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Chapter - IV

Media and Rural Sanitation

Introduction

In a developing country like India, media can play a proactive role in bringing

about behavioral change in the rural masses. Role of media has turned decisive in

democracy as well as in the process of socio-economic development of India. It has been

effectively used by the media mandarins and the people in power to spread the messages

across on important socio – economic changes and in motivating rural masses towards

accepting the proposed change. This has culminated in influencing opinions and attitudes

of rural masses1. The agenda-setting function has jettisoned media habits and its

consumption to a large extent. The whole gamut of media space though is pre occupied

with personalities in power, focused coverage of issues closer to the heart of people also

surface from time to time. Development specialized areas like sanitation, needs insight

into technical and technological areas to understand the issues and put that in perspective.

It is the rural communities’ involvement that needs emphasis on coverage in

media, where success stories inspire other members of the community to take to

prescribed sanitation practices. It is here, role of media and communication turns

paramount for any successful sanitation implementation. Development organisations and

government departments follow a multipronged strategy and bank on a variety of media

like print, electronic, folk, audio and other social media for spread of sanitation.

Media campaigns in tandem with programme implementation helped many

schemes to reach out to its targeted group. Also, Information and Communication

Technologies (ICTs) and the integration in mobile media helped volunteers to spread

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messages on rural sanitation and share knowledge based on field (learning) experiences.

Even success stories on different modalities of implementation from across the globe are

shared through web resources on issues vital in rural sanitation.

Internet in the new millennium facilitated and fostered understanding of

government, its people of different communities. The exchange of information is on a

fast track with options to choose from a variety of services (read mainly government) in

the field of development. This shows how technology-enabled development process is

slowly but steadily put in place by the governmental agencies. A lot of awareness is being

generated awareness among the people on this.

In 2003, the GoI launched an exclusive website for sanitation and drinking water

supply. A comprehensive website is offering full information on sanitation programmes

and initiatives. Also, data bases and information resources are made available on the

portal, which is updated frequently. Online monitoring of schemes, programmes,

campaigns, etc are done by accessing the website with innumerable links on rural

sanitation.

India Sanitation Portal, an open, inclusive, web-based platform engaged in

sharing of knowledge by both practitioners and the general public. In November 2008,

India Sanitation Portal was launched as a collaborative effort between several

organisations at the South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN).

Arghyam, Water Aid, WASH Institute, WES-Net, UNICEF, Water for People,

SEI, Plan International all take part in discussions on water and sanitation Programs and

have actively engaged in sanitation information dissemination at the first given

opportunity. DDWS and GoI also endorsed the launch at SACOSAN and the portal, the

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end users within governments in South Asian Countries, NGOs, media and others want

the portal to be more vibrant and resourceful.

As web resources are very helpful to media people and development professionals

working in sanitation sector, care was taken to provide the latest through the rich

experience of experts which reached out to wider audience through Internet.

The initial hiccups in awareness generation coupled with lack of proper understanding by

various communities acted as a stumbling block in knowledge sharing.

With the spread of information awareness, sanitation sector could successfully overcome

its shortcomings in sensitization programmes.

Portals are working overtime now to address sharing of best practices, advocating

approaches which are sustainable in nature, bringing transparency of public data and

information, and simultaneously spreading awareness on sanitation. Keeping all these in

view, information highway (the Internet) is a big platform to address the sanitation issue2.

However, the ultimate objective was to ensure that the equity and sustainability

issues are addressed proper in the sanitation sector. Technological advantages opted by

GoI, will go a long way in handling Indian rural sanitation in future.

Informed debates and improved practices have the potential to catalyse change on

a large-scale, which can be successfully done through sharing of knowledge and

information. Expanding knowledge base to cater to the variegated needs of people needs

a systematic approach of channelizing communication for the overall good and

development of people.

Web platforms go to localize sanitation issue and motivate the public to take an

active part, which helps in overall sustainability of the programmes and schemes

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launched by the government. Media, on its part can prioritize developments in sanitation

and put the whole thing in perspective so that campaigns launched for publics have the

desired outreach. It is when people understand and empathize with the issue, simple

answers provide far reaching solutions.

At the district level, sanitation is a matter of concern, this when articulated

through the columns of newspapers or when it goes to fill the time and space of

television, it will have the desired impact on people and their behaviour at the village

level.

Good awareness generation helps in arousing curiosity of people and to sustain

this, we need creative campaigns (mostly generated by locals) which run on a continuous

basis. Subtle messages beamed to the targeted group will usher in the desired change in

individuals.

Poor sanitation: A Challenge for Public Health

To sustain good sanitation practices is a big challenge for public health

management. In rural areas, inadequate sanitation facilities, low hygienic practices

aggravate the problem of sanitation.

Many developing countries including India are facing sanitation as a big

challenge for development process and inclusive development. It is sad reflection that

even today 62 per cent of Africans do not have access to an improved sanitation facility -

a proper toilet -- which keeps human waste away from human contact. People who live

without access to a toilet at home are vulnerable to a range of health risks, according to

the WHO/UNICEF JMP for Water Supply and Sanitation.

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Cornerstone of Public Health

WHO’s concentration on health issues include sanitation as a major area of

concern for good health. Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO terms "Sanitation as

a cornerstone of public health.” His concerns are echoed by many organizations working

in this area and the gist of all such concerns say that improved sanitation contributes

enormously to human health and well-being, especially for girls and women, minimal

interventions helps in arresting cases of diarrhoea and the associated risks can be reduced

drastically.

An estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide gained access to improved sanitation

between 1990 and 2004. However, an estimated 2.6 billion people (more than double the

numbers who have access) - including 980 million children – had no toilets at home3. If

this trend continues, there will be 2.4 billion people even without basic sanitation in

2015. Children are vulnerable targets of water borne diseases, malnutrition and will miss

schooling, which will impact the younger generation and negate the development

process.

It is startling that nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population lacks access to

toilets, and have to suffer on dignity and safety issues. The absence of adequate sanitation

has a serious impact on health and social development, especially for children.

Investments in improving sanitation will accelerate progress towards the MDGs and save

lives.

Studies done in the past reinforced that sanitation is not just a matter of providing

facilities and ensuring safe disposal of human excreta and waste, it has more to do with

bringing about behavioural change in humans. This can be achieved by creating

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awareness on best practices related to sanitation, like use of proper toilets, hand washing

with soap in order to prevent the transfer of bacteria, viruses and parasites found in

human excreta, which otherwise contaminate water resources, soil and food. Major cause

of diarrhea is due contamination of water resources, which has turned into the second

biggest killer of children in developing countries. Water resources when contaminated

leads to other major diseases such as cholera, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Therefore,

the most crucial step towards reducing the impact of these diseases is to improve access

to sanitation. This helps to enhance safety, dignity, and self-esteem of people, especially

women and children, who face risk of sexual harassment and assault when defecating at

night.

The report titled "Progress on drinking water and sanitation - special focus on

sanitation," assesses the global, regional and a country’s progress using an innovative

"ladder" concept. This shows sanitation practices in greater detail, enabling experts to

highlight trends in using improved, unimproved, and shared sanitation facilities and the

trend in open defecation. "Improved sanitation” refers to any facility that hygienically

separates human waste from the environment. Today, 87 per cent of the world’s

population has access to improved drinking water sources and by 2015 the trend suggests

that it will be more than 90 per cent.4

Impact of poor sanitation on world’s health

A report, entitled “The Human Waste”, issued by the British Charity Water Aid

and Tearfund, a British Relief and Development Agency, details the dismal scenario of

poor sanitation and lack of clean drinking water. Lack of sanitation now affects about

40 percent (2.4 billion) of the world’s population and is expected to rise to 50 percent by

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2025. Diarrhoea caused by bad sanitation kills nearly 6,000 children a day—an annual

toll of two million deaths5. People suffering from waterborne diseases occupy half the

world’s hospital beds. Already half of Asia’s population lacks adequate sanitation and in

China, India and Indonesia twice as many people die from diarrhoeal diseases as from

HIV/Aids. In 1998, over 3 lakh Africans died as a result of war, and nearly two million

died due to diarrhoeal diseases. In developing countries, 80 percent of all diseases result

from a combination of poor hygiene, contaminated water and poor sanitation.

Parasitic infections are also exacerbated by poor sanitation—the report estimates

that 1.5 billion people have parasitic worm infections. Such worms lead to stunted growth

and general debilitation and not necessarily causing death.

The increasing urbanisation of populations throughout the world is exacerbating

poor sanitation. The report estimates that 160,000 people move from the country side to

live in cities every single day. It states that in Africa, Asia and Latin America, 600

million people are living in squatter settlements that lack any sanitation infrastructure.

These settlements are expanding faster than infrastructure provided by governments.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is growing at an exponential rate. Its population at the

beginning of the 1970s was a quarter of a million, whereas it is now 10 million.

Tackling Poor Sanitation

Research has shown that improvements in sanitation and sewerage systems can

have a dramatic effect on reducing cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.

In 52 countries developing countries, 2006 WHO estimates for the number of

cholera cases stands at 236,896, with 6,311 deaths, a rise of 79 per cent over those of the

previous year. The researchers found that overall prevalence of diarrhoea fell by 22

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percent. However, in high-risk areas, where sanitary conditions were poorest, overall

prevalence fell by double this figure, down 43 percent.

It is estimated that there are still 2.6 billion people across the globe with

inadequate access to toilets. Some argue that meeting the sanitation MDGs is also a

prerequisite for meeting the goals of reducing global poverty. Achieving the sanitation

goal to simply halve the number of people without access to a toilet by 2015 would cost

$38 billion, less than 1 per cent of annual world military spending.

Sanitation and Children

Healthy children learn more than children suffering from worm infections, which

sap nutrients and calories and lead to hearing problems and children develop lack of

concentration. Parasitic worms infest two thirds of all schoolchildren in some African

countries. Experience has taught us that schools without private and separate sanitation

facilities for boys and girls have higher incidence of diarrhoeal disease and also lower

attendance and a higher dropout rate, especially for girls’ after attaining puberty, parents

opt them out from the education system.

Global Scenario

Sanitation in East Asia and Pacific region recorded the highest coverage from

30 per cent in 1990 to 51 percent in 2004. The aim is to reach a target of 65 percent. In

Middle East/North Africa and Latin America / Caribbean countries are generally on

course to meet their MDG sanitation targets. Areas with least access include West and

Central Africa (36 per cent coverage), South Asia (37 per cent) and Eastern and Southern

Africa (38 per cent). In terms of absolute numbers, improvements have been in South

Asia, which more than doubled its coverage from 17 per cent in 1990 to 37 percent in

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2004. Yet, the increase is still not sufficient for the region to meet its MDG sanitation

target of 58 per cent by 2015.

Urban-Rural Discrepancies

In rural areas, access to improved sanitation was more than twice in urban areas

than in rural areas. Of the 2.6 billion people currently without access to improved

sanitation, 2 billion (77 per cent) live in rural areas. The urban-rural disparity is the

largest in South Asia, where only 27 per cent of the rural population is served, compared

to 63 per cent in urban areas. Only in-industrialized countries have comparable urban and

rural coverage.

Secure political commitment to universal sanitation

A political and institutional orphan, sanitation has suffered due to paucity of funds

with hardly any voice at the policy 'high table' or service delivery. It needs political will

to establish one national coordination body, have a single, countrywide sanitation plan,

and transparent monitoring framework to spur progress in this area.

Focus on long-term change

Information campaigns launched in health sector have not been so successful in

driving demand using commercial techniques and in also appealing to consumer

preferences for convenience, comfort, safety, cleanliness, and prestige. Community

response on open defecation and other environmental hazards, its impact on health–

hardly impacted the people. Though, concerns are addressed no concrete steps are taken

to mitigate the problem. Experiences drawn from a number of countries show us that it

can be solved by using toilets; still many nations are not declared as ‘defecation free’.

Therefore, support from health departments and community health workers should focus

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on long-term behavioral change, Educating children through school-based programmes,

in order to catch them young turns necessary for sustaining demand and in helping

positive behaviors to take root6.

Universal coverage can be achieved by significant professional business

development support for small-scale sanitation providers with more focused training for

sanitary engineers to meet the demands. Only then, there can be massive scaling up for

universal coverage.

It is imperative to make lower income families responsible to build and maintain

toilets, washrooms and wastewater disposal systems, so that the benefits accrue to all

those who seek domestic convenience.

Unsafe water - 4000 children die each day

A paper published in the Lancet magazine says that more people are affected by

poor water supply and sanitation than by war, terrorism, and by weapons of mass

destruction combined together.

The article is the fifth in a series of papers published, which goes to summarize

on key conclusions of the Millennium Project-a three-year independent advisory effort

commissioned by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to review the progress of

MDGs.

On quantitative targets set for the year 2015, MDGs commit to the international

community that they would address issues of extreme poverty and work towards its

eradication7. Mr. Jamie Bartram and other colleagues of WHO write that poor sanitation

and a lack of safe drinking water is a 'silent humanitarian crisis' that kills some 3900

children every day and thwarts progress in achieving the MDGs, especially in Africa and

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Asia. While sufficient progress has been made to reach the overall target of halving the

proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water between 1990 and

2015, even after meeting this target, hundreds of millions of people will continue to

suffer due to lack of safe drinking water, particularly in East Asia and sub-Saharan

Africa.

In this article, efforts to confront the sanitation situation in terms of coverage it

exhorts to keep pace with population growth. It is unfortunate that four out of ten people

in the world do not have access to a simple pit latrine.

The article elaborates and says that the access to safe drinking water and basic

sanitation can have a strong positive effect on human health, development and

management of water resources as a whole has significant health implications.

Man-made reservoirs and irrigation schemes help provide food and nutrition, but

they can also form a conducive habitat for intensified transmission of schistosomiasis, an

infection caused by a type of flatworm. Irrigation infrastructure and management of

irrigation can be designed to keep transmission to a minimum. Improving irrigation to

avoid standing or slow-moving water and improving disposal of household wastewater

can also reduce mosquito breeding and transmission of malaria.

Multi Stakeholder Approach

Multi stakeholder approach in sanitation has been in vogue since the last one

decade with government, non government, corporate, media and school children involved

in creating awareness.

School children have a crucial role in rural sanitation as they are primary victims

of bad sanitation facilities, and with low body resistance in comparison to adults,

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programme planners thought it fit to involve children because it is always good to “catch

them young”.

In Andhra Pradesh, there are 5.4 million school going children in 78,000

government run rural and urban schools, spread across the state. On 15th October every

year, school children participate in ‘Global Hand washing Day’ as part of the National

Campaign for Sanitation and Hygiene promotion.

Children cleaned the school campus and their classrooms, organised village

rallies, raised slogans holding placards to generate awareness on sanitation and hygiene

issues. Across the state, school children participated in this campaign and took sanitation

and hand washing pledge. Also, sang jingle on hand washing, washed hands with soap

before eating their special mid day meal.

NGOs and Media Participation

In Andhra Pradesh, sanitation outreach was possible only because of the massive

mobilization of systems, institutions and people. RWS&S and Gap coordinated with its

counterparts in districts and mandals and monitored the campaign. It emphasized on the

importance of the campaign and the role of every stakeholder in the rural sanitation

campaign, wherein all district, mandal and village level functionaries were involved.

SWSM printed and distributed posters, pamphlets and banners across the 78,000 schools

and 22000 gram panchayats in Andhra Pradesh.

Celebrities as Brand Ambassadors

Celebrities drawn from a variety of fields are engaged by, many international

organisations like UNICEF to promote and create awareness on social issues. Actor

Aishwarya Rai Bachhan participated in pulse polio campaign, Tennis star Sania Mirza

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was brand ambassador for girl child protection. Likewise, star batsman Sachin Tendulakr

was the brand ambassador for global hand washing day programme.

Posters featuring Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar informing school

children about the event on 15th October were displayed in the schools. Pamphlets on the

five steps in hand washing and the pledge were distributed to school children in advance

by the school teachers. All the school teachers received the training manual highlighting

the importance of hand washing with soap and the role of teachers, school children, the

local self governance institutions and youths in successful implementation of the

campaign.

As brand ambassadors, celebrities have sensitized people and have created impact

on the society. Resulting in successful implementation of the campaign.

TV 9 Participation in Rural Sanitation Campaign in AP

TV 9, the 24X7 Telugu satellite news channel with highest viewership in Andhra

Pradesh, partnered in the sanitation campaign and the one minute jingle on hand washing

featuring Sachin Tendulkar was dubbed in the local language, which had created a lot of

awareness among the people on sanitation as a basic right. This campaign having a multi

stakeholder approach worked well with support from TV9.

The campaign focussed on adoption of hygienic practices, especially hand washing to

fight preventable diseases.

Effective IEC Campaign

The plethora of success stories from across India include one from East

Medinipur in West Bengal, Khammam in Andhra Pradesh, Ramanathapuram in Tamil

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Nadu, and South Tripura in Tripura uniformly reflect a strong commitment to achieve

IEC campaign results.

Mayamma, a woman from Dammapeta in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh,

says: “Earlier, going on a nature call was difficult, but now with individual toilet at home

we feel comfortable. We had gone in for this facility, thanks to the IEC campaign

launched by VWSC.”

To create and sustain interest and vibrancy for improved sanitation, a social

movement with active participation of civil society in CEP had led to increased

investments in media and visibility works. Advocacy materials coupled with local level

campaigns had the desired effect on decision makers and opinion leaders.

Key interventions include: support to develop policies by the government/

regional cooperation, advocacy strategy and media plan, develop advocacy materials to

document successful experiences, Work with Parliamentarians and opinion leaders, work

with schools and youth organisations in 16 integrated districts, knowledge management

work with other partners for improved water and sanitation in order to speed up the

achievement of all eight MDGs such as:

• Helping eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Achieving universal primary education

• Promoting gender equality and empowering women

• Reducing child mortality

• Improving maternal health

• Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria

• Contributing to environmental sustainability and

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• Developing global partnerships for development

International Sanitation Year 2008

International Sanitation Year (IYS) 2008 was a landmark for sanitation. Observed

by all governments in the world, the 2008 was dedicated, to accelerate and provide

“Sanitation for All”.

Indian Government made an ambitious pledge, almost a year in advance, to cover

all anganwadis and schools on a priority basis. The pledge was to build community

toilets, wherever the locals are willing to manage and maintain the created assets.

GoI directed all state governments to empower rural and urban local bodies to

handle water supply, this was done in order to free incidents of water-borne diseases in

habitations wherever safe water was provided. Unfortunately, due to lack of awareness

the community suffered despite the government’s effort to provide safe water.

To overcome the shortcomings, government decided to proactively engage in

sensitising the community on use of safe water. The campaign took stock of safe

handling and protection of drinking water as a major concern.

Sanitation awareness encompasses the whole gamut of water and waste

management and personal hygiene as key issues, which has not yet led to realization of

the goal of “Sanitation for All”. Therefore, urgent action is required to work towards

creating awareness both by the State governments and NGOs.

Successful Campaigns

In States like Odisha, remarkable progress has been made in promoting safe

sanitation practices. At the behest of Panchayats, scores of people took oath to practice

good hygiene.

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Arunachal Pradesh having population density of 13 persons per square km with

26 major tribes and a number of sub-tribes have their own ethos, dialects and cultural

identities and have made tremendous inroads in sanitation. Kaba stands out as the best

example of total sanitation. Kaba, a small village of 120 people, mostly Buddhists,

decided to do away with traditional practice of open defecation and the village today has

attained 100 per cent sanitation with the school in Kaba having separate toilets for boys

and girls.

In Tamil Nadu, the sanitation programme made special allocation to produce

sanitary napkins. As a welcome initiative of this programme, SHGs were asked to

establish a production centre of napkins, which was made available for women and

adolescent girls at affordable cost of Rs 1 or Rs 1.50 per napkin. This has led to improved

attendance in schools and also reduced the dropout rate of girls. Another instance of how

campaigns when effectively handled can bring about change in the society.

"Shubhram Awards" in Andhra Pradesh

GoAP instituted state level award in 2005 for local governments to encourage the

rural community involvement in total sanitation. Based on the goals set by NGP, GoAP

aims to achieve the target of “sanitation for all” and in the year 2006-07, a record of 143

villages in AP received NGP’s award, which was a mere ten in the preceding year.

Once the village is selected it is then recommended for the NGP based on

community participation and sustainability in the long run. Through NGP government

focused more on change in collective behaviour than on just targeting individuals.

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Chief Minister’s Involvement

In a message on sanitation, then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh State, YS

Rajasekhar Reddy says: “It is the total environmental sanitation and access to safe

drinking water that speaks of a vibrant Andhra Pradesh; Shubhram Award promotes

community action that is vital for achieving it.” This was published in major newspapers

and was also aired on radio. In sync with the central initiative, the state government also

initiated programmes to promote sanitation in rural areas with a solid link between

sanitation and health. In AP, Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) stands at 57 for every 1000 live

births, which is among the top five in the county. The award envisions local governance

institutions to improve on sanitation and ensure clean environment so that it contributes

to reducing people’s investment on health.

Open Defecation Free (ODF) Concept

The idea is to make people and local representatives responsible for better

sanitation and the award is to motivate people to follow the path towards total sanitation,

which has the mandate to be the provider of resources and help in facilitation process of

empowerment.

The perception of sanitation as just excreta disposal is need to change and include

hygiene, solid waste management and drainage. Schemes related to drinking water supply

are linked to the total sanitation concept in order to promote use of toilets.

Gram Panchayats free from open defecation are eligible to participate in the

competition, also three mandal parishads and zilla parishads with the highest number of

Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages are entitled for an award with sanitation campaigns

as a hub for all these initiatives. The purpose is not to see this as onetime event and have

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a logical continuity of the scheme and upgrade the status beyond the target of cent

percent sanitation.

Ever since independence, radio and the print media played a pivotal role in

creating awareness on important social issues among the people and brought

consciousness at various levels. Traditional media always expressed the social, ethical

and emotional needs of the society and articulated well within the community, which

helped rural transformation to a great extent. In order to have better outreach, it is

important to have amalgamation of traditional media with IEC at the field level

implementation.

Gujarat

Gujarat, one of the most developed states of India with above average per capita

income continues to lag behind in sanitation sector. Realising this, government launched

some campaigns to take sanitation on a fast track. Well known cricketer and a Member of

Parliament, Navjot Singh Sidhu was involved in a campaign promote the importance of

sanitation at both household and village levels. The campaign appeals to officials and

non officials to contribute towards TSC’s success and ensure 100 per cent access to

sanitation.

Madhya Pradesh

In Tarawata village of Guna district in Madhya Pradesh, a unique campaign was

done to change people’s mindset. Today, the village stands out as the most spick and

span village in Madya Pradesh. TSC helped the village in achieving this, before the

launch of TSC only two houses in the village had toilets, but today it boasts of 100 per

cent sanitation.

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A lot of counselling helped change attitudes of people to go to toilet with the age-

old tradition of 'lota' (small utensil) of water in the open. To motivate them and bring

about a change in their mindset was an arduous task but in due course each one followed

the other in accepting sanitation practices.

Assam

In a village school of Kamput district of Assam, students actively participated in a

sanitation campaign to safeguard environment in rural areas. A resounding success story

of how the village school the first one to receive the benefits of a district-wide School

Sanitation and Health (SSHE) initiative. During weekends, students in a procession

would hold placards and move around to inform adults of the importance of basic

sanitation and hygiene. Skits with messages like: wash hands with soap and water before

eating and after defecation, use a toilet daily, clean up garbage, practice safe water

handling, take baths, cut nails, etc. were played in important junctions of the village,

which made villagers think about sanitation. In no time, the village achieved cent percent

sanitation.

West Bengal

In East Medinipur district of West Bengal, TSC’s thrust was on low-cost toilets.

The entire campaign was pitched to arrest open defecation and within no time it was rare

to see open defecation and the district earned the distinction of first Nirmal Zila, a clean

district where none defecates in the open.

TSC was launched to improve rural quality of life by eliminating manual

scavenging, stopping open defecation, building toilets in all schools and inculcating

hygiene at the school level. The campaign began with demand creation using IEC

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materials, meetings, folk media, processions, etc. with one on one communication for

behavioural change. A village level cadre of motivators was developed using printed

material, folk songs, bauls, puppetry and street theatre and a host of others. Teachers,

PRIs, youth club members were encouraged to be the motivators, who act like TSC

marketing agents and get Rs 20 as commission for each constructed toilet.

Ms. P. Amudha gets outstanding award

Women play a key role in every intervention related to development, even in

sanitation women have performed outstandingly by successfully involving in campaigns

launched at different levels. Ms. P. Amudha’s contributions in the sanitation sector are

laudable. An IAS from Tamil Nadu cadre, Ms. Amudha worked on deputation with

UNICEF in 2001 on water and sanitation issues to bag the GoI’s award.

In rural Tamil Nadu, the picture was grim with only 15 per cent of the population having

access to a toilet in 2001, which increased to 40 per cent in three years time with Ms.

Amudha’s personal involvement in the sanitation issue. On her success story, she says

with a smile: “I have achieved merely what is possible which gives me no satisfaction, to

achieve the impossible gives greatest satisfaction and joy to me and I want 100 percent

coverage.”

Women were involved in sanitation for health and hygiene and a sustained campaign

broadly addressed three of major concerns:

Health issues due to poor sanitation

Gender impact of poor sanitation with women suffering from lack of privacy and

Economic costs (in terms of increased disease and mortality) imposed by poor

sanitation.

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Shared Indian Experience

India wanted to showcase and share with international organizations on the wealth

of experience in water and sanitation (W&S), which also had a legacy of traditional water

and sanitation systems. Spread over two decades, the interventions by the Union

Government, UNICEF and other agencies, helped India to understand the complex nature

of sanitation. Lessons in technology and social involvement from WASH experts helped

India build a campaign with tangible results. Today, it is being used for sharing

knowledge and experiences with other countries.

In collaboration with UNICEF, GoI and state governments organized in 2007 a 12

day International Learning Exchange in Water and Sanitation (ILEX). This was to

provide a platform to exchange notes, including experiences from foreign visitors, which

can be of use for people coming from across the globe. The campaign gave thorough

understanding of processes and institutions involved in sanitation including issues like

decentralization, use of appropriate demand-driven local technologies.

Second SACOSAN Conference

In September 2006 at Islamabad, the second SACOSAN reviewed the progress

and issues in the region. It revealed that in South Asia nearly a billion people still lack

basic sanitation. Delegates who participated were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,

India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The goal was to accelerate the

sanitation and hygiene work in South Asia in order to enhance quality of life of the

people at large in fulfilment of the MDGs and the commitments made in the World

Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

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In South Asia, nearly a billion people still lack basic sanitation. Rapid

urbanisation led to increased pressure on people in cities without adequate toilets, which

increased from 134 million in 1990 to 153 million in 2004. Yet, urban coverage is still

double that of most rural areas. Children in good numbers are malnourished and run the

risk of diseases caused due to bad hygiene and lack of hand washing habit with soap and

clean water.

Campaign as a powerful tool

Campaigns achieved better sanitation and the credit goes to its creator. In

December 2004, Nagapattinam, a hard hit tsunami district in Tamil Nadu faced the risk of

infectious diseases following the disaster of tsunami. The community had inadequate

sanitation facilities in the relief camps and people were forced to defecate in the tin

tenements, which compounded the problem of sanitation.

A campaign was launched with a task force of volunteers, who were involved in

bringing about behavioural changes in hygiene practices of the community and avoid

unhealthy living.

This was experimented with 84 volunteers in 10 shelters and within no time it

grew to include 350 volunteers, working in 42 shelters. Volunteers’ worked towards

creating awareness on how practices such as washing hands with soap after defecation,

before cooking food and before meals, using latrines, disposing garbage and safe

handling of drinking water will lead to better health.

Role of Women

Women played an important role in sanitation and helped the campaign in its

successful implementation. In award-winning villages, women recognised sanitation as

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an issue which affected them more than anybody else. The collective responsibility

triggered out of shared concerns of protecting their own dignity, helped campaign

planners to highlight the need for sanitation as open defecation hits pride and privacy.

Campaigns targeted women to aid in construction and also use toilets both at the

individual and community level.

Sanitation as a movement had women as change agents. Toilets were built,

installed and used at the behest of women in the villages as they motivated community

members to adhere to safe sanitation practices. Women turned into watch and ward on

this campaign to ensure that no one headed for the fields on nature’s call. A social

movement was launched in villages with active involvement of women, who played a

pivotal role in changing traditional habits of open defecation in the family. This was

possible as many saw a change in quality of life due to awareness generation.

Sanitation and Future

“Today’s children are tomorrow’s citizens“goes the adage. To ‘catch them young’

was always the concern of policy planners and campaigners. From a sanitation

perspective, childhood exposure to better sanitation facilities, turns habit forming and in

no time the collective nature of citizens reflect good civic behaviour. Needless to

emphasize, good sanitation dictates health, education and development of children.

Unfortunately, four to five lakh children (below five years of age) die due to

diarrhoea annually in India. It is the young who bear the burden of disease due to lack of

hygiene and sanitation. In India, consumption of contaminated drinking water, improper

disposal of human excreta, lack of personal and food hygiene, and improper disposal of

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solid and liquid waste have been the major causes of many diseases. Due to poor

sanitation, there are high infant mortality rate and high levels of malnutrition.

4000 children die every day due to diseases caused by unsafe water and poor

sanitation.

884 million people in the world have no access to safe water, which is roughly

one-eighth of the population of the world.

2.6 billion people have no access to adequate sanitation, which are almost two-

fifths of the population of the world.

Just Rs.1200 per person can enable access to safe water, improved hygiene and

sanitation for a lifetime.

Rural Sanitation Campaign

Lack of community awareness on sanitation resulted in scores of children

succumbing to water-borne diseases. Approximately 0.2 million children die every year

due to unsafe disposal of human waste and unhygienic behavioural practices at the family

level. Rural sensitization happened out of sanitation campaigns, which made some

fundamental changes at the grassroots level. Net result, it has impacted to give positive

results and could foster promotion of better sanitation facilities in the villages.

This was achieved by not only creating awareness on core issues in sanitation but also by

working on change in mindsets of people. “No toilet, no bride" campaign has targeted

women and appears to be spurring a big rush in toilet installations.

Global Hand Washing Day

On 15 October 2008, the first ever Global Hand Washing Day was observed

throughout the country. Washing hands has been scientifically proved to bring down

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occurrence of death due to contamination by 47 per cent. Campaigners saw in children

the ability to impact on hygiene practices, and the power to change the habits of both self

and their families. In New Delhi, Hindustan Unilever's Lifebuoy, FXB Suraksha,

AFPRO, Plan India and Water Aid jointly hosted the Global Hand Washing Day, which

was largely attended by government representatives, celebrities, private companies and

representatives of NGOs.

Development Communication and Sanitation

Sustainable rural development and communication related to sanitation go hand-

in-hand for us to truly realize the scope of social change. In development, stakeholders

have to be synergistically involved for mutual benefit and their involvement has to be in a

collaborative manner with the aim of integrated development of the country8. In

development, positive changes accrue in socio-economic and cultural lives of majority of

people, and are irreversible bereft of any exploitative nature.

Editors’ Conference

GoI thought it fit to involve media to reach out effectively to the grassroots in

sensitisizing rural communities on sanitation issues. As part of TSC, funds were

earmarked specially to create awareness and for making media as a major stakeholder. In

the last five years, GoI gave utmost importance to rural sanitation and the allocation

increased six fold for rural sanitation coverage in media as compared to the previous five

years, the benefit was rural sanitation coverage more than doubled from 27.35 per cent in

2004 to 58.49 per cent at the present. Also, political commitment at the highest level

ensured that all households have sanitation facilities and are able to live with dignity and

health9.

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Rural Sanitation and Media Intervention

GoI hosted several events to sensitize rural people on sanitation issues, media on

its part covered those events to maximize on the outreach. Governments organized

ground events by roping in media to publicize various programs and schemes launched

from time to time. Though the media believed in support in the form of advertisement,

good chunk of editorial content was created by media (mostly on its own) to help

governments in spreading vital messages, on issues like sanitation, for the targeted

groups.

In November 2008, SACOSAN was organized in New Delhi. The objective of the

conference was to make political commitment at the highest level. The Hon’ble Prime

Minister of India while inaugurating the Conference urged the forum to make sanitation

as a: “birth right of every citizen”.

Attended by 1500 delegates from over 23 countries, SACOSAN in its Delhi

declaration made all delegates from South Asian countries to pledge and achieve

complete sanitation within the prescribed timeframe10. SACOSAN’s success has spread

throughout the world and sanitation emerged as a prime determinant of good health,

dignity and educational outcomes. India earned notoriety of having the largest number of

households resorting to open defecation in the world. MDGs set a target of safe sanitation

coverage and urged India to achieve at least half the households’ sanitation by 201511. It

is a different story that India had already set for a more ambitious goal to ensure 100 per

cent coverage of all rural households.

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India shared its experiences on total sanitation with other developing countries

and in the last two years, 148 delegates from more than 20 countries visited India under

ILEP of UNICEF in order to learn from India’s experiences in the sanitation field 12.

Media Partnership

TSC had varied achievements levels in States depending on how resolute was

media partnership and engagement. While Sikkim, Mizoram, Tripura and Kerala

achieved 100 per cent household sanitation coverage, West Bengal, Haryana, Tamilnadu,

Manipur, Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh could reach to more than 75 per cent

coverage13. In few States like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Rajasthan the

coverage was less than average and upto 40 per cent.

TSC’s target was to make provision of toilets and urinals in all schools and

Anganwadis14. The set target of 11.85 lakh toilets in schools was not achieved. However,

7.51 lakh toilets were constructed under TSC. Some states like Mizoram, Sikkim,

Haryana, and Gujarat have done very well in school sanitation, while Assam, Himachal

Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and West Bengal have

completed less than 40per cent of the targeted numbers15.

For maximum impact, TSC goes beyond toilets. Like schools were asked to set up

children health committees to address the special needs, like sanitary pads, of adolescent

girls. Also, incinerators were set up in some school campuses for safe disposal of used

sanitary pads. Along with such interventions, special needs of women, disabled children

and infants were also addressed under the programme. Designs of user-friendly toilets for

the disabled with a mandate to implement the design at the construction stage in schools

was prepared and mailed to all States16.

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As sanitation is a top priority issue from the public health point of view, media

and civil society organizations are involved at every stage to maximize on the reach.

Media and Development

In the current context, media consumption habits of people alter every second

with the majority going on a high-diet of media. Mass media plays a key role in not only

informing publics at large, but also influences opinion by setting agendas. Therefore,

TSC’s thrust made rural sanitation sector to realize the inherent strength of media and

strategically engage audiences in a host of messages, manipulated thoroughly by media.

Media successfully triggered environmental awareness by sharing its concerns through

the time and space available. It could act as a change agent in many of the initiatives

taken up by GoI. For example, rural sanitation meant only construction of toilets till

2000. Now, media works towards bringing about change in social behaviour patterns of

rural communities. Furthermore, the dawn of new millennium saw that the global

development agenda with focus on communication was set by all developing countries.

Therefore, MDGs included sanitation as it deals with sanitation related issues17.

Relevance of Media and Communication in Rural Sanitation

A close link can be drawn between rural sanitation (as a development issue) and the

media. How media plays a crucial role in setting this as development agenda is best

illustrated below:

By reporting facts, gathering and disseminating information

By analysing and offering opinions through editorial commentary

By providing a forum of exchange

By initiating public discussion and debate on key issues

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By focusing on socio-environmental policies, practices and trends

By showcasing good practices for social development

By running a campaign in public interest and

By holding public, corporate and community bodies accountable18.

To aid in integrated rural development, support communication and mass media

converged and proved that responsible and responsive mass media can help in achieving

the goals of rural sanitation. This is in addition to the obligation that it should inform,

entertain and engage audiences19. Mainstream media detest from being called as

educators, campaigners or reformers but their concerns on the goings-on in the society,

including sanitation is well taken.

Mass Media in Rural Sanitation

Mass media generates awareness about social concerns by highlighting socio-

centric issues of common interests in the community. Media acts as a powerful tool to

communicate and provide relevant information to the targeted people. In rural sanitation

coverage and spread, media engaged in partnership with the agencies involved and

successfully created awareness among the end users belonging to the community. That it

could trigger the desired change is an understatement.

Media doesn’t operate in isolation, therefore, core functions to further the cause of

socially and environmentally sustainable societies require responsive governments,

effective public regulators, utilities, markets and public goods and above all socially

responsible corporations, freedom of expression, socially conscious stakeholders,

committed and active scientists and professionals and informed and well organized civil

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society20. Wherever sustained media coverage ushered positive change, it had solid

public cooperation.

In most instances, media coverage was followed by action at various levels21.

Media on rural sanitation recognisized the need for safe environment and has always

appreciated the contributions made by civil society, professionals, activist groups and

communities so that it can better the understanding and also help in engaging people in

the learning process.

Media communication always ends up in positive action for good sustainable

development practices. Positive action can happen only when there is an understanding of

the situation, capacity to act accordingly and, above all, the attitudinal change22.

How media can address Sanitation Issues?

Media’s coverage when based on journalistic values and well laid out principles

helps in building credible copy, even in areas of sanitation media coverage should

necessarily be based on local resource availability and not on the basis of corporate

priorities, which are mostly business-driven.

Media to have editorial integrity, journalistic balance and based on the needs of

the community, advocacy and action plans have to be worked out in media space

Media to create a common ground for educators, activists and community so that

each one is mutually dependent and still retain their own identity and focus

Media to ignite learning opportunities e.g., dedicated educational TV channels,

educational slots in the radio, print and television medium, etc., with focus

exclusively on sanitation.

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Media to tackle concerns on commercialization and work towards expanding

media landscape to promote the public interest

Media to strengthen individual capacities to simplify complex sanitation and

development issues

Media to work towards improving trust and cooperation between other partners

Media to make informed choices on the new media technologies so that options

are widely available and affordable

Media to go beyond mass media to niche media, narrowcasting, etc23

The role of media in development communication should necessarily keep the

interests of the communities in mind before embarking on creating content for the pages.

A synergetic relation between media, communication and rural sanitation brings in the

required change.

Media, Communication and Rural Sanitation

Development means bringing about positive changes in socio-economic and

cultural lives of majority of people on a permanent basis without exploitation and

violence24. To achieve development goals, there is a need to link media, communication

and rural sanitation; though each one is interdependent still a relation at the conception

stage has to be drawn to effectively harness desired growth in the sector.

Personal hygiene and sanitation are directly or indirectly linked to mass illiteracy,

overpopulation, malnutrition, poor health, hunger, and poverty and environment

problems. Communication cannot provide inputs such as finance or infrastructure. But, it

can go to create awareness about available technologies and mobilize people to adopt the

best practices25.

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Therefore, there was always a felt need to establish a linkage between the media,

communication and rural sanitation. It is common knowledge that communication helps

to inform, motivate, educate and entertain the respective stakeholders. It also helps in

imparting training to people and other grassroots level organizations on rural sanitation

practices.

Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

IEC can play an active role in community initiatives like rural sanitation. It has

the potential to create awareness and take up new initiatives and practices. A shared

experience emerges out of IEC campaigns. Media, on its part can show the way to

replicate the best practices and spread to a new location. Local language specific to the

region can be used to communicate with the masses; this will have lasting impact

an essential element for social change process26. Communication helps in attaining social

change well within the ambit of the system in place.

The process of social change consists of three sequential steps: invention,

diffusion, and consequences. Invention is the process by which new ideas are created or

developed. Similarly, diffusion is the process by which the new ideas are communicated

to the members in a given social system. The Communication is the pathway for rural

initiatives.

Communication is effective only when the idea to be transmitted is clear.

Targeted audiences decide on the nature of communication and this should be taken into

consideration27. Communication means not only informing people, but also educating

them. Keeping this in mind, many international organizations have been promoting

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participatory communication methods and engagement with the media in all development

initiatives.

We are aware that the development process can help reduce the social evils and

poverty but the communication process can change the whole society with effective

interventions28. Media professionals need to play a significant role in the development

process. They must act with profound sense of responsibility towards the rural society29.

The responsibilities of media professionals are many and vary from institution to

institution.

Development communication is the process of affecting, or influencing, the

behaviour of individuals or groups towards certain goals and objectives, and for the

benefits of the entire society. It is a relatively younger field of study within the discipline

of communication.

Economic/Social Approach

In the post globalization scenario, the process of development has changed its

shape from economic to social approach. In this model, community participation and

ownership in social initiatives are more important than merely providing funds30. In this

paradigm shift development communication has two roles, namely, transforming and

socialization. In the first model, the emphasis is about social change, keeping in view

enhancement in quality of human life, whereas the second one promotes establishing or

strengthening of new values or practices.

Education triggers human development, inadequacies in education acts as a big

barrier. By continuous education programme we can break the shortcomings and create

awareness.

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Community Media and Participatory Communication

The arena of development witnessed in the past involvement of people from

across the globe and today ‘participation’ has turned into a buzzword for development.

Media or mediated form of communication helped in harnessing this growth, wherein

many independent institutions focus on promoting community participation in order to

better outreach. In sync with traditional or conventional type of media, new media as an

alternative is being used as a powerful communication tool.

Thanks to availability of latest technologies, liberalized policies, new media is

being aggressively used to promote developmental initiatives. The on going debate to

maximize on use of an alternative communication approach, as a part of the global

human development strategy, helped in evolving this new approach31. Realizing that

community participation at the grassroots along with people-centric developmental

policies work for the good of socio-cultural change and empowerment of the poor and

marginalized, there was a paradigm shift from western centric, top down approach. In

order to achieve this, a step up to build institutional and individual capacities was

undertaken on a war footing. The thrust was local capacity building, optimal utilization of

resources, and sustainable policies in all rural development programmes of developing

countries.

As information access and dissemination is the most valuable democratic

resource, today, knowledge is seen as power in any economy32. The last three decades

witnessed unprecedented growth in the global spread of communication technologies and

electronic mass media.

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Rural Participatory Communication and Rural Sanitation

Community centered rural development strategies, out of consistent research

findings always focused on audience and pitched relevant communication, which played

a catalytic role in use of localized media to strengthen the process of participatory

management in developing countries33. Traditional media like folk, street theatre etc are

increasingly being used to empower rural inhabitants. The aim is to strengthen capacity

building and enable equitable access that can trigger qualitative behavioural change.

Today, traditional media coupled with mediated form of communication targets the

community on core issues. Media plan is made in a way where the community members

have information access, get educated and entertained as and when they want.

There is good number of instances where community members participate as

planners, producers and performers like broadcasting entrepreneurs. In fact, they are the

means of expression of the community, rather than for the community34.

Media and Rural Sanitation

In a developing country like India, media’s role is to upkeep the norms of

democracy. A watchdog function of the media is served only when democratic norms are

followed by other branches of legislature, judiciary and executive. It is the fourth estate

(press) that acts as a gateway to all the three branches.

Media serves development communication in four important ways:

I. By creating awareness,

II. By ensuring transparency

III. By promoting people’s participation and

IV. By facilitating social/community audit

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International agencies like UN work in league with media to democratize and

make developmental programme more user-friendly, the idea is to involve people in

developmental process

Media Space in Rural Sanitation

Coverage’s in media can go a long way in enhancing the role of community

participation in rural sanitation36. Let us know look into how media can be engaged in the

process of rural sanitation. Media’s role is to:

Create a sense of participation among the community, especially women,

and involve them in planning and implementation of water and sanitation

programmes, and in the maintenance of the systems

Create a sense of willingness to pay for the construction of sanitation

facilities

Educate people against open defecation by promoting Individual Sanitary

Latrines (ISLs)

Create consciousness about good hygiene practices like hand washing

after defecation and before cooking/eating

Generate awareness of competitiveness among individuals and households

on sanitation issues

Mould social leadership within the community, and make all sections of

society consciousness of their duty to promote good sanitation

Change people’s behavior and attitude regarding sanitation, and

Empower rural women by promoting management of sanitation

programmes

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In India, media coverage’s/space impacts the implementation modalities and

media on its part plays a very proactive role in covering issues like sanitation.

Rural Communication and Development

Development experiences of the last decades have shown that human resources

development is essential for sustainable development37. Sustainable development is not

driven by financial resources alone, people’s involvement is equally important; their

participation can be enhanced through creation of awareness and information sharing and

by using appropriate communication tools, channels and methodologies.

Communication represents an essential and very important human need as well as

a basic human right38. Innovations are made by research institutes, universities, private

companies’ et.al so that new communication technologies are used in rural development,

traditional extension, and communication information services, so that there is transfer of

those technologies done to benefit people39.

Communication creates awareness with a purpose to provide accurate, specific

and unbiased information to the stakeholders. Yet, linkages between governing

institutions and media services are poor; therefore, common people adopting new

communication are slow and not focussed on actual needs.

In many countries, low rural sanitation coverage has been attributed to poor

linkages between public institutions and media. Resulting in service delivery being

ineffective, poor information, inadequate communication systems and above all poor

methodologies. Rural communication and information systems bind people and

institutions to enable mutual learning on the use of low-cost sanitation technology,

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knowledge, skills and information40. The system integrates knowledge and information

from various sources for better sanitation facilities.

Rural Communication

A confluence of information, knowledge and skills sharing, rural communication

strives to build exchange of information and awareness between the community and its

members. Often, media is used as an interface to spread messages. The aim is to

empower rural people so that relevant skills to improve their sanitation and hygiene

conditions are provided and also help them in informed decision-making.

Communication for Development

In communication for development, rural people are equal partners and are centre

to all initiatives. For concerted action, planners, development workers, local authorities,

SHGs and rural people commit for a mutually beneficial program implementation. It is

used for people’s participation and community mobilisation, decision-making and action,

confidence building, for raising awareness, sharing knowledge and changing attitudes,

behaviour and lifestyles; for improving learning and training and rapidly spreading

information; to assist with programme planning and formulation; to foster the support of

decision-makers and communication for development works as a multidimensional tool

for integrated development41.

Communication vs. Information

Many arguments on the importance of communication and information were put

forward by experts in the form of communication theories with divergent views on its

use. In key issue like rural sanitation, it is appropriate to distinguish between

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communication and information. Communication, a two-way information process is used

with inherent knowledge and understanding.

Unprocessed information or data is passive with little inherent value, unless it

enriches the recipient, in terms of knowledge.

Communication, Information and Rural Sanitation

The premise on which successful rural development rests is the effective use of

communication and active participation of its stakeholders at every stage.

Rural sanitation cannot take place without a change in attitudes and behaviour of village

people. Through planned and systematic use of, inter-personal communication, mass

media, ICTs, and audio-visuals, interesting ‘outreach’ programmes can be aired to bring

about the desired change.

Awareness generation can happen through campaigns that share information,

involve optimal participation of community members to resolve problems and

misunderstanding and also to check on the limitations of the launched campaigns.

Development agents can successfully engage audience by enhancing their skills on

communication and pedagogical approaches. For effective dialogue with audience at the

grassroots level, communication technology can be used during training and extension

programmes. This will go a long way in improving their quality and impact.

Evolution of Communication and Sanitation

The theoretical communication models of the 60s simply saw the communication

process as an exchange of messages from a sender to a receiver with a lot of importance

given to the sender and the channel used for the transmission.

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This model has undergone a sea change in 1970s with emphasis on communication

process, seen primarily as an exchange of meanings and of the social relationships 42.

From the rural development perspective, communication is considered as a social process

designed to bring together low-cost technology and people in a two-way process where

people are both senders and receivers of information and co creators of knowledge.

Communication for development focuses on two main areas:

1. Information dissemination and motivation and

2. Training of various stakeholders and rural people

Audience involvement turns paramount, which can be achieved through IEC

campaigns. This model’s full potential can be realized when knowledge and technologies

are effectively shared by rural people and are motivated to achieve success.

Challenges in IEC

Recognised as a powerful tool in the communication process, IEC campaign was

earlier used only by the NGOs and civil society organisations. But, in the last two

decades, IEC is being used in all government programmes as well. Realizing the

importance of IEC, GoI in 1999 launched TSC, which was designed with emphasis on

IEC methods.

Now, IEC is not only employed for rural sanitation, but also in all centrally

sponsored schemes. The IEC method has some limitation of working with the people

having various socio economic and cultural backgrounds.

The limitations of IEC methods include:

1. Dearth of information (local communication content)

2. Conflicting messages (difficult to know correct information)

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3. A fragmented market for information with many individual clients

4. Relatively fewer clients scattered over a large area

5. Structural transformations leading to constant change in channels and

content and

6. Lack of the necessary communication skills for and a lack of well

developed ICT infrastructure and low levels of ICT skills43.

Rural Communication Channels

Structural transformations in rural areas has led to tremendous changes, available

channels of communication are focussed and need based. In achieving sanitation target,

there are many barriers and institutional limitations among the government, private and

the civil society wherein communication can be used as an effective tool to further the

cause of sanitation Communication, its objectives can be met by implementing strategies

for harmonised approach.

There is a need to have a unique mix of communication providers governed by

public law, private entities from the civil society for optimal mix of communication

content. The aim is to arrive at developmental reforms based on support from various

institutions and organizations.

Rural sanitation needs special attention, firstly, communication infrastructure has

to be put in place, as there are fewer services, even those present are commercially

unattractive with thin distribution, and the people are unaware of the possibilities and

opportunities.

The information and knowledge needs on agriculture, livestock, innovation,

markets and alternative employment are location and group specific. Remote areas are

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particularly disadvantaged and may need continued subsidised support in communication

infrastructure and services. Therefore, it might be necessary for governments to provide

incentives for information providers to adequately communicate information to rural

people.

Rural Communication Policy

In development process, institutional frameworks act as a handicap and limit its

growth potential. Communication and its importance was felt by planners in order to

mitigate problems confronting rural people. Communication during the globalization era

received no thrust on technologies with state owned Radio and TV as the only players.

ICT rural communications polices should help people with access to information on

sanitation practices and people should be equipped with skills and knowledge to use the

information to their advantage. Policies should clearly define and allow free flow of

information, communication, through local channels available for rural people even in

remote areas. The policies should specifically provide a framework for disadvantaged

rural people to have access to information and give them capacities to use and benefit

from the community media.

Policies should also help in monitoring quality management of information and

content providers and address ways to overcome the imbalances and poor infrastructure

in rural areas44. The communication actors include various ministries responsible for

drafting policies and their agencies to implement them, the media providers (for lobbying

or as involved parties) and the rural people as clients and partners. Development agencies

mainly play an advisory role, but may also provide funding for communication

infrastructure and technologies.

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Communication Strategies for Development

After recognizing that communication can be an effective tool for achieving total

rural sanitation, government came up with many policies. However, there are some

drawbacks, strategic approach of the IEC government policy on rural sanitation had

GoI’s involvement in designing communication strategy and recommending it to states.

However, many felt that the strategy was not properly implemented. Moreover, any

development of a strategic policy approach should begin with an inventory and

assessment of existing policies, and how policies are being implemented by the ministries

and departments involved, the assessment should comprehensively consider the situation

in rural areas and look into the available communication infrastructure, capable

providers, communication between stakeholders, quality content and organisational set

up at the grassroots level.

The effective communication policies for rural sanitation include:

Adoption of low-cost sanitation technology, which is communication

and demand driven

Facilitation of unbiased information flow to the people

State support for the information and knowledge services to better

participatory communication and needs of all stakeholders

Drawing a link between government, local government, media and

NGOs for effective programme monitoring and setting of transparent

quality standards

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Providing free access to technical information and an obligation to

interpret this to media so that lay public understand difficult/technical

terms and

In ensuring information access for the poor through community media

of private and civil society media owners

Media Strategy and Rural Sanitation

Media played a major role in promoting rural sanitation and the mix of

communication and media provided good results and helped in meeting the targets.

MDGs can be achieved by integrating media mix in a strategic manner so that the desired

objectives of rural sanitation are met. IEC campaign strived to create a dialogue among

equals and the media helped only in empowering people on sanitation facilities. There is

a need to standardize technical information by creating audio-visuals and launch

campaigns to advice rural mass on core issues.

Therefore, media strategy should factor in issues of context, access and capacity

dimensions. In the current context, convergence can be achieved by synergizing

technologies which are culturally suitable and environmentally safe with appropriate

infrastructure and communication should demystify the science and aid in better

understanding of technologies and its use.

There is a need to redesign and incorporate a thorough mix of modern and

traditional methods of communication by carefully assessing the targeted publics on

content, urgency, recipients, gender etc.

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Digital Technologies and Sanitation

ICT and Digital Information (DI) have turned cost-effective leading to wider

availability and ownership of technologies. Though the availability of DI is assured,

information should go to bring about behavioural change at both individual and

organisational levels in the long run, which means extended lead times for interventions

to happen.

There is a need to recognise this and design media strategies for successful

implementation. Often the visibility of impact or the outcome of any media strategy

cannot be measured in short term; however, there is a need to have a long-term

perspective to assess its impact. Rural sanitation programmes stands as an example.

To achieve the objectives of a given project, media strategy uses a plan in which

communication tools help in targeting people. The purpose is to address specific

communication needs of various stakeholders in a systematic and coordinated manner.

The critical factor ropes in participatory analysis of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of

the audiences on the shared information and the dissemination done through channels.

The key aim is to achieve cost-effective communication that is culturally and technically

relevant and sustainable. This means that there has to be complete integration between

modern and traditional media and that the strategic use of different media technologies

like Internet, rural radio, print and the optimum mix of media are designed to meet this

aim.

Media systems and strategies are to be designed in order to encourage major

stakeholders to use information and take up ownership45. Equally important are to impart

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management skills and capacities to be develop, promote use of technologies through

training.

In developing countries, most rural areas depend on media to get vital information

for their livelihoods. Therefore, communication strategy largely depends on appropriate

media channels that have rural audiences trust, sources of information which are reliable,

use local language to deliver relevant information in the social context. All having the

ability to generate, receive, store, retrieve, transfer and transform information, which is

applied in all rural sanitation campaigns as well.

Media Coverage and Sanitation

At the global level, sanitation has emerged as a big issue with media (read even

international) sensitizing on sanitation issues by carrying special stories. On March 14,

2012, ‘the New York Times’ published a special story on sanitation titled: “Homes,

Phones and Electricity on Rise but Sanitation and Internet Lagging” and says that Indian

households in the last 10 years are still not comfortable with hundreds of millions having

no basic facilities like electricity, toilets and a convenient water source.

Sanitation: Though the situation has improved to some extent, 53 per cent

still have no toilet facilities, which is 10 per cent from 63 percent in 2001.

Just over half of all households, or 51 percent, are connected to some sort

of drainage facilities. Bathing facilities are present in 58 percent of homes,

up from 21 percent in 2001.

The UK based newspaper ‘Scotland times’ published a story on 2 November 2011

by emphasizing on sanitation issue. This article warns that unless environmental risks are

reduced, there will be setbacks on human development front, especially droughts and

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rising sea levels could reverse efforts to improve living conditions of world's poorest

people.”

‘The Tribune’ on October 21, 2012 published the comments of the Union Rural

Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh, on the implementation of existing sanitation

programme. His comments made sensation because he openly said that “TSC has been a

failure. It is neither total, nor sanitation nor a campaign” he remarked. “Millennium Goals

Neglect of Sanitation Strategic Problems” a story published by ‘The One World’, on 27

December 2012, emphasized on the global scenario of MDGs.

‘Guardian’ in its 28th August 2002 issue published a special story: “Poorer nations

urge action over sanitation” based on the UN report that 1.1 billion people did not have

access to clean drinking water, while 2.4 billion people were without sanitation. More

than 2.2 million people die every year in the developing world from problems associated

with unsafe water.

On the occasion of global hand washing day (15 October 2011), an international

press release was issued by WSSCC which mentioned that people across the globe will

celebrate the 4th annual global hand washing day, which is aimed at increasing awareness

and understanding of the importance of hand washing with soap as an effective and

affordable ways of preventing diseases. The catchphrase of “Clean hands save lives” was

released on the global hand washing day celebrated worldwide in the year 2011.

‘The Science Direct’, an international scientific journal, published an article on

sanitation, with the title ‘Can Corporate Social Responsibility resolve the sanitation

question in developing Asian countries?’, this article looked into existing state of

sanitation in some Asian countries.

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The ‘Lancet’ journal in March, 2008 published an exclusive editorial under the

caption “Keeping sanitation in the international spotlight”. The editorial concluded that

‘Sanitation has languished at the bottom of the international agenda for far too long and

the global health community has been complicit in letting it stay there and this

unacceptable situation must change now’. On pro poor sanitation techniques, ‘Science

Direct’ published an article in its September 2007 issue.

Indian media, both at the national and state levels publish stories on sanitation

from time to time. ‘The Hindu’ published an article titled “Bride, who demanded toilet

after marriage, rewarded.” on March 20, 2012. In the regional space, an exclusive story

was published on February 1, 2012 in ‘Namasthe Telangaana’ on non utilization of

sanitation funds. ‘Live Mint’ carried a special article on May 4 2012 highlighted that

sanitation and water targets were missed and according to the Parliamentary Standing

Committee, the proposed allocation for 2012-13 of Rs. 14,000 cr. was not enough to

complete the task.

‘The Indian Express’ on May 9, 2012 covered a story about 30 new activities

brought under NREGS. It stated that the government made a declaration about the

expansion of the scope of activities permitted under the rural job guarantee scheme,

which will supplement agricultural and animal husbandry operations, along with flood

management and sanitation-related works in rural India.

An exclusive story on April 29, 2012 published by ‘Business Standard’ on

“Sanitation guru Kamala Kar” mentioned his contribution to the community-led total

sanitation—as a new mantra for a global toilet revolution.

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“Census exposes states' claim on sanitation drive” published in the ‘Business

Standard’ of May 3, 2012 throws an interesting insight on sanitation coverage. In an

article titled: ‘The Dirty Picture’ published in ‘The Hindu’ on May 3, 2012, it mentioned

Vidya Balan’s new role as a brand ambassador of government’s sanitation programme.

The article depicted sanitation as India’s ‘Dirty Picture’ In October 15, 2012 issue of

Business Line an exclusive article on Vidya Balan’s involvement in the sanitation

programmme was published. ‘The Hindu’ on September 26, 2012 carried a news story on

government’s review of WB sanitation projects under implementation. The ‘Business

Standard’ carried an article on green toilets in its July 26, 2011 issue.

‘Village panchayat pleads for toilet blocks’ an article carried in ‘The Hindu’ with

dateline May 2, 2012 from Kerala mentioned that growing awareness about personal

hygiene and rural sanitation has forced the Thalakudi village panchayat to pressurize the

District Rural Development Agency to allot special funds for construction of at least

three toilet blocks. On March 28, 2012 ‘The Hindu’ featured an article that ‘India will

achieve sanitation goals only by 2054’ which gave interesting insights on open

defecation. This story says that considerable progress has been achieved on water supply,

a high percentage continue to defecate in the open.

The report quotes WHO and UNICEF's Joint Monitoring Programme for Water

Supply and Sanitation (JMPWSS) and states that MDG goals on sanitation will be met

only by 2054. The article elaborates that some states achieved the target, and some are

closer to achieving the set targets and in case of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, the targets

will be met only in the next century.

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‘The Hindu’ carried a news story on how Gates Foundation helped in

development of a cleaner for railway toilets. This article published on May 31, 2012,

spoke about corporate social responsibility of Bill Gates Foundation and the help it

provided on sanitation. On May 12, 2012, ‘The Hindu’ published a news item titled:

“Sanitation: State's proposal for subsidy hike under study” The news item stated that

centre is considering the proposal of the state government for increasing the subsidy

component for construction of toilets and extend it to both above and below poverty line

families in rural areas.

“Nirmal Bharat Yatra” an all India campaign launched by GoI was covered by

‘The Hindu’ in its October 2012 issue. It mentioned on the country’s open-defecation-

free policy to ensure proper sanitation in rural India. ‘The New Indian Express’ of

October 28, 2012 featured a news item, “Jairam Ramesh loses sanitation after an eventful

stint” about the national level campaign on open defecation.

On 15 August, 2012 ‘BBC News’ published a web article about Bill Gates

involvement in sanitation issue. The news item “Bill Gates looks to new toilets to

improve world sanitation”. It spoke in a manner of how Bill Gates is flushing his money

down the toilet. That article says “His charitable organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation, is looking for future loos that can improve sanitation around the world. At

the Reinvent the Toilet fair, hosted at its Seattle campus, designs included a lavatory that

used microwave energy to turn human excreta into electricity. Another, turned excrement

into charcoal, while a third used urine for flushing. A total of 28 designs were displayed

off at the fair and the winner of the $100,000 billion prize was a team from the California

Institute of Technology. Led by Prof Michael Hoffman, the toilet they designed was

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solar-powered and generated hydrogen gas and electricity. They won a $100,000 prize.

"We couldn't be happier with the response that we've gotten," Bill Gates said at the event.

TSC is one of the flagship programmes of GoI to eradicate open defecation.

India’s Rural Development Ministry, has to build 78 toilets a minute to meet its sanitation

goal under MDGs, If 112,300 toilets are constructed on a single day, only than India can

ensure household access to toilets. According to the Ministry of Health and Family

Welfare, poor sanitation and diseases caused by this result in an annual loss of 180

million man-days and an economic loss of Rs1,200 crore in India.

GoI and state governments are putting its serious efforts to achieve sanitation

goals through active partnership of media.

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