The villagers of Badas and Gajapati under Badas Gram Panchayat of Belagavi taluk have shown the way to make a difference to the quality of life by joining hands together to construct as many as 133 Individual Household Latrines (IHHL) in a week.
Motivated by the Panchayat Development Officer Ashok Mirji, the villagers, setting aside their religious, caste and political affiliations, decided to join hands with the gram panchayat to make the two villages open defecation-free. Elders like Gangadhar Ghasari and GP president Neha Gangadhar played a catalytic role in building consensus among the villagers on the need for having IHHL for every house.
In fact, for various reasons, the villagers were not coming forward and it took nearly six months to construct only six IHHLs. However, with a time-bound action plan of their own, 133 households constructed as many latrines in a span of just one week — surpassing the weekly target of 100 IHHLs they set for themselves.
Of over 900 houses in Badas and Gajapati, 609 households have no individual latrines.
The target of constructing the remaining 476 IHHLs would be completed in about the next five weeks, said Sanjay B. Patil, MLA, and Bogadi Gautham, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer, who visited the village to appreciate the villagers’ endeavour on Wednesday.
133 individual household
toilets have been
built in a week
