Rural women walking long distances, carrying a small pot of water and disappearing into the bushes to relieve themselves was a common sight for Raghavendra Prakash, but it always irked him. So, when the 32-year-old policeman was posted as Sub-Inspector at the Y.N. Hoskote police station in Tumakuru’s backward Pavagada taluk in May 2015, he began to wonder if he could do something about it, outside his duties as a cop.
From the villagers, he understood that they were individually too poor to build their own toilets, but the Panchayats and politicians of the region hadn't bothered either to build community toilets so far.
He talked to his Superintendent of Police Karthik Reddy, who told the young SI to "do something memorable for the community other than maintaining law and order". That spurred him on.
Once he took the initiative to build 10 community toilets, the villagers too began to donate small amounts of money, the gram panchayat contributed tin sheets, and Prakash himself contributed three months' salary to the cause. In six months, and with Rs 2.2 lakh, They were handed over to the villagers on World Toilet Day on November 19.
"I was appalled when women in the villages told me that they ate very little for dinner merely to avoid having to go out in the dark to relieve themselves. I decided the toilets had to be built", Prakash told Deccan Chronicle. "The villagers have recognized my work. They themselves collected Rs. 10-20 from each household and felicitated me, SP Karthik Reddy and DySP Lavanya on November 19. That will remain a most satisfying moment for me for a long time".
There are some 1,500 households in Y N Hosakote hobli headquarters, but these 10 toilets will cater to only 400 households. Prakash says it's now up to the district authorities to pick up from where he has left. SP Karthik Reddy has written to the Zilla Panchayat, asking them to expand the toilet-building programme.
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