Volume : III, Issue : X, October - 2014

Social Audit on Household and Community Sanitation Units–A Study in Tamil Nadu

Dr. R. Mani , Mr. M. Diraviaraj

Abstract :

The paper addresses the Major issue of Non–utilization of the sanitary facilities by beneficiaries, which is due to lack of awareness on sanitary practices and the strings of problems tied to the non practices on one side and that the units are built with poor cooperation and willingness of the beneficiaries on the other side. In most cases, the target coverage has been the priority than the actual needs and realization of the need and utilization by the users themselves, where the concentrated education on sanitation has been lacking. Where also the situation of huge contributions to be made by the beneficiaries as co–financing along with the government [ TSC], has played a major role, in beneficiaries not willing to own a facility. The dominant factor has been that major portions of these units remained un–utilized due lack of awareness and community education on the importance of sanitation. At this background, an NGO called Y–NEEW, has adopted the principles of community education, participation and social audit, while promoting 5 community sanitation units, in 5 hamlets [with support of CAPART, Ministry of Rural Development, GoI–2004–2005] and 25 house hold sanitation units for as many families [with support of TSC–DRDA, Dindigul, Tamilnadu–2009–10], processed by the Community Sanitation Committee [CSC] and Social Audit Committee [SAC].  The paper studies these two situations in relation to the roles of social audit committee and community participation, where there has been intense community education on the need of sanitation, in leading the users into whole some utilization of the facilities. The study of two situations reveals that the units, as self–designed user friendly units, established with community cooperation and peer group influence. Such models of people acting for their own needs with external facilitation and focused education create scope for replication and lead to the wholesome practice among the rural population. If the MDG sanitation target is to be achieved, innovative approaches and people or user friendly models and strategies need to be developed and adopted to reduce the time span from policymaking to services delivery.

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Dr. R. Mani , Mr. M. Diraviaraj Social Audit on Household and Community Sanitation Units‾A Study in Tamil Nadu International Journal of Scientific Research, Vol : 3, Issue : 10 October 2014

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