Govt to rate gram panchayats on 36 parameters for effective fund intervention

The central government is creating a model to assess all the 250,000 gram panchayats in the country on 36 different parameters that include maternal mortality rate, cleanliness, irrigation facilities available, number of homeless people, etc to better target its various socio-economic interventions. The parameters have been prepared after a careful analysis of the various socio-economic conditions in the villages and will be used to create a baseline of them so that targeted and proper interventions can be made, Union Rural Development Secretary Amarjeet Sinha said.

He was addressing a national workshop on solid and liquid waste management in rural areas.  Sinha said among the 250,000-odd gram panchayats, around 60,000-70,000 are the ones which have well-developed network of women self help groups (SHGs) and support systems and they are expected to perform better on the 36-parameter yardstick.

Sinha said eight states with 50 gram panchayats have agreed to prepare proper solid and liquid waste management plans for their villages according to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. All the development plans in the villages would necessarily have to have sanitation as part of their programmes.

“We are urging states to include cleanliness and sanitation as part of the development plans of all departments in central and states governments so that a dedicated fund is available for the same,” secretary in the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, Parmeshwaran Iyer said.

He said in the last eight months, the number of open defecation free (ODF) villages has risen fourfold from around 25,000-30,000 villages to over 104,000 villages now. India has around 650,000 villages.

The Centre plans to make all the 650,000 villages in the country ODF in the next two-three years. Kerala and Himachal Pradesh are expected to be two major states who could declare themselves ODF in the next few months and also those who have 100 per cent sanitation coverage. At present, Kerala has a sanitation coverage of 96.52 per cent, while in Himachal Pradesh almost 99.74 per cent of the population has access to proper sanitation facilities and they are also using it.

Iyer said the percentage of sanitation coverage in the country has also increased from 42 per cent, when the Swatch Bharat Mission was launched, to almost 56 per cent now.  “This 14 percentage point increase in sanitation coverage has come on the back drop of increased awareness among states and general public.

However, there are some states like Bihar, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh where the sanitation coverage is less than 40 per cent, which means less than 40 per cent of the population has access to proper sanitation facilities. Among them, Bihar stands the worst with just 25 per cent sanitation coverage.

The top five best states in terms of sanitation coverage are Sikkim (100 Percent), Kerala (96.52 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (99.74 per cent), Uttarakhand (87 per cent coverage), Gujarat (81 per cent coverage) and also Haryana.

“We are requesting the states to speed up construction of toilets,” Iyer said.