The Belagavi Zilla Panchayat’s innovative idea to use Raksha Bandhan as a platform to promote construction and usage of toilets appears to have succeeded.
On the day of Rakshan Bandhan alone (Monday), 2,080 toilets were ‘gifted’ by rural youth to their sisters.
“We plan to build 40,000 toilets under this scheme,” said zilla panchayat chief executive officer R. Ramachandran. He visited villages near Belagavi where brothers gifted toilets to their sisters. He spoke to the residents of Hulyanur village in Belagavi taluk. The ZP is facilitating the construction by bearing the costs. While families from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities get ₹15,000 for building toilets, others get ₹12,000.
MLA and former Minister Satish Jarkiholi visited villages in his constituency and nearby villages to attend more such programmes.
The district had nearly 5.6 lakh houses without toilets as per the 2011 census. In five years, around three lakh toilets were built. “In the last one year, we have built around 1 lakh toilets and there are plans to build another 1.6 lakh units. We have set a deadline of October 2 to declare the district open defecation-free. We are employing every available idea or strategy to motivate the rural population to move away from open defecation,” Mr. Ramachandran said.
He said they were emulating the best practices from around the country. The idea of promoting toilet usage by getting men to gift toilets to their sisters on Raksha Bandhan began in Uttar Pradesh.
“We borrowed the idea of felicitating pregnant woman in houses with toilets by organising Seemanta (‘end of term’). We have organised Seemanta in all the 11 taluks and at the district level in order to spread the message that having a toilet at home is very important to the health of pregnant women. While the toilet as a Rakhi gift idea promotes building units, events like Seemanta highlight the need to use them,” he said.
