Swachh Bharat effect: No more open defecation in this MP village

Bhopal, Jul 13: A village in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district has become free of open defecation, thanks to the efforts of the hygiene-conscious community in collaboration with authorities under the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.

The village has also engaged a team of literal "whistleblowers" to expose those people, who ease themselves in the open, defying the ban.

"No one now defecates in the open in Gadarwada village of Chhindwara. If someone does so mistakenly, a team of 'commandos' forces him to abandon the act by continuously blowing whistles."

"This has become possible with the efforts of villagers and district administration under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan," a Public Relations department official said.

Chhindwara Collector Mahesh Chandra Choudhary had earlier launched a campaign to extend the cleanliness drive to every village in the district. As part of the campaign, when he visited Gadarwada in Amarwada development block, he motivated the people to construct toilets in their houses by utilising the government aid for the scheme.

The initiative was supported by villagers and in a short span of time they started constructing toilets at their homes. The process did not end there. The villagers formed a team of motivators for monitoring and a children's 'commando' team to ensure that open defecation stops forever, the official said. The teams inform people about the demerits of open defecation.

The children's commando team has played an important role in ending the habit of open area defecation, he said. The problem of water scarcity in the village has also been solved by providing piped water facility.

Now, this village has become a claimant of being declared as a "Nirmal Gaon", which will ensure more facilities to it, he said. "The villagers have now realised how much benefits can be earned by giving up this habit.

Impressed by this, the people of nearby villages have also come forward to make efforts to end open defecation there," the official added.

PTI