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With the Swachh Bharat Mission, millions of toilets were constructed to pave the way toward ODF. However, access to toilets is only the tip of the iceberg of challenges that the sector presents. Today, in India, 80% of human waste is untreated and finds its way to open ground or water bodies, which proves to be hazardous to public health and the environment. The lack of strong systems for the treatment of human waste has a disproportionate impact on the lives of the most vulnerable communities. Additionally, the lack of community-centric innovative solutions for containment and treatment also risks the safety and health of sanitation workers who are essential service providers. Keeping these challenges in mind, it is essential to focus on the safer treatment of human waste through innovative solutions and inclusive sanitation service delivery that focuses on cities' decentralized method that enables safe containment, emptying, and transportation of faecal sludge and septage.
Dasra has been championing collaborative action towards scalable impact by enabling city-wide inclusive sanitation. We are working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to build a movement enabling total sanitation within urban India. Dasra anchors the National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management Alliance (NFSSM Alliance) The NFSSM Alliance was instrumental in passing India’s first national policy on Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India in 2017 and since then has been working towards enabling sanitation services reaching the most vulnerable and ensuring the dignity of workers delivering these services in Indian cities and states. Since then, the NFSSM Alliance, has grown into a collaborative body comprising of 35+ organizations (NGOs, CSOs, Academic Institutions, Think Tanks etc.) and 120+ individuals, working towards policy recommendations and collaborative action at the national, state, and city levels. Keeping the scale of the challenge in mind, the role of philanthropic investments in the urban sanitation sector is paramount. It is essential to amplify the voices of the most marginalized communities in global forums with the objective of nurturing an enabling funding ecosystem that drives inclusive sanitation outcomes. Collaborative giving towards collaborative action is essential to build inclusive and resilient cities. |
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