National Urban Sanitation Policy

• The Government has adopted the National Urban Sanitation Policy.
• The vision of the policy is that All Indian cities and towns become totally sanitised, healthy and liveable and ensure and sustain good public health and environmental outcomes for all their citizens with a special focus on hygienic and affordable sanitation facilities for the urban poor and women.

Initiatives  under the NUSP

Rating of Cities                                                                    

The rating of Cities covers all Class I cities of the country which account for 72% of the urban population. The rating was carried out using a methodology which focussed on output, process and outcome indicators and was conducted in consultation with the cities. The purpose of the rating was to create awareness regarding the critical state of sanitation in the country with a view to mobilising action. Cities were classified under four colour categories i.e. Red, Black, Blue and Green.

State Sanitation Strategies and City Sanitation Plans                    

• The NUSP requires each state to formulate its own State Urban Sanitation Strategy to achieve the policy goals set out in the NUSP taking into account its local urban context. 
• So far, 24 States are engaged in the preparation of State Sanitation Strategies. 
• Cities will operationalize the state strategy by preparing and implementing City Sanitation Plans. The City Sanitation Plan's main purpose is to support local bodies, NGOs, CBOs, Citizens to take concrete steps to achieve 100% sanitation in their cities. The preparatory actions include mobilization of a  City Sanitation Task Force.

Awareness Generation                    

An awareness generation campaign was launched with the broadcast of audio spots and jingles on Radio/ FM channels with a view to sensitizing citizens regarding the importance of sanitation, negative impacts on health and the environment due to lack of sanitation and most importantly the need to eliminate open defecation. The jingles have been developed in twelve languages.

National School Sanitation Initiative                      

Our vision of totally sanitized cities can not be achieved without the involvement of all stakeholders including our children who are our future. Keeping this in our view, a one day event on launch of National School Initiative was organized on April 27, 2010 by the Ministry of Urban Development & Ministry of Human Resource Development to sensitize younger children on the issue of sanitation, ecologically important issues such as energy efficiency, conservation of natural resources, segregation of waste etc. Mr. Aamir Khan, noted Film star participated in the event as Brand Ambassador for School Sanitation to spearhead the efforts towards awareness generation for better sanitation.