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Award winning Lifestyle and Travel Blog by Khushboo Motihar

Banega Swachh India: Ground realities, My Hopes and Dreams

Her morning has started yet the sun has barely risen. She washes her face carefully and goes to the well to bring back ice cold water in a pot. She fills her lota with it, takes a torch along just to be on the safe side and starts walking. Rani has not woken up even today; she was just too tired. She is going to come back crying again when those boys… She closes her eyes and trudges to the middle of the forest. She keeps the lota carefully on the ground; God forbid it spills! Then balances the torch on a nearby bush to let the others know that someone is present  here . She hunches up her sari and prays that no insects or snakes are around today. After some time, she makes her way back to her house, ignoring the smirks of a few boys who are always are up to make fun of young girls. She wishes fervently that Rani would manage to escape their eyes…
 
This is a story that was narrated by each of these women you see in the photography above and I am sure it is also the reality of a majority of women and young girls in the villages of India where toilets are still considered to be an unnecessary luxury. Yes, the toilets that you and I take for granted.Being a student of rural development has been an eye opener for me. Sitting in a comfy little office cubicle had blinded me to so many evils in the society. Health, sanitation and hygiene being the most important of themWe sanitizer carrying, tissue using hygiene freaks take sanitation for granted. Our house keepers keep our house impeccably clean, our offices are well dusted before we even enter and the roads don’t matter to us because we rarely have to walk on them. But one thing that we cannot ignore is that the cleanliness of our surroundings is an important issue.
There is no point passing the buck and saying, “It’s the government’s job”. Let’s not forget, it is our job, too. Sanitation and hygiene, affects each and one of us. We urban dwellers know all about it, but unfortunately there is no one to tell us the ground realities in rural India. And today, I am going to share just that with you. Open Defecation or OD in social work jargon was the first concept that we were introduced during the course of our lectures on Rural Development.

You see, it had an important relation to both health, sanitation and the economic well being of a family. Sanitation for the obvious reason and health because a lot of people did not think it was important to wash hands after defecation. This meant that the germs and pathogens could easily pass on to the entire family leading to illness. Illness meant two things; one that there would be medical expenditure to cure the disease and second, if the breadwinner of the family were to fall ill, then the family would be in financial trouble especially if it was a long term disease. So what could we do?Well, we were told one important thing; “It is very difficult to sell the idea of a toilet in a village. But if you could get one person to adopt it, then others would eventually follow suit”.We bright eyed young social workers took this statement to heart and started working towards understanding people’s mentality about health and sanitation in their village.One thing was certain, we had to raise awareness about the issue so that people understood its gravity. We took this too heart and during each and every field work, health and sanitation were given top priority. We decided to start off with children as their minds are more open to newer ideas.

Through nukkad natak, games and showing videos, we taught them the basics of hygiene. We told them the importance of washing their hands with soap, taking a bath daily and not littering the village. 

We should them interactive videos that explained why Open Defecation was not good hygiene and why they should ensure that at least their schools had separate toilets for boys and girls.
 

Women were asked not to burn the waste generated in the village as it caused a number of health problems, not to mention pollution.

These were the small initiatives that we took in the period of one month.

But the bigger issues like building toilets was beyond our reach. Yes, we counseled women and told them about various schemes available but the final decision was of their husbands. They had tried applying for a toilet under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan but we all know how government schemes work. 

I hoped for a better India, with toilets in every household and basic hygiene being followed but I was in for a big disappointment. It was not easy to get even one person build one, forget about the rest of India. 

It was then that I resolved to make my own hygiene wish list which I would work towards fulfilling in the future. 

It included:

Soap or ash usage in every household to wash hands.

  • Toilets in every household or at least one toilet for every 3 to 4 households
  • Clean public toilets in the cities and towns
  • Spotless streets with no litter and dustbins in every corner
  • Eco friendly sewage system where all waste would be reused as compost in the future
But what about you and me? We know all about cleanliness and we also claim that we are much more sophisticated than our rural counterparts. Yet our cities are dirty. How can we do our bit? Well, I have five simple ideas for you, me and all of us who want a Swachh Bharat.

Don’t think, just act

Did you spot a person throwing wrapper? Instead of thinking what a bad person he or she is, why don’t you call them out and request them to throw it in a bin? Or if the person refuses to listen, calmly pick it up yourself and ensure that there is no litter around. The time for thinking is long past gone. If India needs to become clean, we all need to act and FAST!

Don’t forget to K.I.S.S.
Oh yes, don’t ever think that simple initiatives cannot have a big impact. 
Pick your battles
Always getting into a fight is not a solution. If you feel that your advice is falling on deaf ears then do the work yourself. Clean the place up and you will definitely feel proud of yourself.
Educate yourself
Many a time all we need to do is read upon the schemes available or write a strongly worded letter to get something done. Let’s educate ourselves about who should be approached whom. Hope you enjoyed the post 🙂
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About Khushboo

Khushboo is an award-winning travel blogger and content creator from India who believes in the power of storytelling. She loves gushing about the new things she experiences as she travels across the globe.