Rs35K crore toilet sop for BPL families







With the UPA government's popularity hitting new lows in urban areas, the alliance is pulling out all stops to woo the rural electorate.



The government has decided to pay every rural household living below the poverty line a sum of Rs4,600 to construct a latrine for their own use. This incentive forms the crux of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), the Centre's programme to ensure proper sanitation facilities in rural areas.



The ultimate goal of the programme is to eradicate open defecation in the country. Rural sanitation is one of the key areas that the government has chosen to focus on in the run-up to the 2014 elections. It is felt that unlike education, this is a sector in which tangible changes can be made even in less time.



The government plans to give Rs4,600 to every BPL family in rural India so they can construct latrines

It is because of that Rs3,500 crore has been allocated for the rural sanitation programme for 2012-13, and while the allocation for the 12th Plan period (2012-17) is estimated to be a above Rs35,000 crore.



Bearing testimony to the centrality of drinking water and sanitation in the 12th Plan, this is a nearly fivetimes increase from the allocation in the 11th plan period, which was Rs7,800 crore.



According to the NBA guidelines recently released by the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, every BPL rural household will be paid Rs4,600 - with the Centre giving Rs3,200 and the state government pitching in with Rs1,400 - for the construction of an Individual Household Latrine (IHHL).



The beneficiary household has to chip in with Rs900. In difficult or hilly areas the amount will be Rs500 higher and the additional amount will be paid by the Centre.



'The ultimate aim is to ensure construction of maximum (number of) IHHLs,' states the NBA guidelines document.



However, it also provides for the construction of 'community sanitary complexes' to 'teach hygiene practices to the community' and wherever 'IHHLs cannot be constructed'.



The other key intervention areas of the programme are providing sanitation facilities in schools and anganwadis and the construction of what it calls Rural Sanitary Marts.



