YADGIR: Despite a government drive for total sanitation, almost 88 per cent of the households in Yadgir district still do not have toilets.
According to a report by the Zilla Panchayat, only 18,946 of a total of 1,69,076 families have individual toilets, and just 37 per cent of the government schools in the district have the facility.
These numbers are based on a survey conducted in 2012, involving anganwadi and ASHA workers. In fact, students of anganwadi centres run in private buildings still depend on open fields to attend to nature’s call. In 2005, the government had launched the Sampoorna Swachata Andolana to achieve total sanitation. However, it failed to make much headway. Again in 2012, the UPA II government launched the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) to ensure toilets in every rural household, but without much success.
The district authorities on Wednesday renewed a special drive under NBA in all the 117 gram panchayats in the district to improve rural sanitation. According to Zilla Panchayat sources, it has become a challenge to put an end to open defecation. As part of the new awareness drive, authorities plan to educate people about the importance of having toilets through street plays, documentaries and pamphlets.
Zilla Panchayat CEO N M Panali told Express, “With open defecation still persisting, the government has widened the scope of MGNREGS to include works on rural sanitation in collaboration with the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.” He said he has deputed district-level officials as nodal officers in gram panchayats to oversee the construction of toilets. These nodal officers have been directed to review the works once in 15 days. Progress during the last two years has been nothing much to write home about.
In 2013-14, 7,330 individual toilets were constructed, and this year, only 2,152 toilets have been constructed till August. Panali said the government has fixed a target of declaring all the 117 GPs as Nirmala Grama (free from open defecation) by the end of 2017.
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan nodal officer B Satish Kumar said the programme is a time-bound one. He felt that its success depends on GP president, members, PDOs, teachers, anganwadi workers, and volunteers working together effectively.