At 4, this girl bats for a clean India

At public meets, Yukti talks about ill-effects of open defecation

Four year old Yukti Arali, speaks to women of Kotgyal village about the need to build toilets in their houses

Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not have found a younger ambassador for Swachh Bharat than in four-year-old Yukti.

Yukti, who learnt to speak when she was three, has picked up impressive public speaking skills. She speaks against open defecation and urges people to build toilets in their houses. She is invited to village functions by women’s associations and farmers’ groups to speak about a clean India. Apart from naming diseases like gastroenteritis, she also speaks about the possibility of water contamination owing to open defecation.

During her speeches, Yukti educates the audience as to how dangerous it is to send young children and women outside during night hours and also warns children against venturing out into fields infested with snakes and scorpions. The crowd applauds when she ends her speech with a slogan for Swachh Bharat and wants her to repeat some of the points made by her in the speech.

Yukti was influenced by the speeches made by her father Gautam Arali who is the district coordinator for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. “She accompanied me whenever I visited villages to address meetings. I never thought she was listening to my speeches ... but I was surprised to find out that she could recall all the major points made by me in my speeches and some from the speeches of other guests,” Dr. Arali said.

He said that in one such meeting at Janawada village, she took the microphone and began to speak even before the other guests had arrived. This caused a sensation and the women, who had gathered there, began to clap. Yukti was asked to speak again when the function resumed. She repeated her performance in two or three other places before her skills began to be noticed. “Now, women’s groups call her to their meetings and ask me to accompany her,” Dr. Arali said.

Yukti, however, does not like her speeches much. She would rather prefer to perform in a play about Swachh Bharat, she said. Yukti, who is in lower kindergarten, is also learning classical music and dance from her mother Bhanupriya, who is a school teacher.