MINUTES OF COORDINATION PANEL ON IMPLEMENTATION OF SCHOOL AND ANGANWADI SANITATION PROGRAMME

First meeting of the Central Coordination Panel on implementation of School and Anganwadi Sanitation programme was held on 27th December, 2004 at 1030 hours in the office chamber of Secretary, Department of Drinking Water Supply. Shri V.K. Duggal, Secretary, Department of Drinking Water Supply chaired the meeting and following other officers were present.

1 Shri K.M. Acharya Joint Secretary, Department of Elementary Education 2 Shri Rakesh Behari Joint Secretary, Department of Drinking Water Supply 3 Shri S.C. Girodra Consultant, Department of Elementary Education 4 Shri M.S. Negi Deputy Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development 5 Shri Kumar Alok Director, Department of Drinking Water Supply 6 Shri Manu Prakash Consultant (School Sanitation), Department of Drinking Water Supply

Secretary (DWS) welcomed all the participants to the meeting and gave a brief background regarding the constitution of the Central Coordination Panel on Implementation of School & Anganwadi Sanitation Programme. He mentioned that this matter was reviewed at the highest level by Minister, Rural Development himself and he had expressed his concern that no duplication of efforts in the field should be made by different Departments. He also mentioned that the finances allocated under different programmes of various Ministries should be utilized more judiciously and the coordination mechanism should be insititutinalised at the Centre, State and district level for proper implementation of the programme. He invited other participants to mention the action taken on the various decisions of the previous meetings and their suggestions to improve the programme implementation and coordination.

Shri K.M. Acharya, Joint Secretary, Deptt. of Elementary Education mentioned that as per the meeting held in April, 2003 between Secretary (DWS) and Secretary (Elementary Education), it was decided that Deptt. of Elementary Education would construct toilets in 2.5 lakh schools and provide water supply in 1.20 lakh schools. He indicated that so far toilets had been sanctioned in 2.16 lakh schools and water supply in 1.51 lakh schools. The actual completion on the ground level was about 40 – 50% of sanctioned units. He also mentioned that in the meantime, some new schools had also been opened. Shri Acharya mentioned that the data regarding water supply coverage in schools had not been released by NCERT which was responsible for publishing the 7th All India Educational Survey Data. However, he mentioned that they had data available under DIES (District Information Education System) for 460 districts in 18 States as on 30th September, 2002. As per this data, 28% of schools were without water supply and 71% primary schools and 61% upper primary schools were without toilets.

Shri Acharya also mentioned that in order to avoid duplication of work, coordination between TSC and SSA programmes was necessary. He suggested that division of territory between the two programmes would have been ideal but since the programme implementation has already started it may be difficult to do it now but it would have been easier three years ago. He mentioned that the Deptt. of Elementary Education proposed to sanction toilets and water supply facilities in all the schools by 2005-06 so that the actual implementation could take place by 2006-07. He also mentioned that the district level coordination should be strengthened.

Shri M.S. Negi, Deputy Secretary, Deptt. of Women & Child Development mentioned that instructions had been issued by Secretary (DWCD) to all State Secretaries to attend the SWSM meetings and to associate themselves with the actual implementation of the programme at the district level and State level. He mentioned that in order to assess the number of Anganwadis which were in private buildings and number of Anganwadis having water supply and sanitation facilities, instructions had been issued to the States but unfortunately the information had not yet come. He mentioned that as per their knowledge, only 30% Anganwadis were in government buildings and their status of coverage with water supply and sanitation facilities was not known. He also indicated that in ICDS programm, there was no budget for construction of toilets and water supply facilities in Aanganwadies. However only under a World Bank funded project in few States this could be done.

Based on the discussion, Secretary (DWS) felt that Chief Secretaries of all the States would need to monitor the implementation at the State level and district level monitoring should be strengthened to avoid duplication of effort. He felt that a separate Sub Group headed by Joint Secretary (DWS) should be constituted with representatives from Deptt. of Elementary Education, Deptt. of Women & Child Development and Ministry of Tribal Affairs to workout a draft guidelines for effective coordination mechanism at the district level. This Committee should workout the draft instructions and guidelines to be sent to the States on the following three items:

1. Review and monitoring of programms implemented at the district level of these Ministries.
2. Disbursement of fund and avoidance of duplication of efforts in different programmes.
3. To have a prompt and systematic data collection system for coverage of schools with water supply and sanitation facilities.

Secretary (DWS) desired that this Committee should furnish its proposals by 31st January, 2005 so that he could write letters to all Chief Secretaries in the first week of February, 2005. He felt that this would ensure that proper systems are in place in the next financial year.

Joint Secretary (DWS) raised the issue that in certain States a feeling had gone that the responsibility of providing water supply and sanitation facilities in rural areas lies with the Department of Drinking Water Supply and under SSA the State Govt. officials are concentrating in urban areas avoiding the rural areas. Joint Secretary (Elementary Education) mentioned that there was no such policy decision taken by them and such thing might have happened at the district level. Secretary (DWS) desired that rural areas should not be neglected under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

The meeting ended with thanks to the chair.