Participatory action of all stakeholders which includes panchayat presidents, officials and all the citizens is what can lead to the implementation of total sanitation and eradication of open defecation, said S.M. Vijayanad, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayat Raj, New Delhi, on Monday.
Addressing a workshop on ‘Community action for Rural Sanitation and Panchayat Raj’ at the Gandhi Niketan Ashram in T. Kallupatti, Mr. Vijayanand said that it was surprising to note that in Tamil Nadu, only 40 per cent of the households had toilets.
“With good welfare schemes, a rooted panchayat system and Self Help Groups (SHGS) as well as strong economic development, the State has many advantages which can be channelled into implementing a strong methodology to eradicate open defecation,” he said.
Quoting the example of Himachal Pradesh, which went from 30 per cent to 90 per cent coverage of houses having latrines in five years with no major subsidy scheme in place, he said that it would be possible to move towards total sanitation. “It is important to assess the status of sanitation and motivate people accordingly on how they can change from their present practices. It is also important that such initiatives once implemented, are sustainable,” Mr. Vijayanand told the panchayat leaders and SHG members who attended the workshop.
Rohini Ramdas, Project Officer of the District Rural Development Agency said that while 44 villages in the district had recently declared themselves open-defecation free, many more should follow the lead. “There still are a number of cultural and social barriers which need to be overcome to take steps towards total sanitation. We had to try very hard to convince many villagers to build latrines near their houses as a lot of them believed that bad things would befall the family if there was a latrine in the house,” she recalled.
She further said that with the government offering a subsidy to build bathrooms, the DRDA was focussing on the sustainability of total sanitation in villages.
Speaking about the programme, V. Raghupathy, Professor at Gandhigram University and member of the governing body at Gandhi Niketan Ashram, said that it was organised as part of the initiative of the ashram towards rural development. “Panchayat presidents from Madurai, Virudhunagar, Dindigul and Tirunelveli participated,” he said.
