FIELD VISITS

Field visits are an integral part of ISC's efforts. During these visits, ISC representatives and volunteers travel to various locations nationwide to assess sanitation and hygiene conditions, identify challenges and opportunities, and engage with local stakeholders to develop solutions.

Field visits by ISC can be categorized into three types: community visits, industry visits, and government visits. Community visits are conducted in rural and urban areas to understand the challenges faced by people in accessing clean water and sanitation facilities. Industry visits focus on engaging with companies and businesses to promote sustainable sanitation practices. Government visits aim to advocate for policy changes and mobilize resources to improve sanitation infrastructure.

During these visits, ISC representatives interact with local residents, community leaders, government officials, and industry representatives to understand their perspectives and gather information. The data collected is used to develop innovative solutions that are tailored to the specific needs of each community.

ISC also uses field visits as an opportunity to conduct training and capacity-building sessions for local stakeholders. These sessions cover a wide range of topics such as the importance of handwashing, menstrual hygiene management, and sustainable sanitation technologies.

Field visits are crucial tools for improving sanitation and hygiene in India. By engaging with local stakeholders and developing tailored solutions, ISC is making a significant impact on the lives of millions of people across the country.

Akbarpur Talhu (UP) visit

India Sanitation Coalition team headed by Dr. Sanjeev Jha, along with HCL Foundation visited Gram Panchayat Akbarpur Talhu, Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh on September 28th, 2023. The visit was an exercise to document the GPs journey as a Light House Initiative ‘Model’ GP that has consistently made progress in meeting all its milestones across the SBMG value chain. The GP community as part of the LHI model, worked in collaboration with local government, SBMG state mission, HCL Foundation, and ISC on various aspects such as development of safe and sustainable sanitation infrastructure, solid and liquid waste management processes, IEC, and BCC aimed at sustainability of correct sanitation behaviour and institutional engagement and capacity building to ensure long-term sustainability of the project.

Paschim Chhaygaon (Assam) Visit

India Sanitation coalition and TATA Trusts teams visited Gram Panchayat Paschim Chhaygaon, Kamrup, Assam on September 25th, 2023. They visited Light House Initiative project locations in Paschim Chhaygaon to document the journey of the Gram Panchayat in becoming a model GP that not only maintains safe and sustainable WASH practices, but also sets an example for other aspiring and rising GPs to follow. Under the overall mentorship of DDWS and the collaborative efforts of SBMG Assam state mission, TATA Trusts and ISC, the GP came up with structures and processes that would help its citizens to secure ownership of not only the assets developed under the LHI Phase 1, but also to reinforce and reiterate the associated behaviour change through a number of IEC and BCC campaigns.

Pure Adhari (UP) visit

India Sanitation Coalition team led by Natasha Patel, CEO and Sanjeev Shekhar Jha, Director, visited Gram Panchayat Pure Adhari, Shravasti, Uttar Pradesh, on June 27th, 2023.

An LHI Phase 1 intervention location, Pure Adhari is a ‘Model’ LHI GP that is leading by example. Under the oversight and support of State SBMG mission directorate Uttar Pradesh, ISC and Aga Khan Foundation, the GP has made great strides specially in the area of solid waste management with the setting up of an efficient Resource Recycling Centre (RRC) with forward linkages that earn revenue for the GP.

Field visit - Pure Adhari village, UP

The Lighthouse GPs will serve as model GPs with effective SLWM in place, and to achieve this, convergence of various funds including Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBMG), 15th Finance Commission, MNREGA, etc., will be undertaken along with leveraging the managerial and technological capabilities of Corporates.

To undertake supportive supervision of the Lighthouse GPs, the India Sanitation Coalition conducted a field trip to Shravasti District, Pure Adhari village, Uttar Pradesh from 2nd -4th February 2023. During this trip, all the supportive supervision tools, including household survey form, in-depth interview questionnaires, focused group discussion questionnaires, and the supportive supervision framework were successfully tested. This trip helped in further refining the tools and it was executed successfully.

Field visit - Banka, Bihar

A two-day field visit was conducted in Bachhaur village of Belhar subdivision/ Block, Banka district, Bihar to prepare the development plan for the village for need-based interventions by employing the CLTS methodology which included a participatory rural appraisal approach besides the technique of micro-level planning. Efforts were taken to identify and bring together, both, the government and non-government actors. The government stakeholders included the Mission Director-cum-CEO, Jeevika at the State level, and district and sub-district level officials at the local level (district and below and up to the gram panchayat level). The non-state actors included the India Sanitation Coalition representatives, corporate representatives, and members and natural leaders in the community being intervened. Representatives of the country programme monitor (proposed) were also involved in this two-day exercise.

Field visit - Bansidhar and Ila Panda Foundation (BIPF)

Bansidhar and Ila Panda Foundation (BIPF) is a corporate based out of Odisha. They are on the verge of signing up for LHI 2 and had, therefore, requested ISC to organise a field/site visit in order to under the scale of work the project entails. It took weeks of back and forth and coordination for this site visit to finally fructify. HCL, our existing LHI 1 corporate was gracious enough to agree to the visit to their sites in UP to the villages of Purwa and Akbarpur. A two-member team from BIPF visited HCL's sites on the 20th of April. Needless to say, it was a resounding success. This is a fine example corporates learning from each other's experiences and ISC is proud have played the part of an enabler in all of this.