Rural Sanitation: Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA)

- The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP), remodeled as the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), has the main objectives of bringing about an improvement in the general quality of life in rural areas, accelerate sanitation coverage, generate demand through awareness and health education, cover all schools and Anganwadis in rural areas with sanitation facilities and promote hygiene behaviour among students and teachers, encourage cost effective and appropriate technology development and application, and endeavour to reduce water and sanitation related diseases.
- The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) is one of the eight flagship programmes of the government.
- NBA started in 2012, aims at achieving 100 per cent access to sanitation for all households by 2022.
- There has been a tremendou increase in the access to sanitations facilities by rural households.
- The sanitation coverage among rural households has annually increased from only 6.21 1akh in 2002-03 to 45 lakhs in 2012-13.
- During 2013-14 (upto March 2014) over 49 lakh toilets were provided to households.
- The TSC follows a communityled and people-centred approach.
- The components of the TSC include startup activities, Individual household latrines, community sanitary complexes, school sanitation and hygiene education and Anganwadi toilets.
- To encourage Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to take up sanitation promotion, there is the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) incentive scheme under which an award is given to those PRIs that attain a 100 per cent open defecation-free environment.
- The NGP has been acclaimed internationally as a unique tool of social engineering and community mobilization.
- Under the NGP, a total of 25145 gram panchayats, 166 intermediate panchayats and 10 district panchayats have received the award in the last five years.
- Sikkim has become the first "Nirmal State" in the country.