By: Vivek Mohan
The Sunday before last one, I saw “Well done Abba” by celebrated Shyam Benegal, and in the very next few days I was in a village near Dharamsala to help a very good friend of mine, Sarika Katoch (also Commonwealth Youth representative from India and chairperson Asian region), to make a small audio-visual for her non-governmental organization (Himachal Children and Development Organization).
The NGO is working on a Special Sanitation Campaign on different themes with the district administration on ‘Sampooran Swachatta Abhiyaan’ (which is going on for the last one year almost, under which a number of awareness programmes are being organised in villages. The themes are:
1. School Sanitation Day
2. Soochana Diwas (Media day)
3. Sankalp Diwas (Pledge)
4. Gram Sabha discussions Action plans etc.
We traveled far and wide in Nagrota Surian block area and many panchayats of Dehra block by whatever means we could muster, as long as we were mostly on time and covered as much as possible with the support staff of many other dedicated volunteers being paid some honorarium also. The idea was to spread the message of good sanitation practices (especially open-defecation free) by relating it to healthy environment and prevention of diseases.
Apart from the routine, mundane sarkari and gair-sarkari functions, there was an interesting trip to village Trilokpur (off NH -20 on the way to Pathankot) having an obvious mandir but not so obvious gurdwara, monastery and a masjid too. It was a truly secular mini-India without politics leaving its ‘trail’ as yet, but one could see the geographical division within the village very clearly. Telis (mostly Muslims) and Harijans in ward number-8 were much further away from the main village. People there have constructed beautiful houses, with verandhas, beautiful rows of flowers, Dish TV’s and ‘welcome’ posters, but strangely no ‘toilets’.
One young fellow proudly introduced himself as an educated man, who claimed to have completed his studies, but when an official quipped and asked him about his incomplete house having ‘no toilet’, he was speechless! Few had almost completed their toilets; some had made make-shift arrangements to impress upon the government officials on their rare out- of- the- office- reality show! Though some had received grants from the state government under IRDP/BPL scheme to construct a pucca house, somehow, few of them had not included toilets. The government became realistic (sanctioning the last installment only after the completion of toilet) after the earlier attempts to give grants for toilet construction failed. The reason – the usual corrupt practices at the lower end, the reel life of ‘Well done Abba’ (A black comedy in the backdrop of getting loan to construct a baawadi ) merged with real life in Trilokpur village.
It was interesting to note in the monastery three different big bins for three categories of disposals. You can take a horse to the stream but you can’t make him drink. To change that very mindset (or rather mind UPSET) NGOs were actively involved for the first time to help change that very MIND, the results of which are now visible on the ground.
We Shall Overcome – one day…some Abba will stand up like a David to take on the Goliath and everyone will take notice during Nirmal Gram Puraskaar function, not to one but to almost all the villages!
It’s easy to make money but a lot difficult to make a difference. We hope to let people make ‘both’ as long as they make progress too. “Jaane bhi do yaron “ – all’s well that ends well – un-like this film!
(The writer is an award-winning documentary film maker based in Mumbai)
i was just reading article in short and i was surprised , how such incident coming from trilokpur , reading it again i found this is some other trilokpur not the one that comes in Nahan block of distt Sirmour.. just two days back Nahan claimed to be "open defecation free" block…
i was just reading article in short and i was surprised , how such incident coming from trilokpur , reading it again i found this is some other trilokpur not the one that comes in Nahan block of distt Sirmour.. just two days back Nahan claimed to be "open defecation free" block…
dear vivekji, this is perhaps a reality not only in kangra but across the state and in other parts of the country, in 2005 -06 i had been on a study tour across different blocks of kangra and what discerened is that people have constructed huge houses, with marble floors, and equipped with modern facilites but there is a huge paucity of toilets in houses, this is evident in upper areas of Shimla also. In Many cases people have constructed modern baths and toilets in shimla but do not use them even if water supply is available regualrly, then how do we change the thinking patterns,ngos and other organizations have been striving to remove open defecation , though being optimistic is the only choice avialble, things are improving …….
warm regards
surekha
dear vivekji, this is perhaps a reality not only in kangra but across the state and in other parts of the country, in 2005 -06 i had been on a study tour across different blocks of kangra and what discerened is that people have constructed huge houses, with marble floors, and equipped with modern facilites but there is a huge paucity of toilets in houses, this is evident in upper areas of Shimla also. In Many cases people have constructed modern baths and toilets in shimla but do not use them even if water supply is available regualrly, then how do we change the thinking patterns,ngos and other organizations have been striving to remove open defecation , though being optimistic is the only choice avialble, things are improving …….
warm regards
surekha
Interesting article, TSC has been news … 2010 was the target to make our state open defecation free.
Interesting article, TSC has been news … 2010 was the target to make our state open defecation free.
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