Nirmal gram puraskar (clean village) awarded gram panchayats : a status report

Govt of India’s rural sanitation programme, called Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), aims to cover all households with sanitation facilities and promote hygiene behaviour with the overall objective of improvement of health and quality of life among the rural populations. The Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP), an allied incentive scheme, awards Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) (local self government bodies) that promote sanitation and hygiene in their villages. The four criteria for award are -1) all households have access to toilets, use them and no one in the village practices open defecation, 2) all schools have sanitation facilities, which are also put to use and all co-educational schools have separate toilets for boys and girls, 3) all Anganwadis centers (preschool centers) have access to sanitation facilities, and 4) there is general cleanliness in the village. [authors abstract]