A campaign by school students in Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district to write to their fathers to convince them to build toilets at home is turning out to be a big success story with one block — Lohara — becoming completely free of open defecation in 45 days.
“Over 1.38 lakh students wrote letters in a single day on July 15, persuading their fathers to build toilets and use them. The impact was overwhelming,” Sarveshwar Narendra Bhure, chief executive officer of Kabirdham district panchayat told HT.
Among those students is Sarita Patel, a Class 8 student in Jaitpuri village. Her letter to her father asking him to safeguard the honour and dignity of her mother by constructing a toilet at home convinced him to get the job done.
“My words touched his sentiments and he began building a toilet. He brought my mother from another village so obviously it’s his responsibility,” she said.
The unique initiative also caught the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in his Mann Ki Baat address on August 28, praised the students for getting toilets constructed at their homes.
Kabirdham is the home district of CM Raman Singh. Just 120km north-west of Raipur, open defecation had been a rampant practice in Kabirdham, with hardly 30% households having toilets. The problem remains more alarming in villages where over 90% were habitually defecating in the open, according to officials.
{{/usCountry}}Kabirdham is the home district of CM Raman Singh. Just 120km north-west of Raipur, open defecation had been a rampant practice in Kabirdham, with hardly 30% households having toilets. The problem remains more alarming in villages where over 90% were habitually defecating in the open, according to officials.
{{/usCountry}}The awareness about sanitation was so poor that even rich farmers in blocks of Lohara and Pandariya appeared unwilling to have toilets at home. “Since ages we haven’t used toilets, so why do we need a toilet now?” Samrendra Saw, a rich farmer in Silheti village retorted when asked if his home has a toilet.
“To achieve the goal of open defecation free (ODF), we engaged local communities through a novel way. We began grooming students on the benefits of ODF through orientation sessions that created healthy sense of hygiene. These children, from Class 3 to 12, became ambassadors of the swacchata and sanitation drive, persuading their parents to construct toilets,” Bhure said.
The campaign has clicked. Of the four blocks in Kabirdham, Lohara has now become totally ODF, while sanitation coverage in Bodala, Kawardha and Pandariya blocks are 42, 58 and 48% — an overall increase of 30%.
For most school managements though, it was not an easy task. “To get toilet constructed in every home in rural areas was very challenging. Students and school management committee together devoted themselves to bring a constructive change in the mindset of villagers,” said Shiv Kumar Sinha, a school headmaster.