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City Managers’ Association Gujarat as Nodal Agency carryout
A STUDY OF NIRMAL GUJARAT LOW COST SANITATION SCHEME OF
URBAN AREA IN GUJARAT STATE
The Context
Gujarat is the fifth highly urbanized state of India with 37.23 per cent of its population living
in urban areas (after Delhi: 93.0%, Goa: 49.77%, Tamil Nadu: 43.26% and Maharashtra:
42.24%), according to the Census of India 2001. As per the Department of Urban
Development and Urban Housing, Government of Gujarat, the urban population growth was
at its peak during 1971-81 with 3.69, percent per annum and had somewhat declined and
stabilized at 3.39 per cent per annum during the following two decades. The projected
compound annual growth rate for 2001-11 and 2011-21 is estimated to be at 3.38 per cent per
annum. However, if one looks into the net addition to the total population in urban areas over
the same time period it shows that 35.95 per cent of net addition occurred during 1971-81
which increases to 50.45 and 50.04 per cent during 1981-91 and 1991-2001, respectively.
According to the estimates based on the current expansion of urban population, by 2021, 35
million people accounting for nearly 47 per cent of the state population would be residing in
urban Gujarat.
The demographics might appear encouraging for the future as increasing urbanization is
construed by some as one of the necessary conditions for modern economic development.
However, there exist huge patches of gray area which if unaddressed well in advance could
make the bourgeoning urban population a burden for future planners, especially those
concerned with improving the quality of life for urban residents, notably the poor and the
vulnerable. Like urban centres elsewhere in the country, Gujarat also has a long way to go in
this aspect. There still exists a considerable population in urban Gujarat who are deprived of
basic amenities like access to safe drinking water, access to flush toilets, regular removal of
garbage and functioning drainage system, apart from access to electricity and pucca road.
According to the Census 2001, 21.7 per cent of all urban houses in Gujarat did not have any
drainage facility and 19 per cent of households were having open drainage facility which was
inadequate to ensure hygiene. About 19.5 per cent of urban households did not have access
to any latrine facility, which was down by 14.8 per cent from the previous Census 1991
figures. Among those urban households, which have any latrine within the premises, only
62.2 per cent are water closet toilets considered to be of better quality among other toilet
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options like pit toilets and other latrines. According to the latest Census, around the same
proportion of households (approximately 20 per cent of all urban households) did not have a
bathroom in their houses. Though 95.6 per cent of all urban households in Gujarat were
shown to have access to safe drinking water in the Census 2001, a dissection by source
suggest only 83 per cent of households have access to ‘tap water supply’, indicating existence
of some public infrastructure to provide treated water.
The latest available another important source on the availability of household amenities is the
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)’s report, namely, the NSSO Report on the
58th Round Survey on the Housing Condition in India, published in 2003, also supports the
findings of the Census 2001, though there are discrepancies in the reported figures, which is
justifiable on account of the fact that the former one is a census and the latter a representative
stratified random sample survey. However, there is some additional information available
with the NSSO, which is not covered in the Census. For example, the NSSO data show that
22.3 per cent of urban households in Gujarat had faced severe floods due to excess rain or
spate in nearby river or seas during the last five years before the survey (done in 2002).
Absence of flood control mechanism can affect the drinking water supply, cause water
logging and spread diseases like diarrhea and malaria, even in houses having required
sanitation facilities. It also brings out that only 38.9 per cent urban households reported
garbage disposal by local authorities whereas 37.4 of remaining households managed the
garbage disposal on their own and 23.2 per cent of all households had no mechanism for
garbage disposal. Absence of effective garbage disposal can upset the benefits from the
access to safe drinking water and toilets within the households. The data also show only 21.8
per cent of the urban households have reported improvement in drainage during the last five
years to the survey whereas 78.2 per cent have reported no improvement or deterioration in
drainage. The figure for disapproval (in terms of responses such as ‘no change’ and
‘deteriorated’) by urban households in Gujarat stands at 93.8 per cent for garbage disposal, 53
per cent for latrine facility and 58.9 per cent for water supply.
It is most likely that the lack of basic amenities is not homogenous across the different socioeconomic
strata in urban Gujarat. The disadvantaged rural populations who migrate to urban
areas generally end up in squatters and slums in the cities and towns; provide service and
cheap labour to the city while remaining in its periphery without proper or any access to basic
amenities in contrast to the better-off population in the same town or city. According to the
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Census 2001, 11.78 per cent of the state’s urban population lives in slums. From the NSSO
58th Round it is observed that 61.28 per cent of all slum households in urban Gujarat live in
non-notified slums or squatters.
The ‘Nirmal Gujarat’ campaign, the current programme to upgrade sanitation facilities being
implemented by the Gujarat Urban Development Mission (GUDM), has initiated concrete
actions in addressing some of the aforesaid issues. Nevertheless, as each year, on an average,
6,41,735 persons add to the urban population in Gujarat and a significant proportion of that is
likely to swell the slum population, the urgency to arrange for providing basic amenities in
the slums, in particular, assumes significance.
The proposed study shall aim to validate the extent of existing demand for sanitation facilities
in urban Gujarat and also enquire into related issues concerning sanitation practices, solid and
liquid waste disposal, hygiene awareness and access to water in urban slums. Details
regarding the approaches to the study have been provided in the following section.
The Approach
The approaches to conducting the field surveys to obtain the required quantitative and
qualitative information shall be as follows:
1. One third of the Municipal Corporation and A & B Class Nagarpalikas shall be selected
for the purpose of surveys and assessment. The selection format is given in Table 1.
2. The survey shall be undertaken in three distinct phases, in order to fulfill the twin
objectives of (i) validation of the extent of household demand for sanitation and (ii)
obtaining a realistic picture of the nature of problems encountered by region and such
other issues as availability of water, etc. It is important to emphasize that whereas the
household surveys shall be a measure of estimating the actual status of the requirement,
the qualitative information to be collected through the focus group discussions (FGDs)
shall help in understanding the specific issues those would have to be simultaneously
addressed.
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Phase I
1. Selection of 3 Municipal Corporations
2. Selection of 17 Nagarpalikas ( 6 A Class and 11 B Class)
Phase II
1. House listing (covering all households) in all the slums of Municipal Corporations.
2. House Listing in select zones (slums and such other specified deprived pockets, as
Suggested by the concerned Nagarpalika officials).
Phase III
1. Small sample (5 or 10 per cent, based upon stratified random sampling procedure)
of households shall be canvassed with a detailed (4-5 pages long) questionnaire for
both the slums in the Municipal Corporations and Nagarpalikas and specified
pockets in the latter.
2. Focus group discussion shall be conducted in all the above regions.
Table 1: Format of Selection of Municipal Corporations and Nagarpalikas
Particulars MC A Class NP B Class NP
Total 7 18 33
Sample size (Approx. 30% of
total)
3 6 11
Sample by region Central,
North, South and Saurashtra-
Kutch)
Vadodara
Jamnagar
Junagadh
Central 2 (4)
North 1 (3)
South 1 (4)
Saurashtra-Kutch 2
(7)
Central 3 (7)
North 2 (7)
South 1 (4)
Saurashtra-Kutch 5
(15)
Note: Figures in brackets indicate total number of NPs in the respective region.
In addition to the aforesaid three survey-based exercises, discussions shall be held with
concerned government officials, civil society representatives and important local citizens.
Table 2 presents the sample MCs and NPs, with the number of slums (organized and
unorganized) and their sample household size. It may be noted that the sample size of the
households relates only to the slums. The number might increase/decrease following the
house listing exercise under this study.
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Table: 2 List and Number of Slum Households of Selected Municipal Corporations and
Nagarpalikas
Number of Slums Sr.
No.
District Name of MC
& NP Org Unorg Total
Estimated No.
of Slum
Households
10% Sample
of
Households
Municipal Corporation
1 Vadodara Vadodara 39514 3951
2 Jamnagar Jamnagar 58 25914 2591
3 Junagadh Junagadh 14000 1400
Total 79428 7943
A Class Municipality (Nagarpalika)
1 Anand Anand 4 9 13 1269 127
2 Banaskantha Palanpur 0 21 21 7000 700
3 Panchmahals Godhra 0 21 21 4920 492
4 Valsad Vapi 6 19 25 1760 176
5 Bhavnagar Botad 0 8 8 901 90
6 Kutch Gandhidham 0 6 6 6704 670
Total 10 84 94 22554 2255
B Class Municipality (Nagarpalika)
1 Ahmedabad Viramgam 0 16 16 2111 211
2 Anand Khambhat 13 4 17 1875 188
3 Dahod Dahod 4 6 10 675 68
4 Navsari Vijalpor 17 4 21 4050 405
5 Patan Sidhhpur 4 1 5 2100 210
6 Sabarkantha Modasa 17 2 19 1172 117
7 Amreli Savarkundala 0 14 14 1312 131
8 Bhavnagar Mahuva 2 4 6 675 68
9 Junagadh Mangrol 5 5 10 2097 210
10 Kutch Anjar 25 5 30 10000 1000
11 Surendranagar Dhangadhra 7 0 7 3468 347
Total 104 61 165 29535 2955
Grand Total 131517 13152
Note: Org Organised; Unorg Unorganized
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