IMPROVEMENT IN COMMUNITY TOILET COMPLEX SERVICES THROUGH COMMUNITY MONITORING

SHARMA – J.

Dhaka, Bangladesh, 31 January -2 February 2012 ASIA REGIONAL SANITATION AND HYGIENE PRACTITIONERS WORKSHOP

IMPROVEMENT IN COMMUNITY TOILET COMPLEX SERVICES THROUGH COMMUNITY MONITORING

A. Jyoti Sharma, FORCE, India, B. Krishna Kumar Tiwari, FORCE & C Akanksha Dwivedi, FORCE About Community Toilet Complexes In most slum settlements, the municipal corporations provide Community Toilet Complexes (CTCs).

Typically a toilet complex has 10, 20 or 40 toilet seats along with bathing areas and hand washing points. They are designed to cater to the basic sanitation needs of a floating population.

In Delhi, the day-to-day toilet management and infrastructure maintenance is usually out-sourced. A well thought out contract covers the service provider’s responsibilities, revenue streams and feedback / accountability mechanisms. However, in reality, the contact terms are hardly referred to, supervision is very poor, and the accountability of the NGO is very limited. The community is ignorant about its rights.

Our Practical Intervention We tried to create a community-centred feedback method which is regular, reliable, based on information about the services they should expect, replicable and scalable. For this, using the information from Terms of Contract for CTCs, a list of parameters was designed under which each CTC would be monitored every 15 days. Further, a team of five women from the community itself was made, named the CTC Monitoring Committee who would evaluate the CTC every 15 days on the basis of the parameters given to them and report the same to the community and to us.

The feedback is entered into a centralized database and sent to relevant government departments. Also quarterly review meetings are held with the Deputy Commissioner of the districts with the CTC monitoring committees and service providers. The committees share the consolidated data, improvements are praised and problems are discussed.

Outcome The results have been outstanding. The condition of the toilets has improved significantly on most parameters. The community is aware of its rights and the service provider is conscious of his responsibilities. The two have developed a better understanding and hence co-ordination is better. Also a framework for government support to community has been created. There is a move towards further institutionalizing this.

1

SHARMA – J.

BACKGROUND IMPACT OF WATSAN DEFICIENCIES ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN With the addition of 7 lakh (700,000) people every year, Delhi balances on the edge of becoming an unmanageable city. Surrounded by a hinterland with some of the poorest states in the country, much of this additional population is of unskilled, poorest of the poor, migrants. With no means of securing proper habitation, these migrants start living in Unauthorised Urban Poor Settlements (jhuggi jhopri clusters) which have very poor access to even basic water and sanitation services.

A rapid assessment study conducted by us in the slums we work in, threw up the following data to highlight the tremendous impact of poor water and sanitation on the developmental goals for women and children Loss of 1 day per week of school 3 to 4 hours a day loss of working hours in sourcing water / overcoming sanitation problems 85% of all illnesses in the productive age group 92% of all women’s reproductive tract problems relate to poor hygiene 90% of internal conflict between neighbouring community members relate to water or sanitation Child/women abuse during open defecation There is loss of health, dignity, peace of mind, safety and economic growth if water and sanitation problems are not adequately addressed.

• • • • • •

ABOUT COMMUNITY TOILET COMPLEXES (CTCs) Access to toilets plays a very important role in determining the sanitation conditions of a settlement and the health of its inhabitants. In many slum settlements, the government provides Community Toilet Complexes, CTCs, that is public toilets having multiple seats. Typically a toilet complex has 10, 20 or 40 toilet seats and two to four hand washing points. Some also have bathing rooms. The men’s and women’s sections are separate.

All community toilets in Delhi are owned by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) or the relevant government land owning agency. Up to about 2 years ago, most were also managed and maintained by them. However, the management was very poor and community dissatisfaction with service levels was very high.

To tackle this problem, the MCD has now outsourced the day-to-day toilet management and infrastructure maintenance to private companies and NGOs on a zonal basis. A contractual agreement that covers the service provider’s responsibilities is signed between the MCD and the NGO. A revenue stream is also provided for the service providers in the form of charges they can levy from users and advertising rights for the CTC walls. The service providers are also required to provide caretakers for ensuring proper service and collections. The contract also covers feedback / accountability mechanisms. However, that is only on paper. In reality, the contractual terms are hardly referred to and the accountability of the NGO is very limited. Since a large number of CTCs are outsourced to one NGO, MCD also does not want to rock the boat for seemingly small reasons. There is no system in place for regular supervision of service standards.

The community that is supposed to be served by the CTC has no say in its management. The community is ignorant about its rights – it does not know the services it is entitled to. Its feedback is not solicited. There is no direct interaction between the community and MCD – even complaints, if allowed to be written, are to be routed through the NGO service provider.

COMMUNITY MONITORING OF COMMUNITY TOILET COMPLEXES IN SLUMS The paper being presented, showcases an attempt by community members themselves to monitor and improve the efficiency of CTC services.

2

SHARMA – J.

OUR PRACTICAL INTERVENTION OBJECTIVE: To create a community toilet monitoring system that is community led, directly communicated to Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and becomes a tool for ensuring proper service delivery by the service NGOs. NEED FOR INTERVENTION The current MCD outsourcing model of toilet maintenance had several lacunae. The first and most important was the absence of constant monitoring by the MCD. The facility level monitoring and reporting is to be done by Sanitary Inspectors of the MCD. These inspectors are responsible for reporting any unhygienic conditions, such as dumped garbage, stagnant sewage and so on, in their command areas.

Community toilet monitoring is not their area of specialization. Also community toilets need to be monitored on several parameters – ranging from daily standards of cleanliness to state of infrastructure to charges being levied for usage and so on. Each inspector is responsible for populations running into hundreds of thousands. Hence it is unrealistic to expect constant monitoring of CTCs on multiple parameters from them. The second lacuna was the absence of transparency in the system. The users were unaware of the management system of the CTC and what they could rightfully expect from the service provider NGO. Furthermore, the user feedback mechanism for the MCD was poor. The third lacuna was that the model did not differentiate between the services expected from the NGO in CTCs used by a residential clusters of slum dwellers and those from a floating population of visitors and day workers to a commercial area. The MCD treated all CTCs as the same. This was a big mistake, since the usage patterns, pressure of population per seat and the capacity to pay per use varied significantly between these two usage types. Finally, the biggest lacuna was that the contract between the NGO and the MCD was for 7 years for thousands of CTCs in a zone– hence, unless the circumstances were exceptional, the chances of MCD changing the service provider NGO because of sporadic complaints by a few slum dwellers, were remote.

Considering the extreme importance of the CTC for the health, dignity and sanitation conditions of a slum – particularly those of its women, it was necessary to address these lacunae.

THE PROPOSED SOLUTION FORCE (Forum for Organised Resource Conservation and Enhancement is an NGO based in New Delhi, founded in 2004) put in place a system of community education about CTC services and regular monitoring of CTCs and reporting to MCD by the women from the user community itself. The system followed the following process: 1.

FORCE obtained the Terms of Agreement on the basis of which MCD had short listed and then appointed the NGOs that were now managing the CTCs in each area.

2.

The terms of agreement were studied thoroughly – especially the mandatory service requirements from the NGO.

3.

Out of these, those service delivery items were identified which were easily observable and could be recorded in a simple Yes / No or numerical statement by any of the users.

4.

A team of 4 to 8 girls with good communication skills from each community were identified. An informal workshop on community toilet management – rights, responsibilities and common issues – was conducted with them.

3

SHARMA – J.

5.

The girls were asked to do a house-to-house contact program within their communities. In this they further educated the community members about: − the services that were supposed to be provided to the community by the NGO managing the CTC − The charges that had to be paid. They were made aware that children below 12 years could use toilets free of cost, women were supposed to pay only Rupees 1/- per visit and men Rupees 2/- per visit. The users could also apply for a monthly family card in which, for a maximum of Rupees 60/- per month a family of up to 5 members could use the toilet facilities for a month. − Infrastructure maintenance responsibilities for the NGO. Because of the intensity of use of community toilets, they need repairs very often. The MCD has clearly listed the maintenance responsibilities of the NGO. This includes routine maintenance like electrical fittings, water fittings, door repairs, blockages removal and so on. Also the toilets have to be whitewashed and the septic tank cleaned every 6 months. The community was told that they could demand these maintenance items from the NGO. − The NGO is also supposed to provide one teaspoon of handwashing soap, adequate water and is supposed to maintain hygienic conditions in the toilet. − The agreement also provides for maintaining transparency in operations. A caretaker has to be in each CTC and he is required to maintain a User Register, a Visit (Monitoring) Register and a Complaints register. − After sharing this information with the community, a team of two women users was selected as the CTC Monitoring team for each CTC.

6.

These women were trained further.

7.

A CTC monitoring format was shared with them (attached as Annexure 1). The items to be monitored were: − Presence of user (a daily register kept at entrance to record users of the toilet) , complaints (to register complaints by users everyday) and visit registers (to record dates and names of monitoring visits by MCD staff and their observations) − State of repairs and general maintenance (white wash, doors, sewer / drain, septic tank, electricity, water) − Number of new family passes made − Availability of hand-washing soap − General cleanliness − Number of hours for which toilet is kept open − Behaviour and service orientation of caretaker − User per visit charges – men, women, children

8.

The format is written in the local language. The ladies were asked to record their observation about the state of toilets on each of the items mentioned in the format, in a random visit made in the first and the last week of the month. Additionally they were advised: − Not to take a confrontationist attitude with the caretaker − As far as possible, the observations should be recorded quietly without drawing too much attention to the act − Make surprise visits – particularly before the start of peak usage times.

9.

Periodically, the Monitoring Committee would share its observations with the community members in a meeting in which the caretaker / NGO staff and MCD officials were also invited. This was done specially when: − A critical problem was not getting fixed for a long time − An improvement had been made for which the NGO had to be felicitated.

10.

The completed formats were also shared with FORCE. We collated the information and shared it with the MCD senior officials for long-term action.

4

SHARMA – J.

SCOPE OF ACTIVITY Monitoring was started in late 2009 with 2 CTCs in one slum. Within 6 months it was scaled up to CTCs in 20 slums covering a population of approximately 60,000 people. From March 2011 onwards, the monitoring is now being extended to 75 CTCs spread over all 12 zones of Delhi.

IMPACT OF ACTIVITY The CTC Monitoring activity has had impact at several levels. At the community level, it has created awareness among the community about the: • Importance of CTC for community hygiene and health • The role that each stakeholder plays in ensuring smooth functioning of the CTC. This includes the NGO service provider, MCD staff and the community members themselves • The services that the community can legitimately demand from the CTC service provider For the MCD, the system has become an ‘eyes and ears’ for CTCs. The Community reports give them a precise, unbiased and real-time picture of the: • Levels of daily cleanliness and service support • Maintenance status of critical infrastructure • Responsiveness of the NGO – if a problem does not get rectified even after 2-3 months, it shows that the NGO is not taking cognizance of the shortfalls that are being pointed out • Financial irregularities by an NGO. Though the system does not show up the full scale of irregularities, it throws up irregularities such as over-charging from users, non issuance of monthly passes and not spending enough on routine maintenance or cleanliness of the CTC • Major problems that will need MCD intervention – collapse of sewer connections or filling up of septic tanks and so on Most important, the system has led to a significant improvement in the state of maintenance of the CTCs. The NGO is now aware that it is being monitored and reported upon in written reports. Since the community shares its feedback in a written, signed report, any report to the contrary (by the supervising government officer or by NGO) is noticed and commented upon by the senior officials. This acts as a barrier for corrupt collusion between government officials & NGO. Hence, the project is trying to make sure that the complaints are minimized. The CTCs are now being kept open for 18 hours or more, they are cleaned daily at least twice a day or more, the doors and walls are in good condition for at least 90% or more, the children are not charged and women are charged Rs 1/- in all and the number of family passes issued has gone up from zero to approximately 200.

In fact, surprisingly, the project has resulted in improved relations between the NGO service provider and the community. The CTC monitoring committees share and express public appreciation for the CTC caretakers in community meetings if services have improved or problems solved. Also, as awareness increases, the community has also understood its own responsibilities in preventing maintenance problems.

The users are now more careful about ensuring that they do not litter the area or throw sanitary wastes in toilets. They are vigilant and hence work with the NGO to address problems before they become too acute.

Over a 2 year period, this has actually led to savings and stress free management for the NGO partner.

SCALING UP, POTENTIAL FOR REPLICABILITY AND POLICY IMPACT Within a short span of approx 2 years, the activity has already been scaled up significantly. This, itself, is testimony to the acceptability of the idea. Its replicability has also been demonstrated by the ease with which

5

SHARMA – J.

it has been possible to communicate the benefits and the mechanism of conducting this activity in diverse settlements.

In addition, from August 2011, a ‘Daily Self Reporting’ based on the project’s format has been made mandatory by Municipal Corporation of Delhi for the CTC Service Provider for one Municipal Ward on an experimental basis. The objective is to test and then scale it up to all CTCs (more than 1500) in Delhi. Also quarterly review meetings are held with the Deputy Commissioner of two of the districts. Thus a framework for government support to community and for further institutionalizing the activity has been created.

ANNEXURE 1: Monitoring results for one community toilet complex, 3 months of 2010 Item

User Register Complaint Register Observation Register Repairing and White wash When was done last time ( Rep) Condition of door White Wash Status

White Wash last time Sewear Connection Septic tank Cleaning Last time Electricity, Water Available For Community Use How many pass made Soap Cleaning Status How many Hours open Care takers behavior Charges below 12yrs Charges for Women's Charges for Man

Oct-10

Nov-10 15 Day's 15 Day's Not Not Available Available Not Available Available Not Available Available

Dec-10 15 Day's 15 Day's Not Not Available Available

15 Day's Not Available Not Available Not Available

15 Day's Not Available Not Available Not Available

12 month before Broken Bad

12 month before Broken Bad

13th month before Broken Bad

12 month before Not Available

12 month before Not Available

13th month before Not Available

Never

Never

Never

Never

Never

Never

Good

Good

Good

Good

Good

Good

None Not Available Good 18hrs Good Rs. 2 Rs. 2 Rs. 2

None Not Available Good 18hrs Good Rs. 2 Rs. 2 Rs. 2

None Not Available Good 18hrs Good Rs. 2 Rs. 2 Rs. 2

20

None

None

Available Good 18hrs Good Rs. 2 Rs. 2 Rs. 2

Available Good 18hrs Good Rs. 2 Rs. 2 Rs. 2

Available Good 18hrs Good Rs. 2 Rs. 2 Rs. 2

6

13th month before Broken Bad 13th month before Not Available

Available

Available

Available

Available

14th month before Broken Bad 14th month before Not Available

14th month before Broken Bad 14th month before Not Available

SHARMA – J.

Acknowledgements The author/s would like to extend thanks to WaterAid India. This paper has been prepared as a part of the Swatch Delhi Swasth Delhi project funded by WaterAid India in New Delhi.

Keywords Toilets, monitoring, planning, change, effective Contact details Name of Principal Author – Jyoti Sharma Name of Second Author Krishna Kumar Tiwari Address – C-8 / 8035, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi,Address – C-8/8035, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi – 110070, India 110070, India Tel: +91 9899812888 Tel: +91 9711010946 Fax: +91 011 26893502 Fax: +91 011 26893502 Email: jyoti@force.org.in Email: krishna@force.org.in www: www.force.org.in www: www.force.org.in

7