Open defecation addressed in West Bengal, with a little help from kids

Kolkata: The West Bengal state government aims to make the state open defecation free (ODF) by 2019, with a little help from children.

According to a statement by Dibyendu Sarkar, commissioner in the state’s panchayat and rural development department, “by March 2019, we plan to have toilets across all rural homes in the state.”

“The Hooghly, East Midnapore and North 24 Parganas districts will be ODF by September this year while the districts of Burdwan and South 24 Paraganas are working fast and hope to achieve ODF by March 2017,” Sarkar said.

For the administration, the biggest challenge is to change residents’ habits; many people in spite of having toilets at home prefer to defecate in the open. For these people, there is now a hindrance — local children.

Kids — armed with whistles, banners and festoons, are campaigning door-to-door — urging their elders to use toilets and are often seen chasing them away from their favourite spots for defecation. They even threaten to put up posters in front of houses of those who refuse to use toilets.

The older people, who were initially disgusted, are slowly beginning to understand the heath benefits of toilets. “These bunch of kids are forcing us to change our age-old habit. The district administration is also favouring them, making it difficult to defecate in the open. But is easy to change a habit of a lifetime,” said Subedh Karmakar, a native of Hooghly district.

Local administration is happy with the rate of progress and plans to award the helpful children. “We had tried everything over the years. Even well-to-do people having access to several toilets prefer [to] defecate in the open. Then the idea of using kids really helped,” said an officer of Hooghly district.

Children all over Bengal have helped in this mission and are seeing results; the district of Nadia was declared ODF-free last year. Schoolchildren pledged to not allow their parents to defecate in the open. Many of them participated in the building of toilets in their homes. A similar model is being adapted all over the state including Sunderbans, where defecating in the open is a major health hazard.

“We understand the need to make our village, district and state ODF. It is a major health concern. Our teachers have been telling us and now most of parents do not defecate in the open,” Pintu Mondal, a student in Hooghly district, said.