The “Integrated Low Cost Sanitation” Scheme basically aims at conversion of individual dry latrine into pour flush ones thereby liberating manual scavengers from the age old, obnoxious practice of manually carrying night soil.
The ILCS Scheme was initially started in 1980-81 through the Ministry of Home Affairs and later through Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The scheme was transferred in 1989-90 to Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation and from 2003-04 onwards to Ministry of UEPA/HUPA. The scheme has helped in constructing/converting over 28 lakh latrines to liberate over 60952 scavengers so far.
To make the Scheme more attractive and implementable the Guidelines have been revised with effect from 17th January 2008.
At the time of revision of guidelines of the scheme the State of Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh together showed six lakh dry latrines. Later the State of Assam, Nagaland and Jammu Kashmir have declared that they have no dry latrines in their States. These figures changed during the implementation, after the house to house survey of all municipal areas for identification. Presently, the State of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have reported existence of dry latrine and funds have eventually been sought to eliminate these.
Presently, only states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar have to declare themselves dry latrine free. The revised ILCS Scheme envisages conversion of all existing dry latrines within a period of three years (2007-2010). In the video conference held on September 28, 2010, with the representatives of States of Bihar, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, these states have assured that the conversion task will be completed by 31st December 2010 and they would be able to declare themselves dry latrine free.
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