges, carry out repairs directly or through the private sector, and be accountable to the community regarding O&M. Shiksha Swasthya Sanitation teams were formed for health promotion and communication and they were active in door-to-door campaigning on hygiene, need for constructing toilets with septic tanks, etc. Aarambh has also promoted segregation of waste through competitions such as ‘healthy lane’, ‘healthy house’ where community women act as judges. Source: Interview with Mr. Anup K. Sahai, Chief Functionary, Aarambh. 1. What is the baseline condition of disease incidence in the community, and as a part of the toilet block? (especially sanitation-attributable diseases such as 5. What are the community-level and formal mechanisms diarrhea, and so on) in the community and what are the for monitoring health outcomes? community perceptions regarding these? 6. Is there regular communication and messaging for 2. What are the constraints of space and concerns of safety mobilizing the local community to adopt and use the and dignity especially of women and children in the toilet, and sustain changed behavior and practices? community? 3. What are the infrastructure and services (for example, Critical Stages well-lit toilets with adequate water, separate and secure In most other sanitation initiatives, women were established toilet blocks for women, child friendly features, easy as central actors and/or target groups along with children, availability of soap and cleaning materials, and so on) together with instituting the link between sanitary required to address health and safety concerns? installations, safe disposal, improved hygiene practices and 4. What communication and measures can be undertaken to sustenance of behavior change. It is difficult to clearly identify better promote robust Menstrual Hygiene Management when and how these strategies become critical. Suffice it to www.wsp.org 29 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide say that this needs to be sustained throughout the project initiative by what households and communities desired even cycle while the emphasis may be different at different stages, in terms of the exact technical option selected (communities depending on the local context. were trained in ensuring that all installations were sanitary3 and safe). Standard toilet designs were made available in the 4. Promote Participation of Poor and sanitation initiative in Bhopal but households were active Institutionalize Special Roles for Women participants in supervision and contributing their labor to the construction. The availability of the sewer system in Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and Ahmedabad enabled households to construct toilets that and planning stage evaluation stage could be connected to it. The Parivartan initiative involved stage the resizing and other adjustments of the housing plots of poor households that communities worked together to Many initiatives involving construction of toilets in slum resolve. communities met with failure because the households and communities were not involved or even consulted in The project structures and rules to institutionalize the design of the process or structure, leading to disuse participation by communities, especially the poor and and dilapidation. All successful sanitation initiatives have, women, are also contingent upon the financing and other therefore, given high priority to instituting participatory resources available with the local government and the processes in a structured manner right from the preparatory communities. In many urban slum communities, the time and planning stages. available for households to participate in planning exercises can have high opportunity costs, for example, lost wages, The local context determines to what extent households timings of meetings being inconvenient, and so on. While and communities can be empowered to take control of the some of these constraints have been worked around in some process. Where the legal tenure constraints preclude the initiatives, the question of cash and labor contributions can possibility of household toilets, participation of household pose challenges. In case of individual toilets, it was found members can only be elicited in the preferred design, location that households might have been forthcoming with cash and maintenance management functions of these communal contributions or contributing their own labor. This becomes facilities. SPARC (2014) elaborated, “Every locality in Pune difficult to elicit in the case of CTBs. was visited, Mahila Milan held meetings especially with the women, then drawings for the designs were done and toilets While in Bhopal and Ahmedabad individual households were first demolished then desludged and reconstructed.” made their contributions following a simple formula, in In most initiatives, communities were mobilized and their case of Mumbai, the CBT could not be partially owned participation sought at the planning stage of the CTBs. The by community members and hence a “membership” fee success of such efforts in different communities would spell was instituted (this has since been discontinued). Eliciting the difference between sustainable outcomes or otherwise. participation in financial terms or in kind has been broadly understood to instill ownership, thereby leading to usage and Where individual toilets are possible, however, the proper upkeep and maintenance. The exact proportion or importance of participatory processes does not diminish absolute contribution that accounts for a successful outcome either as was demonstrated in Ahmedabad, Kalyani and depends on the local context in case of CTs. The picture is some parts of the Bhopal initiative. The participation of the clearer in case of individual toilets where the participation of poor households was central to their taking ownership of the the household in constructing and looking after household initiatives. The Kalyani approach sought to try the whole toilets has been shown to be more directly related. 3 Communities were trained by facilitators in ensuring that S-Pipes were provided to prevent transmission of pathogens, excreta was not visible, foul odor was avoided and toilets were kept clean. 30 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives Different projects have identified sub-segments within the was established in case of the Bhopal initiative. Similar community and carved out roles for them to participate in representation norms were also followed in other sanitation the initiatives. Most projects have assumed that slums largely projects. In some projects, women SHGs were also comprise poor households and, so, participation of poor given importance to establish links with livelihoods. The households has been promoted except in cases where the Tiruchirappalli initiative is an example of this. projects were to benefit individual households, for example, the AMC project that was limited to households with less Under the SSP in Mumbai, another strategy employed was than 40 square meter plot sizes. However, most community to mobilize households to become members of communities toilet initiatives have sought to mobilize all households by contributing initial membership fees signaling their including but not restricted to those who may be defined ownership of the process. In many cases, contractors as poor in that context. This broadly inclusive strategy appeared to make the contribution on behalf of households appears to have worked reasonably well given the practical and hence this was discontinued. Care needs to be taken to constraints of identifying and differentiating between ensure that such proxy contributions are not permitted, and poor and other households. In some initiatives such as in the demand is correctly signaled. Mumbai, there was a distinction made between “owners” and “tenants” in determining who may be able to participate Some of the slum sanitation initiatives have also tested and as a member. This may have resulted in some legitimately successfully used innovative training and educational material poorer households having to use the CTs on a comparatively appropriate for illiterate and neo-literate target groups. These more expensive pay and use rate as opposed to a cheaper material and training programs are very effective in empowering monthly pass fee rate. community members in comprehending complex issues and using a common vocabulary for conceptualizing and The special role of women in decision-making, community communicating with each other as a group. mobilization, health promotion and maintenance management finds differing treatment in different projects. The CBHI approach followed in Kalyani sought to completely Most of the projects stipulated representation of women reimagine the role of the community by facilitating a process in local committees. For instance, a WatSan committee in which the community would, in fact, drive the initiative comprising seven to 13 persons with a third being women rather than be a participant in it. The strategy involved Box 10: The Tiruchirappalli Initiative Tiruchirappalli city has been a growing industrial center and is the fourth-largest city in Tamil Nadu. It has a population of about 9,00,000, of which nearly 27 percent live in slums (Census, 2011). Until 2000, the Trichy City Corporation (TCC) managed all CTBs, which were dirty, dysfunctional and not used by slum dwellers. In 2000, WaterAid supported NGOs working in the field of urban sanitation (that is, Gramalaya, SCOPE, Sevai, Exnora International, Annai, Ramasamy Chellapappa Educational Trust, Environmental Conservation Group and Kalki Groups) to work with communities to renovate and take over management of CTBs directly themselves, and also supported communities in building completely new toilets. The participation of women was a key feature of the TCC project. Gramalaya adopted a process by which a number of SHGs were created with 15-20 women each as members. About two to seven such SHGs per community were established. Each SHG creates Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SHE) teams from existing members who take upon the responsibility of raising awareness and promoting slum sanitation and hygiene. The SHGs were given a central place in ensuring their views on the location of the toilet, and procedures followed. The SHE teams manage the CTBs on pay and use basis, maintain account books, disburse salaries among staff and improve the facilities www.wsp.org 31 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide such as provision of asbestos roofs, gates, and so on. It has addressed the practical gender needs of women being users of safe and properly maintained sanitation facilities; and, secondly, addressed the strategic gender need to give decision-making power to women, to operate and maintain toilets and for them to benefit in terms of their livelihoods. One such key agent of change, Indra (name changed), a housewife and member of the SHG group in Veragupettai, became a SHE team leader in 2000. She began looking after the CTB constructed in 2001 after demolishing the existing structure in a Veragupettai slum with about 79 households. The SHE team would earn as much as INR 18,000-20,000 per month from the CTB usage. By 2007, the SHE team had collected about INR 3,00,000 from user fees, and decided to construct a community hall in its slum that could be used for training on hygiene as well as for social gatherings. It now operates as a training classroom for SHGs and is also available for rent at INR 1,000 a day. Indra spearheaded the movement by encouraging toilet usage in neighboring communities. Initially, no one came forward to contribute in construction/maintenance of the CTB despite sincere efforts of the Gramalaya staff. Indra was instrumental in motivating the nearby SHG through persistent motivation and hygiene awareness, including door-to-door education, to meet with TCC and renovate their CTB. She supported the endeavors of the neighboring SHG to renovate the CT and it became functional in 2008. Regular meetings for discussions on accounting for funds and using the balance for slum welfare activities in concurrence with the sanitation and hygiene promotion activities of the SHE teams have also induced 28 families to install household toilets with WaterAID support. Sources: Sulabhenvis (n.d.); WaterAid and Gramalaya (2008); WaterAid India (2006); WSP, 2006. mobilizing the community by triggering and powerfully timing, place, and so on, of decision making bodies. communicating the links between current open defecation 4. Exploring ways to promote the formation of women- practices and the burden of disease, indignity and shame. based groups. This was followed by empowering leaders, volunteers and 5. Ways of linking livelihoods to construction and O&M of other community members in improving health practices, toilets. and design, construction and use of toilets. It may be 6. Developing and utilizing innovative training and noted that households were mobilized to construct toilets communication material to empower community and participate in all other project activities making their members including illiterate and neo-literate groups. own cash and capital contributions. External assistance was 7. The potential for community members being in the limited to facilitation, training and encouragement as well driver’s seat by structuring financial and technical as public recognition and awards on achieving ODF status. assistance around this. 8. Identifying risks to participatory processes being rushed The considerations for this driver are: or curtailed and providing flexibility to respond to these. 9. Understanding local community dynamics and removing 1. Whether the initiative involves individual households to barriers to success (such as local forces that may oppose benefit or community groups or a mix thereof. change and participation of new members). 2. What are the ways to structure the participation of community members and especially provide spaces for Critical Stages women to be in key decision making processes? Participation of households and communities and that of sub- 3. Mechanisms to ensure that community members segments has been demonstrated to be the most important including women are not excluded because of unsuitable factor that runs through the cycle across all successful 32 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives programs. Evidently, the preparatory and planning stages factors in view. Since many ULBs are legally authorized are crucial in instituting formal structures of participation to acquire and reuse lands (belonging to the ULB, state as well as stipulating formal and informal processes that government or other private parties), this is likely to be shall become operational in the planning, implementation easier to resolve. It is also important to consider locations and maintenance management phases. The most important that should be avoided, for example, a desolate/isolated aspect of this driver is the manner in which the participatory area (particularly in smaller urban centers), area close to a structures and processes transform across the project cycle. temple, and so on. Mobilization and training seem very important in the preparatory stages whereas the supervisory and decision- Access to water supply, drainage and sewerage/septic tank making role of the local committees becomes paramount cleaning services need close attention during evaluating in the planning and implementation stages. This, in turn, alternate locations since these can have long-term cost and transforms into a maintenance and management oversight management implications. function in the last phase. A well-designed CT will need to signal good quality of 5. Choice of Location, Technology Choice and construction and maintenance in order for it to attract users. Design Features It has to be kept in mind that a CT is a permanent structure. Material used in construction should be of specified quality Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and and standards allowing a lifespan of at least 30 years. It and planning stage evaluation stage should not require frequent replacement or repair, as funds stage might not be available within the community or responsible municipality. The workmanship and quality of work should be good. In addition, the preferences of the user community One of the most difficult constraints in slum settlements must ideally be incorporated during the design stages. is the availability of open spaces. There is limited potential for constructing standard designs of toilets in these often In Tiruchirappalli, Mumbai and Pune, successful sanitation dense and crowded places. Slum locations, such as those initiatives involved construction of bright, well-ventilated, in the Parivartan Project in Ahmedabad, were fortunate in properly constructed CTBs. In the successful slum sanitation having spaces that households could carve out in/near their toilets though, for example in Tiruchirappalli, adequate plots for individual toilets. Selected slum households in arrangements for water supply, provision for bathing and Bhopal had space available on which individual toilets could washing clothes, good quality flooring and shutters have be constructed. In such situations, the next consideration made the toilets attractive to users. is that of safe disposal. Available sewerage in Ahmedabad enabled households to connect to it easily. This also means that capital costs increase but if these are maintained and managed properly, the toilet structures last In slum locations, wherein tenure or lack of space precludes longer and users are willing to pay for these facilities, making individual toilets, CTBs present the alternative. For CTBs these sustainable. The introduction of continuous water too, finding an appropriate location is likely to depend on supply and power has been one of the distinctive features of a number of factors including necessity to clear out existing successful public toilets too in Indian cities. structures or change of actual land use, ownership of the land, ease of access for the potential user community, Different studies have shown that common deficiencies proximity/access to the water and sewerage networks, sub- in toilets are to do with poor design, lack of user-friendly surface conditions, proximate neighborhood, and so on. features, indifferent construction quality, poor maintenance, The ULB and the local communities need to work closely and so on. together to identify the right location, keeping the above www.wsp.org 33 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Some of the O&M costs are attributable to water supply, the child can see the parent and feel safe. On the other hand, disposal/cleaning of the septic tank and electricity bill, many of the child-friendly toilets in Pune and Mumbai apart from salaries of personnel and cleaning materials. CTBs remained unused. Hence, it is very important that Connecting to sewerage offers the cheapest from disposal child-friendly toilets are designed and their use promoted in solution; else regular arrangements for the cleaning of septic a planned manner. tanks need to be in place. Getting large septic tanks from private parties often turns out to be expensive and hence The sub-structure, super structure and services and features ULBs provide these services free or at a subsidized rate to in the CTB have implications on how attractive it is for slum community toilets. It must be ensured, though, that users, and therefore what they are willing to pay for using there is adequate space for cleaning/vacuum tugs to reach it. Specifications such as adequate floor slopes to ensure the septic tank. For water and electricity too, appropriately that water does not stagnate and form puddles anywhere in subsidized special tariff categories are required to render the the toilet block, paving of the outdoor area in front of the O&M cost affordable for this segment. entrance to the toilet block to prevent footwear carrying mud inside, and so on, need to be considered during construction. It is an accepted practice to have clearly demarcated and separate toilets for men and women. This may be achieved In many slum locations, however, the capital cost and by providing separate entrances or locating them on different attendant O&M costs may be perceived to be too high and floors. It is important to provide for easily accessible and unaffordable by the ULB and for the community. Therefore, specially designed toilets for differently-abled persons. These it is important that different design options are produced toilets may also be useful for the elderly who might find and discussed with their attendant capital and O&M cost using normal toilets difficult. Keeping in mind the special implications. The financing source and constraints thereon needs of children, child-friendly toilets were introduced in will also affect the choices made in this regard. The cost in Tiruchirappalli, Bhopal, Pune and Mumbai. The Gramalaya Mumbai SSP increased from INR 55,000 per toilet seat in toilet, with colorful pictures and illustrations drawn on 2006-07 to almost INR 1,50,000 in 2013-14. Limitations the walls, was developed to promote toilet habits among of land also could necessitate exploring options such as children at an early age. There are half-doors that ensure that multistoried structures in Mumbai SSP. Box 11: Common Design Deficiencies - Number of toilet seats available falls short of the actual requirements of the community with the result that CTBs are crowded and users experience long waiting times (especially looking into the male-female ratio, there should be more seats for women); - Special requirements of children (small squatting seats) are not met; - Separate space for washing clothes is not provided; bathrooms are used for washing clothes resulting in long waiting times for other users; - Poor ventilation results in foul smell which attracts insects; - No proper place is provided for people to wait; - Adequate water supply is not available on continuous basis; - No lighting for use of toilets at night is provided; - There is no proper disposal system. Septic tank effluent is usually discharged into the open drains causing an obnoxious odor, health hazards and becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects; and - Maintenance is unsatisfactory because of poor flooring, improper drainage, lack of a caretaker room, store, and so on. Source: WSP 1995, Guidelines on Community Toilets, p.6. 34 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives Box 12: A Comparison of the Mumbai and Tiruchirappalli Approaches Mumbai SSP Tiruchirappalli The SSP is a project for the construction of CTBs, aimed at The focus of Gramalaya was on delivering a range of providing sustainable sanitary facilities to the slum dwellers of options from conversion of dry community latrines into Mumbai. It also focused on creating awareness, alleviating health modern flush-out toilets, construction of new toilet risks, community capacity building and improving the urban complexes as well as individual toilets, depending on environmental conditions. demand, status of tenure, and availability of space. The project has demonstrated the effectiveness of constructing The CTBs in Tiruchirappalli provide a clean environment, a high quality asset with 24-hour water, power and sewerage child-friendly seats, disabled-friendly seats, facilities for connectivity, with a long potential service life. hygienic disposal of cloth used as sanitary pads during menstruation and hand-washing facilities (basins with The sanitation technology and layout and amenities provided soap) in most Women’s Action for Village Empowerment were designed in close consultation with the community, with (WAVE)-supported toilets. These toilets have 10 seats optimum utilization of available space. Since land in Mumbai for men and 10 for women. They also offer bathing and is scarce, the demolish and reconstruction option was the clothes washing facilities. preferred one. The project opted for multi-storey construction (one floor each for women and men, each with 10 toilet cubicles Other features included provision of safe drinking water or more, separate sections for men and women, additional through handpumps, standposts and repair of existing facilities for children and disabled persons, urinals, and bathing sources. SHE teams also sell soap, shampoo sachets, areas). Quality standards include ceramic-tiled floors, aluminum oil, talcum powder, and so on, on the toilet premises. shutters, galvanized iron (GI) water pipes, cast iron (CI) sanitary SHE teams and WAVE federation have built their own pipes, circulating areas. Other standard features are: bathing community centers, and gardens are promoted around all cubicles, urinals and squatting platform/space for children. toilets. The latter is specially designed at a child-scale, with a certain degree of openness to allow for adult supervision, and it is often Since water is drawn from borewells using electric motors, equipped with special handles to help balance. the average monthly expenditure on electricity is as high as INR 1,200, and ranges up to INR 5,150. Initially, the TCC The SSP provides 24-hour water supply (through an overhead covered the electricity costs and communities managing tank), electricity connection for lighting and waste disposal to the CTBs were not required to pay charges. However, a sewers, where feasible, or to septic tanks and aqua privies. In few years ago, TCC began passing on these charges to order to guarantee safe disposal of sewage, the blocks were the communities. Appeals by ward councilors, SHE teams connected to the municipal sewerage network. Where this was and WAVE to TCC on the grounds of insufficient income not possible due to a difficult location, alternative in-situ methods have resulted in exemptions in some CTBs and others were used making sure that local capacities are built within the now pay domestic rate versus the commercial rate which community for the maintenance of the system. is much higher. Currently, 65 percent of WAVE complexes pay for electricity. All toilet complexes are connected with In most CTBs, the top floor is being used for the caretakers’ underground drainage (or sewer) facilities. residence as an incentive for the caretaker to live on the premises. This means lower management and maintenance costs (as the The caretaker room is replaced by a meeting room, accommodation forms part of his salary). Housing the caretaker where the community and the NGO members meet, to of the CTB directly in the same building or on the same plot can discuss Information, Education and Communication (IEC) have a positive impact on safety and security. Further, this also activities and financial audits. prevents robbery of CTB items (for example, light bulbs, water pipes or pumps) and use of the toilet block for illegal purposes by anti-social elements can be reduced and the security, especially of women, increased. Where these rooms are not used, they have been put to use for community activities (child recreation center, library, among others). Sources: Sulabhenvis (n.d.); WaterAid and Gramalaya (2008); WaterAid India (2006); WSP, 2006. www.wsp.org 35 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Box 13: Recommendations for Construction Materials and workmanship Based on the type of waste disposal and water supply, and number of toilet seats, urinals, baths and washing areas to be provided, a layout plan of the major component of the CTB including disposal system and immediate surroundings should be prepared keeping in view the land area available. Deriving from that, the construction drawing of the CT needs to be prepared and material choices need to be made. All construction works should be carried out according to the relevant specifications, approved designs and drawings. It should always be kept in mind that a CT is a permanent structure. Material used in construction should be of specified quality and standards allowing a lifespan of at least 30 years. It should not require frequent replacement or repair, as funds might not be available within the community or responsible municipality. The workmanship and quality of work should be good. Both are important to insure a long life-cycle of the community toilet. Superstructure The walls of the superstructure could be of bricks and cement or any comparable low-cost material. Separation walls between individual facilities need not be very high, but enough to provide user privacy. The roof of the superstructure may be of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) or red stone with cement or GI sheet. RCC is the most durable, requiring least or no repair or maintenance, but costs more. Red stone costs a little less than RCC but its life is much shorter than that of RCC. Costs for GI sheets are almost the same as for red stone and it has a long life and requires low repair and maintenance. The door of the complex and each individual cubicle, respectively, is also an important consideration. The three different materials commonly being used are wood, iron, and plastic. The most common material used for doors is wood and iron sheet. Plastic doors are durable but cost more than the other two. The water reservoirs and pipelines should be tested to avoid loss of valuable natural and financial resources. The robustness of sewers is equally important to avoid groundwater contamination and respective precautions should also be taken when constructing onsite systems. Toilets The toilet seats should consist of a toilet bowl or squatting pan and a water seal or S-trap. The squatting pan should have a slope of about 25-30°, same as those used for household toilets. The squatting pans and traps should be fixed carefully so that the S-trap has a water seal of 20 millimeter (mm), requiring 1.5 to 2 liter of water per use of the toilet. Also, the top of the pan needs to be level with the floor so that the floor drains freely to the S-trap or water seal. Drawing of 20 mm water seal. 36 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives pan. Pans and traps may be of ceramic or fiber/plastic. The fiber/plastic pan and trap are useful in certain situations due to light weight, lower cost, longer life, resistance against breakage and ease of transportation. For user comfort, there should be a 200 mm space between the rear edge of the pan and the back wall of the superstructure. Foot-rests should be fixed at the time of laying the floor. These should be about 20 mm above the floor level, inclined slightly away. Source: WSP Internal Communication Toilet pan with 28 degree slope. Table 2: Average capital cost per seat: a comparison between Mumbai SSP and Tamil Nadu ISP Mumbai SSP Tamil Nadu ISP SSP toilets cost per seat ranged from INR 50,000 to 70,000 By 2013-14, cost of constructing a 10-seater CTB was in 2006-07, and INR 74,000-88,000 in the later period (Lot between INR 12-15 lakh for about 40 users per seat per 8R). day. MHADA toilet (earlier provision of community toilets) blocks Municipal Corporation Integrated Sanitary Complexes (ISCs), cost between INR 40,000 and 58,000 per seat.4 typically 20-seater, would cost INR 50,000 per seat. By 2013-14, per toilet costs were in excess of INR150,000 Town Panchayat area ISC (6-10 seats) costs per seat per seat. estimated about INR 25,000. Source: Estimates from Mumbai SSP (2014); Gramalaya (2014). Especially with community toilets, the risk of the facility The considerations in determining location, technology falling in disuse and disrepair is high not only because of choice and design features are: poor maintenance management but also if the quality of construction and services/fixtures provided is of inferior 1. Availability of land and its location to be identified with quality. In Mumbai, the toilets constructed earlier in slums, the user community. were standard batteries of 10X10 (men and women separate) 2. Access to network services including network, sewerage toilet seats but these had no water supply or electricity services, clear access to septage cleaning machinery, arrangements. Many of these fell into despair because they electricity, and so on. were difficult to use and clean, unsafe and unusable at night, 3. Design options for sub-structure and super structure and and were prone to breakages and dilapidation easily. Similar attendant capital cost. toilet blocks are also seen in other cities. 4. Sufficient separate facilities for men, women, children, differently-abled persons. 4 SSP per seat costs are estimated on the basis of contract value and hence do not strictly indicate costs. MHADA CTBs are constructed according to cost norms provided by GoI. www.wsp.org 37 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide 5. Space for supervision, meetings, and other related In the case of community toilets, identification of the user activities so that the toilet complex becomes an extra community can become complicated due to difficulties in source of revenue for the community or brings about a stipulating boundary/eligibility conditions. One of the ways sense of togetherness in the community. that may work is to get the community to form an informal 6. Provision of fixtures and user responsive features. association with memberships. Other options include treating 7. Financing, O&M management, O&M cost implications all potential users equally and forming a management of preferred option. committee. 8. Supervision and quality control to ensure construction quality and good finish. There are also options regarding the choice of agency/ individual for design and construction. Typically, a Critical Stages specialized division in the ULB is responsible for design The above examples show that the choice of location, while assistance may be sought from specialized consultants technology and design features are important to consider as well. The actual construction may be awarded to in the initial preparatory and planning stages. In this stage, contractors. In some cases, community members may also it will become clear whether an individual or community come forward to participate in the construction either as toilet is feasible. It is important to generate numerous design laborers contributing their labor share or, in some cases, slum options with attendant costs at this stage and assess these dwellers groups may wish to construct the toilets themselves with the community and the ULB. or engage their own masons and labor to get the work done. The above options for identifying the beneficiaries/users, the Once the preferred option is chosen and designs finalized, the task of design and the agency for implementation need to be implementation phase needs to ensure good quality and timely coherently packaged into a framework of either partnerships construction. Upkeep and maintenance including preventive or contracts for proper implementation. and minor/major repairs will become important areas of attention in the last phase. In the Kalyani community initiative, households and communities were free to get the work done themselves 6. Frameworks for Partnerships and Contracts because there was no public funding involved in the construction. In the Tiruchirappalli toilet blocks, the Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and process of design and construction was managed by the and planning stage evaluation stage NGO in partnership with the community groups and the stage work was executed by contractors under their supervision. In the Bhopal initiative, too, the user WatSan committee monitored the construction of the community toilets, Most slum sanitation initiatives fall under the purview of which was overall managed by the NGO and contractors. government rules for making budgetary allocation, and The Pune contract with NGOs extended beyond the following the due process, rules and regulations for planning construction phase and sought to incorporate a maintenance and authorizing expenditure. management arrangement after commissioning of the toilets. Though this has proved to be a challenge since a In many cases, where individual households are intended few NGOs maintained the toilet blocks for some time but to benefit, the ULB needs to have clear criteria to select stopped thereafter. beneficiary. These are typically households that satisfy certain norms, for example, being from the Below the The Mumbai SSP had also contracted NGOs to carry out Poverty Line (BPL) category, owning/residing on plots less community mobilization, health and hygiene education, than a stipulated size, not owning sanitary toilets/owning and separately planned to contract construction agencies dry toilets, and so on. which would then execute the construction contracts. 38 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives This approach of two different agencies working with very high. This could arise out of inadequate appreciation communities in parallel did not work. After review and of incentives, risk and reward frameworks for the parties discussions, the Mumbai SSP came up with a new compact involved as well as operational ground level difficulties of contract in which innovations were undertaken in designing working in slum communities that may have conflicts the contracting framework as presented in Box 14. and contests. In case of the Pune initiative, expectations of proper O&M in perpetuity by NGOs and CBOs were If the contracting framework of the partnership between belied by high costs and lack of financial viability of the CTs. the ULB, slum community, NGOs and the private sector is This led to the toilets falling into disrepair in the wake of not clearly laid out and agreed, the risks of failure become user communities unwilling to pay fully for O&M expenses. Box 14: Mumbai SSP “Compact” Contract The Mumbai SSP’s unique features included a demand-responsive participatory approach; incentives for contractors, NGOs and CBOs to work together; contracting innovations; high technical standards and good features in toilets; CBO registration and handover for O&M management; and so on. However, during the initial years (1997-99) of the Mumbai SSP, the contracts let out (Lots 1 to 5) received limited interest from community groups and only 21 public toilet blocks were constructed. Reasons included: • Residents in slum areas were not initially aware of the comparative advantage of the SSP toilet design over common alternatives such as the free MHADA toilets. Besides the SSP toilets required community contributions to be mobilized (not the case for either of the alternatives); • The issuing of separate contracts for the NGO and building contractor did not provide either stakeholder with adequate incentives and contract tasks to effectively market the benefits of this particular type of RCC toilet; and • The main project partners were on a learning curve on how best to design and implement the project. These lessons led to the development of a revised project approach that was used for subsequent contracts. More than 300 SSP public toilet blocks were provided in the period 2000 to 2004 (Lots 6 to 8). Much better progress was achieved in the second half of the project through the following measures: • Bundling the contractors’ and NGOs’ work into one “compact” contract, so that both parties worked together to promote the toilet blocks to community groups in an efficient manner. NGO or contractor led joint ventures are accepted; • Inviting bids for larger contracts with the scope for the provision of 20 to 40 public toilet blocks each with 20 toilet cubicles for a whole ward. Such larger contracts were more attractive to capable contractors and NGOs; • The above measures enabled the NGO and contractor to generate good demand for the SSP public toilets, by constructing one or more good quality public toilets that were demonstrated and promoted to nearby community groups; • The incentive to provide more toilets with a 100 percent positive contract variation was allowed. This enabled better promotion of toilet blocks to new community groups and encouraged good quality toilet blocks; • The provision for 100 percent negative contract variation increased the risk-taking ability of contractors in difficult areas where demand may not be generated. This protects against audit objections in the case of non- performance in a particular area; • Flexibility across wards with larger contracts allowed a more demand responsive approach and was more attractive to contractors and NGOs; and • A simple contract payment schedule, based on stages of completion, reduced the time and cost for interim payments. Source: TARU-WEDC, 2005. www.wsp.org 39 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide SPARC also highlighted this in its 2014 report, “The and suitable framework (for example, the 100 percent financial challenges that sanitation presents to the alliance contract variation in Mumbai SSP contracts). between the Municipality and NGOs continue, billing and 6. Training and deploying a team competent in managing payments from the city are always delayed and advanced and supervising the contractor. finance to the tune of 35 -45 percent of project costs is often 7. Developing trust and providing an environment for all needed if work momentum is to be continued.” parties to work together – removing perverse incentives. 8. Providing flexibility in design and costs to accommodate A severe constraint to providing slum sanitation services different types of implementations situations on ground. in many Indian cities is the lack of NGOs and private 9. Supervision of implementation and robust methods agencies with competence and skill in community of assessing quality at the time of commissioning and mobilization, contracting and facilitating or managing handover. good quality construction. This may pose absolute limits and necessitate initiatives for building capacities Critical Stages through training, exposure visits and partnerships with While conventional work programs assume that procurement agencies that have worked in other cities. ULBs also and contracting needs to be considered after the design need to recruit, depute from other departments/agencies, process is completed, the nature of the slum sanitation or contract personnel with contracting, community initiative needs to engage with this question in the preparatory mobilization and community-interfaced engineering and planning stage along with generating options for the competencies early, so that there is a pool of people physical design, options for partnerships and/or contracting trained in these matters. Contracting, procurement and need to be generated and carefully assessed. In most cases, proper implementation supervision can prove to be a the finalization of the technical designs is closely linked to major source of delays if not done properly. preferred options for implementation arrangements. In the planning and implementation stage, of course, the selection To summarize, the following aspects need to be considered of agencies for different roles and responsibilities becomes while drawing up the framework for partnerships and a critical activity. Supervision and management of agencies contracts for construction and implementation: remains critical through the implementation phase till commissioning and handover. Depending on the nature of 1. Mechanisms to clearly identify users and user groups that the contract, the implementing agencies may also have a role will be the key community body to take ownership of in the maintenance and monitoring phase. design, construction and later maintenance management, that is, CBOs, women’s SHGs, WatSan or WASH 7. Empower Communities to Take the committees, and so on. Responsibility of Managing Community Toilets 2. Exploring options of design and construction agencies including NGOs, private companies, existing resources Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and within the ULB, and community groups competent to and planning stage evaluation stage carry out construction, and so on. stage 3. Assessment of the capacity of NGOs, CBOs and private contractors. In the initiative that involved individual toilets, the 4. Carefully developing the Memorandum of Understanding households themselves were responsible for using and (MoU)/contracting/partnering framework such that maintaining these on their own. Most successful community roles and responsibilities and risks and rewards for each slum sanitation initiatives are based on the premise that party are balanced. communities are best placed to carry out O&M management 5. Reviewing government procurement guidelines and of CTBs. Therefore, in case of CTBs, it is critical that securing special provisions in these to enable a flexible community groups are organized, trained and provided the 40 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives necessary support and incentives so that they can manage the The initiative in Tiruchirappalli demonstrated, early on, the technical, institutional and financial tasks for maintenance. multiple facets of mobilizing and empowering community groups, especially women, for management (and monitoring) The initial activities, that is, mobilization of communities, of CTBs. The Tiruchirappalli initiative went beyond the their involvement in decision-making about toilet location conventional sanitation committee model and trained and technology, supervision of implementation, as described and mobilized women SHGs to manage the CTBs (this is in the foregoing drivers, would already have resulted in the described in the following sections). formation of some sort of a formal or informal community association. Depending on the local context, this association The case of Kalyani demonstrates the use of NLs and may be registered under a relevant act, for example, the Health Volunteers (HVs) in leading the community health Society Registration Act or Trust/Charities Act to give the initiative. Most households in the 44 slums in Kalyani built association a legal status. This is necessary for the association their own toilets and participated in upgrading community to operate bank accounts, receive and expend money, and infrastructure as well as carrying out maintenance of these account for it in a transparent way to its members. Forming assets. There were no formal associations or committees such an association also helps in ensuring accountability and created and the initiative worked through individual leaders preventing misuse/“capture” of the CTB. and existing formal and informal groups, for example, cultural groups, youth groups, and so on. This was effective Depending on the nature of the slum settlements, the size for an intense mobilization with close monitoring of and exact composition may vary. It needs to be ensured behavior change at the individual and community levels. that most of the user households are represented in the In Ahmedabad, too, communities were mobilized for association adequately. This may be done on an area basis, participating in infrastructure construction/upgradation and for example, different parts/streets/pockets of the settlement. management thereafter of the community assets. In addition, it needs to be ensured that women have a preeminent representation in the association – at least equal One of the important tasks in securing a clear operating to men, preferably in some decision making role such as mandate for the CBO is the delineation of the roles and president, secretary, treasurer. This is to ensure that women responsibilities between the ULB/implementing agency, as a user group are properly represented in decision-making facilitating agency/NGO, the private sector/contractor, and that would affect their use and maintenance of the CTB. In CBO at different stages of the project. In many successful the Bhopal initiative, a WatSan committee with six women initiatives, the institutional roles for maintenance are and six men members as formed. The committee entered formalized through a bipartite or tripartite MoU, for into a MoU with BMC and was involved in supervision example, between ULB and CBO and/or NGO. of construction as well as carrying out maintenance management of CTs. In Pune and Mumbai, the facilitating It is very important that members of the CBO are provided agencies/NGOs intended to promote and train community training and capacity building to carry out their roles groups for later management roles. The experience of and responsibilities in an effective manner. This training mobilizing community groups was mixed. In some cases, initiative is best extended to non-office bearer members of groups were not involved in the preparatory and planning the association as well so that there is some redundancy in stages leading to their becoming token institutions. In other the CBO capacities. Basic training needs to be accompanied cases, some of these were formalized as registered bodies by putting in systems or proper functioning of the CBO, and handed over the maintenance management tasks. This including a schedule of meetings, maintenance of records, underlines the need for strong community mobilization books of accounts and bank statements, receipt books, list of processes and institutionalization of roles and responsibilities members and other documentation necessary according to of community structures. the law that the CBO is registered under. Proper functioning, www.wsp.org 41 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide documentation, accounting and disclosure not only help also need to be active on ensuring that conflicts and disputes in maintenance management but also infuse identity and do not impact the functioning of the CBO association in pride in the committee to work effectively. It is important the early stages so that their credibility in the community is for the CBOs to be fully trained in and be comfortable in intact. interfacing with the utilities and other support agencies so that they can do rapid trouble-shooting of problems. To summarize, the following aspects are important to ensure a central place for the community group in maintenance As soon as a toilet or a seat therein becomes dysfunctional, management: WatSan committees need to take immediate action and fix the problem so that users do not lose faith in the facilities, 1. Developing a strategy for individuals and group in the its management and the whole system. This requires capacity community at the forefront of the initiative. building of the CBO teams which needs to be undertaken 2. Identifying the appropriate composition, roles and periodically by ULBs. responsibilities of the association. 3. Formalization and/or registration under the relevant acts. The criticality of mobilizing community groups for 4. Training and capacity building of the CBO members in maintenance management has been a common feature in all decision making processes, maintenance of records and successful initiatives. However, some differences in approach accounts, periodic elections, and so on. are noticed across these initiatives as highlighted above. 5. Ensuring smooth functioning of the CBO and rapidly One of the practices noted in some initiatives, for example, addressing any conflicts and disputes especially in the Mumbai SSP, was to treat owners of houses in slums as early stages. NGOs need to empower CBOs with the legitimate members of the committee and exclude tenants required skill-sets to ensure sustainability aspects. from having a stake in the association. Critical Stages In many committees, “democratic” practices such as regular The task of community mobilization starts at the meetings, maintenance and disclosure of books of accounts, preparatory and planning stages. An introduction of and so on, may have been instituted during the project which the expectations that CBOs will need to carry out may or may not have been continued. Apart from formal maintenance management needs to be done at this stage. registered status, these norms and rules that underpin the Formalization of the CBO’s roles and responsibilities, formation of the CBO are very important to think through its composition, legal status, and rules of functioning carefully. In many cases, lack of attention to these aspects need to be completed through the implementation stage. may result in weakening or breakdown of CBOs and collapse The CBO becomes critical in the maintenance and of the CTB management. The ULB and facilitating agencies monitoring stage. Box 15: Innovations in Training A number of innovative approaches are being tested in simplifying technical and management aspects of sanitation; and using these as training and capacity building aides. Some of these range from materials that demystify the technology, whereas other modules are related to operating and maintaining toilets as enterprises. ULBs and NGOs working on community slum sanitation may identify and use such innovative training resources and organizations.5 5 Cf. www.samagra.org, for instance. 42 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives 8. Management Models and Financial Viability - Monthly membership and usage pass fee – usually for as Key Elements for Successful Long-term unlimited use by members of the family; and Operation - A per use fee that could, in turn, be different for using the toilet, using the bathing facilities, washing clothes, and so Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and on. and planning stage evaluation stage stage As individual households use and look after their own toilets, the simplest management method for CTBs could be some While the formal organization and setting up of the CBO division of roles and responsibilities amongst users themselves is an important milestone as discussed earlier, the rules and to actually clean the toilets, manage the finances and undertake arrangements for managing CTBs sustainably need also other related tasks. Such a simple arrangement is, however, to be carefully designed. These arrangements and rules or rarely used in most CTBs of significant size. CBO members “management models” are also closely linked to the structure may themselves be busy with their own occupations, thereby, of costs and revenues of the CTB. This is critical in ensuring unable to devote too much time for actual management long-term sustainability of the CTB in terms of institutional tasks. In most cases, CBOs opt for employing sweepers and and financial arrangements. cleaners to do the cleaning tasks. In most cases, the CBO keeps the management task to itself. These include setting the As discussed in the location and technology choice driver, tariff, collecting revenues (monthly and or per use), paying the CTB’s running costs include: salaries, purchasing and refurbishing cleaning equipment and materials, paying for services, and so on. Depending on how i. Electricity; busy CBO members are and the financial viability of doing so, ii. Water supply; some CBOs also employ caretakers to man the toilet and keep iii. Sewerage and septage clearance; it running during working hours. iv. Cleaning tools and equipment; v. Cleaning materials; In the Mumbai SSP, the caretakers’ families were incentivized vi. Salaries of cleaners, caretakers, and so on; by providing them accommodation located on the top floor vii. Minor repairs; of the toilet block – housing being so scarce and expensive viii. Major repairs; and in the city. ix. Other contingency costs. In Tiruchirappalli, the management of the CTBs was handed The above costs are determined by the design, size, location over to women SHGs. Apart from managing the toilets, the and type of management model adopted. As mentioned SHGs were also permitted to sell soap and cleaning materials earlier, water and electricity costs can be prohibitive in cases to users thereby helping improve the financial viability of where the number of users is low and/or user charges are the management arrangement. A detailed account of the low. In such cases, the city corporation may choose to reduce Tiruchirappalli model is provided in the Box 16. the burden of operational costs on the CBO/maintenance groups by taking care of these costs. However, care needs In contrast to the Tiruchirappalli management model, to be exercised that such actions do not disincentivize Mumbai SSP (and Pune, to some extent), experimented with efficient management or rationalize user charges leading to a delegated management framework. This involved day-to- dilapidation of toilet blocks. day management to be entrusted to the caretaker who would be given a monthly salary by the CBO. The provision of In most successful community sanitation initiatives, these living quarters in the Mumbai SSP’s case would make the costs are sought to be recovered from users by either job of a caretaker an attractive one (given the high cost of charging: accommodation in Mumbai). Some CBOs in Mumbai www.wsp.org 43 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Box 16: The Tiruchirappalli Model Until the end of the 1990s, the slums of Tiruchirappalli, with their sanitation and toilet facilities in an appalling state, had a high incidence of diarrheal cases and water borne diseases, open defecation, improper disposal of garbage and disease transmission, and neglected and abandoned CTs. After 10 years, in 2010, the National Sanitation Rating 2009-10 ranked the city as high as the sixth cleanest in India in the sanitation ranking of Indian cities. It all started with a major initiative launched by the NGO Gramalaya in 2000, mobilizing women into SHGs and launching an awareness campaign on sanitation through training. Gramalaya’s comprehensive approach focused on construction and renovation of CTBs, introducing child-friendly toilets and providing safe drinking water, on one hand, and training and capacity building of CBOs, on the other. SHE teams were set up by the SHGs to propagate the message of sanitation, monitor the behavior of residents, and supervise the maintenance of the toilets. WAVE is a federation of all SHE teams in urban areas. The federation is headed by a president, assisted by a secretary and treasurer, and there are 12 executive committee members. WAVE meets twice a month and discusses matters relating to problems faced by SHE teams and solutions for them. WAVE guides SHE teams in the maintenance of community toilets and assists other SHGs to take over maintenance of CTs. The standardized procedure for keeping accounts and documentation, holding meetings, and so on, assists in ensuring smooth transition between SHE teams. WAVE also takes up issues connected with water and sanitation with the city administration and engages in sanitation promotional activities in other slums. Men also find a role through WatSan committees in monitoring the progress of the overall sanitation status of the slums in the city. The average monthly expenditure of a community complex is INR 4,800, ranging from INR 550 to INR 15,700 per month. The major regular expenditure is on staffing, electricity charges, cleaning materials and electric motor repairs. Other expenditure includes WAVE membership fees (INR 100 to 500 per month depending on income), street cleaning and garbage collection, informal payment to septic tank cleaners, cleaning drains and blocked underground drains. On an average, five staff per day work in the well-managed complexes. Two caretakers work each day on a shift basis and are paid between INR 20 and 50 per day, depending on the size and income of the toilet. There are two cleaners per complex who are paid around INR 1,100 each per month. The watchwoman is paid between INR 500 and 1,200 per month. These wages are minimal and there is no scope for saving costs through reducing wages. Staff Number Salary per month (INR) Caretaker 2 600-1,500 Cleaners 2 1,100 Watchwoman 1 500- 1,200 CT complexes require large amounts of water to maintain hygiene. Where bathing and clothes washing facilities are available, even more water is required. Since water is drawn from borewells using electric motors, the average monthly expenditure on electricity is as high as INR 1,200, and ranges up to INR 5,150. Initially, the communities managing the CTBs were not required to pay electricity charges and these costs were covered by TCC. A few years ago, TCC began passing on these charges to the communities. Appeals by ward councilors, SHE teams and WAVE to TCC on the grounds of insufficient income have resulted in exemptions in some CTBs. Currently, 65 percent of WAVE complexes pay for electricity. Earlier, commercial rates were being charged but, after much lobbying by ward councilors, SHE teams and WAVE to TCC, domestic rates are charged. 44 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives A token system at the pay-and-use toilets has been developed. The typical user charge varies from 50 paise to INR 1 per use, while children, the elderly and the physically challenged have free access. After payment, each user is provided a token. This ensures transparency as it shows how many people used the toilet each day and how much income has been collected. A monthly card system is also followed and the rates set at lower levels – between INR 15 and 30 per family per month. At these rates, communities report that they are able to use the toilets. The average monthly income of a household relying on a daily wage in the slum communities is between INR 1,500 and 3,000. Toilet charges of INR 30 to INR 60 per month are estimated to be between 1 and 4 percent of the monthly income. These details are entered into account books kept in the toilet complex. Accounts are presented by the SHE teams to WAVE and by WAVE to Gramalaya, and are vetted by an external auditor. Having detailed information on the financial status of each toilet enables WAVE to monitor performance and intervene with advice on tariffs structures and loans when necessary. After covering O&M expenses such as salaries and cleaning material like bleaching powder, soaps and phenol, and so on, the surplus is used for health and sanitation related promotional activities such as provision of street taps, domestic drains, garbage bins and street lights. Major repairs and any other management issues are also discussed at the WAVE meetings. TCC plans to hand over the management of the remaining CTs to communities not yet part of the WAVE federation. Sources: Sulabhenvis (n.d.); WaterAid and Gramalaya (2008); WaterAid India (2006); WSP, 2006. also experimented with giving the CTB out on “contract” other donors) with limited or no capital contribution from whereby, instead of a salary, they would be allowed to retain a the users. In any case, user contributions to capital cost are portion of the revenues by the CBO, and manage the revenue constrained by issues of tenure, that is, “ownership” of the collection, cleaning, and other activities from this fund. The CTB in legal terms would have to be retained with the state outcome of such “outsourced” management models has been authority only. Thus, in most cases, capital for the CTB is mixed, poses the risk of lack of accountability to the user almost fully financed by the project. In many cases, namely, community and the CTB becoming a “business” without Tiruchirappalli (for some CTBs), Bhopal and Pune, even accountability. the running cost of water supply and electricity is directly borne by the ULB. As the case of Pune shows, however, Management models: rationing or scheduling of electricity supply may result in water tanks drying up in the middle of the day (in Pune, 1. Sharing of responsibilities within CBO members; the power supply from the street lights was diverted at night 2. Management by CBO members including supervision of to pump water). Hence, utilities such as power water and cleaning staff, and so on; sewage cleaning services need to have dedicated provision 3. Appointment of a caretaker for day-to-day management for smooth functioning of CTBs. The “utilities’ subsidy” is along with overall supervision by the CBO; targeted to improve the financial sustainability of the CTB 4. Management handed over to SHGs; and as a viable enterprise. However, the revenues raised from 5. Others such as city level women’s group federation such the monthly pass, in combination with the per use charges, as WASH teams. would have to be adequate to meet at least the O&M costs in order for the CBO and CTB to be sustainable entities. Except in cases like Kalyani, where households were mobilized to put in their own financial resources for construction and In the case of Tiruchirappalli, a monthly rate of INR 300 is maintenance of community facilities, most other slum charged for regular member user households and INR 1, 2 sanitation initiatives have had considerable investment by and 5 charged for every use of the toilet, bathing and washing, the project (financed by the ULB, state government and/or respectively. The Tiruchirappalli experience suggested that www.wsp.org 45 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide charging a monthly rate was not as effective a model as pay Following a careful consideration of capital and O&M costs, per use, as only a few users renewed monthly memberships the Mumbai SSP CBOs initially set an average monthly pass whereas pay per use was deemed more convenient perhaps. rate of INR 30 per household for unlimited use by all its Similarly, member households in Bhopal are charged at the members. The pay per use rate ranged from INR 0.50 to 3 rate of INR 75 per month, up from INR 30 per month earlier. depending on the location of the CTB. An analysis carried In Pune CTBs, member households were charged between out of the different combinations of revenues from monthly INR 20 and 30 per household per month. This is reported pass holders and pay per users compared to the structure to be still too low to cover all the costs, but communities of costs revealed the most likely combination for achieving perceive anything higher than this unaffordable. financial sustainability. Box 17: Estimated Daily Operating Surplus in Mumbai SSP The first step in the sustainable management of CTBs in Mumbai will be an operating surplus which enables CBOs to run their blocks without making a loss. This analysis was simulated at the main daily loading of 1,300 users for a 20-seater toilet block at 2005 prices. The figure presents an operating surplus surface that is defined by two variables: the proportion of pay and use users (from 0 to 100 percent) and the cost of a monthly family pass (ranging from INR 20 to 120). The operating surplus for a typical toilet block ranges from a loss of INR 400 to a surplus of INR 1,000 per day depending on where the toilet block lies on this surface. The operating surplus line (dashed green) separates those conditions in which a loss is made (orange and yellow) from those in which a marginal surplus is made (white) and those in which a moderate and substantial surplus is made (various shades of green). Estimated Operating Surplus of a 20-seater SSP Toilet Block Estimated Operating Surplus of 20-seater SSP Toilet Blocks (@ 1,300 mean daily loading, 30-year toilet life, 2005 prices 1,000 800 Estimated Daily 600 Operating Surplus (INR) 400 200 800-1000 – 600-800 INR 80 pfpm (200) 400-600 (400) 200-400 Cost of Monthly Family INR 20 pfpm 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0-200 Pass (INR) -200-0 -400-200 Proportion of Pay & Use (%) 46 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives From this graph, it is clear that surplus is strongly influenced by the proportion of pay and use users. A minimum of 40 percent of pay and use users is required for an existing toilet block with a monthly family pass of INR 20 and close to 100 percent recovery to show an operating surplus. Similarly, it would require a raise in the monthly family pass fee to over INR 120 to enable a toilet block with no pay and use users to have an operating surplus. Currently, the toilet blocks are financed with 100 percent capital subsidy (and in some cases, O&M subsidy) and have the potential to earn borderline to super normal profits. But a significant proportion of toilets in the city will be located in peripheral areas where the proportion of pay and use users will be limited or close to nil. If these toilet blocks are to survive financially, some elements of capital as well operational subsidies may be necessary. Recently, new models of social entrepreneurship have sprung up whereby caretakers maintain the CTBs on individual basis. However, one constraint is that such individuals may be willing to take up maintenance of CTs only in viable and profitable areas. However, the SHGs or WatSan/SHE teams may have incentives to maintain toilets even in less profitable areas/no-loss-no-profit. The maintenance groups in the loss-making units is cross subsidized by the WAVE federation from the monthly contribution fees collected from SHGs across the city, in case of Tiruchirappalli. Source: TARU-WEDC, 2005; Gramalaya, 2014. As has been noted in some slum initiatives, there may be sustainability of the CTB. There are options too for the a temptation to price the monthly pass much lower than management model that may be suitable for the slums and the pay per use rate in effective terms. This could involve cities in question. retaining the benefit of low-cost usage amongst a very small group and forcing other users, even if they are tenants, to To summarize, the considerations in determining the pay per use, resulting in the latter having to pay more than management models and financial viability thereof include: three times that the other families pay. This kind of pricing may cause perverse behavior. Another concern noted in some 1. The type and design of the toilet and attendant CBOs is a very aggressive pricing of the monthly pass itself capital cost options must be evaluated for the O&M – sometimes in excess of INR 100 per family (for example, management and O&M cost implications that they have some CTBs in SSP Mumbai), approximating the pricing of in the planning stages. public toilets. This may defeat the very purpose of the CTB 2. The maturity and capacities of the CBO in undertaking in making available access to affordable and wholesome management tasks – the training and capacity building sanitation for slum dwelling households. Therefore, it is required for enabling them to do so. extremely important that issues of affordability are carefully 3. Affordability of different sub segments in the community, assessed along with the structure of costs locally. As some and the potential “markets” of floating pay and use of the CTBs in Pune experienced a mismatch between population. costs, affordability and expectations of service levels can 4. Estimation of regular O&M costs, and contingencies for pose considerable challenges for the CTBs being managed repairs, to arrive at monthly and per annum costs; the sustainably. possibility of ULBs taking care of part of the utility costs may be explored. The above account clearly shows that the nature of the CTB 5. Assessment of the match between revenues and costs and (as discussed in the location, technology choice and design detailed discussions with community members on the section above), management model adopted, pricing of pricing and necessary contributions. monthly pass and per use charges and amount of subsidy 6. Agreement with ULB/local ward offices about cleaning available from the ULB together determine the financial of septic tanks, major repairs and maintenance needs, www.wsp.org 47 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide and sharing/contribution to water, electricity, and so on, monitoring the behavior of community members. A weekly bills as necessary. meeting of these leaders and volunteers was convened at the 7. Projection and agreement of the CBO with the municipality to take stock of the results of mobilization, community on time bound increases in membership/ progress of uptake of ideas among people, and behavioral user fees. aspects of toilet use, hygiene, and so on. At another level, 8. Regular review and evaluation of the management model the elected members of the municipal body had color codes and changes as needed. to mark and display the status of slums in their wards; depending on the proportion of open defecation slums, the Critical Stages color code would change for their wards, and this was on Management models and financial viability considerations display. lie at the heart of any slum sanitation initiative and must, therefore, be at the center of discussions throughout the M&E of the performance of CTs takes on a more serious project cycle. While the preparatory and planning stages character since it needs to be organized, resources provided will afford the opportunity for the project/ULB to explore for, and incorporated ideally in the core service delivery the options and draw out their implications for the CBO function of the ULB or the responsible agency. The reasons and community members at large, the implementation stage for a formalized monitoring system of CTBs are manifold: will require some of these to start being tested. By the time of commissioning and handover, there should be absolute i. The physical systems of the CTBs may break down clarity on the model to be adopted while the later stages requiring minor and major repairs – these have to be must review these and make corrections as necessary. addressed immediately as communities cannot afford to go without using toilets or using toilets that may be 9. Performance Monitoring and Evaluation partially dysfunctional; ii. Disputes regarding management, or amongst users, can Preparatory Implementation Monitoring and jeopardize the use of the CTBs by users, and hence need and planning stage evaluation stage to be resolved immediately; stage iii. Stoppage of services/utilities, for example, water, power, septage clearance can severely affect the functioning of The long-term sustainability of benefits from improved the CTBs, and hence issues related to these will have to sanitation can only be ensured if households continue be addressed in consultation with the respective service to use their individual toilets or the CTBs are properly providers; and maintained and managed. In either case, there needs to iv. Changes in project rules and policies may be possible be a robust mechanism to track use behavior and monitor to incorporate based on actual experience of use and whether the upkeep arrangements are satisfactory. Even in management in various CTBs, especially when these case of individual household toilets, many first-time user are in large numbers in the city, and provide basis for households may have difficulties in changing all members’ improvements in the same and other CTBs. behaviors to using toilets (rather than defecating in the open); or some may abandon use after a break-down in the Therefore, the project cell, or ideally the ULB, needs to put toilet occurs. Hence, some light-handed community-based in place mechanisms by which regular and independent monitoring is required even for individual households; also monitoring of the different aspects of the CTBs’ and CBOs’ it can offer avenues to reach out with health and hygiene performance can take place, and corrective actions taken on promotion communication too. time. The Kalyani initiative was dependent on the key roles of In Mumbai, the MoU signed between the ULB and toilet NLs and HVs not only for initial mobilization but also for managers lists minor repairs as the responsibility of the 48 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives managers and major repairs as that of the ULB. After two implementing agencies have won commissions to carry a passage of time, this MoU triggered actions as some out monitoring of the other agency’s CTBs using a standard CBOs came forward with their problems with services, for monitoring protocol and present results on a monthly basis. example, high electricity bills, septage clearance problems, and so on. While the SSP Cell responded to these support In Bhopal, a more formal user satisfaction and impact requests, the BMC later institutionalized some of these study was reported to have been carried out in 2008. support functions to the respective Ward Offices. As Numerous studies and reviews conducted on Ahmedabad’s outlined elsewhere, timely repairs and maintenance are SNP and Pune and Mumbai initiatives also highlighted the crucial for the system not to fall into disrepair and, more achievements and limitations – leading to corrective actions, importantly, for users to not lose faith in the credibility of new program initiatives using modified approaches as well as the system. informing policies in turn. In order to monitor performance of SSP CTBs centrally It is important to design a monitoring and assessment through, its SSP Cell, BMC has put a monitoring system that is economical and easy for stakeholders to use. mechanism in place in recent years. Based on tendering, the While end of project assessments and evaluations may be Figure 1: A sample MoU Scope for Minor and Major Repair Described in MoU to be signed between MCBM and CBO CBO MCBM 1. Maintain the overhead RCC/HDPF water storage tank 1. Major structural repairs: Structural repairs include i) Collapse of external wall ii) Or collapse roof slab due to corrosion, etc. iii) Repair to sewer lines, maintenance of manholes, de-silting of sewers, etc., which are located outside the boundary of the settlement 2. Water charges and electricity charges will be borne by Fees for initial electricity and water connection will be borne the CBO by MCGM 3. The CBO will cooperate with MCBM for any major – structural repairs/maintenance of the drainage and utility services 4. The CBO shall use effective disinfectant and deodorants – for cleaning of PSC/urinals 5. The CBO shall replace of defective and damaged – wiring and electrical fittings, replacement of worn out pipes, drainage pipes or other fittings to maintain clean conditions 6. The CBO shall remove drain choke in the PSC and – sewage disposal system 7. CBO shall carry out repairs/replacement of doors, – windows/broken tiles, plaster RC jallies, wiremesh, ground channels soil, urinal fixtures, traps, flushing cisterns, collapsible door, etc. Source: MoU between CBO and MCGM. SSP, MCGM, 2014. www.wsp.org 49 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide possible to carry out only at some points in the project of the CTBs can be done by the CBO but, sometimes, cycle, the daily, weekly and monthly monitoring must be validation may be needed by random visits and exercises by simple, and devolved to community members, CBOs, and the project cell/ULB. Similarly, it is necessary that there is the ULB – and incorporated in their work schedules so periodic verification of accounts, and financial records of that these are most useful in operational management. Of CBOs. Hence, a mix of self-reporting, exception reporting course, the importance of independent validation of results (especially when repairs are needed), and validation will cannot be denied. Monitoring of the physical condition make the monitoring process robust and reliable. Box 18: Tiruchirappalli’s Approach to M&E The Tiruchirappalli initiative showed another approach to monitoring and assessments, whereby the federations of the SHGs carry out active monitoring of CTBs’ performance and related indicators. The community latrines in the slums were totally abandoned by the local residents since there was no proper maintenance system. The damaged septic tanks and toilet pans filled with feces made the CTs unusable. The slum dwellers were unaware of the dangers of open defecation and water borne diseases. With the involvement of CBOs, Gramalaya started its urban intervention in sanitation, focusing on the provision of a sanitation facility to the slum dwellers of Tiruchirappalli. SHE teams manage the CTBs on a daily basis and present account books kept in the toilet block to the WAVE federation. WAVE guides SHE teams in maintenance of CTs and assists other SHGs to take over toilet maintenance of CTs. Having detailed information on the financial status of each toilet enables WAVE to monitor performance and intervene with advice on tariffs structures and loans when necessary. Seeing the success of the CTBs under Gramalaya, the TCC has committed to outsource the management of all of its 390 CTs with a total of 4,643 seats to provide access to slum dwellers that do not have toilets in their homes. TCC is scaling up the work done by SHGs (that have formed WAVE federations) in 148 CTs and replicate CTs across the remaining 237 slums. TCC maintains 390 CTs. Tiruchirappalli will be the first city in the state to engage user members in O&M of CTs across the city. TCC not only provides funding support for CT renovation and supports the CBOs in repair and maintenance works of CTs, it jointly monitors the CTBs under Gramalaya. TCC, in its monthly review meetings, has brought on board WAVE members who provide their inputs and suggestions as part of the City Sanitation Taskforce. The TCC sanitation inspectors and junior engineers are also involved in monitoring of the CTBs. In certain cities such as Tiruchirappalli, it is a combination of the ULB and NGO that ascertains the maintenance of the CTBs. The municipal corporation is expected to carry out major repairs to CTBs once in three years. TCC not only provides funding support for CT renovation but also covers electricity costs in some toilets and provides piped water supply in some toilets. Gramalaya’s workers regularly visit the toilet blocks that are managed by the SHGs it supports. They have prepared a pro forma that lists aspects of cleanliness and condition of toilets to be checked. The information collected guides the SHGs in determining what action needs to be taken by toilet managers and the ULB. If any action is required at the ULB level, toilet managers may pursue the matter directly with the ULB. If toilet managers, especially of toilet blocks that have few users, are short of funds for undertaking repairs, they can borrow money from the SHGs. This ensures that repairs are not neglected for want of funds; at the same time, there is a cross subsidy for repairs from economically viable toilet blocks to those that are not. 50 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives The WAVE federation of SHGs provides support not only in training on sanitation issues, but also in M&E. The WAVE members are already members of the City Sanitation Taskforce constituted by TCC. TCC has also introduced City Hope Centers (Nagara Nambikai Maiyangal) since March 2014 to maintain the CTBs and parks, and assist authorities in collection of taxes. For every six wards, one City Hope Center will be formed. Gramalaya WAVE Federation 12 Executive members SHE teams 45 teams 3-10 members of SHG SHGs Trichy city - 300 15-20 members each Structure for Management of Sanitation in Slums of Trichy Source: Sulabhenvis, n.d. Sources: Sulabhenvis (n.d.); WaterAid and Gramalaya (2008); WaterAid India (2006); WSP, 2006. Poor monitoring of the performance of CTBs and/or CBOs 2. Incorporation of some key monitoring indicators in the can cost the initiative dearly since the causes of failure set a MoU between parties so that these indicators become downward spiral of poor performance, poor credibility and action items for specific partners. willingness to pay, leading to reduced viability, and so on. 3. Some monitoring indicators may need standards to be set In some cases, the responsible cells may not enjoy the ULB’s out to measure actual performance against. For instance, priority and, hence, performance feedback may not be taken what would be the indicator of “cleanliness” comprise? This seriously. could be “no spit”, “no slime”, “no yellow pans”, and so on. 4. Identification of penalties and rewards, however soft or In summary, the key consideration in instituting a M&E/ hard, for achieving certain performance standards. assessment framework involves: 5. Periodic studies and assessments on user behavior, satisfaction, management and financial indicators of 1. Identification of different critical aspects and levels of CBOs, condition assessment of physical features and monitoring during the preparatory and planning phases fixtures of CTBs, and so on. – this include project monitoring at one level (usually 6. Systematic and rapid sharing of the results of monitoring done by the project/ULB) but identification of indicators and assessments with all stakeholders including CBOs, of use, physical condition, CBO management, accounts communities, ULBs, NGOs, and others members of the and finance, health and hygiene behavior changes, public. For example, Yearly Public Toilet Surveys on the inclusion of stakeholders, and so on. condition of assets, usage and maintenance management, www.wsp.org 51 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide revenue situation, users’ satisfaction, and household 10. Integration of Slums with Sustainable surveys for behavioral changes, and so on, could be Services in City-wide Services undertaken. As the drivers above show, a number of approaches and entry points are possible for slum sanitation services delivery Critical Stages to be successful and sustainable. In practice, not all drivers The formulation of roles and responsibilities in the planning are possible to pay equal attention to. In fact, strategic and preparatory stages needs to identify the method and entries may be from unexpected opportunities that present agency/agencies responsible for M&E at different levels. themselves. Project level monitoring of activities will need to continue through the full cycle but, in different phases, different aspects However, the ultimate goal of services provision should be become critical to monitor. The implementation phase is one in to ensure that households and communities themselves are which the framework for monitoring of the CTBs’ and CBOs’ empowered to deal with the service providers directly as functioning, can be established and activated at handover and citizens and customers. Where private services are provided commencement of the maintenance management phase. The to customer households directly, many of the roles of services experiences and results of monitoring and periodic assessment provision change for state agencies and ULBs to those of need to feed back into corrective actions, changes in project enablers and regulators. With the Parivartan project as an rules, policies and programs. These could also help in taking entry point, the electricity supply to slum households in stock, periodically, at the city or state levels, and sharing Ahmedabad showed a successful and sustainable model of information with stakeholders. services delivery directly. Box 19: Torrent Power AEC leads in Slum Electrification Ahmedabad with a population of 5 million and an area of 190.84 square kilometer is India’s fifth most populous (2011 Census) and seventh largest city. This initiative started with the electrification of five slums in 2001 and scaled up to 710 slums in a span of seven years. The slum electrification project was a result of a multi-stakeholder collaboration between AMC, which is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city of Ahmedabad, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd. (AEC). A very small proportion of households in the informal settlements in Ahmedabad had legal electricity connections in 2001. This meant high losses for the Torrent Power AEC, a private utility distributing power in Ahmedabad. Since 2002, AEC adopted new and innovative methods for maintaining and improving the quality of power supplied to its customers. A viable option of connecting informal settlements to the electricity network was worked out for the AEC after discussions with a local NGO, SAATH, and project partner, the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). A pilot was initiated in 2002 by AEC with financial support from USAID. It provided in-house electrical power in the first phase to each slum household, with its own household meter and compact fluorescent light bulb. Only slums already identified for development under the Parivartan program were eligible to participate in the pilot. Another condition for eligibility was obtaining a NOC from the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, which effectively secures protection from eviction to the slum dwellers. Seven slums were included in the pilot project. Working with SAATH, the AEC team disseminated information on its program through announcements by megaphone, cloth banners and handbills distributed door to door. In each slum, they arranged group meetings with participants and constituted local CBOs to implement the program. The costs of connecting the customer and installing internal wiring were split between the household, USAID and AEC; the household paid INR 3,350 and USAID and AEC each contributed INR 2,200. 52 Drivers of Successful Slum Sanitation Initiatives The role of the NGO was to create awareness and motivate slum dwellers to access legal electrification. Since AEC requires slum dwellers to provide proper documentation regarding land ownership, income levels, proof of payment, taxes, and so on – something that most slum residents do not have – SEWA worked with slum dwellers to help meet the AMC’s documentation requirements. Torrent Power AEC used a combination of NGOs and CBOs to perform certain intermediary functions such as customer recruitment, meter reading and bill distribution. Both the NGO and AEC worked with the CBO to identify a member (usually a woman) whom they then trained to read the individual household meters. SAATH facilitated the process of availability of loans to the slum dwellers through SEWA Bank for payment of one‐ time connection costs. An account holder with the bank was required to save money for a minimum period of six months to be eligible to receive loans from SEWA Bank. The loans were offered at an interest rate of 18 percent. The CBOs helped AEC identify and target needy families and AEC provided connections to them at a subsidized rate cost of INR 1,700. In the post‐pilot phase, AEC offered a connection charge of INR 5,200 for new connections in slums. Later, when more people came forward to acquire connections, the amount was reduced to INR 3,700. Eventually, it was reduced further to INR 2,500. The pilot project was a great success and as many as 820 households in eight slums were electrified. Enthused by the success of the pilot, AEC scaled-up the initiative to more than 200,000 slum households. Given the scale of the challenge, a slum electrification program that would extend safe, reliable, and legal electricity connections to the informal settlements in the city in a collaborative approach was taken up. The initiative was integrated into a larger development program for slums and informal settlements, called Parivartan (Change) or SNP. The SNP began in December 1995 as a partnership between the government, Arvind Mills, NGOs and the slum community to provide infrastructure services including paved roads, water supply and underground sewerage to individual households, storm water drainage, street lighting, solid waste management and some landscaping. AMC has helped convert a large number of unsafe and illegal connections into safe ones and reduce the losses incurred by the utility. The incidences of electricity theft decreased, while regular electricity use increased with a reported increase of 200 percent in average electricity consumption per day. The practice of installing meters outside the houses was extended to the entire city, following its immense success in the slum areas. As a result of the innovative methods and mechanisms, Torrent Power AEC’s transmission and distribution losses are amongst the lowest in the country (13-14 percent) and customers enjoy a high level of reliability of power supply. This integrated utility has a generating capacity of 500 megawatt and it supplies close to 4 billion units of power to 1.25 million customers in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (http://www.torrentlimited.com/aec.htm). Sources: WSP. 2007. Engaging with Citizens to Improve Services. May 2007. USAID. 2004. Innovative Approaches to Slum Electrification. December 2004. www.wsp.org 53 4. Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives The foregoing sections have outlined the drivers of successful Even in cities where a CSP has not been prepared, the slum sanitation initiatives. This section traces the full cycle task of addressing a sanitation crisis in slum areas of slum sanitation initiatives from the preparatory stage right and informal settlements may be taken up on a priority up to the M&E phase. basis. Under the NUSP 2008, a series of iterative steps were listed The phases and activities for a slum sanitation initiative are out as an aide to preparing the CSP. One of the detailed tasks presented below: in overall city sanitation planning is to dwell upon sanitation in slums and informal settlements of the city. Figure 2: Slum Sanitation – Generic Steps Technical Assistance support: – Hire in/depute community development personnel – Collaborate with NGOs, Develop and evaluate CBOs, SHGs, etc. Enabling options environment • Legal provisions & options City-wide M&E of slum sanitation What services can be Commissioning & • Decision on in-house or • Political and provided? handover outsourced executive • Individual/Community Toilets • Testing and pilot • Periodicity leadership • Size, collection system, • MoU • Costs/budget amenities • Consensus on location, • Institutional Baseline & • Household, city/state, Govt/ULB to take size, tech specs • Role of CT committee in M&E capacity mapping of private funding decision & indicate • Sources of finance • Repairs financing • Capital & O&M financing • Cleaning & disposal slums • Conflict resolution in arrangements • Mgt rules & responsibilities • State Laws & • Technical options • User group registration maintenance phase Policy • Financial options • Municipal & Slum Memorandum of Act & Regulations Understanding • Budgets for Review experiences of infrastructure & other states and cities services Review of policies, schemes & guidelines Community Group Training Procurement and contracting • Participation & • Guidelines representation of women • Contract package • Health & hygiene • Tendering Community • Mgt systems and procedures • Contracting Engagement • Supervision/monitoring • Contract Variations if any • Location • User contribution/tariff • Space • O&M arrangements • Size & tech specs a. Management Implementation & supervision * Individual/community b. Financial • Stakeholder roles • Cost • Interface with ULB/ • Community supervision government agencies • ULB/agency supervision • Quality assurance • Completion milestones • Troubleshooting Preparatory & Implementation Monitoring & Planning Stage Stage Evaluation Stage 54 Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives A) Preparatory and Planning Stage settlements. Some states have formulated such policies while The preparatory and planning stage comprises the following others may have precedence in terms of limited government blocks of activities: or department orders. In the preparatory stages, it will be appropriate to formalize some sort of policy statement or a i) Gearing up the Enabling Environment comprehensive order on how such services will be provided (1) Political and executive leadership and institutions: to slum settlements if legally permissible. Budgetary provision In the preparatory stage, it needs to be ensured that the also has to be made for at least supporting the initial activities idea of sanitation service provision to the slums enjoys (for example, baseline studies, awareness generation, planning, full support and priority of, ideally, both the political as preparation of detailed project reports, and so on). It needs to be well as executive leadership of the ULB/city agencies. The identified which central and state/ULB schemes may be available institutional capacity of the proposed nodal agency to for financing capital and other activities for the initiative. conceptualize and manage such an initiative needs also to be assessed and areas that need strengthening identified. ii) Baseline and Mapping of Slums In many of the larger cities, slum sanitation initiatives Depending on the availability of secondary/old records about may have already been undertaken that are, at this stage, the city’s slums and informal settlements, a study need to be appropriate to review and develop revised strategies. In conducted to update the data or, in some cases, carry out surveys cities where such initiatives have not been undertaken in of new settlements. Most ULBs have very limited data on the an organized manner, it will be prudent to review the actual situation of individual, shared or community toilets in experience of other similar cities. In addition, the city slums of the city. This poses the risk of preparing completely may have to put together secondary data pertaining to erroneous plans (including CSPs) that do not reflect the actual slums and informal settlements in the city. situation on ground, leading to implementation that does not adequately address the problems – and errs on the side on (2) State law and policy: Most states have their own constructing more physical assets that users are not interested municipal acts that provide the legal framework for in using and maintaining. This is a considerable waste of services provision. In case of some states, sanitation resources and opportunity and, hence, needs to be accorded services provision may be vested with a para-statal agency importance by the ULBs in the preparatory stages. or a water and sewerage board for the state or the city. These agencies would have to be key participants in sanitation One of the ways of strengthening the data collection exercises services provision along with the ULB as relevant locally. has been the use of mapping by which data are collected Apart from the municipal acts and regulations, states and utilized to rapidly put together to build a geographically also have slum acts and rules to govern, “regularize”, and explicit database of slum settlements and their basic features. “develop” slums and other informal settlements. Both This lends itself easily to validation by ULBs, NGOs, and these sets of acts and rules need to be carefully examined at the communities themselves. Sometimes, the task of putting the preparatory stage, to understand the possible options together a comprehensive database and mapping of slums may for service delivery permitted under the law. If there are seem to be a vast and complex task given the limited resources absolute constraints to service provision in slums under and capacities that ULBs typically have. The strategies adopted these laws, then legal changes may become necessary to to resolve this include: a) in-sourcing NGOs, research agencies, initiate immediately. If executive orders will suffice to and so on, to assist in carrying out mapping and service; b) provide flexibility to the legal provisions, then this should breaking down the slums into clusters by region/wards or other be implemented on priority since legal changes may take indicators of services deficit critical location; and c) involving more time and political will. a wide range of stakeholders such as NGOs, slum community groups themselves, and so on. Breaking down the study into A related preparatory aspect is the policies that govern the state’s two to three levels of detail, and/or an area-wise phasing can be vision and investments in urban development, in general, and helpful in efficient management while ensuring the integrity water and sanitation services provision, in particular, for slum and accuracy of the data collected and validated. www.wsp.org 55 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide It may be noted that the baseline studies and mapping • Is there a possibility of households being mobilized to activities should be able to provide the scope of the proposed fully take ownership of financing of capital costs or at initiative to providing services. Therefore, it is important least individual toilets? that broad figures of population and households, number of • If full contribution is not possible, what is a realistic slum settlements by their differential legal status, proximate expectation from households in contributing finances, water and sanitation network availability, and so on, are labor, and time for participating in mobilization and consolidated along with the key locational features. These management activities? should be detailed enough to provide the basis for making • What options exist for financing individual toilets preliminary budgetary estimates using thumb-rule rates. or CTBs from the ULB’s own budget, state or union government schemes? iii) Develop and Evaluate Options • Is there a possibility of financing from private (1) Legal provisions and options: Based on the assessment organizations, foundations and donors through carried out in the steps above, it should be possible to advertisements posted on outer walls or shops/day care develop the legal and policy options. The options will centers within the toilet complex? involve the following questions: • What components, for example, capital for individual and community assets, awareness generation/IEC, • What are the options for service provision in slums project management, M&E, training and capacity located on private land, government land, ULB land, building, and so on, can be financed utilizing different and so on? sources of funds? • What are the options for providing individual, shared, • What are the rough estimates of O&M costs associated community toilets? with the different technical options above? • In settlements where sanitation services cannot be provided, what practical options are available, for The above block of activities is a very important cluster example, toilets in their neighborhood? since this will clarify to the city agencies the bounds of feasibility of service provision are in terms of legality, 2) Technical options: Depending on the availability of technical options, and financial feasibility for the ULB. space, nature of location/gradient, sub surface conditions, This is also the juncture at which it is recommended that availability of a sewerage network close by, technical the city undertakes a thorough assessment of experiences in options will need to be developed: other states and cities with service provision. In states where • What type of individual toilets will be feasible in slum sanitation programs has been implemented, cities will terms of size, septic tank/connection to sewerage, be best positioned to learn from the other cities as state superstructure, and so on? laws and regulations are likely to be similar. This also is a • What kind of CTBs will be feasible in terms of number critical milestone after which the initiative can be taken to of seats for women, men, children, differently abled; slum communities for discussions and consultations with size and type of structure; number of stores; water, them. electricity and sewerage disposal services; interiors, fixtures and other features; and so on? iv) Community Engagement One of the most effective mechanisms to initiate a s 3) Financing options: The sources of financing for the lum sanitation project is a systematic set of consultations sanitation initiatives need to be identified: with community groups. Some of the basic features of the slums would have become available already during the • What kind of resources can the households themselves baseline studies and mapping of slums as described in (ii) mobilize for addressing the sanitation deficits? above. 56 Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives On the basis of the baseline information, slums may be are possible to construct and maintain. Households may, classified into different categories that could include: however, need to be supported with: a) Slums with different legal status, for example, notified, • Technical design; non-notified or not recognized slums. Some state slum • Connection of household sanitation arrangement to acts may permit certain types of services to be provided sewer or communal septic tank; and/or certain upgradations to be carried out by • Arrangements for upkeep, maintenance, repairs of households themselves; breakages, and so on; and b) By availability of space and density: slums in different • Periodic cleaning of septic tanks, and so on. locations in the city will have different characteristics in terms of density, space available for passage, shape Where individual toilets are not possible to construct, shared and alignment, and other such physical and locational and community toilet options need to be discussed with the characteristics. Categorizing slums according to the communities. This would involve identifying options for above features helps understand technical options as location, technical design, size and cost estimates and, most well as parameters with respect to access/linkages with importantly, the institutional arrangements to implement the citywide infrastructure, that is, water supply, sewerage, construction and operate and maintain the toilet thereafter. ability to use cess-pool trucks for cleaning septic tanks, The basis for initiating discussions with the community feasibility of efficient drainage, and so on; and for these options must be grounded in some legal frame or c) Socioeconomic characteristics of the slum communities: executive/departmental resolution/order. In the absence of the community’s composition, occupation/livelihoods, this, the process of interaction and consultation with the demographic, educational and related characteristics are community can be affected by contestations by various also important parameters to categorize slums. These parties. The legal or executive basis needs to be found in the features may also help determine leadership within state’s or city’s laws and policies as outlined in (i.2) above. the communities through whom the ULB can initiate consultations. Many slum communities may also The practical considerations of size, location and technical have women’s SHGs, youth clubs and other informal specifications for community toilets then need to be groupings that provide a set of preexisting institutions to explored with the community groups along with their cost initiate discussions with. and management implications. At this juncture, it is also important to agree on or stipulate the criteria by which The legal provisions are likely to preclude some of the above different households may be included for service delivery. type of slums (see (a)) whereas a reduced set of technical Apart from locational barriers such as a road or a drain that options may be dictated by the physical characteristics (see may signal a boundary of some sort, there may need to be (b)). The ULB needs to select those slums first that provide other criteria agreed for delineating the physical bounds of the easiest opportunities for service provision. the community. Different cities adopt different approaches to this – one obvious way is to provide for as many toilet In the selected communities, a systematic set of consultations blocks as may be necessary to serve the needs of a community will need to be organized to discuss the technical, financial and with a certain number of houses. For example, if a five women other practical dimensions of sanitation services provision. plus five men toilet block is feasible in a particular location, this will be perhaps sufficient to cater to the needs of about As some cities have shown, communities may be enthused 300 people or about 60 to 75 households, assuming that each by triggering and capacity building support to address their toilet seat is used by 25 to 30 users per day. In such a situation, sanitation deficits using their own financial resources and/ a community with about 200 households will need three sets or with minimal state support. This is an especially superior of such toilets unless there is space for a larger toilet complex approach when individual household sanitation facilities with more seats. www.wsp.org 57 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide The different facets involved in generating options for the Figure 3: Details of the Preparatory and Planning above show that the community engagement process needs Stage to be iterative and interspersed with physical verification and field visits to ascertain some of the physical and locational parameters. Development and evaluate So that there is no confusion and misunderstanding with Enabling options environment • Legal provisions & options the community groups about expectations from a sanitation What services can be initiative, it is very important that only those options are • Political and provided? executive • Individual/community toilets presented and discussed that the ULB knows are legally tenable, leadership • Size, collection system, amenities • Institutional Baseline & practically feasible and may have the budgetary support of the capacity mapping of • Household, city/state, private funding slums city or state through some scheme or funding mechanism. • State Laws & • Technical options Policy • Financial options • Municipal & Slum Act & Regulations B) Implementation Stage • Budgets for Review experiences of infrastructure & other states and cities The implementation stage has the following block of activities: services i) Government/ULB decision and budgeting: On the basis of the initial discussions, the ULB needs to make a formal decision on the approach that will be adopted for the slum sanitation initiative. This will include listing Community Engagement out eligibility criteria for slums (and households6 within • Location • Space them). The ULB needs to formally decide on the kind • Size & tech specs * Individual/community • Cost of technical options that will be supported, based on baseline investigations as well as consultations with the communities. As needed, the ULB may either issue on its own or have the state government issue executive orders to formalize the above as required. Finally, the ULB will need to indicate the financing arrangement for Preparatory & Planning Stage the sanitation initiative that could range from provision of training and facilitation to that of capital investment and, finally, support to operating and maintaining sanitation facilities. Again, as outlined above, where individual toilets are feasible, the government/ ULB may The above will become the guideline for the frontline personnel just need to trigger behavior change and make available of the ULB to progress with consultations and other steps to training and capacity building. In cases where CTBs may implement the community sanitation initiative. be recommended, the ULB may need to come up with a more significant role in capital financing and O&M ii) Technical assistance support: Many of the ULBs may not management support both in terms of finances and have inhouse competence in mobilization of communities, personnel. interaction and consultations with households/groups or, 6 Many government schemes specify BPL households to have a different level of entitlements as compared to above the poverty line households. In some places, the type of house structure (kuccha, pucca) or the area of the dwelling may be used as proxy. However, in slum projects, it is advisable to make the criteria simple to administer and, in case of CTBs, simply make all households eligible to use the facility. 58 Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives sometimes, even design of innovative options suitable for In the implementation stage, two activity clusters are of slums. The options for establishing these competencies paramount importance. One is the procurement and include hiring experienced personnel from the open contracting procedure to be followed and, the second is the market and formally placing them in a sanitation or slum training and capacity building of the committee to take on the sanitation cell within the ULB. In some cases, officers mantle of being the managers. may be deputed from other state or ULB departments and agencies to be the specialist team. Where available, Community group training: Especially in cities iv) NGOs may be commissioned to provide personnel for where there may be little experience with urban poor or assist in fulfilling the role of this technical assistance communities, it may be necessary to provide for agency. Since the recruitment and training of such training of community groups to become competent personnel may be time intensive, it is advisable that the management committees, as also strengthen groups recruitment process for this is initiated in the planning that may be involved directly or indirectly in slum and preparatory stage. However, the actual fielding of sanitation. As outlined above, slum communities are the team to engage with community groups, on one likely to have preexisting SHGs, youth clubs, cultural hand, and to provide feedback and advisory to the ULB/ and other groups. These provide not only an entry point state agency, on the other, will need to be one of the key for discussions but also the potential participants for processes in the implementation stage. training programs on the importance of sanitation and linkages to health and hygiene. The legal requirements iii) Community engagement: At this stage, the ULB and practices for efficient functioning of WatSan commissioned team is in a position to systematically committees and, of course, the practical steps in engage with community groups and formalize the roles proper maintenance management of CTs. Therefore, and responsibilities for the implementation and later the training of community groups targets the WatSan stages. Community engagement is an iterative process committee members directly as well as these other and can be conceptualized as the following set of tasks: groups in order to prepare the community for an active and effective role during and after implementation. In • Agreement on location, space and technical many cases, the need for such training is not explicitly specifications (including infrastructure, linkages); recognized and, therefore, the full potential of the • Capital/sources of financing, household/community community sanitation initiatives is not realized. contribution as “membership, labor contribution, and so on;” Community group training can be conducted either by ULB • Formation of management committees along with personnel or specialized trainers from other government their roles and responsibilities; agencies, NGOs, educational institutions and the private • Registration and legal status of the management sector. The training programs should be conducted to include committees; key community level stakeholders, including women, poor • Agreement on roles and responsibilities of the committee household and youth; the program needs to accommodate in implementation, management and upkeep; and their livelihood necessities in terms of timings of training, • Role of the ULB/state agency in implementation/ duration, and so on. While the training curriculum support in repairs and maintenance. needs to include information about rules and procedures, supervision and monitoring of maintenance management In most cases, the community engagement process may and rules for the functioning of the WatSan committee, it need to be formalized as a MoU between the ULB and the is important to include the question of user contributions community/committee. A tripartite MoU may be needed if to capital/membership, tariffs for use of the facilities, O&M there is an external support agency, for example, an NGO, management and financial arrangements, support roles of is involved. the ULB and other agencies, and so on. www.wsp.org 59 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide v) Procurement and contracting: Whether individual toilets project reports based on which contracts can be awarded or CTBs are constructed, there will be a need for the ULB after negotiations. A third method is to require bidders to commission contractors to implement the construction. to state a basic unit price, for example, based on per seat Usually, state agencies or ULBs may have their own or some such calculation; list of approved/accredited contractors. If the nature of construction is likely to be complicated (not straightforward • Contracting: The process of contracting can be time toilets or septic tanks but, say, CTBs), ULBs may need consuming and contentious if the criteria and rules are to enlist contractors afresh for the purpose. Some cities/ not laid own clearly in the guidelines. Following the ULBs have also tried out community contracting where above options, therefore, the ULB will need to ensure community groups themselves may bid for contracts. that the contracting process is timely, valid in law, Usually, procurement decisions are rife with difficulties following a due process, and the clauses enforceable in including those pertaining to lowest rate contracts or practice. Some states have procurement regulations that L1, the most common method of contracting in the specify the steps in contracting. In the absence of such government. In some cases, further, the exact specifications procedures and/or formats, it is important for the ULB of the toilet block and associated infrastructure may be to secure the contracts with the appropriate distribution difficult to specify especially when site conditions are very of risks and liabilities. The contract document should different from each other. In such cases, there needs to be finally be not only comprehensive but also simple and the right balance of flexibility in the contract specifications easy to understand by both the contractor and the to change to suit specific local contexts. ULBs. The draft pro forma contract should also be made available to the WatSan committees for them to • Guidelines for contracting need to be finalized by the understand the responsibilities and deliverables of the ULB specifying the approach to contracting including contractor and the ULB; and eligibility, type of works to be undertaken, and arrangements for centralized/decentralized procurement • Contract variations if any: In many cases, there may be of materials as may be necessary. The guidelines will also a need to introduce variations to the agreed contracts to indicate cost ceilings for different types of works and accommodate emerging realities and/or complexities of refer to the appropriate schedule offerings. If there are the local context. Therefore, the contracting guidelines difficulties in following the conventional schedule of and the contract itself must lay out a simple and rates and contracting methods, a new set of guidelines transparent process by which such variations will be may be required for slum sanitation projects; carried out. • Contract package: Depending on situation on the vi) Implementation and Supervision ground, contract packages may be formulated to The actual implementation of the community sanitation distribute the risks of contractor performance and to initiative begins right from the stage that consultations maximize competition. Sometimes, contract packages with communities are initiated and runs through may be awarded on regional basis to maximize efficiencies the activity clusters of participatory development of and for ease of monitoring; options, training and strengthening of the committees functioning. The final stages of implementation pertain • Tendering: Normal processes of the ULB/agency may to the actual construction and commissioning of the be reviewed and tenders let out to attract the best-in- sanitation facilities. For construction at the household class vendors and contractors. Apart from conventional level, some basic coordination and supervision may be tendering, the ULB/agency may consider shortlisting needed, whereas for community infrastructure and/or contractors or joint ventures between contractors and CTBs, a formalized mechanism for implementation and NGOs in order for them to develop proposals or detailed its supervision is required. 60 Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives • Stakeholder roles: While the contract would specify the • Quality assurance: As indicated above, support from roles and responsibilities of the contractor, the ULB and specialist agencies may be sought on or near completion its relevant divisions/units need to further clarify roles of works to carry out quality audits. A protocol needs to and responsibilities within their organizational set up. be developed that will specify parameters for these audits The role of the community needs also to be formalized and also provide resources to do sample tests of different in terms of monitoring of the construction activity and aspects of construction and material used. Some simple for troubleshooting, and so on, as needed. Sometimes, indicators of supervision and monitoring, for example, community members may not like contractors from that are easily observable, also need to be developed “outside” to come and work in their communities and and made available to the WatSan committee and hence such issues will need to be resolved by the ULB. frontline personnel responsible for routine monitoring of implementation. This will prevent a late and potentially • Community supervision: There are a number of irreversible discovery of deficiencies and defects. Rather, mechanisms by which the committees, especially the the system should be able to detect such deficiencies early WatSan committee, may be involved in supervision. on and implement corrective measures. A formal system These could range from informal feedback on the pace of quality assurance, therefore, would comprise such and quality of contractors’ work to somewhat formalized smaller incremental checks adding to one or two formal roles in which the committee signs off on a number audits in the construction cycle. of observation parameters. This could mean okaying contractors’ claims on progress of construction, for • Completion milestones: The contract guidelines as example, plinth, lintel, roof, septic tank, finishing, and well as the contract itself may list out the milestones for so on. It is advisable to have a mix of informal and formal construction progress. These need to be converted to mechanisms but be selective about these so that there are specific events or reporting points for all stakeholders no risks of delay because of “approvals not being timely.” to take stock. These could also be linked to triggering Retaining only informal roles for the Watsan committee off contract installment payments, and so on. It is very is also not advisable as these would cause difficulties of important that the implementation and supervision validation and compliance by contractors. Community cycles are closed before each such milestone. In case the monitoring could also be carried out through women’s contract is based on parameters other than completion groups’ federation/s. of milestones, the ULB, WatSan committee and the contractor must agree to a framework of such • ULB/agency supervision: The contracting guidelines completion milestones. would need to specify the method by which the ULB and its departments would be involved in supervision. • Troubleshooting: Being located in unplanned Straight supervision by the ULB slum/sanitation areas and having complications about unclear titles, division is an obvious method. The ULB may, in case of imprecise boundaries and locations suffering from a large volume of such contractual works, commission flooding, and do on, slums do not offer the comfort a third party engineering consultancy or educational of “planned” construction schedules. Rather, in many institution to carry out supervision or monitoring on its locations, some of the above may cause stoppage of behalf. Another option is to request another competent work and/or necessitate rethinking some of the design government department to provide personnel to do this. elements. The narrow passage ways and dense crowded The purpose of the supervision is to ensure timely, good location of slum houses/huts also may necessitate quality construction and, therefore, a judgment needs convincing households to “adjust” their structures or to be made about how frequent and formal the ULB’s at least the conduct of their chores and activities. The supervision process needs to be. actual implementation process is likely to demand www.wsp.org 61 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide quick resolution of disagreements, conflicts or even Figure 4: Details of the Implementation Stage confusion amongst community members about the above issues. Technical C) Monitoring and Evaluation Stage assistance support: – Hire in / depute community The M&E stage comprises the following blocks of activities: development personnel – Collaborate with NGOs, CBOs, SHGs, etc. i) Commissioning and Handover 1) Testing and pilot: The culmination of activities Community engagement in the implementation phase is the testing and commissioning of the infrastructure created along with • Consensus on location, Govt/ULB to take size, tech specs all its services and systems. The toilets in individual decision & indicate • Sources of finance financing • Capital & O&M financing households are tested simply by using them whereas arrangements • Mgt rules & responsibilities • User group registration a CTB or other community level infrastructure may Memorandum of require a more elaborate protocol for testing before it Understanding is commissioned for regular use. A protocol for testing each of the significant components of the toilet block and associated infrastructure needs to be developed and implemented. This protocol should include visual indicators, for example, no cracks, proper painting Community Group Training • Participation & Procurement and contracting • Guidelines and joinery, and so on, as well as testing operational representation of women • Health & Hygiene • Contract package • Tendering components such as valves, taps, flush systems, lighting • Mgt systems and procedures • Supervision/monitoring • Contracting • Contract Variations if any and, so on. These tests should confirm that the assets • User contribution/tariff • O&M arrangements are in excellent condition and shall be able to provide a. Management b. Financial Implementation & supervision • Stakeholder roles the services designed. Usually, a commissioning or a • Interface with ULB/ government agencies • Community supervision • ULB/agency supervision completion sheet is issued at the end of the process • Quality assurance • Completion milestones to the contractor. The role of the WatSan committee • Troubleshooting in this is invaluable and the ULB must ensure its participation in the testing process. Implementation MoU: The commissioning process usually involves 2) Stage handover of the facility to the WatSan committee. The relationship between the WatSan committee and the ULB needs now to be formalized for O&M. The community engagement cluster of activities in the implementation phase may have already formalized major – that the WatSan committee and the ULB the roles of stakeholders into an MoU, in which case are expected to fulfill. For instance, the WatSan it needs to be revisited to ensure their suitability for committee may need to pay for getting the septic tank detail in the M&E stage. cleaned periodically, whereas the ULB may undertake to make good any major damage to the toilet structure 3) The MoU must spell out the roles and responsibilities as a result of, for, say, a natural disaster. It is advisable of the WatSan committee in proper upkeep and to devolve decisions regarding tariff and user charges maintenance of the toilet block. It usually contains to the WatSan committee in order that it is able to some division of obligations for repairs – minor and collect and expend resources for proper upkeep and 62 Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives maintenance of the toilet. In a few instances, the cost of divisions or ward offices and their personnel. A third maintaining toilets may turn out to be prohibitive and option that has been tried out includes commissioning unaffordable by local users. In such cases, the ULB/ of NGOs or specialized monitoring agencies to state may have to provide some financial support to concurrently study and make results available on take care of such operational deficits. In general, such the performance of the different CTBs. Many cities subventions are not recommended. Payment for water may face considerable difficulty in doing this because and electricity services can pose difficulties for some there may be very little internal capacity and low or CTs in becoming financially sustainable. This may no presence of NGOs and academic institutions, and need the government to create new tariff categories so on. In such cases, the options include bringing in and rates so that sanitation service provision in slum external third party agencies to help set up the systems. areas becomes easy and affordable. Water and sewerage In the medium run, however, these kinds of cities need bills may be relatively easier to address in this context to allocate resources to build their inhouse capacities compared to the electricity services bills because and/or support NGOs and educational institutions to those may be regulated and have a different sort of develop such capacities. The methods of M&E typically institutional arrangement. take the form of formal measurement of indicators and the data are collected through a combination of The testing, commissioning and handover of assets and quantitative and qualitative parameters. Some of these operationalizing the MoU signify the commencement of the indicators may be based on performance parameters M&E stage. of the WatSan committees operating the CTBs. In addition, customer satisfaction, surveys and qualitative ii) City-wide M&E of slum sanitation: Whereas the task discussion may also be used to elicit feedback from of proper maintenance and upkeep of a CTB needs to time to time; follow a protocol as described above, the slum/sanitation cell of the ULB has the additional task of monitoring 2) Periodicity: Depending on the number of slums the performance of slum sanitation installations across all and resources available for performance monitoring, slums in the city. If the number of slum communities is the ULB needs to decide on the periodicity for the large, this task can become onerous and resource intensive M&E cycle. At least an annual cycle of performance too. The following aspects need to be considered to monitoring needs to be done for the management/ accomplish this in an effective manner. institutional parameters (WatSan committee, financials, meetings, and so on) as well as physical aspects such 1) Decision on inhouse or outsourced monitoring as the condition of toilets and fixtures, utilities, that system: If the slum/sanitation wing has trained is, water, power and clearance of septic tank, and so environmental/civil engineers and social/community on. Exception reporting may be the preferred and specialists, then a combination of this kind of personnel economical means of collecting performance data. may be deployed to routinely monitor and evaluate the This means that any breakage or disfunctionality, CTB’s performance. They could also monitor how the whether in physical systems or disruptions/conflicts in associated services (water, electricity, and so on) and management, is systematically recorded and responded infrastructure (drains, septic tank cleaning systems) are to as soon as it occurs. A preferred approach, however, faring. Since this is unlikely to be a full time activity, is that of scheduling preventive and pre-emptive check it could be in combination with their other duties, on a rolling sample basis. For example, in a quarter, the for example, mobilization and implementation of financial parameters of 20 percent CTBs may be assessed new CTBs, or their other municipal responsibilities. along with expenditures incurred on various budget In some of the larger cities, support, both technical heads. Similarly, the condition of taps and connections and managerial, may be entrusted to the territorial to septic tanks and sewers may be physically inspected www.wsp.org 63 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide in another sample of 15-20 percent toilets. In this way, addressed by the ULB speedily. Hence, some of these it should be possible to cover all the toilet blocks over a data collection points could be devolved to the WatSan period of a year without the process being too resource committee itself to report on a monthly or bi-monthly intensive; basis. The other type of data, for example, revenues, may not be reported with accuracy by the committee 3) Costs/ budget: Monitoring of maintenance and upkeep and may need studies to be commissioned to external of toilets is often neglected and adequate budgets are not agencies. The incentive for the WatSan committee to provided for this activity. If the ULB wishes to ensure report on the performance will, of course, depend on sustainable service delivery to all its slum residents, the response it gets from the ULB. Therefore, the ULB it must dedicate a reasonable amount of resources to needs to clearly agree with the WatSan committee, in M&E. Even though this is not always obvious, these the MoU, the aspects of performance that the WatSan investments pay off in reduced cost for repairs and committee will report regularly on; often savings of capital resources by extending the life of the assets created. Depending on the city, the cost 5) Repairs: Toilets, both individual as well as community, of hiring professional agencies and NGOs to carry out quickly fall into disrepair and disuse if there are any monitoring may be high. Hence, the ULB needs to breakages that are not attended to immediately. As soon use such mechanisms selectively, for example, once in as a toilet or a seat therein is dysfunctional, WatSan one to two years, whereas routine monitoring activities committees need to take immediate action and fix the could be devolved to its own staff, ward offices and/or problem. Else, users start losing faith in the facilities personnel from other schemes such as health workers and their management and the whole system may start and education extension workers who may be visiting spiraling down into a vicious cycle of broken, poorly these slum communities regularly. One of the most maintained, dirty toilets that no one will pay for. This cost-effective ways of monitoring is to give the WatSan is why, in the planning and implementation stages, committees a greater role by federating them and one needs to be explicitly mindful of the different providing institutional support to them. Finally, use components and features of CTs and their expected of technology can economize on resources for M&E. life, vulnerability to breaking down and so on. This Many applications have been developed and are being needs to be further reviewed at the time of testing tested for rapid capture and transmission of real time and commissioning of the CTB. Based on the above, data to servers using which the cost of data collection the ULB needs to agree with the WatSan committee and validation can be cut down tremendously. As seen on the list of breakages and repairs that each will be in cases of market research, another option is to curate responsible for. Some cities list these out as minor a panel of toilet block users; and major repairs to be taken care of by the WatSan committee and the ULB, respectively. Items such as Role of WatSan committees: As outlined above, 4) cracks, breakdown of pumps, leakages and breakages in the WatSan committee is the central institutional the sewerage pipeline or the septic tank and other such mechanism for maintenance management of the CTB. big-ticket items are usually kept in the list for the ULB Therefore, the more systematized and streamlined the to remedy. The WatSan committee may be responsible systems followed by these communities, the easier it for repairs and replacement of minor items such as taps, will be to swiftly collate M&E information and act on valves, wall and floor tiles, and so on. A protocol for it. In respect to some parameters, the committee may preventive maintenance needs to be implemented by be able to make its self-reported data available easily. In the ULB in partnership with the WatSan committees instances like breakages or physical damages requiring for the latter to appreciate the higher likelihood of repairs, the WatSan committee may have incentives trouble-free operations and reduced need for repairs, if to report quickly in expectation that these will be maintenance management is undertaken properly. The 64 Generic Steps for Slum Sanitation Initiatives WatSan committee also needs to maintain a basic stock committee or a particular approach to preventive of consumables and routine repair items; maintenance or a particular set of tariff rules may or may not work well in the M&E stage. This provides the Cleaning and disposal: The CTBs that are not 6) evidence to not only change some of those approaches and connected to sewer systems have the additional practical strategies, but also to have these reflected in the challenge of getting their septic tanks cleaned policies and guidelines. Therefore, the M&E stage truly periodically. It needs to be ensured that there is ample becomes that of learning and feedback as well, that would access for cess-pool trucks to approach and carry out provide inputs into how the preparatory and planning periodic cleaning from these installations right from stage activities are structured; how the implementation the design stage. Secondly, the cost implications for process and modalities can be improved; and what hiring such cesspool trucks may be serious if not already specific process changes need to be implemented. planned for by the WatSan committee. The ULB needs to ensure that, where septic tank based toilet blocks D) List of Recommended Reference Material for are constructed, a strict schedule for periodic cleaning Practitioners needs to be enforced. If expensive, the ULB will also For further information, readers are encouraged to refer to need to provide grant support to the ULB or send its the following documents: own cesspool vehicles to carry out the cleaning. Septic tanks may be the only solution, especially in medium 1.NUSP 2008 and small towns where sewerage systems are not http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/programme/uwss/NUSP.pdf. commonly available. In such cases, regular cleaning Accessed on November 2, 2014. will be critical to the smooth functioning of CTBs. The ULB also needs to ensure that the septage cleared by the cesspool trucks is disposed of in a safe manner in Figure 5: Details of the M&E Stage a designated septage management or sewage treatment facility; and 7) Conflict resolution: At times, CTBs become the City-wide M&E of slum sanitation victims of conflict between community groups and this Commissioning & • Decision on in-house or handover outsourced can cause assets to fall into disrepair. Yearly repair and • Testing and pilot • Periodcity • MoU • Costs/budget maintenance of CTBs is necessary to ensure sustainable • Role of CT committee in M&E operations of the units. Hence, apart from carrying out • Repairs • Cleaning & disposal repairs with alacrity, social and institutional conflicts • Conflict resolution in maintenance phse also need to be resolved immediately. The legal basis for sanitation service provision and the executive guidelines thereof come in handy to refer to in situations where Review of policies, these conflicts arise. The ULB and respective sanitation schemes & cell will, in addition, need to use practical strategies for guidelines amicable resolution of these disputes. iii) Review of policies, schemes and guidelines: During the implementation stage, some of the innovations or Monitoring & new ways of doing things are formulated. In the M&E Evaluation Stage stage, some of these are actually tested and validated. For instance, the method of registration of the WatSan www.wsp.org 65 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide 1. Revised CPHEEO Guidelines 3. Septage Management in Urban India There are four manuals on: http://www.cseindia.org/userfiles/document_sm.pdf Water supply and treatment Accessed on November 2, 2014. Sewerage and sewage treatment 4. Advisory on Recycle and Reuse of Wastewater (MoUD Municipal solid waste management forthcoming) Operation and maintenance of water supply systems http://cpheeo.nic.in. Accessed on November 2, 2014 The Guide is recommended for use by states and city agencies 2. Technology Options for Urban Sanitation in India as well as by NGOs, private sector, and so on. http://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/ Urban_Sanitation.pdf Accessed on November 2, 2014. 66 Selected References Almansi, F. et al. 2003. Everyday Water Struggles in Buenos Aires. International Institute for Environment and Development – Latin America, Buenos Aires. Asthana, Sheena. 1998. Integrated Slum Improvement in Visakhapatnam, India. In R. L. Sehgal (Ed.), Slum Upgradation: Emerging Issue and Policy Implications, Bookwell Publications, New Delhi. Bangalore Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Master Plan Project: Overview Report on Services to Urban Poor. Stage 2. March 2002. BWSSB/SKM-EGIS-BCE-Feedback-STUP-TARU Leading Edge Central Pollution Control Board. Status of water supply, wastewater generation and treatment in Class-I cities and Class-II towns of India. Control of Urban Pollution Series: CUPS/70 /2009–10). Delhi, India: CPCB, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India; 2009. Retrieved 2014 from (http://www.indiawaterportal.org/sites/indiawaterportal. org/files/Status%20of%20Water%20Supply%20and%20Wastewater%20Generation%20and%20Treatment%20in%20 Class-I%20cities%20and%20Class-II%20towns%20of%20India_CPCB_2009.pdf ) Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology. 2002. Wealth and Well-being Impacts of Slum Upgrading and Improved Service Delivery to the Poor – A Case of Slum Networking Project, Ahmedabad. Report of School of Planning. Ahmedabad. Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. 2012. An Impact Evaluation Study of BSUP Programme Intervention in Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA). Available at: http://www.kmdaonline.org/whats_new/new_revised-f_report-bsup_ impact_study-0212.pdf Dieterich, B. 1998. Health and Environment – Priorities over the Course of Time, WHO Environmental Newsletter, Special 50th Anniversary Issue, No. 28. Krishnamurty, A. N. and Solomon Benjamin. 1998. The Indian Experience of Community Participation – Public Projects and the Grassroots. In R. L. Sehgal (Ed.), Slum Upgradation: Emerging Issues and Policy Implications, Bookwell Publications, New Delhi. Kundu, Amitabh.1993. In the Name of the Poor - Access to Basic Amenities. Sage Publications, New Delhi. Madras School of Social Work. 2004. Evaluation of Integrated Sanitation Programme (ISP), Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project II (World Bank aided TNUDP-II). Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Report on Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums, Schemes to Improve Slums – Progress and Feedback Chapter 9. Available at: http://mhupa.gov.in/ministry/housing/11thplanChapter- IX.pdf www.wsp.org 67 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation. 2011. Rajiv Awas Yojana: Towards a Slum-Free India Guidelines. Available at: http://mhupa.gov.in/ray/02-RAY-Guidelines.pdf Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). National Urban Sanitation Policy. New Delhi: MoUD, Government of India, 2008 [cited 2014]. Available from: http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/ programme/uwss/NUSP.pdf Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, 2008 [cited 2014]. Available from: http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/ programme/uwss/NUSP.pdf Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). 2008. Technology Options for Urban Sanitation in India. Available from: http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/programme/uwss/slb/urban_sanitation.pdf. National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). 2013. NSS 69th Round (June-December 2013). National Sample Survey Office. National Statistical Organisation. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Government of India. December 2013. National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). 2010. Some Characteristics of Urban Slums, 2008-09. NSS 65th Round (July 2008-June 2009) NSS Report No 534. National Sample Survey Office. National Statistical Organisation. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Government of India. May 2010. Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). 2010. National Urban Sanitation Policy. Rating of Cities 2010: Towards city wide sanitation. Payne, G. 2000. Urban Land Tenure Policy Options: Titles or Rights? World Bank Urban Forum: Virginia, USA.
 Payne, G. 2002. (Ed.) Land, Rights & Innovation: Improving Tenure Security for the Urban Poor, ITDG, London. Planning Commission, Government of India, Steering Committee on Urbanisation. 2011. Report of Working Group on Urban Poverty, Slums and Service Delivery System. [cited 2014]. Available at http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp12/hud/wg_Final_Urb_Pvt.pdf Planning Commission, Government of India, Fifth Plan Steering Group on Housing, Urban Development and Water Supply, 1972: Report of Working Group of Slums Planning Commission, Government of India. 1983. Task Force on Shelter for the Urban Poor and Slum Improvement. Rakodi, C. 1995. Rental Tenure in the Cities of Developing Countries, Urban Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp.791-811. Registrar General of India, GoI. 2011. Census of India 2011. Rusling, Sara. 2010. Approaches to Basic Service Delivery for the Working Poor: Assessing the Impact of Mahila Housing Trust’s Parivartan Slum Upgrading Programme in Ahmedabad, India. Urban Policies Briefing Note, No. 1. WIEGO/MHT/ SEWA. April 2010 68 Selected References SEWA Academy, Shree Mahila Housing Trust. 2009. Evaluating the Impact of Sahbhagi Yojana 2 Support Project (SY2SP) Endline report. March 2009. Stevens, P. 1998. Water Supply and Sanitation – The Foundation of Public health, WHO Environmental Newsletter, Special 50th Anniversary Issue, No. 28. SPARC. 2014. Emergence of Community Toilets as a Public Good: The work of Mahila Milan, NSDF and SPARC India in the area of sanitation 2014. TARU-WEDC. 2005. Study of the World Bank-Financed Slum Sanitation Project in Mumbai. WSP/World Bank. September 2005. UNICEF. India Statistics: Demographic Indicators. Average annual growth rate of urban population 1990-2012. UNICEF, India; 2012 [cited 2014]. Available from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_statistics.html#78) World Bank. 2003. Nitti, Rosanna, and Shyamal Sarkar. Reaching the Poor through Sustainable Partnerships: The Slum Sanitation Program in Mumbai, India. Urban Notes: Upgrading Experiences, No. 7, January 2003. The World Bank. Washington, DC. WSP. 2006. The Mumbai Slum Sanitation Program – Partnering with Slum Communities for Sustainable Sanitation in a Megapolis. Sarkar, Shyamal, Ghosh Moulik, Soma, and Sen, Somnath. Water and Sanitation Program Report Sept 2006. WSP. 2007. Engaging with Citizens to Improve Services. May 2007. WSP. 2009. Global Experiences on Expanding Services to the Urban Poor. Accompanying Volume to the Guidance Notes on “Improving Water Supply and Sanitation for the Urban Poor in India”. Water and Sanitation Program. March 2009. Jatkar, Ujjwala. Undated. The Wave way in Tamil Nadu, Communication for development and Learning, Bangalore, Women and Sanitation Papers, Gramalaya. www.wsp.org 69 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Annex 1: Article 243 of Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act THE CONSTITUTION (SEVENTY-FOURTH AMENDMENT) ACT, 1992 Statement of Objects and Reasons appended to the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Bill, 1991 which was enacted as the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS In many States local bodies have become weak and ineffective on
account of a variety of reasons, including the failure to hold regular
elections, prolonged supersessions and inadequate devolution of powers
and functions. As a result, Urban Local Bodies are not able to
perform effectively as vibrant democratic units of self-government. 2. Having regard to these inadequacies, it is considered necessary
that provisions relating to Urban Local Bodies are incorporated in the
Constitution particularly for- (i) putting on a firmer footing the relationship between the State
Government and the Urban Local Bodies with respect to- (a) the functions and taxation powers; and (b) arrangements for revenue sharing; (ii) Ensuring regular conduct of elections; (iii) ensuring timely elections in the case of supersession; and (iv) providing adequate representation for the weaker sections like
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. 3. Accordingly, it is proposed to add a new part relating to the
Urban Local Bodies in the Constitution to provide for- (a) constitution of three types of Municipalities: (i) Nagar Panchayats for areas in transition from a rural area to
urban area; (ii) Municipal Councils for smaller urban areas; (iii) Municipal Corporations for larger urban areas. The broad criteria for specifying the said areas is being provided in
the proposed article 243-0; (b) composition of Municipalities, which will be decided by the
Legislature of a State, having the following features: (i) persons to be chosen by direct election; (ii) representation of Chairpersons of Committees, if any, at ward
or other levels in the Municipalities; (iii) representation of persons having special knowledge or experience
of Municipal Administration in Municipalities (without voting rights); 70 Annex 1: Article 243 of Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act (c) election of Chairpersons of a Municipality in the manner
specified in the State law; (d) constitution of Committees at ward level or other level or levels
within the territorial area of a Municipality as may be provided in
the State law; (e) reservation of seats in every Municipality- (i) for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their
population of which not less than one-third shall be for women; (ii) for women which shall not less than one-third of the total number
of seats; (iii) in favour of backward class of citizens if so provided by the
Legislature of the State; (iv) for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women in the office of
Chairpersons as may be specified in the State law; (f ) fixed tenure of 5 years for the Municipality and re-election
within six months of end of tenure. If a Municipality is dissolved
before expiration of its duration, elections to be held within a
period of six months of its dissolution; (g) devolution by the State Legislature of powers and responsibilities
upon the Municipalities with respect to preparation of plans for
economic development and social justice, and for the implementation of
development schemes as may be required to enable them to function as
institutions of self-government; (h) levy of taxes and duties by Municipalities, assigning of such
taxes and duties to Municipalities by State Governments and for making
grants-in-aid by the State to the Municipalities as may be provided in
the State law; (i) a Finance Commission to review the finances of the Municipalities
and to recommend principles for – (1) determining the taxes which may be assigned to the Municipalities; (2) Sharing of taxes between the State and Municipalities; (3) grants-in-aid to the Municipalities from the Consolidated Fund of
the State; (j) audit of accounts of the Municipal Corporations by the Comptroller
and Auditor-General of India and laying of reports before the
Legislature of the State and the Municipal Corporation concerned; (k) making of law by a State Legislature with respect to elections to
the Municipalities to be conducted under the superintendence,
direction and control of the chief electoral officer of the State; (l) application of the provisions of the Bill to any Union territory
or part thereof with such modifications as may be specified by the
President; (m) exempting Scheduled areas referred to in clause (1), and tribal
areas referred to in clause (2), of article 244, from the application
of the provisions of the Bill. Extension of provisions of the Bill to
such areas may be done by Parliament by law; (n) disqualifications for membership of a Municipality; (o) bar of jurisdiction of Courts in matters relating to elections to
the Municipalities. 4. The Bill seeks to achieve the aforesaid objectives. NEW DELHI; SHEILA KAUL. The 11th September, 1991.
 www.wsp.org 71 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide THE CONSTITUTION (SEVENTY-FOURTH AMENDMENT) ACT, 1992 ACT, 1992
 [20th April, 1993.]
 An Act further to amend the Constitution of India. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Forty-third Year of the Republic of
India as follows:- 1. Short title and commencement.- (1) This Act may be called the
Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992. (2) It shall come into force on such date_681 as the Central
Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint. 2. Insertion of new Part IXA.-After Part IX of the Constitution, the
following Part shall be inserted, namely:- `PART IXA THE MUNICIPALITIES
243P. Definitions.-In this Part, unless the context otherwise
requires,- (a) “Committee” means a Committee constituted under article 243S; (b) “district” means a district in a State; (c) “Metropolitan area” means an area having a population of ten lakhs
or more, comprised in one or more districts and consisting of two or
more Municipalities or Panchayats or other contiguous areas, specified
by the Governor by public notification to be a Metropolitan area for
the purposes of this Part; (d) “Municipal area” means the territorial area of a Municipality as
is notified by the Governor; (e) “Municipality” means an institution of self-government constituted
under article 243Q; (f ) “Panchayat” means a Panchayat constituted under article 243B; (g) “population” means the population as ascertained at the last
preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published. 243Q. Constitution of Municipalities.- (1) There shall be constituted
in every State,- (a) a Nagar Panchayat (by whatever name called) for a transitional
area, that is to say, an area in transition from a rural area to an
urban area; (b) a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area; and (c) a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area, in accordance with the provisions of this Part: Provided that a Municipality under this clause may not be constituted
in such urban area or part thereof as the Governor may, having regard
to the size of the area and the municipal services being provided or
proposed to be provided by an industrial establishment in that area
and such other factors as he may deem fit, by public notification,
specify to be an industrial township. (2) In this article, “a transitional area”, “a smaller urban area” or
“a larger urban area” means such area as the Governor may, having
regard to the population of the area, the density of the population
therein, the revenue generated for local administration, the
percentage of employment in non-agricultural activities, the economic
importance or such other factors as he may deem fit, specify by public
notification for the purposes of this Part. 243R. Composition of Municipalities.- (1) Save as provided in clause
(2), all the seats in a Municipality shall be filled by persons chosen
by direct election from the territorial constituencies in the
Municipal area and for this purpose each Municipal area shall be
divided into territorial constituencies to be known as wards. 72 Annex 1: Article 243 of Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act (2) The Legislature of a State may, by law, provide- (a) for the representation in a Municipality of- (i) persons having special knowledge or experience in Municipal
administration; (ii) the members of the House of the People and the members of the
Legislative Assembly of the State representing constituencies which
comprise wholly or partly the Municipal area; (iii) the members of the Council of States and the members of the
Legislative Council of the State registered as electors within the
Municipal area; (iv) the Chairpersons of the Committees constituted under clause (5)
of article 243S: Provided that the persons referred to in paragraph (i) shall not have
the right to vote in the meetings of the Municipality; (b) the manner of election of the Chairperson of a Municipality. 243S. Constitution and composition of Wards Committees, etc.- (1) There shall be constituted Wards Committees, consisting of one or more
wards, within the territorial area of a Municipality having a
population of three lakhs or more. (2) The Legislature of a State may, by law, make provision with
respect to- (a) the composition and the territorial area of a Wards Committee; (b) the manner in which the seats in a Wards Committee shall be
filled. (3) A member of a Municipality representing a ward within the
territorial area of the Wards Committee shall be a member of that
Committee. (4) Where a Wards Committee consists of- (a) one ward, the member representing that ward in the Municipality;
or (b) two or more wards, one of the members representing such wards in
the Municipality elected by the members of the Wards Committee, shall be the Chairperson of that Committee. (5) Nothing in this article shall be deemed to prevent the Legislature
of a State from making any provision for the constitution of
Committees in addition to the Wards Committees. 243T. Reservation of seats.- (1) Seats shall be reserved for the
Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every Municipally and the
number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same
proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct
election in that Municipality as the population of the Scheduled
Castes in the Municipal area or of the Scheduled Tribes in the
Municipal area bears to the total population of that area and such
seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a
Municipality. (2) Not less than one-third of the total number of seats reserved
under clause (1) shall be reserved for women belonging to the Sche-
duled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes. (3) Not less than one-third (including the number of seats reserved
for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes)
of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every
Municipality shall be reserved for women and such seats may be
allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Municipality. (4) The officers of Chairpersons in the Municipalities shall be
reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women in
such manner as the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide. (5) The reservation of seats under clauses (1) and (2) and the
reservation of offices of Chairpersons (other than the reservation for
women) under clause (4) shall cease to have effect on the expiration
of the period specified in article 334. (6) Nothing in this Part shall prevent the Legislature of a State from
making any provision for reservation of seats in any www.wsp.org 73 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide Municipality or
offices of Chairpersons in the Municipalities in favour of backward
class of citizens. 243U. Duration of Municipalities, etc.- (1) Every Municipality,
unless sooner dissolved under any law for the time being in force,
shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first
meeting and no longer: Provided that a Municipality shall be given a reasonable opportunity
of being heard before its dissolution. (2) No amendment of any law for the time being in force shall have the
effect of causing dissolution of a Municipality at any level, which is
functioning immediately before such amendment, till the expiration of
its duration specified in clause (1). (3) An election to constitute a Municipality shall be completed,- (a) before the expiry of its duration specified in clause (1); (b) before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of
its dissolution: Provided that where the remainder of the period for which the
dissolved Municipality would have continued is less than six months,
it shall not be necessary to hold any election under this clause for
constituting the Municipality for such period. (4) A Municipality constituted upon the dissolution of a Muni-
cipality before the expiration of its duration shall continue only for
the remainder of the period for which the dissolved Municipality would
have continued under clause (1) had it not been so dissolved. 243V. Disqualifications for membership.- (1) A person shall be
disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of a
Municipality- (a) if he is so disqualified by or under any law for the time being in
force for the purposes of elections to the Legislature of the State
concerned: Provided that no person shall be disqualified on the ground that he is
less than twenty-five years of age, if he has attained the age of
twenty-one years; (b) if he is so disqualified by or under any law made by the
Legislature of the State. (2) If any question arises as to whether a member of a Municipality
has become subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in clause
(1), the question shall be referred for the decision of such authority
and in such manner as the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide. 243W. Powers, authority and responsibilities of Municipalities, etc.-
Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Legislature of a
State may, by law, endow- (a) the Municipalities with such powers and authority as may be
necessary to enable them to function as institutions of
self- government and such law may contain provisions for the devolution
of powers and responsibilities upon Municipalities, subject to such
conditions as may be specified therein, with respect to- (i) the preparation of plans for economic development and social
justice; (ii) the performance of functions and the implementation of schemes as
may be entrusted to them including those in relation to the matters
listed in the Twelfth Schedule; (b) the Committees with such powers and authority as may be necessary
to enable them to carry out the responsibilities conferred upon them
including those in relation to the matters listed in the Twelfth
Schedule. 243X. Power to impose taxes by, and Funds of, the Municipalities.-The
Legislature of a State may, by law,- 74 Annex 1: Article 243 of Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act (a) authorise a Municipality to levy, collect and appropriate such
taxes, duties, tolls and fees in accordance with such procedure and
subject to such limits; (b) assign to a Municipality such taxes, duties, tolls and fees levied
and collected by the State Government for such purposes and subject to
such conditions and limits; (c) provide for making such grants-in-aid to the Municipalities from
the Consolidated Fund of the State; and (d) provide for constitution of such Funds for crediting all moneys
received, respectively, by or on behalf of the Municipalities and also
for the withdrawal of such moneys therefrom. as may be specified in the law. 243Y. Finance Commission.- (1) The Finance Commission constituted
under article 243-I shall also review the financial position of the
Municipalities and make recommendations to the Governor as to- (a) the principles which should govern- (i) the distribution between the State and the Municipalities of the
net proceeds of the taxes, duties, tolls and fees leviable by the
State, which may be divided between them under this Part and the
allocation between the Municipalities at all levels of their
respective shares of such proceeds; (ii) the determination of the taxes, duties, tolls and fees which may
be assigned to, or appropriated by, the Municipalities; (iii) the grants-in-aid to the Municipalities from the Consolidated
Fund of the State; (b) the measures needed to improve the financial position of the
Municipalities; (c) any other matter referred to the Finance Commission by the
Governor in the interests of sound finance of the Municipalities. (2) The Governor shall cause every recommendation made by the
Commission under this article together with an explanatory memorandum
as to the action taken thereon to be laid before the Legislature of
the State. 243Z. Audit of accounts of Municipalities.-The Legislature of a State
may, by law, make provisions with respect to the maintenance of
accounts by the Municipalities and the auditing of such accounts. 243ZA. Elections to the Municipalities.- (1) The superintendence,
direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and
the conduct of, all elections to the Municipalities shall be vested in
the State Election Commission referred to in article 243K. (2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Legislature of
a State may, by law, make provision with respect to all matters
relating to, or in connection with, elections to the Municipalities. 243ZB. Application to Union territories.-The provisions of this Part
shall apply to the Union territories and shall, in their application
to a Union territory, have effect as if the references to the Governor
of a State were references to the Administrator of the Union territory
appointed under article 239 and references to the Legislature or the
Legislative Assembly of a State were references in relation to a Union
territory having a Legislative Assembly, to that Legislative Assembly: Provided that the President may, by public notification, direct that
the provisions of this Part shall apply to any Union territory or part
thereof subject to such exceptions and modifications as he may specify
in the notification. 243ZC. Part not to apply to certain areas.- (1) Nothing in this Part
shall apply to the Scheduled Areas referred to in clause (1), and the
tribal areas referred to in clause (2), of article 244. (2) Nothing in this Part shall be construed to affect the functions
and powers of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council www.wsp.org 75 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide constituted under any
law for the time being in force for the hill areas of the district of
Darjeeling in the State of West Bengal. (3) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, Parliament may, by
law, extend the provisions of this Part to the Scheduled Areas and the
tribal areas referred to in clause (1) subject to such exceptions and
modifications as may be specified in such law, and no such law shall
be deemed to be an amendment of this Constitution for the purposes of
article 368. 243ZD. Committee for district planning.- (1) There shall be
constituted in every State at the district level a District Planning
Committee to consolidate the plans prepared by the Panchayats and the
Municipalitiies in the district and to prepare a draft development
plan for the district as a whole. (2) The Legislature of a State may, by law, make provision with
respect to- (a) the composition of the District Planning Committees; (b) the manner in which the seats in such Committees shall be filled: Provided that not less than four-fifths of the total number of members
of such Committee shall be elected by, and from amongst, the elected
mambers of the Panchayat at the district level and of the
Municipalities in the district in proportion to the ratio between the
population of the rural areas and of the urban areas in the district; (c) the functions relating to district planning which may be assigned
to such Committees; (d) the manner in which the Chairpersons of such Committees shall be
chosen. (3) Every District Planning Committee shall, in preparing the draft
development plan,- (a) have regard to- (i) matters of common interest between the Panchayats and the
Municipalities including spatial planning, sharing of water and other
physical and natural resources, the integrated development of
infrastructure and environmental conservation; (ii) the extent and type of available resources whether financial or
otherwise; (b) consult such institutions and organisations as the Governor may,
by order, specify. (4) The Chairperson of every District Planning Committee shall forward
the development plan, as recommended by such Committee, to the
Government of the State. 243ZE. Committee for Metropolitan planning.- (I) There shall be
 constituted in every Metropolitan area a Metropolitan Planning
 Committee to prepare a draft development plan for the Metropolitan
area as a whole. (2) The Legislature of a State may, by law, make provision with
respect to- (a) the composition of the Metropolitan Planning Committees; (b) the manner in which the seats in such Committees shall be filled: Provided that not less than two-thirds of the members of such
Committee shall be elected by, and from amongst, the elected members
 of the Municipalities and Chairpersons of the Panchayats in the
 Metropolitan area in proportion to the ratio between the population of
the Municipalities and of the Panchayats in that area; (c) the representation in such Committees of the Government of India
and the Government of the State and of such organisations and
institutions as may be deemed necessary for carrying out the functions
assigned to such Committees; (d) the functions relating to planning and coordination for the
Metropolitan area which may be assigned to such Committees; (e) the manner in which the Chairpersons of such Committees shall be
chosen. (3) Every Metropolitan Planning Committee shall, in preparing the
draft development plan,- 76 Annex 1: Article 243 of Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act (a) have regard to- (i) the plans prepared by the Municipalities and the Panchayats in the
Metropolitan area; (ii) matters of common interest between the Municipalities and the
Panchayats, including co-ordinated spatial planning of the area,
sharing of water and other physical and natural resources, the
integrated development of infrastructure and environmental
conservation; (iii) the overall objectives and priorities set by the Government of
India and the Government of the State; (iv) the extent and nature of investments likely to be made in the
Metropolitan area by agencies of the Government of India and of the
Government of the State and other available resources whether
financial or otherwise; (b) consult such institutions and organisations as the Governor may,
by order, specify. (4) The Chairperson of every Metropolitan Planning Committee shall
forward the development plan, as recommended by such Committee, to the
Government of the State. 243ZF. Continuance of existing laws and Municipalities.-
Notwithstanding anything in this Part, any provision of any law
relating to Municipalities in force in a State immediately before the
commencement of THE CONSTITUTION (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992,
which is inconsistent with the provisions of this Part, shall continue
to be in force until amended or repealed by a competent Legislature or
other competent authority or until the expiration of one year from
such commencement, whichever is earlier: Provided that all the Municipalities existing immediately before such
commencement shall continue till the expiration of their duration,
unless sooner dissolved by a resolution passed to that effect by the
Legislative Assembly of that State or, in the case of a State having a
Legislative Council, by each House of the Legislature of that State. 243ZG. Bar to interference by courts in electoral matters.-
Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution,- (a) the validity of any law relating to the delimitation of
constituencies or the allotment of seats to such constituencies, made
or purporting to be made under article 243ZA shall not be called in
question in any court; (b) no election to any Municipality shall be called in question except
by an election petition presented to such authority and in such manner
as is provided for by or under any law made by the Legislature of a
State.’. 3. Amendment of article 280.- In clause (3) of article 280 of the
Constitution, sub-clause (c) shall be relettered as sub-clause (d) and
before sub-clause (d) as so relettered, the following sub-clause shall
be inserted, namely:- “(c) the measures needed to augment the Consolidated Fund of a State
to supplement the resources of the Municipalities in the State on the
basis of the recommendations made by the Finance Commission of the
State;”. 4. Addition of Twelfth Schedule.-After the Eleventh Schedule to the
Constitution, the following Schedule shall be added, namely:-
 “TWELFTH SCHEDULE (Article 243W) 1. Urban planning including town planning. 2. Regulation of land-use and construction of buildings. 3. Planning for economic and social development. 4. Roads and bridges. 5. Water supply for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes. 6. Public health, sanitation conservancy and solid waste management. www.wsp.org 77 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide 7. Fire services. 8. Urban forestry, protection of the environment and promotion of ecological aspects. 9. Safeguarding the interests of weaker sections of society,
including the handicapped and mentally retarded. 10. Slum improvement and upgradation. 11. Urban poverty alleviation. 12. Provision of urban amenities and facilities such as parks, gardens, playgrounds. 13. Promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects. 14. Burials and burial grounds; cremations, cremation grounds and electric crematoriums. 15. Cattle pounds; prevention of cruelty to animals. 16. Vital statistics including registration of births and deaths. 17. Public amenities including street lighting, parking lots, bus stops and public conveniences. 18. Regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries.’’. Source: http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend74.htm 78 Annex 2: Government Initiatives in Select Indian Cities Rapid urbanization has presented a huge unmet demand for housing and infrastructure leading to settlements that have insecure tenure, are of “quasi-legal” nature, and conventional provision of water and sanitation services to them becomes complex for urban agencies. A large chunk of households can only be afforded (legally or practically) public or community level environmental services (for example, shared or neighbourhood level water supply connections, and community toilets to cater to a group of families) rather than individual piped water supply or household latrines. The post-independence decades did not accord attention to the issues of slum settlements. In the early 1970s, urban housing shortage increased at a fast pace and the population of unauthorized and under-serviced settlements or slums also began to grow rapidly. This led to a growing recognition of the need to utilize funds in a manner that would cover a greater proportion of the population as compared to conventional subsidized housing programs. A working group constituted by the Planning Commission recommended slum improvement as an interim palliative, but necessary to ensure at least minimum conditions of environmental hygiene for slum dwellers (Planning Commission, 2011). By 1980s, slum settlements started to be viewed less as “evils and blots” and more as housing solutions as the instance of Mumbai demonstrated (WSP/TARU, 2006). Albeit selectively, other cities in India, especially the metropolises, also mirrored the approach of Mumbai – through State Slum Acts, these settlements were legitimized and their housing and infrastructure provision improved. During the Fourth Five Year Plan period (1969-74), the GoI supported Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums (EIS) was launched (1972-73) to provide a minimum level of services, water supply, sewerage, drainage, street pavements in 11 cities with a population of 0.8 million and above. This was later incorporated in the Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) during the Fifth Plan. The program intended to combine social development with environmental improvement and was extended to include all cities with populations of over 300,000. In 1979, it was extended to all urban centers irrespective of their size. Another significant development during the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79) was the enactment of the Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act (ULCRA) that was designed to prevent concentration of land holding in urban areas, and to make available urban land for construction of houses for the middle-and low-income groups. The rise of public toilets was another major development in parallel. Earlier, these were thought of as “public conveniences” for floating populations in areas such as markets, but this was in the 1990s and 2000s also used to cater to the huge demand for sanitation in slum settlements where individual household toilets were infeasible. At the city level, states and cities were undertaking a few interventions for slum upgradation. A systematic approach to planning and delivering services to slums had to wait until the 1970s, when initiatives were taken up in Kolkata, followed by Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. www.wsp.org 79 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide The Basti Improvement Programme (BIP) in Kolkata sponsored by GoI marked the shift in policy from slum clearance to slum upgrading in situ. It was perceived as an interim arrangement and not as a viable strategy. Basti improvement “was conceived and implemented as a sanitation and clean environment drive, rather than as an entry point of social and economic upliftment leading to the integration of marginalized communities. The effect was that the community did not participate and did not perceive itself as a part of the upgrading process” (Krishnamurty and Benjamin, 1998). This led to poor maintenance of facilities and non-payment of service charges by users. Box: Basti Improvement Program in Kolkata The program proposed: (1) The immediate implementation of a major program of basti improvement covering 400,000 slum dwellers within the next five years; (2) That all future slum clearance be concentrated and accelerated as much as possible in the basti areas of the central city, and that specific rehousing programs for the 170,000 basti dwellers in those areas be expeditiously developed; (3) The total acquisition of all basti lands outside the central city by 1971; (5) The preparation of a systematic program for the eventual clearance and redevelopment of all basti lands acquired, and the use of these lands to meet the present and anticipated social needs for such essential community facilities; and (8) The establishment of a strong administrative arrangement for the coordination and execution of the management functions essential to the improvement program and social management to enlist the effective voluntary participation of the basti-dwellers themselves in a vigorous effort toward basti community development. Bastis are registered slums that have been recognized by the Municipal Corporation on the basis of the land title handed over to the slum dwellers on lease or are let out on rent. Bastis are legally recognized settlements that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation supplies with services such as water, latrines, trash removal, and occasionally electricity. Basti huts typically are permanent structures that the government will not demolish, which allows basti communities to develop a sense of permanency and to focus on issues of poverty beyond shelter availability. Source: Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation, Basti Improvement Programme: Calcutta and Howrah (Calcutta: Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation, 1967), ii-iv. From Interim Palliative to Long-term Strategy Slum improvement through the Urban Community Development (UCD) program was another government initiative that has been attempted in a few cities in India. Hyderabad (UCD started in 1967) and Visakhapatnam (UCD started in 1979) were conceived as integrated urban development programs. The key concepts involved are ‘self-help’ and ‘felt needs’. “Therefore, initially the success of the project depends almost entirely upon the work of each community organiser who has to stimulate, guide and sustain the whole process by working with individuals and groups in the slums, learning about their most commonly felt needs, and motivating them to help themselves. UCD moves in to help only when the slum dwellers show a certain degree of interest and enthusiasm.” The UCD program in Visakhapatnam replicated many features of the program in Hyderabad. It provided some positive lessons, but also drew attention to difficulties in sustaining the integrated approach. These difficulties arose because of the tension that exists between the short-term goal of infrastructure and housing provision and long-term process of social development and empowerment. The experience of UCD pointed out that the inability to change through the program, the existing power structure 80 Annex 2: Government initiatives in Select Indian Cities and, political patronage and brokerage systems has put limitations on its achievement. It stressed the importance of ensuring that “community and social development programs provide an entry point for project involvement, housing and infrastructure only being implemented after community organization has been strengthened.” (Asthana, 1998) While the experience of initiatives such as BIP and UCD stressed the importance of community organization and their involvement and participation in ensuring effectiveness and sustainability of physical improvements in slums, the EIS has continued to concentrate only on the engineering aspect of service provision. A Task Force appointed by the Planning Commission, GoI, reviewed the progress of the scheme in 1983. It mentioned in its report that in the 10 years since the launch of the EIS scheme, it had achieved a very limited coverage and only 27 to 34 percent of the estimated slum population was provided basic services (Planning Commission, Government of India, 1983). Another study titled “In the Name of the Poor – Access to Basic Amenities” (Kundu, 1993) pointed out the persisting and acute lack of facilities for the poor. The study stated that nearly a third of urban households did not have access to a latrine facility. In a large number of cities, public authorities have provided low-cost toilets that are not connected to the city sewers. In many cases, they are poorly maintained and pose a threat to the micro-environment. The Task Force (1983) identified a number of problems in the implementation of the scheme for the environmental improvement of slums. They were primarily related to insufficient budgets, lack of adequate administrative arrangements, legal problems in improving slums on private and central government land, and lack of proper maintenance of the facilities provided. The report noted that the scheme is implemented purely as a public works project. Slum dwellers were not involved in the program and there is no financial participation of the local bodies. From its recommendations it is clear that the Task Force moved away from treating the EIS as a short-term palliative and suggests measures to make it a long-term program. Significantly, it suggested measures that go beyond engineering aspects and include community participation and creating workable arrangements for maintenance of assets. These aspects were emphasised by WHO in the 1950s. In order to make the scheme for environmental improvement more effective, the Task Force recommended: • The setting of realistic norms; • Full involvement of local bodies in the project; • Firm linkage of improvement program with security of tenure and house improvement loans; • Full involvement of the people through community development projects, voluntary agencies and community organizations • A certain amount of cost recovery; and • Workable arrangements for maintenance of assets and services. Other than raising expenditure norms by a small extent, the other recommendations made by the Task Force have, however, remained largely unimplemented. UBSP, ILCS AND VAMBAY Programs In the Sixth Plan period (1981 to 1985), the Urban Basic Services (UBS), a collaborative project of GoI and UNICEF, was launched. The project was proposed to be implemented through the community volunteers to be selected from each slum and trained to increase their awareness and capacity to participate. The scheme was introduced across the country during Seventh Plan period as the Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP). The objectives of the program were to extend child health services, water and sanitation facilities, pre-school and other learning opportunities outside schools and provide income generation opportunities for women. www.wsp.org 81 Community Slum Sanitation in India A Practitioner’s Guide In 1981, GoI launched the Integrated Low Cost Sanitation (ILCS) program with an aim to abolish manual scavenging. In 1996, GoI initiated the National Slum Development Programme (NSDP) with the objective of upgrading urban slums by providing physical and social7 amenities and shelter upgrading (http://muepa.nic.in/). By combining the three poverty alleviation schemes, the UBSP, Nehru Rojgar Yojana and Prime Minister’s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Program, a new scheme, Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY) was launched by GoI in 1997. The objective of the scheme was to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed or underemployed, through self- employment ventures or provision of wage employment. The SJSRY consisted of two schemes: the Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP), and the Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP). The basic aim of this program was to improve the quality of life of BPL families. In 2001, GoI launched Valmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) with the primary objective of facilitating construction and upgrading of dwelling units in slums and providing a healthy environment by constructing community toilets under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Campaign). 7 Physical amenities include water supply, storm water drains, community bath, widening and paving of existing lanes, sewers, community latrines, and streetlights. Social amenities include pre-school education, non-formal education, adult education, maternity, child health and primary health care including immunization. 82 Water and Sanitation Program The World Bank Hindustan Times House 18-20, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001, India Telephone: (91-11) 41479301, 49247601 E-mail: wspsa@worldbank.org www.wsp.org worldbank.org/water @WorldBankWater