Women's participation in total sanitation campaign - the Orissa experience

This paper attempts to illustrate the experiences of UNICEF in Orissa state (India) on involvement of women Self Help Groups in accelerating the Total Sanitation Campaign towards creating demand for and supply of individual toilets among the rural communities. Where years of top down approach did not yield the desired results, these women have demonstrated that given the necessary skills, guidance and encouragement, they can change the attitude of the rural communities adopting cost effective household toilets and improved hygiene practices at the household, community and the institutional levels. The focus of the experiment was to promote a number of rural sanitary production centre managed by women, which could double up as social mobilization dissemination points. While supporting a national programme towards improving the quality of life, these women have created an opportunity for their own income generation. Thus, the sustainability of the programme has been ensured with the Government acknowledging the strategy as a truly replicable one.