India Programme Overview

The GSF-supported programme in India closed in early 2017. Key results reported by the programme are detailed in the table below.

Over the years, WSSCC has supported the Government of India’s (GoI) Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission, through the dedicated India Support Unit (ISU). The ISU was established in 2015 by WSSCC at the request of the GoI, to provide technical assistance to SBM.

ISU’s focus has been on national and state–level policy and strategy support and capacity building for sustainable and inclusive sanitation and hygiene, including Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH), societal engagement and Rapid Action Learning (RAL).

ISU is recognised as a Key Resource Centre (KRC) by the then Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for building the capacity of collective behaviour change approaches across the country. Through this modality, it has provided targeted support to strengthening the enabling environments at the sub-national level (state and district) particularly in some of the most populous and most challenging states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. The model has led to the creation of a pool of master trainers on ODF Plus, RAL and MHH. Moreover, it has allowed for the leveraging of Government funds to support capacity-building efforts at state and district levels (approximately 4 million USD has been leveraged by ISU since 2015).

In October 2019, the GoI announced that all districts had declared themselves open defecation free (ODF), a key milestone in sanitation access. After this, a second phase of the SBM was launched with the aim to ensure the ODF behaviours are sustained and that no one is left behind. Under this second phase, India is using an “ODF plus” approach that focuses on ODF sustainability, solid and liquid waste management and faecal sludge management. ISU continues to support the second phase in India, focusing on support for poor and marginalised populations under ODF sustainability.