New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) From buying back plastics to constructing magic pits to increasing women participation, sarpanches from across the country gathered in the national capital to share their secrets of making their villages open defecation free plus.
An ODF plus village is the one that sustains its open-defecation-free status, ensures solid and liquid waste management, and is visually clean.
This includes ensuring all households as well as primary schools, panchayat buildings and Anganwadi centres have access to toilets.
Priyanka Tiwari (29), sarpanch of Rajpur village in Uttar Pradesh, decided to make her village plastic-free as soon as she took oath in May, 2021.
“I went door to door distributing pamphlets on how to make my village plastic-free. To inspire people, we also started buying back plastics from every household to ensure that people don’t throw away plastic and cause pollution,” she told PTI.
Also, she decided to clear the roads of cattle dung.
“We cleared 30 years of gobar from the road in a total of 200-250 trolleys and deposited it at a separate location so it could be used in future,” she said.
Tiwari, a mass communication graduate, said she decided to contest elections after her husband told her to “bring the change she wants to see in the society herself” after she complained to him about various shortcomings in her village.
Anjita Saha (36), sarpanch of Chattisgarh’s Patora village, empowered women in her hamlet to bring about a change.
“As soon as I assumed office, I took training on how to tackle faecal sludge and then I used that knowledge in my village. I also involved women in whatever activity was started in the village because they are the main drivers and nothing could be achieved without them,” she told PTI.
Saha has also started mushroom farming in her village.
“Women now grow mushrooms and sell them. In the last two years, about 25,000 mushrooms have been sold by the women in my village and they have earned their financial independence through it,” she said.
Shyam Pratap Rathore (43), sarpanch of Rajasthan’s Jahota village, brought the innovative concept of ‘magic pits’ to his village.
A magic pit is a small soakpit embedded with bricks that takes care of wastewater, leading to overall cleanliness of the village.
The concept of magic pits played a major role in making the village ODF plus and now, the concept is being replicated in different parts of the state, Rathore said.
He said installing CCTV cameras, a reverse osmosis plant, building and repairing 300 toilets and promoting plantations were the other measures implemented by him.
Bhaskar Auger (66), sarpanch of Maharashtra’s Patoda village, started buying back plastic at Rs 15 per kg.
“Now, the village is completely plastic-free. We have also built six water purification tanks in the village to clean water,” he said.
To facilitate knowledge sharing of best practices on all verticals of ODF Plus among districts and states across the country, the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti, organised a one-day workshop for officials implementing the Phase II of Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G) in rural India.
The collaborative learning event, organised with the support of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, was held against the backdrop of over 50,000 villages countrywide declaring themselves as ODF Plus as on March 25, 2022, after ensuring sustainability of ODF status and visual cleanliness of villages by putting in place systems to effectively manage solid and liquid waste. PTI UZM UZM CJ CJ
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