I am glad to hear about the initiatives of public sanitation community development programs in Pune. It all started a few years ago with the Pune Municipal Corporation wanted to build a model with the community involvement with the help of NGO's like SPARC,Shelter Associates with a project outlay of about Rs.40 Crores.
The model is very unique in the sense that the users involve in the maintenance of the toilets with a monthly subscription of about Rs 20-25 /household for the usage.Since the users find value because they pay for the facility and maintain on their own,the area is totally clean!
The project is aimed at providing the public sanitation at the deprived areas,60 -100 households form a cluster.The model is envisaged that these Self help groups appoint a person in their community for the subscription collection and after meeting the monthly expenses including electricity the excess money is deposited in a savings bank.
Thanks to the relentless efforts of people like Gaikwad who were a part of the system but could make a meaningful change..Gaikwad conceptualised this model during his stint as the Pune Municipal Commissioner and the budgetary shortfalls are met with the bank loans..
The success of this experiment was extended to areas like Sangli and other parts of the city..
We need more such initiatives to be emulated in India to build a commendable community development programs.Another such example is that of Sulabh International which goes beyond the Pune model adding more avenues for revenues including the bio gas generation and solid waste management.
The moral of the story is to involve the user and the involvement will come only when the user attaches some value to the activity.
India needs more such innovative yet simple concepts to keep up the pace of the urban growth and providing a better harm free infrastructure to all the citizens..
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