Hubbali: While Bengalureans are becoming accustomed to the stench of garbage all around them, the Gadag Zilla Panchayat is campaigning to see that the town smells of roses.
After several workshops and pamphlets failed to persuade the locals to build toilets in their homes under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the zilla panchayat has decided to persuade them with flowers instead. So should anyone be caught defecating in the open, its officers approach them armed with garlands and roses to send home the message that the town needs to smell of their fragrance and not of stinking stools in the fields. The aim is to free Gadag of open defecation by 2019.
The home district of rural development and panchayat raj minister, H.K. Patil, Gadag does not have toilets in over half of its 2.32 lakh households going by a 2012 survey. Last year officials of gram panchayats made rounds using sticks and whistles to embarrass those defecating in the open. Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer S.B. Shettennavar, too joined the campaign, which succeeded in villagers building 43,000 toilets in a short span of 20 days.
Panchayat officials have also held street plays, sung folk songs and used loudspeakers to campaign about cleanliness and toilets. Now Shettennavar hopes his latest brainwave will succeed even more. He has formed teams of panchayat development officers, anganwadi and ASHA activists and other staff to hound people defecating in the open with roses and garlands to embarrass them into giving up the practice .
“More than 50,000 families in the rural areas of Gadag district still do not have toilets in their homes. Open defecation is spreading disease. So we are now distributing roses and garlanding the villagers to embarrass them into building toilets. We have also conducted awareness programme by highlighting the government grants available for the purpose,” Mr Shettanavar explains.
