From Sandhya Venkateswaran, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi

 

Posted 15 July 2011

 

Increasing attention is being given to India’s journey on a high growth path and the simultaneous exclusion of some communities from the processes and benefits of this development. UNICEF, in its current Country Programme, has decided to explicitly focus on reducing social exclusion. Under this, it aims to understand and address the underlying processes that result in economic and social deprivations, so that the services reach and benefit the most marginalized. While blanket programmes are good to reach the entire country, they usually leave out migrants, SC/STs, Dalits and also often fail to satisfy the needs of women.

 

UNICEF wants to identify specific instruments, methodologies or strategies that can help development practitioners understand and address the causes of exclusion. The barriers to inclusion prevent marginalized groups from participating in and benefiting from policy formulation, programme planning and design, its implementation and monitoring, and include   Knowledge/information, access to water and sanitation services, appropriate investments in social and environmental resources, discriminatory attitudes that prevent participation in decision- making, and an absence of agency, empowerment and voice.

 

UNICEF, in collaboration with the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion (CSEI), Association for Stimulating Knowhow (ASK), Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) and Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices, is in the process of identifying tools or instruments to understand and address reasons for exclusion from water and sanitation services.   For example, what tools or methods can be used to ensure that water and sanitation services meet the needs of SC/STs, migrants and other groups, and reduce the burden on women.

 

These tools could include specific instruments such as social equity audits, infrastructure equity audits, budget analyses, participatory assessments, and tools for training on inclusion.

 

In the context of the above, we would like to identify tools/instruments/strategies that you may have used to:

• Assess the degree, context and nature of exclusion (who is excluded, the processes that cause exclusion, impacts of exclusion) of specific community groups from water and sanitation services
• Enable the participation of marginalized groups in water resource management, by addressing the barriers in planning, programme/policy design, implementation and monitoring

 

We would request you to include details of the tool including its description, type, context/applicability of use (under which conditions and with which groups), and purpose. The tools/methodologies gathered through this process will inform the development of UNICEF’s next Country Programme strategy and facilitate a strong focus on inclusion. 

 

Responses were received, with thanks, from

 

1. Anita Miya, Aga Khan Planning and Building Service India, Mumbai
2. Nripendra Sarma, Public Health Engineering Department, Guwahati
3. Lee Macqueen Paul, National Dalit Watch, New Delhi
4. Annie Namala, Programme for Inclusion and Equity, New Delhi
5. Mashkoor Alam, National Conference of Dalit Organizations, New Delhi
6. Seema Kulkarni, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management, Pune
7. V Kurian Baby, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Netherlands
8. Surendra Kumar Yadav, Vikram University, Ujjain
9. Anil Gupta, Independent Consultant, New Delhi
10. Ravi Nitesh, Mission Bhartiyam, Lucknow
11. Rajesh Shah, Peer Water Exchange, Bangalore
12. Aasha Ramesh, Gender and Development Consultant, Bangalore
13. Ramakrishna Nallathiga, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad

 

 

 

Summary of Responses

 

Comparative Experiences

 

Related Resources

 

Responses in Full

 

 

 

Summary of Responses

 

Social exclusion from water-sanitation services has deep historical roots in India. >From ancient times, Dalits, other scheduled castes (SCs) and tribes (STs) have been kept out of the social mainstream and denied access to water. There were supposed to take their water downstream from where upper castes bathed; were not allowed to use the same wells or ponds; were denied an education; lived on the fringes of villages or in slums and; had no proper toilets or sanitation. Despite this, they have been crucial to India’s economy.

 

A publication by the National Conference of Dalit Organizations (Nacdor) brings out how Dalits are left out of the drinking water system in both rural and urban India: As per the Census data, out of the total 191 million households, 39 per cent have drinking water facilities within the premises; 61 per cent have to fetch water either from nearby locations (44.3 per cent) or faraway places (16.7 per cent). More than 117 million households need to fetch water from outside. Out of these, 98.58 million are rural (71.3 per cent of the total rural households) and the rest are urban (34.6 per cent of the total urban households).

 

The report continues. Compared to 45.2 per cent of total non-SC/ST households that have drinking water facilities on-site, only 27 per cent of the SC and 15.2 per cent ST households have similar facilities. Therefore, 73 per cent of the SC and 84.8 per cent of the ST households have to fetch drinking water either from the nearby or faraway places. In rural areas, this percentage is 79.1 per cent of SC households and 89.4 per cent, respectively. The total number of ST/ST households that fetch water from outside is over 40 million.

 

This puts exclusion in perspective. An additional factor mentioned above is SCs/STs may have to walk extra distances to get water since they may not be permitted to use common wells, handpumps or other water sources. The quality at their sources may be inferior compared what other castes use.

 

In Assam, two groups lack access to drinking water and sanitation – the labourers working on tea estates and those living in the char (low lying lands and islands) areas. There are several lakh tea estate workers who are provided housing by tea estate owners. These housing colonies often do not have proper sanitation or water supply. The toilets are poorly kept and because of the unsanitary environment, workers suffer high incidences of water-borne diseases. Those in the char areas have similar problems, since recurrent floods make it difficult to establish permanent toilets and water supply systems. The sandy soil is unsuitable for soak-pit toilets, while septic tanks are expensive and frequently back up due to flooding.

 

The Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, India, found in one of its water-sanitation programmes that some families were unable to construct toilets and bathrooms due to unavailability of land /space within their own premises. Nomadic communities and migrant labour had no land holdings or lived on farms.  The hard strata of land make excavation of pits difficult and occasionally, political problems led to denial of service.

 

Exclusion worsens during emergencies since the excluded communities (mentioned above) including migrants and nomads are not considered part of the mainstream. One of the ways to deal with this is to use tools such as questionnaires tailored for these communities. These can help assess the inclusiveness of government relief efforts with regard to women, and the specific communities. The National Dalit Watch has devised several such tools to ensure the needs of Dalits and women are met.

 

Another gauge for social and gender inequities in the water sector is the social and gender equity gauge (SGEG). The focus is on communities and social groups and particularly gender across these social groups. It is at a nascent stage. The main purpose is to highlight the needs to attend to the structural inequities in the water-sanitation sector.

 

There are many other tools for enabling participation. These include

• Participatory planning. This bottom-up process brings in all communities from the grassroots upwards. It uses participatory rural appraisals and resource mapping
• Social assessment, participatory poverty appraisals and wealth ranking
• Giving a voice to the voiceless through representation in decision making and implementation. However, even in the inclusion of the socially excluded groups, care should be ensured that all marginal groups are adequately represented, to avoid the creamy layer syndrome from dominating in the project/programme. They may need capacity building depending on the programme
• Technology options that take exclusionary factors such as geographical location into account
• Policy and fiscal options, especially targeted subsidies, direct transfers to the poor and cross-subsidies
• Normative designs that allow for few discretionary options
• Market for the poor that include economic empowerment tools and innovating financing options 

 

One proven method is to make everyone pay for the service. The excluded, and women, acquire symbolic capital (the right to claim equal membership of the village, participation in decision-making and individual dignity), through sharing costs of building and maintaining water supply systems and sanitation facilities.

 

Most programmes are designed for mass coverage and may in the process not recognize the excluded groups need special attention since they have special needs. These need to be gender-transformative, not gender neutral or gender blind, to address women’s needs. Similarly, they need to be caste-transformative to address the SC/ST population’s needs. This discussion has brought out some ways in which this can be achieved. 

 

Related Resources 

 

Recommended Documentation

 

Drivers and Barriers towards Achieving 100% Sanitation (from Anita Miya, Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, India, Mumbai)

 

Paper; by Anita Miya; Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, India; Presented at conference on Cost-Effective Sustainable Sanitation; June 2010;

 

Available at

 

http://www.washinstitute.org/pdf/cost_effective_sustainable_sanitation_abstracts.pdf (PDF; Size: 1.3 Mb)

 

This paper discusses drivers and barriers in achieving 100% sanitation coverage that could help achieving the MDG targets of extending sanitation to all

 

From Lee Macqueen Paul, National Dalit Watch, New Delhi

 

National Dalit Watch AP for Relief and Rehabilitation with Dignity Andhra Pradesh Floods – 2009;

 

Checklist; by National Dalit Watch Andhra Pradesh; 2009;

 

Available at ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071101.zip (Zip; Size: 35 Kb)

 

This is a format for household surveys in flood-affected areas that is a checklist of things to incorporate. It can serve as a model for other similar surveys

 

Survey of post-flood situation of Dalit victims, access to relief and rehabilitation in North Karnataka

 

Questionnaire;

 

Available at ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071102.doc (Doc; Size: 94 Kb)

 

This questionnaire is a sample of how to collect information from Dalits. It can be used to collect information from excluded communities

 

Questionnaire for case studies

 

Questionnaire;

 

Available at ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071103.docx (DOC; Size: 14 Kb)

 

This is a format for collecting information on case studies and can be used for different excluded communities

 

Water and Social Exclusion case studies (from Mashkoor Alam, National Conference of Dalit Organizations, New Delhi)

 

Book; by National Conference of Dalit Organizations and Wateraid India; New Delhi; 2009;

 

Available at ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071106.docx (DOC; Size: 128 Kb)

 

This is a compilation of case studies of instances where Dalits have been denied access to water from across the country

 

Water and Social Exclusion discussion paper

 

Paper; by National Conference of Dalit Organizations; New Delhi; 2009;

 

Available at ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071107.doc (DOC; Size: 1 Mb)

 

This is a discussion paper on the causes, effects and possible solutions for addressing exclusion of Dalits in water-related projects

 

Assessing Social and Gender Equity in the Water Sector (from Seema Kulkarni, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management, Pune)

 

Paper; by Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management; Pune; 2011; Permission Required: No

 

Available at ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071108.docx(DOC; Size: 29 Kb)

 

The social and gender equity gauge is an effort to gauge the social and gender inequities in the water sector with a focus on communities and social groups

 

Evaluation and Lesson Learning on Dfid Support to Andhra Pradesh (from Ramakrishna Nallathiga, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad)

 

Book; by Centre for Good Governance and Department for International Develoment; Hyderabad; April 2008;

 

Available at http://www.cgg.gov.in/dfid/08050158_CG_BK01_120p.pdf (PDF; 38 Mb)

 

The book documents and reviews the Dfid-supported project Andhra Pradesh Urban Services for the Poor

 

Recommended Organizations and Programmes

 

Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, India, Mumbai (from Anita  Miya)

 

405A/407, Jolly Bhavan No. 1, 10, New Marine Lines, Mumbai - 400 020; Tel: +91-22-22006337; Fax: +91-22-22005677 anita@akpbsi.org; www.akdn.org;

 

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a group of development agencies with a wide range of mandates across multiple sectors

 

United Nations Children's Education Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi (from Nripendra Sarma, Public Health Engineering Department, Guwahati)

 

73 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 110003; Tel: 91-11-24690401; Fax: 91-11-24627521; newdelhi@unicef.org; https://www.unicef.org/india/children_2357.htm

 

UN agency which works on sanitation and hygiene education, it is concerned with making sanitation more inclusive

 

From Kurian Baby, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Netherlands

 

Jalanidhi, Thiruvanthanpuram

 

PTC Towers, SS Kovil Road, Thampanoor, Thiruvanthanpuram 695001, Kerala; Tel: 91-471-233700; Fax: 91-471-2337004; mis@jalanidhi.com; http://jalanidhi.com/decentralization.htm

 

State-level project assisted by the World Bank to provide water and sanitation services, and augment groundwater resources in the state

 

Kudumbashree, Kerala

 

State Poverty Eradication Mission, TRIDA Rehabilitation Building, Medical College P.O, Trivandrum, Kerala; Tel: 91-11-471-2554714; Fax: 91-471-2554717; info@kudumbashree.org; http://www.kudumbashree.org/

 

Kudumbashree promotes women's self-help groups for building houses, toilets, access to drinking water, sanitary facilities and garbage collection

 

Peer Water Exchange, Karnataka (from Rajesh Shah, Peer Water Exchange, Bangalore)

 

163, Laughing Waters, Varthur Road, Ramagondanahalli, Bangalore 560066, Karnataka; Tel: 1-510-3384538; Fax: 1-4157624340; info@blueplanetnetwork.org; http://www.peerwater.org

 

Is a combination of process, technology, and a human network designed to India's water and sanitation issues

 

Responses in Full 

 

Anita Miya, Aga Khan Planning and Building Service India, Mumbai

 

The Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, India (AKPBS,I) implemented Environment Health Improvement Programme from 2007-2009  in two districts of Gujarat, namely Junagadh and Patan, covering an estimated 18,000 households in 50 villages. The programme aimed to achieve 100 per cent access to sanitation unit comprising a toilet, bathroom and a soak-pit. With the exclusion of existing coverage, the project’s target was 8,608. However at the end of the project, we achieved 91 per cent coverage (7,864 units) despite doing our best in community mobilization, promotion of gender involvement and providing appropriate technical options. We did an analysis of non-coverage of 9 per cent families and following were the findings:  (This paper was presented in WASH conference in 2010, entitled coverage’)

 

1. 15 per cent of families were unable to construct due to unavailability of land /space within their own premises
2. Nomadic communities and migrant labour had no land holdings  or lived on  farms
3. Hard strata of land make excavation of pits difficult
4. Households illegally situated (usually belonging to marginalized community members)
5. Political problems with existing Panchayat and  previous Panchayat

 

Based on the findings, following solutions can be adopted

 

• Community/shared toilets are an option to be facilitated only if 2-3 households come forward on their own. We do not advocate shared toilets unless and until community members express desire for same. The second barrier could be addressed by use of pit/trench type of latrines with soil used for backfilling by migrants.  The village community and Panchayat collectively need to ensure that sanitation units have raised pits (though cost will be little high)  
• Problem 4 and 5 depend on mobilization efforts and willingness of the Panchayat

 

Though above mentioned are few of the suggestions which are not enough for addressing marginalized community’s watsan issues. AKPBS,I would be also keenly looking for more solution from network partners.

 

Nripendra Sarma, Public Health Engineering Department, Guwahati

 

It is really an important discussion initiated to find out the tools / strategies for reducing the social exclusion and thereby to enhance the reach of the services and benefit to the most marginalized communities. 

 

 

In Assam, although different flagship programmes are being implemented, but still there is a long way to reach some of the marginalized sections, especially the Tea Garden Labour Community and the inhabitants of the Char Areas etc.

 

 

The Tea Garden Labour Communities are the main workforce in the Tea Gardens. Each Garden authority engages their labour force and allows them to settle in a particular area inside the Garden called as “Labour Line”. Garden authorities confine the Labour communities in such Labour Lines by providing some sort of shelter etc. The Tea Garden Labour Communities are getting deprived because of many reasons as follows:

 

 

It is a naked truth that Tea Garden Authorities are more interested in earning profit and for that they heavily bank on the Labour Communities. So their mandate does not seem to provide the basic needs, like education, better health & hygiene and minimum living standard etc. to the Labour Communities. Because, more and more they remain marginalized, the more they will remain loyal to the Tea Garden Authorities. So there is no priority for

 

1. Better Education
2. Good housing and living environment
3. Better Health & Hygiene approach (leads to incidence of diarrhoeal diseases)
4. Basic needs of safe water & sanitation etc.
5. Social Norms leading to many discriminatory attitudes and ill practices like liquor etc.
6. Low Awareness level.   
7. No efforts to increase the basic understandings on quality of life

The Char Areas in Assam includes different river islands and the low-lying the river banks etc. These areas become vulnerable during rainy seasons due to recurring floods. So the inhabitants from these areas need to migrant to some high land areas and come back again after the recession of floods. Thus their settlement is not at all permanent in nature and because of such temporary nature; the inhabitants from these settlement do not opt for better options of their basic needs, like safe water & sanitation, housing etc.

 

Different problems with the Communities of the Char Areas are as follows:

 

1. Tackling the threats from river erosion.
2. Struggling with the means of living along with the problems due to water logging and flood menace.
3. Absence of education facilities for the whole year.
4. Social Norms arising out of local Leaders and less political uprising.
5. Less education leading to Lack of Awareness on the basic understandings on quality of life, including safe water, sanitation & hygiene practices.

 

 

In this connection, we would like to put forward the following approach / methodologies that may perhaps be helpful for these marginalised communities:

 

a)    Major thrust on Education.

 

b)    Social Empowerment keeping the whole community in the forefront through awareness generation drive / social audit etc.

 

c)    Widening the net of implementation for the Govt. sponsored programmes and the implementation should be oriented not on target coverage basis but on real usage / availability of the benefits basis.

 

d)    Fixation of accountability on the concerned authorities

 

e)    Ensuring the involvement of NGOs / SHGs / CBOs for overall uplift of the Communities and also for status monitoring and evaluation etc.

 

f)     All sorts of social change will need constant follow-up and hence the involvement of NGOs / SHGs / CBOs or any other Civil Society Group etc. should not be a particular programme (merely for few days) based, but a continuous process till the real uplift takes place.     

 

 

Thanking you and wishing the UNICEF’s Country Programme to adopt more focused and result oriented strategies to facilitate the desired development of the marginalized communities.

 

Lee Macqueen Paul, National Dalit Watch, New Delhi

 

I am sending some questionnaires that we use for inclusion monitoring surveys during disasters, namely, the massive floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in 2009. While the AP survey questionnaires are more focused on assessing the relief operations of the government in the state, and scrutinising the mechanism of relief distribution and later the entitlements to Dalits, the Karnataka study questionnaires have covered gender aspects too.

 

The questionnaires focus on the aspects of relief services of the government after a disaster strikes. The questions enquire into the concealed practice of discrimination and exclusion on the basis of caste. These questions probe into the given scenario, to find out whether Dalits were able to seek relief with dignity, what they felt about the manner in which relief was given, their views about the officials and other people’s attitude towards them during relief and so on. Moreover, the questions also attempt to see whether the damages and losses suffered by Dalits were enumerated for compensation or not, whether they received any entitlements or not. Therefore, the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) guidelines are brought into the questionnaire.

 

Similarly, the Karnataka study questionnaire, while having a similar focus on assessing relief, damage and losses to Dalits, and rehabilitation services, also enquires about the kind of basic amenities provided by the government and how much Dalits had access to these services. More emphasis is put on covering certain aspects from the women and children angle, to see that the quality of services also took into consideration the special needs of women and children, while ensuring security and protection in the relief shelters. 

 

Annie Namala, Programme for Inclusion and Equity, New Delhi

 

I thank Nripendra Sarma for the information on the tea garden labour, a carryover of the colonial strategies for cheap labour. It is no credit to us that we continue the same after 60 years of independence. What the information brings out critically is the need to evolve comprehensive projects with integrated strategies looking at the different aspects of their life and livelihood for social inclusion. For the most marginalised piece-meal strategies do not work. Hence the need to identify these pockets -however small or big and the state to take a comprehensive inclusive development for them. Your insights are very useful for this discussion.

 

Anita Miya’s study inference, particularly at the analysis of the non-covered families, is extremely valuable and I thank her for it. It once more points to the difficulties in reaching the last mile. But more important from your study has been to look at the characteristics of the uncovered families - those who did not come forward to make use of the 'services/development programmes provided'. We often think of them as being not interested or not aware -but this points to more deeper structural issues and the need for recognizing them to create institutional solutions that expecting individual solutions for the same.

 

Mashkoor Alam, National Conference of Dalit Organizations, New Delhi

 

We are sharing two documents on water and social inclusion prepared by our organisation. One has issue case studies from various states ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071106.docx(Word 128 Kb)and the other has an overview of the ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/wes/cr/res-15071107.doc (Word, 1 MB).

 

Seema Kulkarni, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management, Pune

 

Structural inequity is one of the less addressed areas in the water sector. Inequities in water access, resulting due to caste, gender and class locations have not been sufficiently highlighted in debates and discussions around water policy and practice. The social and gender equity gauge (SGEG) is an effort to gauge the social and gender inequities in the water sector. The focus is on communities and social groups and particularly gender across these social groups. The SGEG is at a nascent stage and hopes to generate some discussion on the need for social and gender inequities data in the context of water.

 

The main purpose of this gauge is to make a political statement on the need to attend to the structural inequities in the water sector, which often are glossed over by the discourses around scarcity and conflicts. As we progressed through the work on developing the tool to assess the social and gender inequities in the water sector we had several questions before us in terms of who would use it, how would it be used, should we develop it as a single index, which is attractive for policy makers, as it would capture their attention? This would mean providing the necessary weightages and aggregating these weightages to represent the data in a single number.

 

Or should it rather be a set of data that is indicative of the extent and nature of inequities. These are not resolved questions yet and can be taken ahead further through discussions amongst various concerned groups. We hope that this forum would look at the data and the methods critically. Give us feedback in terms of its relevance in drawing political attention to the much neglected area within the sector.

 

V Kurian Baby, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Netherlands

 

As the poor and the marginalized are increasingly getting excluded from the development process and there are increasing volume of evidences of growing inequity in service delivery, conscious efforts are required to ensure equity and sustainability of basic service delivery, which is essential for dignified human existence. Though progressive measures have been adopted, especially in the context of shifting approaches gradually from supply driven to demand driven, it is unfortunate that, inequity and inclusion have only aggravated. Over the years, inclusive designs like subsidies and targeted programmes have been proved to be regressive, the rich and powerful reaping high proportion of the benefits. As the query rightly address, the key to inclusion is not in planning and design alone, but in quality of implementation and in effectives of monitoring and correction. This is an iterative process as every attempt to find out a solution, alter the nature and manifestations of the problem itself.

 

Let me share some of my inferences from experience at macro-level planning at State level and project /programme implementation in wash sector, which may be of some relevance in the discussion.

 

Tools/instruments/strategies that have been used to enable the participation

 

 

 

Participatory planning	Bottom-up planning process involving communities at the grass roots level, adopting PRA tools and resource mapping, participatory perspective plans and annual priorities (e.g., Decentralized planning process in Kerala – Jalanidhi RWSS programme in Kerala, CLTS, Sanitation success stories in West Bengal etc.)
Social Assessment/PPA /Wealth Ranking	Participatory Poverty Appraisal, wealth ranking  for identifying likely exclusions to improve designs In every development project, the donor agencies like the World Bank is following meticulously third party social assessment  for inclusive designs ( indigenous people’s component in WB projects)
Voice to the voiceless  & Transparency/ Social capital	Through representation in key positions, in decision making Informed choice – to reduce information asymmetry Training and capacity building programme as empowerment tools Citizens charter Voluntary disclosure, public expenditure tracking and social audit Leveraging social capital
Informed choice and Awareness/ Process /software driven	The key to inclusion is informed choice and information in local language and forms – demystified Design shall be process driven with concurrent process audit
Technology Options	Menu of technology options - most of the technologies and designs, by design lead to exclusion ( e.g., Drinking water service in comprehensive schemes- geographical variations, scarcity conditions) Design encourage intra- service area exclusions by pressure differences and poor service level
Policy & Fiscal/Financial Options	Enabling policy guidelines ( Kerala guidelines for gender budgeting, gender audit, earmarked budget for destitute etc) Targeted subsidies – direct transfer to poor -  Cross subsidies
Differential Scheme Cycle	Helps the poor and excluded sufficient time to catch up and participate for their own benefit – providing more time and targeted capacity building including financial participation
Normative Design with broad based stakeholder base	Design and implementation by norms allowing very little discretionary options Wider stakeholder base to help improved transparency and checks and balances
M4P – Market for the Poor	Economic empowerment tools to improve ownership – better demand equitable services Allowing market – de-clogging channels and reduce distortions) to work for generating demand for the services of the poor thereby they can demand services they want (Kudumbasree movement in Kerala – SHGs/micro-finance) Innovative financing options – cash/labour/kind contributions/thrift & credit, upgradability options for affordability.

 

The proven method of inclusion is to make every one pay on the basis of service enjoyed and let the excluded be empowered financially and in social capacities to demand and access the services, which provide equity at all levels. The approach will maximize social welfare and address the poor and marginalized in much more effective way. There are about 3500 small and medium drinking water schemes operating in Kerala following 100% O&M cost recovery and in terms of inclusion 45% of the participating households belong to BPL against 35% state average. Jalanidhi also have successful models of rehabilitation of about 120 KWA single Panchayat schemes having sub-optimal performance on 100% cost recovery moving away from the concept of free provision, which is iniquitous and skewed. When people stand on their own they feel powerful, when they are powerful they demand.

 

There are many ways of measuring inclusion as mentioned in the query itself including inclusion/process audit, service level, access, reliability based on income quintiles also qualitative tools. One method which IRC has recently used in Andhra Pradesh is the one following the GIS tools having layers of services, infrastructure and social maps to analyze exclusion between center and the periphery and income /cast strata as part of the WashCost study. (contact Charles Batchelor wrmltd@aol.com; Snehalatha  Sreedhar  sneha-sreedhar@yahoo.com). The analysis have demonstrated stark inequity in access and service level with in the Grama panchayat.

 

Surendra Kumar Yadav, Vikram University, Ujjain

 

Unfortunately, in India, if all rules/ provisions and law is obeyed and implemented for marginalized groups then half of the related problems shall vanish automatically. Marginalized groups are not getting their share and rights. Evidence for this is number of cases pending in different Courts. Reforms required in all sectors. There must be fast tract courts for justice, as there is little hope from judiciary. There is so much corruption in the country that marginalized groups are sufferer on many instances as there is violation of their rights.

 

Anil Gupta, Independent Consultant, New Delhi

 

I have been CEO of the first public-private partnership in sanitation/municipal solid waste in Delhi. I know for sure most of noble targets have not being met as envisaged while nation/public is at the receiving end in terms of accumulating garbage, no segregation scientifically done, most of the time rag pickers shown as employees engaged, no segregated waste being carried separately, dumped/processed separately and this is happening everywhere in India wherever JNNURM funds being made available, to ensure follow up of the Municipal Solid Waste Rules 2000.

 

Ravi Nitesh, Mission Bhartiyam, Lucknow

 

Social exclusion on the basis of caste and gender still exists in our society and is one the main barriers to development. It is a practical truth that still some of the societies are known as Ambedkar Basti/Ambedkar Villages, who has majority population of SC/STs. These areas are confined, dense populated and still lack of sanitation and inadequate water supply systems.

The basic method is to include these populations in execution. Awareness programmes should be organized regularly, infrastructure should be maintained and even one best house may be choose every month for best sanitation.  Addressing the political aspects of exclusion will also be required; with a focus on development related works and use of RTI by citizens that may bring some change.

Local centres should be established in partnership with local NGOs and the government to enable people to file their complaints/problems/suggestions. By analysing these applications, an expert panel may create the strategy/methodology for an overall geographical area, which can be shared/used by government at the time of policy making and its execution. It will be a true and democratic approach because it will be as per the people's wish mixed with experts’ advice.

 

A survey should be conducted regarding quantity of water supply, methods, operation and maintenance procedures, loop holes in supply systems, etc.

 

Rajesh Shah, Peer Water Exchange, Bangalore

 

The Peer Water Exchange (PWX) can help address this problem:

By creating one central exchange that can hold all the projects of all the different agencies, we can create a picture of all the actions in the field. This will help identify which communities are not being served. For the ones we 'think' are being served, we need to get frequent reports that get tied to the official project.

By allowing any person to report on any project, even via SMS, we can actually see if the project is working as intended. Thus actual reports are allowed to contradict the 'official and final report'. So we can create a real picture that is visible to everyone.

SMS input gives some power to the marginalized (as many of them have access to mobile) and they can at least let the world know the actual state. It gives them some power to show the reality, to ask for the right solutions, and to challenge the official picture is a source of inclusion.

More detail in my response to other query on O&M and rest on the website: www.peerwater.org.

 

Aasha Ramesh, Gender and Development Consultant, Bangalore

 

The 'Tools and Strategies for Ensuring Social Inclusion,' is an issue that requires special attention and concerted effort to ensure that adequate representation is ensured, to prevent exclusion.

 

 

While it is important that the different tools suggested would be used so that the programme/project ensures social inclusion. But what is equally important is also the need for a 'Social Inclusion Policy and Strategy' that will clearly outline how this can be applied at different levels.

 

 

A word of caution is that 'Social Exclusion', should not meet the fate of what has often happened to 'Gender', where women in numbers are included and it becomes a gender programme, without actually addressing and challenging the impact of gender relations. Therefore, ' Social Inclusion,' should not limit itself to numbers for representation. There should be special strategies to ensure it translates into action of the following;

 

• Actual participation-----maintaining also the gender balance
• Active decision-making roles
• Include the socially excluded groups right from the planning to the implementing stages of the project/programme
• Capacity building training on an ongoing basis to build leadership, equip them to undertake monitoring/audits of their project/programme

Also social exclusion should desist from being a mere cosmetic exercise and wherever their representation in mixed groups is envisaged, their numbers should form the critical mass, otherwise, they will continue to be on the periphery and marginalised. Even in the inclusion of the socially excluded groups, care should be ensured that all marginal groups are adequately represented, to avoid the creamy layer syndrome from dominating in the project/programmatic.

 

 

It is absolutely necessary that any project/programme developed, needs to be done applying the 'social inclusion lens'. Similarly when monitoring programmes which have mixed groups, it is imperative that it is done through, 'social inclusion lens'.

Unless the group that is excluded is capacitated to focus on this issue, it will not be translated into action. Therefore, it is crucial that the socially excluded groups are guided and supported to promote the process of 'social inclusion'.

I have been involved in several programmes where bottom up planning is employed and the local team is trained and equipped to look into the issues mentioned above and hence I have shared my experience.

Ramakrishna Nallathiga, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad

Some of the tools like microplanning for infrastructure services including water and sanitation, have been brought out under the lesson learning document prepared by me at CGG from the APUSP programme funded by DFID. Also, it has examples of some tools that bring in accountability like Third party quality assurance, community contracting and infrastructure improvement planning (micro-planning). The soft copy of report is available for download at following link: http://www.cgg.gov.in/dfid/08050158_CG_BK01_120p.pdf/ 

Many thanks to all who contributed to this query!

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