Actress Vidya Balan’s encouragement on raising women’s voice against lack of toilet at home under ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ (NBA) seems to be bearing fruit. Barely 25 km away from the State Capital one Karmi Orain has threatened her husband Mahaveer Oraon of filing divorce suit if he does not construct a toilet within the household. But, Oraon is unable to fulfil her demand due to financial crunch.
The matter refers to Makhmandro village at the Capital’s Ratu block. Now Oraon gave a request letter for toilet construction to Block Development Officer (BDO) Devdas Dutta on September 13.
Taking it on priority basis, Dutta forwarded the details to the drinking water and sanitation department Executive Engineer Shishir Kumar Soren who has asked concerned village authorities to find out the status of the entire village and particularly Orain’s household and submit a report at the earliest.
According to official sources, there are around 200 households in Makhmandro, three km away from Ratu Palace where 178 homes are without a toilet in their homes.
“The survey of the village is completed. We will soon send the details to the Executive Engineer who is supposed to release NBA funds. Accordingly, we will commence the construction of toilet in each home. Since the process of documentation takes time, Vikas Bharti and UNICEF have joined hands to construct a toilet at Orain’s house by the end of this week,” State Nodal Officer, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (Vikas Bharti NGO), Sanjay Kumar Gautam said on Monday.
“It takes around Rs 7,000 to 8,000 to have a proper toilet room. An incentive of Rs 4,600 is given to a Below Poverty line family or Above Poverty line family residing within five acres land. A minimum amount of Rs 900 is contributed from a single family. We motivate them to contribute more as it is related to their health,” Gautam added.
Meanwhile, sources mentioned that majority of the households among the 178 houses had some or the other way failed to build toilets under various Government schemes. In such scenario, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan funds will be allotted to families who are devoid of Government’s support.
“It takes three to four days to construct a toilet. Families who are unable to contribute cash can also manage Rs 900 by helping as labourer for the construction,” Executive Engineer Soren said.
Karmi Orain has come from an urban household with a toilet and was married to Mahaveer Oraon about a year back. Thereafter, there were frequent arguments between the couple. “As there are hardly any toilets here, most of the villagers rely on open fields for urinating and defecating,” a villager said.