Under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), a comprehensive government programme to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas, launched in November 2005 in five districts of Chhattisgarh, Dabena in Bilaspur district became the first recipient of the ready-made toilets.
Each of the 33 families of this village were provided with latrines constructed near their houses, but majority of the 180-strong population preferred the old and trusted ways of heading for open fields to ease themselves. Fed up with the mulish and downright stubborn refusal of villagers to use their private latrines, Sarpanch Dinesh Kaushik decided on drastic action. He issued an invitation to officials of the district Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), the nodal department implementing the TSC, to visit Dabena.
What unfolded next is still remembered with horror by the residents of Dabena. After the cursory greetings, the sarpanch blandly suggested that the visitors might like to have a casual tour of the village. The excited villagers proudly displayed their tidy dwellings and the attached sparkling, but as yet unused, latrines for inspection. Then the sarpanch edged the guests towards the open, lush green fields encompassing the village.
As visitors and guests alike began the tough and unsavoury navigation around mounds of shit and refuse scattered all around, the magnitude of the open toilet ground stood exposed. To drive the point home, the sarpanch captured the dismayed and horrified expressions of the villagers on video, which he screened for all after the infamous walk around the fields. It was dubbed the “Walk of Shame”. On the spot, the villagers pledged to never again besmirch their green fields but use their in-door toilets. “It was the first time that the villagers had toured the entire fields and it was a rude awakening for them”, recollects Sameer Gaur of the PHED.
Within 20 days the entire village was declared a “Nirmal Gram”, that is achieving total sanitation by virtue of using toilets and the sarpanch was given an award by the district authorities. Taking courage from this, Kaushik, in his capacity as Sarpanch of Bahtarai, of which Dabena is a dependent village, decided to bring about changes there.
A meeting was called with special emphasis for women to attend. A resolution was passed at a Gram Sabha meeting that anyone found defecating in the open would be fined Rs 50 and those informing against the defaulters would get Rs 25. “The move was an effective deterrent and we collected Rs 750 in fines and awards,” claims Mithulal Devangan, former sarpanch.
With the collective and enthusiastic involvement of Jan Vigyan Sanrakhan Samiti, a local NGO, which focused on information, education and communication (IEC) activities including the use of folk media, the 14 women’s self-help groups (SHGs) in the village and motivators, the TSC programme made positive inroads in the community. The Kala Jhattha, in which young men and women dance, sing and perform skits based on the seven components of the campaign — community, sanitation, safe drinking water, personal hygiene, school sanitation, solid and liquid waste disposal and individual household toilets — has been one of the most effective strategies of the campaign.
Ms Rameshwari Patel, village motivator, sees the difference it has made to women’s lives. “The biggest gain has been the restoration of our dignity. We faced so much difficulty defecating in the open and many times had to wait till dark to be free from household chores as well as ensure privacy,” she explains.
The elderly residents, who were among the most staunch in resisting in-door toilet use for a variety of reasons such as proximity to home, thus resulting in stench, and confined space of the toilet area, were converted after personal experiences made them wiser. One such is Ram Dular Kaushik, who had an operation on his stomach three years back and had great difficulty walking long distances for bathroom. “Someone had to always accompany me to support me and for months afterwards I could not even bend and had to walk with the help of a stick. My in-door latrine is a blessing to me,” he avers candidly.
Bahtarai is among the 90 villages in the state selected for the 2007 Nirmal Gram Puraskars, announced by the Centre for achieving total sanitation. The programme focused on 552 of the total 1,600 villages in Bilaspur district, says Collector Gaurav Dwivedi. “This year, 22 villages in the district have been selected for the Nirmal Gram award,” he adds.
Lofandi village, about 13 km away from Bilaspur, has also been selected for the Nirmal Gram award this year. The village was a malaria-prone area with at least 25-30 cases each year. “Now we don’t have a single case. Similarly, diarrhoea which was prevalent for years has now been eliminated due to cleanliness practices.” claims Gitabai, president of Minimata, a SHG. According to the collector, a significant part of the scheme is tackling the mental mindset of the target group. “It is not enough just to construct the toilets. We have to change the thinking of people so that they are amenable to using the toilets,” he observes. In this context, he is of the view that it is better to target women by getting the message of the improvements in their lifestyle with toilet installation gross. “They will save time and energy as well as the possible threat of harassment and scorpion and snake bites, all hazards of defecating in the open spaces”.

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