Gramalaya, a city-based non-governmental organisation involved in water management and public sanitation, has begun a project to prevent open defecation and dumping of solid and liquid waste in the Cauvery river in Musiri town panchayat of Tiruchi district.
Supported by corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative of Merrill Lynch Capital Ltd., Mumbai, Gramalaya has already helped 132 families of Nataraja Nagar in Ward 11 to build 100 smart toilets (bathroom attached toilets with twin leach pit). This has been accompanied by a hygiene awareness programme to make all the women and adolescent girls in the village switch over to reusable cloth sanitary napkins.
“As a result of the hygiene education and the provision of toilets, the garbage on the streets generated by the open disposal of soiled sanitary napkins every month has drastically reduced. Besides ensuring the safety and dignity of women, the cleanliness of the Cauvery river will increase,” said S. Damodaran, founder-director of Gramalaya in a statement.
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The NGO has been sanctioned ₹1.90 crore by Merrill Lynch Capital to extend the programme through the entire Tiruchi district covering 14 blocks. So far 9,604 packets of reusable cloth pads worth ₹30 lakh have been distributed to the women in Tiruchi district through its social marketing approach.