The first key development was bringing administrative reforms for promoting transparency, accountabilityand responsiveness in public service. An innovative, forward looking, need based organization for facilitating reforms through strong social processes at community level was created for this purpose.
The second key development was at the village level, for empowerment of local community by forming VWSCs colloquially known as Pani Samitis. The Pani Samiti was also provided cConstitutional legitimacy and as a policy has mandatory representation from all sections of society and 1/3rd places reserved for women.
The scale (number of people), intensity (extent and enthusiasm), level of leadership and disabling factors differ from village to village and accordingly social processes are taken up for first 3-6 months in every village. During this crucial phase of the project cycle, the community is organised through different techniques of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), like social mapping, resource mapping, transect walk, interviews of key informants, group discussions and meetings at habitation level.
The village assembly, an important tool in eliciting community participation, facilitates decision making, resolving conflicts and building up transparency in the implementation process. It is a horizontal mechanism for policy making at the village level wherein, views of all groups are reflected and holistic planning for water supply systems can take place. It is mandatory for the VWSC to refer to the village assembly at six crucial stages viz., project acceptance, formation of the VWSC, finalizing the Village Action Plan (VAP), allocation of physical works to different parties, presenting the final accounts and setting water tariffs.
Since the implementation is taken care of by the community, capacity of VWSC is built on various aspects. Intensive and regular training on all aspects of project management and implementation enhances the confidence of the VWSCs and they are able to construct drinking water infrastructure that meets quality norms following transparent procedures. As per their capacities, the communities opt for either carrying out work entirely on their own, commissioning it to a contractor or a combination of both. The community monitors the construction activities. Since the communities pay a share (10%) in creation of the assets, they get closely involved in preparing the VAPand ensure that only genuinely required structures are created.
Some steps for transparency include social audit through village assembly, where every important decision taken by the VWSC is vetted and approved, release of subsequent installments after a technical and financial audit, display board at a prominent place in the village mentioning details of the scheme, duties of the VWSC, item-wise budget, estimated expenses and final expenses and audit of the VWSC accounts through appointed auditors
The ‘Atmarpan’ ceremony (dedication to self) is a unique system for commissioning the completed works, where all VWSC members take an oath to operate, maintain and manage the schemes in the presence of the entire community. On the principle of ‘users to pay’, tariff calculation for cost recovery of O&M, subsequent collection and management of the contributions is done by the people through consensus.
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