Youngsters in 20 slums of Berhampur city in Odisha have started a drive against end open air defecation in their locality.
At the initiative of Youth for Social Development (YSD), youth clubs have been formed in these slums. Members of these clubs have decided to become facilitators of toilets in houses of their locality.
They plan to identify households in their slums that do not have toilets.
They would take up the matter with the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) authorities so that the toilet-less households get it constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban.
According to Bala Das of Ankuli Gudiabandha Sahi slum, they are going from house to house in their slum to collect information about infrastructure in every home.
Families that do not have toilets in their homes are persuaded to have them constructed by making them aware of the government financial support being provided for it.
As most of these families are not much educated, the youth members fill up the application forms for toilets and submit the applications to the BeMC.
“We also monitor the progress of these applications in the municipal corporation office,” said Kanya Kumari of Phulasundari slum.
Till now these youngsters have managed to get around 100 toilet-less families get one sanctioned in their name by the local body. Bibhu Prasad Sahu of YSD said in the next few months this movement will bring ample results.
On Saturday, members of youth clubs in Raghupati Nagar, Jagannath Nagar and Phulasundari slums submitted a memorandum to the BeMC slum improvement officer and health officer. They provided a social map as well as an action plan to overcome the problem of open air defecation.
As per a study, 59.9 per cent slum dwellers in Berhampur resort to open air defecation due to unavailability of toilets at homes as well as in public areas.
There are 163 slums in Berhampur, but these slums have only 24 public toilets and 10 of them are dysfunctional due to poor maintenance and unhygienic condition. Out of 1,17,541 slums dwellers, only three per cent households use community toilets.
The BeMC has planned to construct 505 community toilets in the city. These are to be made ready by March 2017. However, it is alleged that construction of these proposed toilets is yet to start.