A village in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district has claimed to have become free of open defecation due to efforts made by the locals in collaboration with authorities under the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.
"No one defecates in the open now in Gadarwada village of Chhindwara. Even if someone tries to do 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.
Under the drive, when he visited Gadarwada in Amarwada development block, he motivated the people to construct toilets in their houses and informed about the government assistance being provided for it, the official said.
His initiative was supported by villagers and in a short span of time, they started constructing toilets in their homes, he said.
The process did not end there. The villagers constituted a team of motivators for monitoring and a children's 'commando' team to ensure that practice of open defecation stops forever, he 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.
Under the campaign, 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.
