A week-long awareness campaign to eradicate open defecation, ‘Nirmal Madurai,’ commenced in Othakadai panchayat union here on Monday with a cycle rally by school students.
The campaign will seek to create awareness of the ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan’ campaign, which is a scheme offering subsidies for the construction of Individual Household Latrines (IHHL), Integrated Men’s Sanitary Complexes, Integrated Women’s Sanitary Complexes and Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) plants.
Speaking about the campaign, Additional Collector (Development) B. Rohini Ramdas said that special focus would be given to sanitation for women and children. “Open defecation has raised security concerns for women in particular as they have become targets of crimes. Access to proper sanitation for women and adolescent girls is the need of the hour,” she stressed.
In a survey carried out in Madurai district, it was identified that 1.71 lakh IHHLs had to be built.
However, only 7,327 latrines have been constructed till date.
“The State government has given a fillip to the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme where the beneficiaries can work for the construction of latrines in their houses and get a subsidy of Rs.4,500,” said Ms. Rohini.
Officials from the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) said that 424 villages in the district had Integrated Women’s Sanitary Complexes.
While there were already 26 Integrated Men’s Sanitary Complexes, the construction on 12 more in the district were to begin soon.
The DRDA has identified 1,421 schools with toilets in the district and are carrying out repairs wherever necessary.
In anganwadis, the construction of ‘child-friendly’ toilets is also being mooted.
In the course of the next week, street plays and folk dances by National Service Scheme and Nehru Yuva Kendra volunteers, speeches and signature campaigns will be carried out across 697 clusters in the district.
