Ministry of Jal Shakti Outlines Criteria for Declaring ODF Plus Villages

An ODF Plus village is defined as a village which sustain its Open Defecation Free (ODF) Status, ensures solid and liquid waste management and is visually clean. There are 3 progressive stages of ODF Plus villages:

• ODF Plus Aspiring: A Village which is sustaining its ODF status and has arrangements for Solid Waste Management OR Liquid Waste Management
• ODF Plus Rising: A village which is sustaining its ODF status and has arrangements for BOTH Solid Waste Management and Liquid Waste Management
• ODF Plus Model: A village which is sustaining its ODF status and has arrangements for both Solid Waste Management and Liquid Waste Management; observes visual cleanliness, i.e., minimal litter, minimal stagnant wastewater, no plastic waste dump in public places; and displays ODF Plus Information, Education & Communication (IEC) messages

A village that has met all the ODF Plus criteria will self-declare themselves ODF Plus at a Gram Sabha meeting. The District must ensure mandatory third-party verification of a village, within 90 days of ODF Plus declaration for the first time. The mandatory third-party verification will be undertaken for ODF Plus (Model) villages only. However, supervisory verification may be done for the ODF Plus villages across all the three categories (Aspiring/Rising/Model) by the officers responsible in chain of command at Block/District/State levels.

Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti, is continuously pursuing with the States/UTs and supporting them so that implementation of the programme can be speeded up at ground level. Regular review meetings, technical workshops with the States/UTs are being conducted. The field visits also undertaken by the Ministry’s officers to review the programme at ground level and to know the issues being faced by the State/UT in implementation of the programme.

As per Report of Economic Survey, 2023-24, Open Defecation Free (ODF) and Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus and Swachh Bharat Mission have led to lesser disease incidence due to cleaner practices, lesser school absenteeism due to illness and more effective nutrient absorption over the long run among the least privileged.

DDWS has recognized the role for private sector in Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) and has accordingly released the corporate collaboration framework, which emphasizes the active contribution of corporate houses in the mission. In addition, it provides the corporates an opportunity to actively engage with the community as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs. DDWS’s framework clearly suggests corporate involvement through CSR interventions that promote safe sanitation through interventions that cover infrastructure development besides initiatives around training and capacity building and behavioral change.

India Sanitation Coalition (ISC) approached DDWS for a collaboration to engage Corporates in ODF Plus Model implementation through the Light house initiative (LHI) project. Light House Initiative Phase 1 is being implemented with 7 corporate and 1 development foundation across 15 State SBM-G missions under the joint oversight of DDWS and ISC. The LHI partners worked by empowering the communities in achieving ODF Plus Model Gram Panchayats.

One among the many ways of ensuring community ownership was to involve them from the initial stages of the work through a participatory rural appraisal, discussion in gram Sabha, intensive community drives for awareness generation etc. In LHI Phase 1 out of 76 GPs, 54 GPs are declared as ODF Plus Model. The time period for LHI Phase 1 intervention is from January 2023-September 2024.

Later, ISC has proposed DDWS for continuation of Light House Initiatives (Phase 2) for scaling up learnings of LHI Phase 1 which will be implemented in 14 States across 43 Blocks with 8 Corporates – ITC, Ultra Tech, HCL, Nayara Energy, Jamna Auto, JSPL, Hindalco, BIPF. The implementation period of LHI Phase 2 is from July 2024 to March 2025.

The key approach of LHI Phase 2 is to demonstrate community action for SLWM, demonstrate innovative communication & outreach strategy. Develop & implement credible monitoring arrangements. Intervention to augment the capacity of institutions & demonstrate sustainable operation & maintenance models for SLWM assets.