Octogenarian leads village on a clean path

Women in Jathigoundenpatti started constructing toilets following her

Kamammal was the first to construct toilet at her house at Jathigoundenpatti village near Dindigul.

Kamammal (85) of Jathigoundenpatti village in Thoppampatti panchayat in the district has became a role model for others by constructing a toilet at her house.

Her children left the village long ago and settled in distant places, and she is living alone. When volunteers explained the ill-effects of open defecation at the village, the octogenarian was the first to come forward to construct a toilet. Soon, many women followed her, and now the village has become a role model for other villages.

But to achieve this feat, volunteers and local body members struggled a lot to convince rural women. “We camped at the village for months to convince them. We got up at 4 a.m. and prevented women from going to fields and diverted them towards community toilets. People having a die-hard habit of easing themselves in the open were motivated to cover faeces with soil. Field demonstration on ways of spreading diseases enlightened them. Now, massive community participation has made our job easy. Continuous motivation and intensive awareness were behind the success,” said B. Mary, a volunteer.

Praising the initiative, Collector T.G. Vinay suggested that Kammamal could act as an ambassador of Swachh Bharat at the village.

Local women said some people could not construct toilets owing to paucity of space and funds, and demanded a sanitary complex.

When people complained about water shortage, panchayat union officials said a new water source would be created near Sirumalai to augment drinking water supply to this panchayat.

Later talking to reporters, Mr. Vinay said 69,570 individual toilets would be constructed in the district at an estimated cost of Rs. 83.44 crore this fiscal. During the last fiscal, 60,231 toilets had been constructed. Eighteen village panchayats had been declared open defecation-free (ODF) zones. The State-level committee would monitor them and declare them ODF zones soon. Thirty six village panchayats had voluntarily declared themselves ODF zones, he added.

DRDA Project Director (in-charge) P. Thilagavathi said various models of toilets and leach pits were developed to suit small houses. Toilets with attached bathrooms were also constructed.