The Hindu : New Delhi News : A sanitation model Capital can follow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 30, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

A sanitation model Capital can follow

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 29. Several non-governmental organisations in the Capital led by Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) have evinced keen interest in an innovative model of sanitation tried out at Madhubani in Bihar earlier this year where citizens took up the responsibility of cleaning up the entire town with their own hands.

"It was a unique initiative in which the citizens got together and formed `Mohalla Safai Samitis'in several wards of the town. Moreover, youth volunteers were deployed for cleaning up the town and the Samiti collected money from the people to pay them which is a true example of action by an awakened citizenry. This is a model which can be replicated in other parts of the country as well,'' says Pankaj Anand, programme co-ordinator of the Urban Governance Programme at PRIA.

With the volunteers rallying for donations from citizens for purchasing garbage bins to be kept on the streets and for paying sweepers, the project was implemented in the mission mode with some wards doing it more successfully than the others. And with the District Magistrate of Madhubani town, D. Rajendran, taking a keen interest in the cleanliness drives, it is being termed as a unique example of engaging citizenry in urban governance programmes.

"We have written to several experts across the country including those at the helm of affairs in the Capital to take a look at the Madhubani model where the citizens have taken the responsibility of cleanliness in their town in their own hands,'' says Pankaj, adding that shramdaan by citizen volunteers in the morning formed the crux of the sanitation model.

Experts feel that citizen's participation in sanitation drives the way it was demonstrated in Madhubani can solve the woes of a city like Delhi as well which under the Bhagidari scheme has already involved several NGOs in the process. "What we need to do is to promote voluntarism among the youth so as to engage citizenry in a meaningful way,'' says Yogesh Kumar of Samrthan, an NGO based in Bhopal.

Already, groups like "We for Yamuna'' have demonstrated their ability to rally people for shramdaans when it comes symbolic cleaning of a river like the Yamuna. And with the success of the Madhubani model, it is time to move away from such advocacy to real time intervention. If Mohalla Safai Samitis are formed in various parts of the Capital, the sanitation problem of Delhi can be solved in no time, point out experts.

Through its Urban Governance Programmes , PRIA has been propagating the need for responsive governance.

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