The Aga Khan Foundation has bagged an award for implementing a development model that aims to improve access to water and sanitation for marginalised communities across urban and rural areas of the country.
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) of the prestigious foundation received the FICCI-India Sanitation Coalition prize for the initiative that seeks to contribute towards building an open-defecation free India by 2019 under the 'Swachh Bharat' mission, the Foundation today said.
The Foundation's CEO Tinni Sawhney and other dignitaries from the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) received the award from Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on April 27.
"The initiative aims to improve access to water and sanitation for marginalised communities across urban and rural India, including helping 100,000 families and 538 schools, and build toilets in the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh," the Foundation said.
"The model that we have implemented is a collaborative initiative, working in close partnership with the district and state government, prioritising a strong behavioural change component to ensure sustained use and maintenance of sanitation facilities," Sawhney said.
The integrated block-level sanitation model is being piloted in rural Bihar.
The approach focuses on community-led initiatives for ensuring universal sanitation coverage at the village and block level, real time tracking of household sanitation coverage, monitoring improvements in key hygiene behaviours using a mobile-based application, the Foundation said.
Besides, the model seeks to strengthen the sanitation supply chain through training of masons, including making available required materials for toilet construction, it added.
The model, which is being implemented by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme and the Aga Khan Foundation, is part of AKDN's wider, pan-national comprehensive sanitation initiative.
Earlier, a project in Gujarat's taluka of Siddhpur, undertaken by the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, had received a "Nirmal Gram" award, the Foundation said.
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