Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, who is the national sanitation brand ambassador, launched a new initiative with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday.
The project, called Changing Behaviour: Creating Sanitation Change Leaders, aims to make 100 villages in the country’s most populous state free of open defecation.
The scheme is backed by RB (formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser) India as part of its nationwide Dettol Banega Swachh India national initiative, Pehel, a division of Shri Puranchandra Gupta Smarak Trust that has been actively involved in awareness generation and the state government.
“For the past two years, I have dedicated myself towards raising awareness around importance of hygiene and to stop open defecation. I am really proud to be a part of this campaign which is taking a different route of engaging with stakeholders and creating change leaders at community level to bring about this behaviour change,” Vidya said in a statement.
Through the initiative, the programme will reach out and work closely with Panchayati Raj Institutions members, natural and faith-based leaders, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Aanganwadi Workers (AWWs) and mothers to drive a positive behaviour towards sanitation practices.
It will include various activities such as training Panchayati Raj Institution members using toolkits, exposure tours, sanitation chaupal, capacity building of frontline health workers through game shows and folk shows for sensitising mothers.
The progress will be monitored at each step and the achievements of change leaders will be recognised across the 100 villages in the state’s Varanasi, Kannauj and Etawah districts.
The campaign was launched with the involvement of dignitaries including actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha and Jack Sim, founder, world toilet organisation among many others.
“We have a dedicated initiative targeting school children. We believe it is equally important to educate and encourage communities to adopt healthier hygiene and sanitation practices to create a positive impact on the society they live in. By the end of this campaign, we aim to help these 100 villages in Uttar Pradesh become open defecation free,” said RB’s regional director for South Asia, Nitish Kapoor.
According to National Sample Survey Office and World Health Organisation, more than 600 million Indians have no access to toilets.
The proportion is worse in rural India — where 68 per cent of rural households don’t have their own toilets.
