Unmindful of her financial constraints, the large hearted Athram Bheembai, the Adivasi self-help group leader from Vadgaon in Indervelli mandal of Adilabad district, has spent about ₹ 1.5 lakh to construct a toilet and washing complex in her house. She did so to inspire and motivate the 200 women members of the 27 SHGs in her village to shun open defecation.
She has emerged as a Swacch Bharat Mission (SBM) role model not only for her compatriots but Adivasis in other villages too. Her success lay in breaching the mindset of the aboriginal people who consider it unhygienic to defecate within the premises of their homes even if it is in toilets.
“There was no other way to effectively tell the women to go for construction of individual household latrines (IHHL) either under SBM or other similar schemes,” asserted a beaming Ms. Bheembai. “At least 10 other families are now constructing similar bathrooms,” she pointed out towards the interior of her facility which boasts of some of the trappings that go in the making of a plush bathroom.
“Yes, it was her motivating talk that made employees in her village go in for the rather sophisticated toilet and bathroom while others are constructing the IHHLs under SBM and other schemes,” concurred Adilabad District Rural Development Officer (DRDO) Rajeshwar Rathod.
“The trend has also spread to other villages,” he added.
The SHG leader talked to the members about the problems of defecating in the dark in the fields near the village which, the ethnic people do. She talked of snake bites and outsiders misbehaving with the young girls taking advantage of the darkness.
Success rate
“Her ‘sermonising’ yielded the desired result,” the DRDO agreed. We were also able to achieve a better success rate in the tribal thanks also to the help from villagers of Mohanguda, a 100 % open defecation free village in the same mandal,” he pointed out.
The district which has 17 rural mandals has about 78 % of the sanctioned toilets under SBM completed. The total number of sanctioned toilets and those completed in terms of construction being over 46,000.
