Toilets like these have been put up across Nadia
While the country is celebrating success stories of the
Swachh Bharat campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day last year, Nadia district in Bengal is blowing a different trumpet. Nadia has recently become India's first "open defecation free" district and the big slogan here is not
Swachh Bharat but
Shobar Shouchgar or toilets for all.
Shompa Sarkar, a young mother who lives in Haringhata block's Birohi 2, has a modest home made of mud. But she is very proud of the latest addition to it: the toilet. Just two months old, it is sparkling clean; it corrugated tin door shining in the sun.
"Earlier we used to go to the fields. It was very embarrassing for us. All the women would have to go to the fields. Now we have this toilet and it is such a relief," said Shompa. Other women of the house vigorously nod their homes in agreement.
Even men are happy with the campaign. "Earlier, the whole area would be dirty, the fields would be dirty," said 20-year-old Rool Amin Mandal, a farm labour. "Now, because of toilets at home, everything is clean. It's a good thing."
The Shobar Shouchagor project began in 2013. Then, 35 per cent people would defecate in the open in Nadia district. The number has now come down to zero. Toilets have been built in over three and a half lakh homes, not with state funds but central funds and MNREGA labour. Cost: Rs 10,000 each from central projects. Beneficiaries contributed Rs 900.
School children were deployed to change mindsets. Once a week they would take oath at school to spread the message at home and in their village: not the fields, use the toilets. Small squads were formed to roam the fields early in the morning. If these children saw an offender, they would blow a whistle. Some villages even imposed a fine.
"But that was really to embarrass the offenders more than anything," said panchayat Pradhan Jhuma Sarkar, adding, "Only two people were ever fined in our village."
Gautam Kirtaniya, a former panchayat member, said, "It took time to make people use toilets. Habits are hard to break. Going to the fields is an age old habit. So camps were held to explain the benefits."
There were, however, exceptions. A spanking new toilet in Rehana Bibi's home was stacked with leaves - fodder for her goats. "We will start using the new toilet soon. Now, we are using the old
kuchcha one," she said. And the leaves stored inside the new one? "That's for the goats," she said. "It rained heavily and we didn't have a place to keep the fodder. But don't worry we will start using the toilet soon."
Exceptions, they say, prove the rule. Nadia has adopted the toilet and open defecation in this district is now hopefully history.