Raising a Martian Stink

Yesterday, India launched Mangalyan -- its Mars mission for a total of Rs 450 crore. Although the reactions world over were mainly positive but a section of people retorted by saying why a poor country like India, where people don't have access to basic sanitation, is spending so much money on an expedition to Mars? Let us examine India’s record in the sanitation department and try to put the apples and oranges of a comparison in perspective.

In the current fiscal, i.e. 2013-14, the total budget for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been Rs 5615 crore, or nearly 37 per cent of the Rs 15,260 crore the government agreed to spend for the water and sanitation issues in India. But as I said earlier, this is like comparing apples and oranges. Let us see in detail the performance of the water and sanitation department and if need be, compare it to ISRO.Since the argument has been to build more toilets instead of the space programme, I will look over the expenses on the water department in India and will directly head towards the sanitation sector and its achievements.

In the 12th Five Year Plan, the central government has designed a scheme called the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). Its objective is to achieve sustainable behavioural change with provision of sanitation facilities in entire communities in a phased, saturation mode with “Nirmal Grams” as outcomes. The Outcome Budget of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation 2013-14 says, “the coverage of rural population with sanitation facilities against project objectives identified is only about 71% as on 31.12.2012. It is envisaged to complete all the present project objectives of all the districts under NBA by 2022.”

I guess this sufficiently explains that funding isn’t an issue here. Yes, open defecation continues to be a major problem in India but the issue is not related to the lack of toilets. According to the government, “The practice of open defecation in India is due to a combination of factors–the most prominent of them being the traditional behavioural pattern and lack of awareness of the people about the associated health hazards.” Out of the total of Rs 15,260 crore for the water and sanitation budget, Rs 3834 crore is earmarked for the sanitation department or the NBA. Apart from this, a provision of Rs 4260 crore has been made for NBA for the year 2013-14.

According to the objectives set by the government, 71% families in rural India already have been provided the benefits of sanitation as against the projected targets and the rest will be covered by 2022. Now the question one should ask is why will it take 9 years to reach the rest 29% of the rural households? Clearly, intent is lacking, not funds.

Let me explain how. This government documents explains how NBA is being implemented in 607 districts with a total outlay of Rs 22,672.36 crore, or over 5 times the budget of Department of Space. The share of the central government in this expenditure is Rs 9713.81 crore which, the government claims, has been released. But is  the money being released equal to the work being done? The annexure XIII and IX of this document shows that in 2011-12 the money with all the states in India combined had Rs 2,61,744.59 lakh to spend on the NBA but they managed only Rs 1,33,572.68 lakh.  A similar story continues for the following year as well. So, does the problem lay with the Rs 450 crore India spent on Mangalyaan or the Rs 128171.91 lakh or Rs 1281.72 crore that remain unspent in 2011-12?

Allocating money isn’t the solution. Spending the money effectively and in the right direction is. And with that, the Department of Space has done a commendable job of managing a Mars mission for Rs 450 crore, a fraction of what NASA spend on Mars Rover (Rs 16,000 crore roughly). The entire budget of NASA for 2013 is $17.7 billion, or Rs 1,08,000 crore against ours Department of Space’s budget of Rs 5615 crore.

I hope this sufficiently flushes down the excreta of the debate that is left of toilets versus space missions.The issue here is not the money. The government has the money, planned and allocated. The issue is the intent to achieve the targets. The issue is to exhaust the budgetary allowances and make sure that there are no carry forwards. The issue is that the construction of Individual Household Latrines (IHHL), school toilets, sanitary complexes and anganwadi toilets should go up every year and not decline. Under the NBA in 2011-12, India constructed a total of 8,798,864; 2547; 122,471 and 28,409 of IHHL, sanitary complex, school toilets and anganwadi toilets, respectively as against 2,810,129; 1009; 35,873 and 13,755 till December 2012, respectively.The government needs to explain why the construction of these toilets has lagged so far behind in 2012-13? Clearly, budgetary allocation isn’t to blame here because India achievement much more in 2011-12 with lesser money.

The answer also lies with the government itself. There are no targets to achieve but the “expected outcomes” as per Statement – V is delivering 80 lakh toilets and 8 lakh toilet blocks in schools. The construction of which, has steadily declined over the last four quarters. For the first two quarters of the current fiscal, the government planned to construct 15 lakh IHHL each and 25 lakh of the same for the following two quarters. However, for the first quarter, India managed to build 12.09 lakh IHHLs, 8.92 lakh in second quarter and a shameful 7.66 lakh IHHLs in the third quarter. The numbers of the fourth quarter are not available. Similar story continues for school toilet blocks as well. The explanation: difficulty in convergence with MGNREGS.
 
It is difficult for me to digest this wild explanation. But in India logic is usually flushed down the drain.
 
(Shubhashish is a journalist who is now pursuing Masters in International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS in London. Email: shubhashish@msn.com)