Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan: Gujarat fails to achieve target in constructing toilets in schools, anganwadis

A just-released report, the Union ministry of drinking water and sanitation has found that Gujarat has faltered in meeting annual implementation plan (AIP) target for the constructing toilets in schools in rural areas. The report, which is actually a detailed agenda note for review meeting with state principal secretaries/ secretaries in charge of rural sanitation, scheduled for August 25, has said that in the financial year 2013-14 Gujarat achieved just 24.3 per cent of the AIP target as against cent per cent by Kerala and Rajasthan, 60.5 per cent by Karnataka, and 51.6 per cent by West Bengal. The all-India average for meeting the AIP target was 48.4 per cent.
In the year 2014-15, the report states, as of July 2014, Gujarat’s achievement for constructing toilets in schools has been zero. The report regrets, Gujarat happens to be one of the dozen-odd states which haven’t been able to meet even the national AIP average for 2014-15, which is 4.2 per cent, for toilets in schools, nor has it achieved the 100 day target. Other states with poor performance in meeting the 100-day target are Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttarakhand.

Achievement in construction of toilets in schools 2013-14

Worse, the report states that Gujarat could meet just 10.4 per cent of the AIP target for constructing toilets in anganwadis in rural areas, as against the all-India average of 27.8 per cent. Tamil Nadu met cent per cent targets, followed by Rajasthan 83.2 per cent, Karnataka 40.5 per cent, and Madhya Pradesh 35.2 per cent. The report underlines, “The maintenance of school and anganwadi toilets is a major issue”, and to achieve the targets, the report underlines, states much attract corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, apart from tapping on government sources.
The report is based on the data provided by the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, a flagship programme begun by the previous UPA government. The report says, the states which have failed to achieve their targets under Nirmal Bharat should accelerate the pace of implementation as they are registering “slow progress.” It points out, the Prime Minister wants that “all schools will have to be provided with for separate toilets for boys and girls by August 15, 2015”, adding, all states should make plans in order to achieve the target, and may submit requirements for this.

Achievement in construction of toilets in anganwadis 2013-14

The poor achievement in constructing school and anganwadi toilets in rural areas of Gujarat, however, has been offset by the state’s excellent performance by achieving cent per cent target in 2013-14 in the construction of toilets in individual households, the data suggest. Another state, apart from Gujarat, which achieved cent per cent target is Karnataka. In 2014-15 (till July), too, the report suggests, Gujarat has performed reasonable well by achieving 10.3 per cent of the target as against the all-India average of 3.7 per cent.
The report gives data from three different sources of the per cent of individual households having toilets in rural India. Thus, according to the Census of India 2011, Gujarat’s 34.24 per cent of individual households had toilets, as against the all-India average of 32.67 per cent. According to the 2012 National Sample Survey, 41.3 per cent Gujarat households had toilets, as against national average of 40.6 per cent. And, as per the rural sanitation coverage baseline survey (2012-13), 52.75 per cent Gujarat households had toilets, as against the national average of 40.35 per cent.

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The most striking comment came from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who stated : "When a train derailed in the 1950s, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned. On the same morality, I demand PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Naidu resign so that a free and fair inquiry can be held. All that Modi and his associates have been doing so far is gallivanting, which must stop." Amidst widespread mourning, some fringe elements sought to communalize the tragedy. One post ...

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

Search This Blog