Sustainable strategies to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) areas in Visakhapatnam and Ahmedabad
Student name: Ms Palla Lakshmiprasanna
Guide: Dr Bhawna Bali
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: Urban Management Centre (UMC), Ahmedabad
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Ms Meghna Malhotra
Abstract: There are 1.1 billon people defecating in the open, in which 600 million (59%) are from India
(World Health Organization (WHO), 2012). The report also stated that in India, 182 people are
defecating in open over a square kilometer area. Approximately 65,000 tons of feaces is adding
every day in an open environment which leads to many health and environmental issues in India.
Every year, there are 188,000 children under five years are dying due to diarrhea. These facts and
figures are indicating the challenges in sanitation situation of India.
Health has been given huge priority in city planning. There is an urgent requirement for sanitation
improvement in India. This was triggered the priority targets towards sanitation improvements in
India through the recent flagship programmes of the Government of India (GoI) namely Swachh
Bharat Mission Urban (SBMU), Smart Cities and AMRUT Cities. The major focus of SBMU
Programme is on the elimination of open defecation and other two programmes focused on
enhancing of city wide sewerage infrastructure.
Hence, this study “Sustainable Strategies to Achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) Areas†is
attempts to understand the Open Defecation (OD) practice and factors contributing to it through
the study of slums from the two cities namely Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and Ahmedabad,
Gujarat. Two slums from each city were studied and analyzed in the aspects of OD practice and
sanitation infrastructure provided. Through the study, various critical and distinctive issues faced
by slum people have been identified such as health issues, safety and dignity of women. The study
also emphasized on the methodology for identification of OD spots, users of OD spots, slums in
the surrounding area and conduct of Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) to know their problems
and promoting toilet construction and its usage.
Based on the problems identified and literature available on the developing countries where cities
have achieved open defecation free status, sustainable strategies for such progress have been
recommended for the case cities.
Key Words: Open Defecation, Open defecation free cities, Sanitation, Infrastructure, Health
