Despite its multi-pronged approach, the government may not achieve its goal of making Tamil Nadu free of open defecation by 2015.
According to the policy note of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department tabled in the Assembly on Friday, there are 95.41 lakh households in rural areas, and 52.68 lakh of them are without toilets, as per a baseline survey conducted in 2013.
In his reply to the demand for grants for his departments, Municipal Administration and Rural Development Minister S.P. Velumani said five lakh individual toilets (for households) were built in 2014. About 17 lakh more would be built at a cost of Rs. 1,800 crore this fiscal.
That means 30 lakh households will be left without toilets.
The survey also revealed that in respect of 42.73 lakh households with toilets, in 13.02 lakh households the toilets were found defunct.
Most of the individual household toilets, essentially for the Below-the-poverty-Line families, constructed during initial years with a low subsidy, have fallen into disuse. Hence, 65.70 lakh households will have to be covered with toilet facilities if the goal is to be achieved by 2015.
Officials say this is a “long-drawn process” that requires a “behavioural change.” It will take at least five-six years to come closer to achieving the distinction, even if the government meets the target for construction of individual toilets and campaigns vigorously for spreading awareness as it does now, they say.
Integrated sanitary complexes are another route the State has taken to curbing open defecation. During 2011-12 alone, 12,796 sanitary complexes for women which were in disuse were renovated at a cost of Rs. 170 crore. For men, 770 integrated sanitary complexes were built during 2012-13.
The Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department’s policy note says a detailed survey has been taken up by the urban local bodies in co-ordination with NGOs to identify the locations where open defecation is still practised.
Based on the survey, improvements to 3,024 public toilets and construction of new toilets have been contemplated by 2015-16. In Chennai, 116 sites, mainly areas abutting rivers and canals, have been identified with open defecation.
Officials are not even sure how it will be possible to construct 17 lakh toilets in a year. “It is only a plan as of now. The Collectors have been asked to provide application forms to generate demand. Even if people construct toilets, the whole exercise becomes useless if they are not going to use them,” a senior officer says.
The government is working on an inter-departmental route to change the mindset of villagers. Collectors have been asked to hold a meeting of officials of the Departments of Health, Education and Rural Development dealing with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Integrated Child Development Services and so on. For instance, two lakh people visit primary health care facilities every day. Children, mothers and adolescents converge on schools and anganwadis. Similarly, people visit MNREGS worksites in large numbers. Only through a convergence approach can the message be put across to the masses, says another senior official of the Rural Development Department.
Published - August 02, 2014 03:15 pm IST
