Sanitation and hygiene policy of India: Towards a new paradigm

With the introduction of Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan (Cleanliness Campaign) by Modi Government, sanitation has emerged as major driving force of economic acceleration. Until now service sector has taken sixty percent of chunk of the GDP for the last two decades but the new decade is going to be the decade of sanitation and hygiene economy as it has the potential of developing a large number of sub-sectors and peripherals which will boost up the growth rate provided policy perspectives and imperatives are understood and intertwined. Sanitation attracted the attention of government planners because of the MDG requirement as “Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, Target 7c, calls on countries to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation”. The government started Total Sanitation Campaign(TSC) in rural areas during mid 80’s followed by National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP) in 2008. According to the estimate of a study by WSP the economic impact of inadequate sanitation in India amounts to Rs. 2.44 trillion (US $ 53.8 billion) which is equivalent to 5.64% of GDP in 2006. There are sub sectors of sanitation economy which includes; sanitation market, sanitation equipments, sanitation products, sanitation human resources, sanitation educationand sanitation investment etc. It is estimated that the annual sanitation market will to grow from Rs. 300 billion (US$6.6 billion) in 2007, to Rs. 683 billion (US$15.1 billion) in 2020 (WSP). Sanitation issue is related to health, healthcare, education, poverty, tourism, waste management, energy, water preservation and many peripherals of economy. According to authentic studies sanitation economy has a very bright prospect in India as still 55% of all Indians or about 600 million people have no access to toilet, 74% of population rural defecates in open, seven lakh people make their livelihood by use of traditional methods of scavenging, vast majority of girls leaving schools because of lack of sanitation, less attendance in schoolsdue to non accessibility of hygiene facilities, cost of diseases caused by unhygienic management of human excreta disposal, economic cost in terms of water treatment, medical care, losses in fishery production, tourism, social cost and lack of privacy of women. The present paper is an attempt to address the issues which will become vital for the emerging scope of economic growth due to sanitation led growth with the objectives such as; portrayingthe existing status of sanitation and hygiene in India; finding a relationship between sanitation, health, education, poverty, energy, waste management and water preservation; chalking out potential sub sectors as peripheral to the sanitation economy; analyzing the cost-benefit analysis of sanitation economy and discussing policy imperatives of investment in sanitation economy and its peripherals.

The paper is a theme paper based on the proposition and extensive survey and dissection of research reports, available studies of national and international organizations, government documents, research studies of established private research organizations and data available in public domain. The paper has been divided into four segments. The first part is drafted to know the exact definition, nature, perceptible differencesand concept of sanitation and hygiene. The second is devoted to policy dimension of sanitation economy including rural and urban sanitation programs sponsored by the state and their outcomes. The third part is committed to the emerging field of economic activities going to be created in future related directly or indirectly with the sanitation driven growth including markets, investment, consumers, human resources, services, education, training, awareness, research, trade and many more. The last part of the paper is concluding having some policy imperatives.