MGNREGA and Toilet Constructions
Recently Ministry of Rural Development, GoI has included toilet construction as a stand alone activity under MGNREGA with a provision of Rs 10,000. Now,this does not require any convergence with NBA. The decision was quite a surprise for many policy makers, professionals primarily those are working with Sanitation.
Still it is not clear how activity under toilet construction can fulfill the ultimate objective of MGNREGA. It is true the expenditure under MGNREGA might improve but how this new announcement further complement the saturation approach which follows a process of demand generation through behavioral change and communication approach and entire supply chain are good questions to put forward.
My worry is this should not become the programme of ILCS type where government constructed huge number of toilets with front end subsidy and the usage remains only 20%. In States, where NBA and MGNREGA are managed by two different departments, convergence might be an issue to address.
I think this is an appropriate time we should revisit the increased incentive policy for toilet construction. Incentive should be channelized for usage of toilet which can be further linked with micro health insurance as toilet is more like a cost effective tool to reduce diseases burden than a social/community asset like water.
Still it is not clear how activity under toilet construction can fulfill the ultimate objective of MGNREGA. It is true the expenditure under MGNREGA might improve but how this new announcement further complement the saturation approach which follows a process of demand generation through behavioral change and communication approach and entire supply chain are good questions to put forward.
My worry is this should not become the programme of ILCS type where government constructed huge number of toilets with front end subsidy and the usage remains only 20%. In States, where NBA and MGNREGA are managed by two different departments, convergence might be an issue to address.
I think this is an appropriate time we should revisit the increased incentive policy for toilet construction. Incentive should be channelized for usage of toilet which can be further linked with micro health insurance as toilet is more like a cost effective tool to reduce diseases burden than a social/community asset like water.
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