April 7, 2016
S M Sehgal Foundation (Sehgal Foundation), Gurgaon, Haryana, will host the Sixth Annual Conference on Good Rural Governance and Citizen Participation on April 8, 2016, at its Gurgaon campus. The theme of the conference is “Swachh Gaon: Preparing Communities and Panchayats.”
Swachh Bharat (Clean India) has become a major focus of central and state governments in the country. According to Census 2011, 53.1 percent of the households in India do not have a toilet, with the percentage being as high as 69.3 percent in rural areas and 18.6 percent in urban areas. The call for Swachh Bharat Mission was made by the prime minister of India on 2 October 2014 comprising two sub-missions, Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural or Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban or Shahr). The goal is to achieve Swachh Bharat with a specific focus on ensuring a toilet in every Indian household by the end of 2019.
To achieve this goal, all stakeholders, especially communities, panchayats (village councils), and district administration, must take small steps at the village level. The conference will look at good practices and the barriers that challenge the mission’s objective.
This conference will provide a forum to recognize the contribution of Swachh Champions, the action-oriented people in the villages, to create Swachh Gaon and provide a platform for sharing experiences and learning how to prepare communities and panchayats so that concerted efforts can be made by all stakeholders. Panel discussions on policies and perspectives and new practices for learning on Swachh Bharat Mission will generate recommendations and ideas for effective implementation of the mission.
About Sehgal Foundation and Good Rural Governance Program
Sehgal Foundation’s flagship programs, Water Management, Agricultural Development, and Good Rural Governance, are intertwined and directly and indirectly address social justice, most particularly the critical issue of gender equality.
The Good Rural Governance Program creates environments for citizens and village institutions to become informed and active drivers of their own development. The program helps channel local forces for collective action by focusing on awareness, capacity building, and leadership development.
Good Rural Governance has two initiatives: Good Governance Now and Strengthening Village Level Institutions, which serve as catalysts to simultaneously tackle both the supply and the demand side of effective, accountable local governance. Capacity development for local government and rural citizens ultimately helps to ensure that the planning of resource allocation and delivery of services take place in a more timely, equitable, and transparent manner.

S M Sehgal Foundation is a public, charitable trust registered in India in 1999 with a mission to strengthen community-led development initiatives to bring about positive social, economic and environmental change across India (www.smsfoundation.org).
For more information, email:
Vikas Jha, Group Leader, Governance and Policy Advocacy
[email protected]