The Hindu : Front Page : Pudukottai village panchayats bag award

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 02, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Pudukottai village panchayats bag award

R. Rajaram

Sustained campaign on total sanitation brings about a silent transformation

PUDUKOTTAI: K. Rayavaram, K. Pallivasal, Nallammal Samudhram and Vembangudi (West) panchayats stand out from other villages in Pudukottai district.

All the four are "fully sanitised" and "open defecation-free" today, a feat that earned them the prestigious `Nirmal Gram Puraskar' award given by the Union Ministry of Rural Development. Each panchayat has been presented with a purse of Rs. 2 lakh along with an award.

Thanks to a sustained campaign by the district administration and initiatives of presidents of the respective panchayats, all individual households, schools and anganwadis in these villages have proper toilet facility now.

The age-old practice of open defecation has become a thing of the past in these panchayats, with villagers becoming more conscious of the need to protect environment, maintain hygiene and general cleanliness.

It was a momentous occasion for the panchayat presidents who received the award from President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam last week, along with their counterparts from other villages across the country.

The district administration had forwarded detailed proposals, identifying seven panchayats in Pudukottai district for the award. A team from the Centre selected the four after it paid a visit to each one of them to ascertain whether the villages satisfied the conditions.

Sustained campaign

A sustained campaign through gram sabha meetings and distribution of pamphlets emphasising the hazards of open defecation and construction of individual toilets with government assistance brought about this silent transformation, said Rani Sathappan, president of K. Rayavaram panchayat, which had also received the `Clean Village Award' from the State Government with a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh.

"Initially, we motivated children coming to balwadis and school students in our village about hazards of open defecation and the need to use toilets," Ms. Rani said, adding toilets were constructed at anganwadis and primary schools at first.

Simultaneously, the panchayat coerced the people to change their mind-set, after the Total Sanitation Campaign was launched. The women's group was the target for motivation, through which the message percolated to every household, said Ms. Rani who has been the president of K. Rayavaram for the past 10 years.

Awareness was also created among villagers of TSC and the limited fund support for construction of individual toilets. Constant motivation coupled with government support under TSC made people realise the need to protect environment and maintain general cleanliness by constructing toilets in their households, she said.

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