Villagers started practicing a hygienic way of life by using toilets constructed at their houses for the first time in their life in Sanarpudur in R. Pudupalayam panchayat in the district.
The loans provided by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and the initiative of LEAF Society, an NGO, helped in creating an awareness among the villagers to construct toilets.
The 116 houses in the village had no individual toilets. The villagers used to defecate in the open for generations together. Things changed after the members of LEAF Society, which works on rural sanitation, visited the village and started to conduct awareness programmes stressing the need for having toilets.
“Changing the mindset of the villagers and sourcing funds for constructing toilets was a big challenge,” says S.L. Sathiya Nesan, director of the society.
A Women Sanitation Society (WSS) was formed in the village with members contributing every month for the common fund. Villagers who want to construct toilet can obtain loan from the WSS, and repay it in installments. The Nabard sanctioned Rs. 10,000 for each toilet.
“Both the funds helped the beneficiary to construct toilet at their choice of design,” he added.
Amudha (24) of the village said that girls and women now feel safe as earlier they had to go for defecation in the open. Sujatha (37), mother of two girls of Kallamkulam village, said that during night hours they faced difficulty in attending to nature’s call. But now it’s easy, she added.
Mr. Sathiya Nesan wanted the nationalized banks to sanction loans for construction of toilets.
Rajit Kanderi and Abhishek Anand, both students of Indian Institute of Management, Indore, who were here to study the sanitation programmes wanted streamlining of funds spent by companies under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity.
Assistant General Manager of Nabard S. Bhuvarahavan said that the proposal to expand the project to other blocks in the village is under consideration.
