“Shouchalayakkagi Samara” (crusade for toilets) initiated by the State government and “Swachhata Hi Seva” (cleanliness is service) campaign by the Union government have together resulted in the rural areas of Nargund taluk in Gadag district being made “open defecation-free”.
A formal declaration in this regard will be made by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu at a function to be held in Konnur village of Nargund taluk on Tuesday, where he is also scheduled to launch other cleanliness initiatives.
Nargund taluk with 13 gram panchayats and 30 villages had 11,949 families as per the baseline survey in 2012 and of them 9,949 families did not have toilets. Apart from reluctance of the villagers to have toilets in their backyards and misconceptions surrounding use of toilets, the authorities found it difficult to get toilets constructed in the villages.
But after the gram sabhas and awareness meetings failed to make an impact on the need for constructing toilets, the officials decided to take the help of the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and anganwadi workers to convince the residents, which finally resulted in the residents coming forward to get toilets constructed. And now the rural areas of Naragund taluk are free from open defecation, say authorities.
With Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H.K. Patil taking active interest in the campaign, Gadag district too is on the threshold of being declared an open defecation-free district and the administration is taking all steps to make it an open defecation-free district at the earliest.
At present, 82% of the families in five taluks of Gadag district have constructed toilets and the administration is working to get the remaining 18% of the families to construct toilets under the government scheme. As of now, 17 gram panchayats of the 122 in Gadag district have been declared as open defecation-free.
At the State-level, already 5,000 villages and 1,000 gram panchayats have been declared as open defecation-free by the government and the plan is to make the State open defecation-free by October 2, 2018.