Rourkela declares first slum as Open Defecation Free

ROURKELA:  In its mission to free Rourkela Smart City from Open Defecation, the Rourkela Smart City Ltd (RSCL) on Thursday declared Telugupara slum near Lal Building area of Ward 15 in Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) as Open Defecation Free (ODF).While a series of interventions are underway to fight the unhygienic practice of open defecation, the Smart City has to go miles as conservatively, about 60,000 slum dwellers still prefer to defecate in the open.

The RSCL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and RMC Commissioner Rashmita Panda on Thursday attended a function organised by the slum residents and Nigrani (Vigilante) Committee of Telugupara to celebrate the success of making their locality ODF zone.RSCL sources said with 106 households, the total population of Telugupara is 452 comprising poor people of different linguistic origins. Majority of them earlier used to go for open defecation along the railway tracks. Under the RSCL’s initiative, 15 female and two male Natural Leaders were picked up and awareness programme on multiple fronts started. Before the RSCL intervention, there were 32 toilets.

Later, new toilets have been constructed. Now, out of 106 households, 76 of them have own toilets. Members of the rest 30 households are using toilets on share basis as some of them are either tenants or do not have space to construct individual toilets.RSCL CEO and RMC Commissioner Rashmita Panda said RSCL has been mandated to make 27 slums as ODF zones in the Area Based Development (ABD) region and the Feedback Foundation, New Delhi has been roped in to achieve the target with adoption of Citizen Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach.

She said under the CLTS, the targeted population is enlightened on the adverse impact of open defecation on human health and environment. Facilitators of the Feedback Foundation, in tandem with Community Organisers of RMC, are educating the targeted slum dwellers on the risk of faecal oral transmission and also helping them realise how dignity of the slum women are getting compromised with the shameful practice of open defecation.

With the slum population gradually feeling a sense of shame and disgust, a visible attitudinal change is building up, she said. Also, Nigrani (Vigilante) Committees, comprising members of the slums, have been formed who, besides motivating slum people to shun the practice of open defecation, are also visiting Open Defecation sites during morning and evening for deterrence. She asserted that in the next nine to 10 months, Rourkela would fully become ODF city.