Anju Dwivedi

Urban India continues to face the sanitation challenge and governmental efforts have contributed greatly to improving sanitation in the country. However, various non-governmental institutions have also experimented with innovative ideas in different regional contexts to meet the needs of the community and to ensure access to safe sanitation.

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.

Women and young girls fetching water from distant sources, walking miles, carrying loads on the head, some pots precariously placed at their waist is a familiar scene, especially in low and medium-income countries where water scarcity is high.

Despite an enabling framework for implementation of Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) initiatives, there exists a vacuum concerning specific guidelines/rules for the selection of sites for setting up of Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants (FSTPs).

Gyanchand Mishra, Councillor of Ward 3, is the President of the Ward Sanitation Committee (WSC) and is also a member of the City Sanitation Task Force (CSTF).

Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) has close linkages with a variety of development themes such as environment, health and human rights.

To fully leverage the health, well-being and environmental benefits of improved sani­tation access provision of safe, economical and sustainable emptying, transportation and treat­ment facilities for faecal waste become impera­tive.

Considering the overarching depen­dence on onsite sanitation systems, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), GoI launched the “National Policy on Faecal Sludge and Septage Management” in February 2017.

Under Project Nirmal, a detailed planning process was undertaken for designing Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) interventions in Angul and Dhenkanal Municipalities based on the existing sanitation situation in the towns, the techno-economic feasibility as well as cap

Radharamanpada is an unauthorised slum in Angul with 300 houses. The president of the slum sanitation committee Janaki Sahu, a 28-year-old mother of four, runs a street food stall on the main road. There are seven women in the committee of eleven, working on sanitation solution for populations that remain underserved.