Guidelines for Nirmal Gram Puraskar
The draft Nirmal Gram guidelines by the Department of drinking water supply (DDWS). Details modifications related to the eligibility critieria, application and scrutiny process, usage of incentive, sustainability measures etc. Comments/suggestions on the guidelines can be sent till April 22, 2009.
To give a fillip to the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), Government of India launched the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) in October 2003 and gave away the first awards in 2005. NGP seeks to recognize the efforts made by PRIs and institutions who have contributed significantly towards ensuring full sanitation coverage in their areas of operation. The main objectives of Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) are: to bring the topic of sanitation to the forefront of social and political development discourse in rural India; to develop open defecation free and clean villages which will act as models for others to emulate; to give incentives to PRIs to sustain the initiatives taken by them to eliminate the practice of open defecation from their respective geographical area by way of full sanitation coverage; and to increase social mobilization in Total Sanitation Campaign implementation, by recognizing the catalytic role played by organizations in attaining universal sanitation coverage.