MANTRA (2002-2007) and SDC have partnered so that over 22,000 households benefited from water and sanitation. The current phase of SDC-Gram Vikas collaboration focuses on extending the MANTRA programme in Orissa over a two and a half year period.
Narrative
With continued support from SDC, we seek to sustain the momentum of the programme while furthering this process in the next three years. We will further the four major projects under MANTRA – Village Institution-Building and Water and Sanitation and Technician’s Training, and Health/ Hygiene Training.
Water and sanitation intervention:
In the 2.5 year project phase GV has reached out to 146 villages covering 6439 families who have been supported to build their own sanitation and water supply infrastructure. An additional 1095 families in Kalahandi have been supported with a partial subsidy of Rs. 500 only , the rest being leveraged udner OTELP. These villages are spread over 12 districts in Orissa. The major concentration of families has been in Gajapati, Bargah and Kalahandi districts. Of the 47 villages taken up in the period 2007-2008, all the 2832 families have completed the construction of individual sanitation systems. Water supply systems have been commissioned in 19 villages where people are able to avail piped water facility. In the rest of the villages the water supply system is nearing completion. The 3607 families in villages where the programme was initiated in 2008-2009 have completed the construction upto the roof level and we aim to complete the total construction including painting work within two month time.
The commissioning of the projects have been a dream come true for the communities who had put in a lot of contribution (to the tune of 60-65% for toilets and upto 30% for water supply) and the day water flowed through taps to their homes, their joy knew no bounds.
Provision of piped water supply has been the most significant aspect of pride and an indicator of collective action of the village community towards their development. The stringent norms of MANTRA pay rich dividends for the community, though the initiation of work requiring 100% involvement of all families is quite a tough task. This also leads to delay in the pace of the implementation cycle, but GV has learnt that taking a shortcut approach has not had positive outcome in the long run.
The ardous task of fetching water and the humilitation faced because of having to relieve oneslf in the open are eliminated. However GV needs to continue the process of educating people on hygiene behaviour, strengthening village committees to monitor whether every person is using the toilets and keeping them clean, accompanying committee members and other people to seek other development funds from the government , and work with women to strengthen their SHGs.
Steps have been initiated to foster equity in water use and reduce wastage of water. In villages where water is pumped from deep tube wells using electricity, we have proposed to install water meters for each family. The committee will decide on the tariff to be put per litre of water consumed. In this process, families with less members and less consumption will pay less and families with more members and more consumption will pay as per use.
Formation of Village Committees
In all the 146 villages, a 12 member village committee has been formed which is registered as a “Society” . The registration process is completed for 61 villages and for the rest of the villages the paper work is pending.
The village committes have been instrumental in the implementation process and have taken the responsibility for coordinating the progress of work with each family.Equal representation of women is ensured in the committee and they are encouraged to voice out their concerns and expectations. Women have also become active proponents in cases where due to some conflict, male members have stalled the work.
Involvement of women members
Women in villages are encouraged to actively participate in the process of decision making and programme implementation. In general body and executive committee meetings presence of women is ensured to a minimum of 50%.
250 Self help groups of 1300 women members have been encouraged to initiate savings and credit activity. Of this 145 groups have initiated income earning activities which include cattle rearing, small vending and tailoring. The total savings in these groups is Rs.9.75 lakhs
Gram Vikas will continue to strenghten education on hygiene behaviour and build capapcities of village communities to contain defaulters who still might continue open defecation.
In all these villages , communities have designed mechanisms for regular operations and maintainence. In villages where electricity is used for pumping water, the village committee has hired a pump operator who is paid through community contribution.
Analysis of Efficiency: Gram Vikas had set a target of reaching out to 6600 families during the project period. The total number of families reached have been 6439. An additional 1095 families have been covered in Kalahandi district with a subsidy support of only Rs. 500 from SDC, the rest being leveraged under OTELP. There has been a saving on the budget under sanitation subsidy to the extent of Rs. 14.50lakh. The savings has been invested in activities that can foster equity within the water and sanitation programme. 4000 water meters and 5000 buckets and mugs have been procured to be provided to families on part subsidy and part cost.
Additional funds to the extent of Rs. 18 million have been leveraged from various government development schemes and development funds of people’s representatives. The impact of this has been on the widespread demonstration of the programme in various parts of Orissa.
Sustainable Livelihoods
Gram Vikas has combined the hardware component of the MANTRA programme and training in masonry to rural youth and added a livelihood component as part of the programme. Unlike other livelihood generating activities which are mostly land or animal based, Gram Vikas invests in training rural youth in diverse trades – masonry, plumbing, bar bending , scaffolding. The results have been encouraging since undergoing a 60-75 day training programme , most trainees have been found to earn 2.5% above their earlier income and have gained employability of 15 additional days per month. In the 2.5 year project period 295 youth have been trained in masonry.
An analysis of the efficiency within this activity shows that an investment on an average of Rs 3200-3400 per person undergoing training in masonry has led to two fold increase in wage earning capacity after a small period. Comaprison or benefit-cost analysis with other livelihood projects show that the efficiency ratio is quite high.