1. WOMEN-LED TOTAL
SANITATION: SAVING
LIVES AND DIGNITY;
EXAMPLES FROM
MADHYA PRADESH
Gregor von Medeazza , Ajit Tiwari, Megha Jain,
JP Shukla, Nisheet Kumar, Avinash Tiwari

2. Double OD tragedy faced by women
 Profound disrespect of their dignity
 The intolerable pain of losing a
child due to a preventable disease

3. Objectives of Paper
 Learn from the ground experience
of Women-Centered Community-
Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in two
Blocks of Madhya Pradesh
 How these shaped the State’s
MARYADA Sanitation Policy

4. METHODOLOGY
TRIGGERING
NIGRANI
ODF SAMITI
Assistance
through FOLLOW UP
NIRMAL
VATIKA
Toilet
construction VILLAGE
and use ACTION PLAN

5. Triggering Communities
Defecation area transact walk

6. Triggering Communities
Faces to mouth transmission & Calculation of faces ingested

7. Triggering Communities
Creating feelings of disgust and pride in the community

8. Triggering Communities
Natural charismatic leaders emerge who vow surveillance in the
community to stop open defecation

9. Community Monitoring and Decision
Community participation indecision making

10. Community Monitoring and Decision
Village Action Plan by the Community using PRA tools

11. Towards ODF community
Community constructs affordable toilets based on needs and local resources
available

12. Towards ODF community

13. ODF Celebration

14. ODF Celebration with C.M.

15. School-Led Total Sanitation
Construction of new school Toilets and Urinals to support ODF
Community

16. School-Led Total Sanitation
Hand washing before MDM in the school

17. Lessons learnt
• Adopting women-centered participatory planning
• Empower the communities (especially women) to take a lead role
• Focus on flexibility of design and allowing room for choice
• Schools helps to inspire good hygiene and promote sanitation

19. WOMEN-LED TOTAL SANITATION IN
GUNA BLOCK OF GUNA DISTRICT
KNOWLEDGE LINKS, DISTRICT
ADMNISTRATION and UNICEF

20. Not a single village ODF in Guna
till December 2011despite 8
years of TSC

21. CLTS pilot began in Guna in
May 2011

22. Community led total sanitation (CLTS)
gradually turned out to be a women-
led total sanitation in many cases on
the ground

23. Women and their voices
“make our village, panchayat, cluster, block, district
ODF. Until the time all villages are not ODF we and our
children are not safe; the root of all problems is shit”.
-Is the larger vision of these empowered women

24. Women and their voices
“it is not about toilets, it is about ‘ijjat’ (your self-
respect). The responsibility for your ijjat is not with the
government, it is with you. You will have to take care of
it. Men can go at night anywhere anytime; it is we who
have to face the brunt. This has to be done”.
-Explained the women from Devgarh and Rehpura to
women in Kilampur

25. Results so far
 20 villages ODF without any subsidy
 A team of 80 volunteers now
continuing the effort towards
rendering the remaining villages ODF
 ODF celebration in 11 villages
organized by the community

26. Results so far
 Villages initiating vigilance to check
OD by passers-by
 Hiring masons not required; people
can construct toilets on their own and
save costs
 Women as toilet masons

27. Results so far
NLs have now formed an organization,
‘Madad’ (collective help) to carry
forward the sanitation activities in the
district; it is being registered
Villages moving beyond ODF: compost
pits, natural farming, repair of
platforms of hand-pumps etc.

28. Villagers of Devgarh taking oath at Sidh
Baba temple for no open defecation

29. A lady constructing temporary superstructure
for her newly built toilet

30. Construction of low cost toilet by using local material

31. Community monitoring…. displaying the names of
people practicing OD (village Devgarh)

32. Early morning Nigrani Samiti Members in village Devgarh are in
action to catch the defaulters

33. Natural leaders of Devgarh helping in construction
in village Barkheda (GP Sirsi)

34. Empowerment: woman as mason
(Parvati Bai from Devgarh)

35. Women NLs joining hands with men
NLs

36. Minister participating in ODF celebration: Village
Ratanpura

37. Collector participating in ODF celebration: Village
Devgarh

38. Gathering at ODF celebration in Kilampur
&Devgarh
 Kilampur Devgarh

39. Media Coverage of ODF celebration: Village
Devgarh, Ratanpura, Singhadia,Kandhai

40. NLs from ODF villages meeting to discuss future strategy and
preparing an action plan for making entire cluster ODF

41. Beyond Sanitation..
Women preparing natural fertilizer

42. Women’s empowerment ladder
ODF Village Bridging the
Open Road to
womens’
gender gap:
Enhanced Reduced empowereme
ability to take dependence nt
Opportunities on newer on men
to venture out projects financially,
Increased and travel to independently emotionally,
confidence other villages to to improve psychologicall
CLTS Triggering Skills in and self share their quality of their y, mentally.
masonry respect with achievements lives.
Skills in traditionally the sense of for cross-
planning and accepted as achievement learning
Opportunity management; mens' domain
to interact increased
Emergence of with interaction with
Women community CLTS facilitators;
Increase in Natural including skills in public
overall Leaders as it menfolk: speaking with
knowledge of touches their break from outsiders
health and everyday the veil;
hygiene and problem improved skills
its linkage to in motivation
water and and convincing
sanitation

43. Scaling-Up
 These practices have been translated into State-level policy
in the form of the MARYADA (“Dignity”) Campaign:
 MARYADA emphasizes on creating a women-centered Sanitation
movement (with woman dignity at its core), with CLTS as the “operating
system”.
 MARYADA guidelines also draw from the recently approved National
Communication Strategy, with regards to the 4 key Hygiene Behaviors
 MARYADA underline the "beneficiary's involvement in construction"
 MARYADA guidelines leave sufficient room for flexibility of design.
 MARYADA guidelines also include School and AWCs Sanitation,
emphasizing on Child’s Right as well as O&M.

44. Thank You
Gregor von Medeazza Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Specialist, UNICEF Madhya Pradesh
Ajit Tiwari Block Chief Executive Officer, Block Administration Budhni, Government of M.P.
Megha Jain Independent Documentation Consultant
Janardan Prasad Shukla and Nisheeth Kumar - Knowledge Links CLTS Agency
Avinash Tiwar M&E CLTS, Block Administration Budhni (Sehore District), Government of M.P.