In a first, EDMC gets open defecation-free tag

A Quality Council of India team surveyed 17 spots in the trans-Yamuna area — an amalgam of slums, residential colonies, markets and school premises — and found no evidence of human excreta lying in the open, the report states.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has been declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF), commissioner Dilraj Kaur said Monday. She added that the East civic body has passed a ‘third-party inspection’ conducted by the Quality Council of India (QCI) on behalf of Union government’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

The EDMC had first applied for an ODF certificate in October 2017 but failed the QCI test at least twice. (HT File / Photo used for representational purpose)

This exercise was part of the nationwide Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and the inspection took place between March 19 and March 20.

A QCI team surveyed 17 spots in the trans-Yamuna area — an amalgam of slums, residential colonies, markets and school premises — and found no evidence of human excreta lying in the open, the report states.

East Delhi — which has 90% unplanned settlements such as Seelampur, Nand Nagri and Trilokpuri — was particularly difficult to rid of open defecation, Kaur said. The EDMC had first applied for an ODF certificate in October 2017 but failed the QCI test at least twice.

“Given the demography and population density here, it was challenging. We had to not just build toilets, but change people’s mindset. We held meetings with RWAs, market associations, and heads of temples, gurdwaras and mosques. We visited schools to educate kids, who would, in turn, explain the ill-effects of open defecation to their parents,” she said.

“Since a chunk of the population here is working class, we had to link open defecation with not just their health, but loss of productivity as well,” she explained.

Emphasis was laid on the “vulnerable areas” like the three railway lines that cross through Shahdara and Anand Vihar, besides slums like Lal Bagh and Chanderpuri. “We constructed 95 community toilets and 477 public toilets. We asked sanitation workers to reach their sweeping sites two hours prior in the mornings so they could inform open defecators of the toilets available,” said Pradeep Khandelwal, chief engineer, EDMC.

“We undertook the ‘Roko Toko’ and ‘Seeti Bajao’ campaigns here and deployed home guards to check open defecation. Even heads of departments (HODs) and senior officers were given charge of four wards each to ensure the bad practice wasn’t continuing there,” said Arun Kumar, senior engineer with EDMC. The corporation has 64 wards and a population of 44 lakh.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation is yet to get an ODF certificate. The area — which includes Sadar Bazaar-Paharganj, Karol Bagh, Narela, Keshavpuram, Rohini and Civil Lines zones — has repeatedly failed the QCI test. North commissioner Varsha Joshi said, “We will reapply for the evaluation.”

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) got the ODF certificate on July 4, 2018, and has undergone renewal inspection in February. “We are awaiting the results from QCI,” a senior SDMC official said.

The certificate is renewed every six months based on mandatory re-evaluation by QCI. A total of 3,246 Urban Local Bodies in India have been declared ODF by the MoHUA. The central government aims to make India 100% open defecation-free by October 2, 2019 — the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Suresh Rohilla, senior director, Water Programme at Centre for Science and Environment, said, “I hope the EDMC is not just providing toilets but also ensuring environmentally safe disposal of faecal waste.”