Latest News Archives - CLTS Foundation Global

National Workshop on Participatory / Jan Bhagidari tools under Jal Jeevan Mission

CLTS Foundation Global — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 07:25:15 +0000

CLTS Foundation was honoured to be invited to the National Workshop on Participatory / Jan Bhagidari Tools under the Jal Jeevan Mission, jointly organised by UNOPS India and SPM NIWAS on 22–23 December 2025. The workshop brought together practitioners, policymakers and sector experts from across the country to reflect on how participatory approaches can shape the future of rural water security in India. As part of this important national dialogue, Dr. Kamal Kar, Chairman of CLTS Foundation, was invited as a Keynote Speaker, where he reflected on India’s remarkable progress under the Jal Jeevan Mission since its launch in 2019 and the transformative vision of “Har Ghar Nal, Har Ghar Jal.” While highlighting on the aspect of Surakshit Jal he emphasised that as coverage expands, the focus should be on towards “Har Ghar Nal, Har Din Surakshit Jal,”. He stressed on the critical importance of water quality, safety, storage and sustainability. Dr. Kar highlighted that lasting outcomes can only be achieved when institutions work hand in hand with empowered communities, stressing Participatory Rural Appraisal as a powerful process of deeply listening to people, valuing their knowledge, and placing communities at the centre of planning and decision-making. Through such participatory approaches, he noted, rural water systems become safer, more resilient and sustainably when managed by communities themselves.

The workshop itself served as a vibrant platform for moving from tools to transformation. Day 1 focused into the practical participatory tools being used across states under the Jal Jeevan Mission programme. Participants actively mapped the tools using chart paper and cards that showcased diverse field-level innovations. Each tool was linked to the specific challenges it addresses, ensuring that solutions remain rooted in local realities. This was followed by group discussions which enabled the participants to analyse the tools in depth, examining their context and methodology, the resources required and results achieved, the changes brought about in community dynamics, and opportunities to further strengthen outcomes in the future. Day 2 culminated in an energetic plenary session where participants presented their learnings to peers and experts, fostering learning and collective reflection cross the states. All the participants were invited for a networking dinner which was held on 22^nd December.

By documenting and sharing Jan Bhagidari tools through this collaborative process, the workshop laid the foundation for developing a National Compendium that will guide participatory and sustainable water management in the years ahead. CLTS Foundation contributed in the national effort and continues advocating for people-centred, participatory approaches that place communities at the heart of water security and development.

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“Institutional Triggering – A Guide to Take CLTS to Scale”

CLTS Foundation Global — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 10:14:26 +0000

By Dr. Kamal Kar.

This book explains the need for Institutional Triggering as an important tool to complement the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach and influence larger institutions and powerful actors of development within and outside the government to scale up the homegrown success of CLTS across their respective nations. It describes how facilitators can convince the senior leaders and high officials in spreading the success of CLTS to their respective regions more proactively for the overall growth and advancement of the nation.

Available on Amazon. You can order your copy. Make the world better together.

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Dr. Kamal Kar Discusses the Future of Community-Led Development with Vita

CLTS Foundation Global — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 09:08:10 +0000

Dr. Kamal Kar, the founder of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach, shared his experiences and insights on community-led development, reflecting on the need for sustainable sanitation solutions. Dr. Kar discussed the shortcomings of traditional aid models and highlighted the successes of empowering communities to take charge of their own development. His latest book, “Institutional Triggering,” explores how institutions can support community-driven development on a larger scale.

Global Approach to Sanitation

Based in Kolkata, India, Dr. Kar is the Chairman of the CLTS Foundation. He developed the CLTS approach in Bangladesh in the early 2000s, shifting the focus of sanitation programmes from providing infrastructure to promoting behaviour change. CLTS encourages communities to stop open defecation through collective action without relying on external subsidies.

“CLTS isn’t only about putting up toilets,” Dr. Kar said. “It’s really about helping people change their habits and making those changes last.” Dr. Kar explained. He reflected on how earlier models, which focused on subsidising toilets, often failed because they didn’t tackle the underlying behaviour issues.

“Millions of subsidised toilets were built around the world, but more than 70% were unused or repurposed. The real issue wasn’t about building toilets—it was about changing behaviours,” he said. Governments and organisations have since adopted the CLTS approach in over 73 countries, including UNICEF and the World Bank.

The Importance of Behaviour Change

Dr. Kar shared an anecdote from his work in Zambia, where he met a man who proudly showed him a newly constructed toilet but admitted he didn’t use it. The man explained that the toilet was too valuable to use.

“He told me, ‘This is the most valuable possession I have. I live in a mud-walled, thatched-roof house. How can I use a brick building with an iron roof as a toilet?’” Dr. Kar recalled.

“It’s about addressing the cycle of contamination. Communities need to change their attitudes and behaviours around sanitation,” Dr. Kar explained. CLTS focuses on ensuring that communities themselves are engaged in the process, which leads to long-term, sustainable improvements in public health.

A Longstanding Partnership

Vita and Dr. Kar have been collaborating for more than two decades. Their partnership in East Africa has focused on implementing CLTS in rural communities and promoting behaviour change. Through their work together, villages have become Open Defecation Free (ODF), and improved cookstoves have been introduced, enhancing health and environmental outcomes.

“We began in two villages where CLTS was introduced and scaled up. The approach spread organically within a year as neighbouring communities saw and adopted the results,” Dr. Kar said.

Improved cookstoves were also introduced. “The stoves reduced fuel consumption and harmful smoke exposure, making a significant difference in the health of women and children,” Dr. Kar noted. Vita supported local entrepreneurs to manufacture and distribute the stoves, ensuring their availability to the wider community.

Expanding the Approach

Dr. Kar’s latest book, Institutional Triggering, outlines how institutions can adopt and promote the principles of CLTS to drive sustainable development at a larger scale.

“Some institutions have moved away from providing subsidies, but many still rely on them, which can perpetuate dependency,” Dr. Kar said. His book calls for a shift in how institutions approach development, moving from dependency models to those encouraging community empowerment. “It’s about creating the conditions for community-driven change,” he explained.

By ‘triggering’ institutions to support this shift, Dr. Kar hopes to see a wider adoption of community-led approaches, similar to the success of CLTS in villages.

The Future of Community-Led Development

Dr. Kar is hopeful about the future of community-led development. “When communities are empowered, they can achieve outcomes that go beyond what was initially expected,” he said. Vita continues to work alongside Dr. Kar and the CLTS Foundation, particularly in Ethiopia, where they aim to introduce improved cookstoves to 1.5 million households in the coming years. This initiative is expected to conserve biomass and improve reforestation and health outcomes for millions of people.

Dr. Kar shared valuable insights on the importance of community empowerment and behaviour change in achieving sustainable sanitation and development. His partnership with Vita has helped drive these efforts, and his work continues to influence how institutions and communities address sanitation challenges. As CLTS and similar approaches continue to expand, the focus remains on empowering communities to lead their own progress.

Listen to Dr. Kar’s Vita Voices podcast episode

https://vitavoices.podomatic.com/enclosure/2024-10-06T11_33_46-07_00.mp3

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Open defecation in Mudumalai’s rivers during temple festivals poses a risk to wildlife: conservationists

CLTS Foundation Global — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 09:03:05 +0000

Defecation into rivers contaminates the minimal water that these waterbodies have in the summer to meet animals’ needs; additionally, fireworks pose a risk inside the forests, say conservationists and local residents

The surge in devotees to multiple temple festivals in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), is raising concerns about the possibility of river contamination due to open defecation.

The MTR buffer zones hosts temple festivals in Bokkapuram, Siriyur, Chokkanalli, and Anaikatty each summer, when rivers flowing through the landscape have very little water in them.

According to conservationists who are part of the teams recording the impacts that the festivals have on local ecosystems, river and water hole contamination due to open defecation, fires and fireworks are disturbing the wildlife, especially critically-endangered species of vultures found in the region.

“Each year, the temple festivals become more and more popular and draw in an increasing number of devotees not only from the Nilgiris, but from surrounding districts in Tamil Nadu and even Karnataka,” said a conservationist.

While the largest temple festival in Bokkapuram had around 30 bio-toilets installed during the festival, the other temples had significantly fewer toilets for people to use. “This has led to people defecating into the Sigurhalla and the Siriyur Halla rivers, which are important lifelines for wildlife,” said another conservationist from the Nilgiris, adding that the number of bio-toilets at Bokkapuram too, were insufficient for the number of visitors.

The MTR buffer zones is home to even more tigers, leopards, sloth bear and elephants than the core area, and is also home to three critically-endangered species of vultures, and the only population of hyenas in the Nilgiris.

Forest Department field staff said that there was also a reluctance from men to use the toilets installed at the venues. “The effects of the contamination of the river may become more pronounced as the festivals take place during the height of the dry season, when water levels are low and animals are desperately searching for water,” added conservationists, who have been calling for stricter controls on temple tourism in protected areas in the Nilgiris.

Local residents have also voiced their complaints about the use of fireworks during the festivals, increasing the risk of forest fires.

When contacted, P. Arunkumar, Deputy Director of MTR (Buffer Zone), said that the Forest Department had stepped up checking at forest checkposts on the way to the temples where the festivals are organised. “We seized alcohol bottles and banned plastic, while parking for the vehicles was also organised to minimize the effects of the festival on the local environment,” he said.

Source: The Hindu, Online News Article, 06th March 2024.

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SanLearn 2022!

CLTS Foundation Global — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 10:28:37 +0000

Incredible progress has been made in reducing open defecation practices in South Asia in recent years. Between 2000 and 2020, over 1 billion people gained access to a basic sanitation service, increasing its coverage from 57% to 70%. However, 230.5 million people were still practicing open defecation in South Asia region till 2020. Therefore, there remains a strong need to complete the unfinished business in eliminating the practice of open defecation, sustaining open defecation free (ODF) status and accelerating progress towards safely managed sanitation services for all.

Given these significant challenges, UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA), CLTS Foundation Global, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Regional Sanitation Centre (RSC) for South Asia are combining efforts to strengthen the sanitation sector and enhance institutional capacities across the region, SanLearn 2022 is a step towards that. A sanitation learning event in Sri Lanka in November 2022 is being organizing bringing together key stakeholders working on sanitation issues in the region.

The learning event will be supported and facilitated by UNICEF, CLTS Foundation Global and RSC, wherein internationally recognized sanitation experts will be invited. SanLearn 2022 intends to bring together senior government officials, key decision-makers and technical staff from different countries to engage in discussion and seek common solutions to eliminate open defecation and scale up access to safely managed sanitation.

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An upcoming visit by the Associate Programme Officer of CLTS Foundation Global

CLTS Foundation Global — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 10:01:27 +0000

An upcoming visit by the Associate Programme Officer of CLTS Foundation Global for a national conference conducted by PRIA on “The Future of Urban Sanitation” on 27^th -28^th February, 2020 at New Delhi.

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An international conference by CLTS Foundation Global

CLTS Foundation Global — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 10:01:03 +0000

An international conference by CLTS Foundation Global will be organised in the year 2020. Date and venue to be announced soon.

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Latest publication entitled

CLTS Foundation Global — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 10:00:22 +0000

Latest publication entitled “ Institutional Triggering “ by Dr.Kamal Kar will be launched soon.

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Dr.Kamal Kar was invited to chair a Session at the Global Water Alliance (GWA)

CLTS Foundation Global — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 09:58:12 +0000

Kamal Kar was invited to chair a Session at the Global Water Alliance (GWA) Conference scheduled on 6-7 January 2020 at the Novotel Hotel, Kolkata. The topic of the session was “Achieving access to Adequate Sanitation and Hygiene for All”

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Safaigiri Award Winner 2019

CLTS Foundation Global — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 11:00:45 +0000

Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) project has been awarded with the prestigious Safaigiri Award in association with the India Today Group for creating an Open Defecation Free blueprint for the World Global Mission, on October 2, 2019 in New Delhi. The award was presented in the category of Community Mobilizer which was received by Dr. Kamal Kar, Chairman of CLTS Foundation Global. This award was launched in 2014 in order to showcase and felicitate the pioneering efforts of those who are leading the change in Cleanliness. The work of the foundation has been recognized by the various Heads of the Nations internationally. This is a major recognition to CLTS Foundation Global given by one of the India’s leading news/media agency. In the event, the Honourable President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind congratulated the winners and emphasized on cleanliness across the country.

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