Patna: Women from Araut village in Bihar have launched a campaign against defecation in the open, inspired by intensive government campaigns that highlight the importance of sanitation.
Araut is a small village in central Bihar’s Nalanda district, the hometown of Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar, which lies about 90km from Patna.
Armed with torches and sticks, a group of 16 women leave their homes just before dawn and in the evening every day to guard all four exit routes of their village in order to prevent villagers from defecating in the open.
The campaign, which was launched in October last year, has forced the villagers to arrange toilet facilities at home to escape embarrassment from these female volunteers.
The women have also formed a Village Development Cleanliness Committee to make co-villagers aware about the importance of sanitation. “Today, our lanes and by-lanes present a very clean look and we are happy to see that,” Girija Devi of the committee told media on Sunday. She said initially their campaign was met with stiff protest from other villagers, but is now earning kudos from various quarters.
“Open defecation is an affront to human dignity, a curse to humanity. As someone bestowed with people’s affection to serve them, I feel it is my duty to ensure them a life of dignity, and access to toilets is at the core of this,” Kumar said.
As per an official report, 22 million households out of Bihar’s population of more than 110 million do not have toilets at home.
