Around 1.2 billion or a sixth of the Earth’s human population lives in India and about half of this billion defecates in the open. The present Indian government has demonstrated its political will to make India Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2019 by launching the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in both urban and rural capacities. The government is actively seeking technical, capacity strengthening, and monitoring support. This call to action has brought forth overwhelming response from different factions of the society – companies, foundations, NGOs, multi-lateral organizations, and motivated individuals. However, there seems to be a lack of coordination and cooperation among the stakeholders working in the sector. Each of them seems to be working in a silo, sometimes duplicating the work of others, sometimes reinventing the wheel. These barriers lead to lack of efficiency and effectiveness and inhibit a collective and collaborative response to the WASH challenge. The India Sanitation Coalition (ISC) was formed with the objective of bringing all stakeholders in the sanitation field onto one platform where they can share information, learn from others, partner and collaborate. Today, the ISC has NGOs, donors, corporates, foundations, trusts and government as partners, working together to create a larger impact, rather than each one working in their vertical.
