When a family fails to become the first school of a child, the child has to take the responsibility to become the only school for its illiterate and unaware family. This is exactly what kids of Dulmi block in Ramgarh district have been doing for at least last one year as far as spreading awareness against Open Defection is concerned, with the help of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools (WASH) programme run by an NGO called lEADS and UNICEF.
Thanks to efforts of primary and middle school going children, that Dulmi can now proudly call itself the first ever Open Defection Free (ODF) block in the State, where all the families now own at least one toilet constructed close to or within premises of their homes. Moreover, all 66 primary and middle schools have been turned ODF within a year’s target time with over 10,000 children following WASH guidelines in schools.
Taking the mission forward, lEADS has fastened belt for starting a similar drive in five new blocks of Ramgarh which include Patratu, Mandu, Gola, Chitarpur and Ramgarh blocks from March 1 this year. lEADS Director AK Singh said on Monday during a visit to Usra Upgraded Middle School in Dulmi block on the occasion of successful completion ceremony of the programme that the process of bringing all the primary education government schools under WASH programme was completed within one year’s target time which started in March last year.
“lEADS with the support of UNICEF has been working on promotion of WASH in 66 schools of Dulmi block of Ramgarh district. We have covered 9,600 children of 66 schools in Dulmi block (100% coverage) and 113 Anganwadi centres having more than 3,500 children. At the beginning of the project, hardly any school and Anganwadi was following the appropriate method of hand washing for complete cleanliness,” said Singh on Monday at Upgraded Middle School, Usra in Dulmi block.
But this was not an easy task in an environment, where even civic body in the State capital, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC), needs to deploy officials to stop citizens urinating in open despite having one toilet around. “We had to go through capacity building of Bal Sansads, PRI members and SMC members in schools. We started sharing information through wall writing and flex about Bal Sansad and Water and Sanitation in schools, constructed hand washing platforms and distributed portable ones where construction of platforms were not possible, in all schools and Anganwadi centres, distributed audio devices with pen drive to share WASH and Bal Sansad related information and inputs and monitored maintenance of schools toilets and water support system for ensuring WASH in schools throughout the year,” added Singh.
Sharing his experience during implementation of programme and its implications and outcomes, UNICEF Consultant Gaurav Verma said that involving children in the entire process brought tremendous changes in the dawn and dusk lifestyles of grown-ups of families in the block. Changing mentality remained a tougher task during entire process and our team did it with support of children, said Verma.
“Children groups used to play whistles in the mornings and evenings the moment they found any elder member of the family going to defecate in open. Many times they fell down on those persons’ feet and requested getting a toilet constructed and use. Then, they also translated whatever they learnt at schools about open defecation to their elders in families and this all worked a lot,” said Verma where teachers of dozens of schools of the block and students among others were present.
The good part is that the block which was also visited by Governor Droupadi Murmu for its efforts towards turning ODF has started showing results in form of school children going to take meals only after cleaning their hands, and following lessons of health and hygiene. “We have kick-started and will rest only after bringing last child of any of the school in State under WASH umbrella,” concluded Singh.