In a State where only 77 per cent households own toilet and the vast majority is still to wake up to its need, over 25 families of a small hamlet in a distant Palamau village have come up with a new idea to self-build this essential structure, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Clean India Campaign’ that wants to ensure toilets for all.
Making new use of bamboo, these villagers despite living on subsistent survival, have constructed toilets for themselves and are inspiring fellow villagers of neighbouring hamlets to go for the similar efforts. Their toilets consist of a room made of bamboo, the septic tank and the seat; and in all this all that they have spent is about Rs1,000 per a toilet.
‘After our Prime Minister launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on the birth anniversary Mahatma Gandhi, some men from an NGO talked to us about it. We then explored the possibility of self-building toilets with the help of bamboo, instead of bricks and cement which is costly.”
“Our effort has worked and we have toilets built by ourselves now,” said Virendra Bhuiyan, resident of Suta village in Paton block of Palamau, where the villagers have made the new experiment.
Daltonganj-based NGO Sampurn Gram Vikas Kendra, which has been financially aided by German agency Welthungerhilfe to work on water resource management, while carrying out its missing, discussed with villagers about sanitation early this year. Following this, the new idea of self-constructing toilets with bamboo came up. As construction of a concrete toilet costs anywhere between Rs8,000 to Rs10,000, villagers flee from its very thought. All that they then do is wait for the government to construct them toilets.
“Earlier, we had to wait for the evening to fall to go for attending nature’s call, which was very painful. Now no longer, as we have a toilet at home, of whatever kind,” said Shanti Devi, wife of Akash Bhuiyan, another villager who is a proud owner of a bamboo toilet. The women said lack of toilet at home is the worst thing they ever had, particularly during rainy season as they could not even go for open defecation till the rain stopped.
Clean India Campaign of Modi has envisaged toilets for almost 600 million people across the country who now open defecate. By January this year, the government had managed to build only 2.66 million toilets. World’s largest sanitation programme plans to build as large as 110 million toilets across the country by 2019, the 150 th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi to end the practice of open defecation in India. But if villagers wait for the government to reach them, they may continue to open defecate for a few more years.
“Residents of other villages like Rajhara, Dandai and Sukro also have been inspired by the self-initiatives of Suta villagers and they also would be constructing such low-cost toilets,” said Vinod Kumar, an activist who works with the villagers, adding that the life of the toilets would be no less than five-seven years. And what when the government sanctions then concrete toiletsIJ ‘We are eagerly looking for them,’ said Nirjul Bhuiyan.
(The story is a part of media fellowship on ‘Water’)