multiplicity of government sources, many of which do not supply funds on a predictable schedule. The central government has sought to mitigate this problem somewhat by directly providing PRIs with annual grants for the maintenance of civic services including health, sanitation, and safe drinking water.

- _Problems in performance management:_ Performance standards for many services are unclear, and performance monitoring is inadequate, further hindering accountability. Performance incentives are also diminished since the devolution of funds to local bodies is typically not clearly performance-linked.

# **_b) Additional  problems specific to the delivery of sanitation services:_**

The problems besetting service delivery by PRIs are especially acute for sanitation services. The reasons for this become apparent when we consider, for example, the issue of vector control. A high level of organizational clarity and coordination is needed between local governments and the several line agencies involved, such as those dealing with health, minor irrigation, water supply, and public works. Funds must also be available at the right time: there is little point in trying to control vector breeding the week after the breeding season.

In addition to this, sanitation services have other specific needs:

- _Public health regulations_ .  A clear set of public health regulations, translated into local byelaws and backed by credible implementation mechanisms, is needed for upholding sanitation service delivery. Citizens need to know what their local government is supposed to do, and the local government needs to be able to make citizens comply with requirements for maintaining a sanitary environment. Yet Indian states typically lack uniform and updated public health regulations (Das Gupta 2005).  Tamil Nadu is a notable exception in having a uniform Public Health Act applicable to the entire state --- and it is also the only one to invoke this Act when referring to the mandatory duties of the GP (Govt of India 2004b).

- _Public health advocacy and education._ Building public awareness and support is also very important for successful maintenance of environmental sanitation. Citizens need to understand how they stand to gain from sanitation, such that they can pressure their local governments to improve their service delivery. However, the political vision to do this has been thin.<sup>6</sup>

These problems make for poor GP performance in environmental sanitation, and set the context in which we interpret our survey results. We turn now to examine what our survey data reflect in terms of systemic dysfunctionalities on the ground.

# **3. Study design**

# **3.1. Sampling**

The sample was selected from seven districts in the four South Indian states – two in Andhra Pradesh (AP) -- Medak and Chithoor; three in Karnataka (KA) -- Bidar, Kolar and Dakshin Kanada; two in Kerala (KE) -- Kasargod and Palakkad; and two in Tamil Nadu (TN) -- Dharmapuri and Coimbatore. Districts within states and blocks (sub-district level entities) within districts were purposively chosen to control for common histories and cultural

> 6 Das Gupta and Rani 2004, Mavalankar and Shankar 2004.

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