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leAding the chAnge



       Swathi K connected emotionally to the community to convince them
       to end open defecation

        A    software engineer, Swathi K had been   spread to SBM’s field force as well. Swathi
                                                 Worse still, people’s indifference had
             interested in the Civil Services from
             her engineering days. “I wanted to   arrived to find a demoralised, demotivated
       contribute to nation building,” she says. The   Swachhagrahi team — primarily due to delays
       Zila Swachh Bharat Prerak (ZSBP) programme   in receiving remuneration. Before mobilising
       gave her an opportunity to do just that.   the people, Swathi had to motivate her team.
           When she was deployed as a prerak to
       Nagapattinam, a coastal district in Tamil Nadu,   REMovIng BottLEnECKS
       Swathi was excited about the opportunity.   Swathi’s first job, therefore, was to ensure that
       However, she soon discovered that the Swachh   payments were disbursed in a timely manner.
       Bharat Mission (SBM) was struggling to   Funds for government initiatives in Tamil
       cope with the community’s apathy towards   Nadu follow a procedure. They are paid by the
       sanitation issues. The fact that sanitation   state to the district, which releases it to the
       was essential to improving their socio-  Village Panchayat Level Committees (VPLC)
       economic condition was lost on the people,   through the blocks for onward remittance to
       and their indifference towards taking part   beneficiaries. Somewhere in this process, the
       in government initiatives only exacerbated   Swachhagrahis’ remuneration was getting held
       matters. The prevailing attitude was that   up. Swathi had to foster better coordination
       community development was the government’s   among the district, block and panchayat
       responsibility. They believed that SBM was a   administrations. Once operations were
       ‘scheme’ wherein the government would build   better coordinated at block and VPLC levels,
       toilets for them; they didn’t need to make any   payments began to be received on time.
       effort to build these themselves.         The next step was to train the

















         Swathi’s emphasis was on improving the emotional connection between the Swacchagrahis and
         the community. She stressed the need to deliver an emotional rather than practical message


    8  TATA WATER MISSION - A Tata Trusts Initiative
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