Women are pioneering inclusive water and sanitation services in urban poor settlements

Across the world and in India, collective organisations run by and representing women have emerged as important platforms for demanding basic amenities like water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and services. There has been a consensus that collective local organisations have several benefits for their communities, which has led to an increased emphasis on creating and sustaining these groups. These organisations lead to empowerment for individual women and their communities, enabling women to take on more agency and ensuring accountability from local governments.

A study conducted by Scaling City Institutions for India, Centre for Policy Research (SCI-FI, CPR) and Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), supported by Sanitation Learning Hub, Institute of Development Studies (IDS),  Sussex on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Urban WASH in Odisha has revealed several changes brought about by foregrounding community participation and women’s representation.

Participatory research through focus group discussions and other qualitative methods such as social and resource mapping, and stakeholder analysis conducted with the women leaders in the urban poor communities found several impacts flowed from enabling women to step up and take on leadership positions within their community. By having regular weekly meetings, building up capacity and familiarity with government processes, creating livelihood opportunities, and implementing interventions and schemes at the grassroots level, these collectives were able to demand and acquire crucial infrastructure for their local area.

The Odisha government is supporting women's leadership through Mission Shakti Groups (MSGs), which are self-help groups (SHGs) and Slum Development Associations (SDAs) in every urban slum. This approach created a strong network of local organisations, which could then be incorporated as a new "fourth" tier of governance, whereby government schemes and interventions could be implemented.

There has also been a strong emphasis on enabling women’s participation and leadership: most SHGs are entirely constituted by women, and SDAs too usually have more than 50% of women on their executive committee. This allowed for several positive outcomes: it made the implementing agency responsive and flexible to the communities’ actual needs, built up capacity within the community and added new avenues of social capital that communities could leverage. 

On the one hand, these women-led collectives like SDAs and MSGs work in close coordination with the ULB for the implementation of various schemes – MUKTA[1], JAGA Mission[2] in the slum. They functioned as an intermediary between the community and the ULB and as an implementing agency for the ULB. Area Level Federation (ALF) of self-help groups in Dhenkanal took up the work order for the Operation & Maintenance (O&M) of the Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) in Dhenkanal through a direct contract between the ALF and the Dhenkanal Municipality.

On the other hand, these women-led community-based groups facilitate community members’ linking with the poor and marginalised to access benefits from ongoing schemes and programmes of water and sanitation and other social security programmes of the government, such as availing of subsidies provided by the government for the construction of houses and individual household latrines and accessing tap water connections. Most marginalised communities were dependent on community wells before tap connections were provided. While it was reported in the group discussions that families could take water from individual wells of their neighbours, our interactions with the scheduled caste households suggested that caste rules continue to be followed: they preferred to take water from the community wells, which are at a distance from their houses, over going to neighbours' houses of different castes.

Piped water connection at the household level has helped alleviate some of the challenges faced by vulnerable groups due to their caste status, as most marginalised groups now have individual connections and rely less on community water sources (hand pumps and community wells). Access to the piped water supply at the household level has also reduced the burden on women (including older women and young girls) fetching water, and some (as reported by SHG members) could invest time in community work.

In addition, these women-led community-based groups connect with the ULB for issues related to solid waste collection and accessing desludging services for on-site sanitation systems. Women-led SHGs and SDAs were crucial in maintaining COVID-19 safety protocols within urban poor settlements. They also ensured quarantine in the slums for those returning from other districts, cities, and states. SHGs and SDAs ensured that community members observed social distancing and maintained proper queues while procuring water from tankers and using community toilets.

Since the lockdown was imposed in the peak summer of March 2020, poor communities have faced water scarcity. SHGs supported residents by demanding water tankers from ULBs and helped people access the water by following the norms of social distancing. In addition, these women-led collectives facilitated the preparation and distribution of free cooked food for three months. SHG members also distributed dry rations to residents who lost their source of income during the pandemic. SDA and SHG members executed work orders under the UWEI[3] and JAGA Mission. This provided a source of income to members and other residents who lost their livelihoods during the pandemic.

In addition, through the UWEI, residents were engaged in constructing community assets such as rainwater harvesting structures, roads, drains, Parichay Kendras (community centres), and so on. These works involved the community members as labourers and generated employment, especially during COVID when there was low demand for labour and many people had lost their jobs.

The results of this engagement have been very encouraging. Not only have the CBOs actively implemented several community-level infrastructure projects, but they have also become strong voices in their communities. For example, in one incident, they pressured the government to ensure that the piped water that was being provided should be extended to all slum households, not just the ones with permanent tenure. They have also been more broadly able to mobilise their communities and spread awareness while also demanding accountability from local governments.

This has allowed for a great deal of participation in planning decisions, allowing government interventions like slum upgradations to be flexible to accommodate local community needs. Meanwhile, their work in constructing and maintaining WASH infrastructure has built up capacity within the community while also generating income and livelihood for the settlement.

These findings highlight the importance of supporting local collectives as important community institutions. While policies and interventions should always be designed with women and marginalised groups in mind, it is also valuable to emphasise the importance of collective decision-making as a tool for creating strong and resilient communities. These groups allow women to step up and take on more agency for themselves and their communities and create a new system of leaders who are responsive and attuned to local needs and aspirations. Strengthening these collectives will allow them to take on more responsibilities, further increasing their potential as a vehicle for increasing participation and inclusion. In the long run, such collective organisations can act as a vital source of support and strength to marginalised groups.

Authors: Anju Dwivedi (Associate Fellow), Abhinav Kumar (Senior Research Associate), Andrew DeSouza (Research Associate) from Scaling City Institutions for India, Centre for Policy Research