Government of India (GOI) has been promoting sanitation coverage in a campaign mode to ensure better health and quality of life for people in rural India. To add vigour to its implementation, GOI launched an award based Incentive Scheme for fully sanitized and open defecation free Gram Panchayats, Blocks, Districts and States called “Nirmal Gram Puraskar” (NGP) in October 2003 and gave away the first awards in 2005 as a component of its flagship scheme Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC). Nirmal Gram Puraskar till 2011 was given by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation(MoDWS), Government of India at all levels of PRIs that is Gram Panchayat, Block Panchayat and district Panchayat. It has now been decided that with the transition to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), selection of Gram Panchayats to award Nirmal Gram Puraskar from the year 2012 shall be taken up by the States, while selection of the Blocks and District Panchayats shall continue to be with the Centre. These guidelines have accordingly been formulated.