The United Nations has appreciated Karnataka’s efforts in providing improved access to sanitation by transforming it into a “people’s movement” and said that the state would “safely” achieve the Millennium Development Goals set by the world body, with 60 percent achieved by 2015.

The UN, which has announced 2008 as the International Year for Sanitation, observed that Karnataka is on the “right track” having attained 34 percent sanitation coverage from 18.4 percent in 2005. It added that with the present 3.2 percent growth rate Karnataka will achieve 100 percent coverage by 2028. “Sanitation is an indicator that shows where we are on the development ladder. Once the importance of proper sanitation is on people’s mind, acceleration of the process is possible. Thus, we are hopeful about Karnataka,” Lizette Burgers, UNICEF chief of Water and Environmental Sanitation Section, told Deccan Herald.

“Only 18 per cent people in Karnataka had access to improved sanitation in 2001 and it grew only nominally to 18.4 percent in 2005. But now it has almost doubled and the momentum is picking up,” she said.
Appreciating the “people’s movement” in sanitation in the coastal Dakshin Kannada District, she said the movement was not limited to a few panchayats but had spread to all 203 panchayats, schools and anganwadis. Even districts in the Northern Karnataka, which are economically backward and have water shortage, are picking up. With continued efforts since 2005 four out of five talukas in the district have 100 percent coverage, an achievement that had led to the district being nominated for Nirmal Gram Puraskar by the Central Government.

Led by Panchayat Secretary Chandrashekhar Pathur from IRA Gram Panchayat (GP) in Bantwal taluka the villagers started undertaking shramdaan (voluntary work) to dig pits for individual toilets in the area. Shramdaan became the mantra for community mobilisation and everybody – panchayat members, MLAs, local leaders, self-help groups and children - participated actively.

Schools played a vital role in strengthening the campaign through village meetings. Students visited each and every house in the community to urge people to come out to dig pits. This method for the mass construction of toilets involving local people was followed by many panchayats in the district, like the initiative to build 100 toilets in a day undertaken by Golthamagalu GP in Bantwal taluka. Similarly, in Bandaru GP in Belthangadi taluka, 515 toilets were completed in 10 days. The Zilla Panchayat has now set itself a target to cover the entire district by March 2008; a task that doesn’t sound difficult for them to attain.