GADAG: Devotional songs to end open defecation. Yes, you read it right. Officials of the Lakshmeshwar Town Municipal Council (TMC) have taken the devotional route to end open defecation after all their efforts to curb the practice in the town failed. They formed a bhajan mandali and sang devotional songs in front of the houses whose members returned after attending nature’s call in the open.
Open defecation is a social evil that is still being addressed in many parts of north Karnataka. Several district administrations have taken steps to curb the menace. Even officials of Lakshmeshwar TMC tried their best in the past to educate people on the need to construct toilets. They offered flowers, distributed pamphlets, and garlanded those who attended nature’s call in the open. But, these ideas failed. This made them to create awareness by singing devotional and moral songs from the folklore. The staff hired a harmonium player and a tabala master and went to houses in Lakshmeshwar which are yet to build a toilet. The staff sang bhajans in front of the houses whose members were “caught” while returning from defecation.
There are 11,000 houses in the town of which 5,000 do not have toilets. This despite the government sanctioning `15,000 for every household to build a toilet. The TMC plans to make all the 23 wards open defecation-free. Its chief officer Ravindra Bagalakot, along with Health Inspector Nilesh Hadimani and Environment Engineer Anand Badi, teamed up and began singing the songs.
“It may sound silly ... but it has changed many people. We are targeting areas where people defecate in the open. Many residents are in fear of bhajans... it has received a positive response from the residents. We are seeing an increase in the numbers of applications seeking aid to build toilets. We have been conducting these singing sessions for the last two months,” Ravindra Bagalkot said.
“When we saw TMC officials singing bhajans in front of our houses we found it strange and we just laughed. When people realised that that singing were senior TMC officials, they started changing their mindset,” said a resident.