CONCEPT NOTE & TERMS OF REFERENCE
Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) Campaign
Water Quality, Handwashing & Community Accountability and Ownership for Waste Picker Communities — Saamuhika Shakti, Bengaluru
|
Reference No.
SS/BCC/2025-26/01
|
Proposal Deadline
15 June 2026
|
Programme
Saamuhika Shakti
|
PART A — CONCEPT NOTE
1. Introduction and Programme Context
Saamuhika Shakti is a multi-stakeholder urban WASH programme initiated and funded by the H&M Foundation, implemented by WaterAid India in Bengaluru from 2021 to 2026. The programme works with informal waste picker communities and their families, residing in informal settlements and temporary colonies across the city. These communities play a critical but invisible role in Bengaluru's solid waste management system, yet continue to face severe exclusion from safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services.
As Saamuhika Shakti enters its final year of Phase 2 (2025–26), WaterAid India is implementing a focused, three-month Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) campaign across ten waste picker settlements in Bengaluru. The campaign addresses two interlinked themes: water quality, handwashing, and safe water handling; and community accountability and ownership of WASH services. Improved behaviour within the community would lead to improved community accountability and ownership, thereby ensuring long-term sustainability of the WASH infrastructure.
The BCC campaign is an independent engagement. It is not linked to or dependent upon the IEC content production or pre-post assessment engagements being managed separately under this programme.
2. Target Settlements
The BCC campaign will be implemented across the following ten waste picker settlements (a mix of both- notified and non-notified areas), organised into three geographic clusters:
|
Cluster
|
Settlements
|
|
Near Lal Bagh (4 settlements)
|
Bhavani Nagar | Vinobha Nagar | Ramanna Garden | Bande Colony
|
|
Near KR Puram (3 settlements)
|
Munneshwara Nagar | Happy Godown | Akshay Nagar | Kalkere
|
|
Near Mysore Road (3 settlements)
|
Chamundeshwari Nagar | Jai Bhuvaneshwari Nagar |
|
These settlements have been selected for the BCC based on the following criteria:
- Relatively low migration probability
- Buy-in received from the Community Leaders
- Previous responsiveness of the community towards awareness and behaviour change activities.
Exact boundaries, household counts, and entry points for each settlement will be confirmed with WaterAid India's Bengaluru programme team during inception.
3. Problem Statement
3.1 Water Quality, Handwashing & Safe Water Handling
Waste picker households in these settlements access water from multiple sources, community standposts, tanker deliveries, and informal connections, of varying and often unverified quality. Key behavioural gaps include:
- Limited awareness of waterborne disease transmission and the direct link between water quality, handwashing practices, and household health outcomes.
- Unsafe water storage practices such as - use of uncovered, unclean, or shared containers, and unhygienic drawing habits that introduce contamination.
- Low uptake of handwashing at critical junctures - before food handling, after toilet use, after waste handling at work.
- Absence of household-level water treatment or quality-checking practices, particularly in households with young children.
14. Submission Details
|
Submission Deadline
|
15 June 2026, 5:00 PM IST
|
|
Mode of Submission
|
Subject: 'Proposal — SS BCC Campaign / SS/BCC/2025-26/01'
|
|
Queries
|
|
|
Contract Start
|
Mid-July 2026 (indicative); campaign launch by Aug 2026
|
15. General Terms
- WaterAid India reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal without assigning reasons.
- All campaign documentation, reports, and outputs are the property of WaterAid India / Saamuhika Shakti.
- The agency must adhere to WaterAid India's safeguarding, child protection, and data privacy policies throughout.
- Any sub-contracting must be disclosed upfront and approved by WaterAid India in advance.
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the RFQ attached below.