GRAM VIKAS- AN OVERVIEW

LOCATION OF WORK

• 19 districts 38,397 families• 542 habitations 200,000 people

The beginning

•A group from the Young Students Movement for

Development, Chennai came to Orissa at the time of the cyclone in 1971

•Invited to Ganjam district by the administration and the milk union in 1976 to work with adivasi communities

Initial years 1979-81

Organized a tribal people’s movement across 60 villages in Kerandimals, Ganjam, against moneylenders and liquor merchants.

It included interventions in health, education, small savings and income generation.

Alternative fuels

Biogas promotion in collaboration with the National programme for Biogas Development

Over 54,000 biogas plants constructed between ’83-’93, over 6000 masons trained

MANTRA

An approach towards total habitat development and dignity

80% morbidity in rural India

is due to lack of protected

and safe drinking water and sanitation.

CONTEXT

94% population in rural orissa have no access to protected waterLess than 1% have access to sanitation facilities

Unprotected water bodies are the breeding grounds for various waterborne ailments.

The daily drudgery doesn't spare the girl child also..

Exclusion is a bane in society

Water and Sanitation

“A vehicle for social inclusion”

100% coverage of all households

• Water and sanitation anchored within local institutional arrangements

• Equal representation of men and women

• Each household contributes an average of Rs. 1000 ($22) towards corpus fund

People “ can” and “will” pay for quality, but there are social costs.

Not just toilet but a bathing room also

• People contribute their labour and Gram Vikas pays the cost of external materials

Ensuring sustainability• Institutional mechanisms to enforce and maintain

hygienic practices- group monitoring by children, women ..

• Ensuring all time 100% coverage

• Identification of maintenance mechanisms, e.g. contribution from harvests; community pisciculture; monthly payments

Physical capital

• Toilets and bathing rooms

• Piped water supply with three taps

• Development of community assets

“Our toilets are better than houses!!”

Disaster Resistant Permanent Houses in Samiapally

Community capital•Inclusive village institutions adopt democratic ways of functioning

•Women gain public space and voice in village decision making process;

•Capacities to negotiate and bargain with state and other agencies improved- role of contractor eliminated

•Improvement in health status of women and children

•Improved functioning of schools and increase in enrollment of children.

Building Dignity, not toilets !

tell tale Figures 85% reduction in incidence of water-borne diseases

Corpus fund of over Rs. 40 million

Toilet and bathing rooms constructed for 34, 850 households

Toilets to new households: 160 units

Piped water supply completed in 471 villages

Government development funds of about Rs.100 million accessed annually directly by villages

1500 SHGs with over 20,000 members

100% immunisation of children

100% enrolment of children in school; attendance over

80% for girl children

What has worked

• 100% inclusion• Toilets and clean water as one intervention• Leveraging government programs• People’s willingness to pay• Water and sanitation as an effective entry

point for a successful integrated development process

• Gravity flow water supply systems for un-electrified communities

What has NOT worked

• Toilets without a running water supply

• Lack of reliable government funding

• The attitude that “poor people need poor solutions”

• Community toilets in rural areas

336 3073 5121

2234726850

50000

100000

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

100,000 families by 2010

Year

Ho

use

ho

lds

What we need from YOU

• Understanding of the dire condition of over 2 billion people with no access to protected water and sanitation

• Effective North-South cooperation to make the lack of protected water and sanitation a situation of the past

• Leveraging 2008 as the United Nations “Year of Sanitation” to lead a concerted effort in scaling access to protected water and sanitation

An equitable and sustainable society where people live in peace with

dignity

GRAM

VIKAS