The Project titled” Provide Sanitation Facility in Endiyur Village of Marakkanam Block of Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu” is being implemented by Palmyra, an NGO with participation of beneficiaries and their contribution

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Palmyra, the facilitating NGO, had organized a number of training programs both at the village level and at the Palmyra centre to understand the present toileting facilities and practices and to make aware the women the need and use of hygienic sanitation facility. Based on these interactions and Palmyra’s previous experience with women groups of the village, Palmyra identified a 3 member working Committee to be assisted by one field worker form that village to implement the project. The names of working Committee members are: Mrs Manickkammal, Mrs Tamilselvi and Mrs Bhavani while Mrs Valliammal is the field worker. The working Committee members are held in high esteem by the community for their integrity, honesty and managerial skills. They are also active workers in Women Self Help group and understand the local community and issues very well.
The working group took full charge of the project from identifying suitable beneficiaries, working with them in their planning, design, construction, operation and allocation and management of funds. The working Committee selected the beneficiaries based on the criteria of the beneficiary interest, able to contribute in cash and kind, willing to put their own labor for construction and undertake that they will not allow the toilet to remain incomplete and will make use of the toilet in the most hygienic way. While selecting the households for this project, those households who can afford to and well above small and poor household were left out of the project. Socio-economic consideration also played a role in selecting the beneficiaries for the project. Palmyra has closely monitored and made sure that the poorest of the poor got the first priority. Palmyra also monitored all the activities undertaken by the beneficiaries and provided guidance to the core group.
The Working Group sat with each and every beneficiary along with mason and technician and planned the toilet location, its design and worked out quantities and estimated the cost of construction. One of the important aspects of this way of planning is that it is demand driven in the sense that the beneficiary has decided its own design, including location, size and components such as toilet with or without bath attached. In deciding the various aspects of toilet construction, the ability to pay for the extra cost was taken into consideration. An important lesson that we, the NGO learnt in this project is that type design put forward by the NGO/ facilitator did not attract much attention from the beneficiaries. Also, there was a great demand to combine both toilet and bath which shows that bathing facilities is as important as toilet facilities. The beneficiaries claim that both toilet and bath must go hand in hand to get full benefit of providing hygienic environment for a household. One of the important advantages claimed for combining toilet and bath is to get away from water stagnation near house which is a breeding place for mosquito resulting in malaria and dengue fever.
For implementing the project components, Palmyra was requested to purchase and provide good quality materials for toilet pan, pipe and pipe fittings, door etc., while the building materials such as brick, sand, cement will be purchased by the beneficiary and construct through hired mason with labor input from the beneficiary. The working group and Palmyra will supervise the work.
Each and every household member of the beneficiary family helped in digging trench for septic tank and foundation footings. The beneficiary organized the building materials by themselves, hired only mason to do the construction, provided non-skilled labor from the family and constructed the toilet room. In this process, they spent a minimum of Rs 13,500/ only for toilet provision while they spent a minimum of Rs27,500/ for provision of toilet with bathing arrangement. PWX contributed Rs 13,500 for each family as cash and kind(pipe, fittings, pan etc.,). Palmyra helped through working group and mason to purchase good quality materials such as pan, pipe etc.,
In the first phase, ten beneficiaries were selected to assess the beneficiary response in this activity. The impact evaluation study conducted after completion of these 10 toilets and their use indicate that beneficiary response was excellent especially their spontaneous involvement in completing the structure in time and putting to full use by the beneficiaries. In the second phase, Palmyra selected another 15 beneficiaries and the work was completed within the time frame.
The lesson that we, the NGO learnt in this project is that how individual household is in dire need of having toilet and bathing facilities and how they value these structures, especially women folk of household. Women are the most involved in this project and they are even ready to borrow money and complete the structure in time.
• The changes that came out by completing this project are: Empowerment and self-esteem of women; better health care for women and children because of better sanitation and clean environmental surroundings, better hygienic practices by household members.
• As a group involved in the project, they are able to plan in a participatory mode, design, construct and operate with self- confidence and leadership qualities.
• Women group has acquired necessary skill through training to articulate their problems to higher officials such as VO/ Panchayath President/ BDO etc.,
• Participatory approach as implemented by Palmyra in this project has paid a rich dividend by way of constructing robust, long lasting toilet system which each and every family involved in this project consider as a JEWEL in the crown of their household structures.