With the active participation of villagers and local leaders, the Swachh Bharat programme has been implemented effectively in all villages and habitations in the Nellore district, which helped it secure the 16th place in the country-wide rankings.
In the past one year, special measures like awareness drives were taken up in beneficiary villages all over the district to ensure that the people in rural areas make use of the toilets constructed in their houses, to make the programme a success.
In order to sustain these awareness programmes, the officials have used a specially designed vehicle with the Swachh Bharat message. It has moved around in the villages where videos were shown to the local residents on the need for avoiding open defecation as this would help promote health and hygiene in their surroundings.
Stating that the entire district has been made open defecation free, Collector R. Mutyala Raju has instructed the officials at different levels to take it as their responsibility to keep up the commitment among the villagers and local representatives.
Pledges administered
After constructing toilets at all uncovered households in urban and rural areas, the officials have shifted their focus on instilling a sense of duty to cleanliness among the beneficiaries and they have been made to take pledges to make use of the toilets on several occasions.
The utilisation part is considered a crucial phase in the Swachh Bharat drive as there were experiences in the past when lack of awareness led to non-use of such facilities at the field level.