Rajasthan panchayat has no power, but it is ODF

Khajuri is a non-descript gram panchayat situated some 40 km from Udaipur. This tribal-dominated panchayat in Girwa tehsil of Rajasthan may be difficult to even track on Google Maps. It is among one of the scores of panchayats in the country where houses are still not lit up with electrical power. It is very difficult to reach most of the hamlets in this panchayat and chances of seeing people are still remote.

But it is now famous and poster panchayat for administration officials. The hamlet is open defecation free (ODF). Sounds incredible but the people have made it under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Community leaders with the help of traditional, mythological and social triggers overcame supply chain management and motivated people. They carried materials on camels and built toilets on their own. Each mud house is located almost 500 metres apart on the undulating terrain.

It appears a herculean task to achieve this fame. Remarkably, Khajuri’s 951 households along with 70 houses of Wadi Fala (a village under Khajuri Block) mostly constructed with mud and cow dung, have become torch bearers.

“Hum karkey dikhayenge, panchayat ko ODF banayenge, Khajuri ki Janta…”  this is not any slogan but a morning prayer, composed by Mukesh Pandiya and Parveen Kumar, teachers at the Government Secondary School and sung by  schoolchildren in their morning assembly throughout the campaign.  The song turned out to be another trigger as students bunked classes to help their parents in the construction work.

As the state is battling to make rural Rajasthan ODF, the Khajuri Gram Panchayat has set an example, because it has achieved fighting all odds. Traditional customs like “Handi”, in which a group of 25 households help the whole community, were used to motivate the population.

Bimla Bai (52) who has built a toilet finds it a blessing. “After getting a toilet constructed, women  feel safe. The elderly can now easily use it without having to go far in the open at dawn. Also we are hoping that there will be dip in the diarrhoea cases in our village.”

Earlier her 88-year- old mother-in-law, who is ill, had to go out in the open to attend to nature’s call. The village had seen many diseases spread by flies due to open defecation.
The synergy between  modern and traditional technology was used by the district administration to achieve the goal. Apart from regular door-to-door campaigns and morning follow-ups and looking at the weak socio-economic condition of the people, the administration came up with a viable plan to construct toilets in this area.

Considering the terrain, which is hilly, preference of toilets was left to tribals and they opted for soak pit. A six feet soak pit made of loose stone wall was constructed instead of a concrete septik tank.

Udaipur District Collector Rohit Gupta explains: “Since the tribal belt has less than 30 % literacy rate, community leadership drive was the first choice to motivate the people to construct toilets. They agreed for the loose wall soak pit style. The training programmes were held in which ill-effects of open defecation were shared with the villagers on regular basis with the help of village sarpanch and pradhans. We also introduced volleyball championship to inspire people. As Dungarpur and Udaipur have tribal status, the government had to extend extra fund apart from regular incentive.”

The Centre’s announcement of Rs 12,000 to be given to a household after completion of the toilet proved to be a huge help. However to cut on costs, the villagers, constructed toilets on their own. As most of the hamlets in Khajuri are not connected by road, camels and donkeys were used for transporting materials.

The photos of new toilets are uploaded on Swachh Bharat Mission website through Geo Tagging. After a third party verification, money was debited into the bank account of the member of the household concerned. In a first here, every household was made to open a bank account.  Ajay Kumar Arya, Block Development Officer, Girwa, adds: “The block office and panchayat committee were in the forefront and they supplied the material.  The support of 42-year-old sarpanch Shanti Devi, social leaders  ‘motbirs’,  training by Unicef and pradhan inspired the villagers.”

Shanti Devi, draped in a yellow saree, told DH how they used mythological means also.  “After the regular follow-up we tried to locate the places used by tribals for defecation and planted Tulsi plants (holy Basil, sacred plant among Hindus who regard it as an earthly manifestation of the goddess Tulsi) there so that they don’t use them further. We convinced  women about the safety issues by having a toilet  at home.”

For an inspiring communication, most important was the dissemination of information in local language, ‘Vaagdi’. With ‘Gharevlo mewar’ as a local slogan symbolising the proud moustaches of Maharana Pratap, an emotional connect was made with people through oldest existing folk media such as, Gavri, semi-musical and dramatically performed religious ritual exclusively demonstrated by Bheel Tribe of Mewar in  Rajasthan.   

“It is very important to connect with the tribes in their own language. They have not changed much and oral tradition is still important as compared to modern publicity channels in this area with low literacy.  In other blocks administration should also make use of Kavad (storytelling) to disseminate information,” says  Mahendra Bhanawat, a noted author of folk and tribal literature. 

Due to state’s contrasting geographical features, the Panchayati Raj Department faces an uphill task. The desert state has arid land, at the same time is drought prone and has scarce agriculture and water basin.

Panchayati Raj Department Principal Secretary Sudarshan Sethi says the state wanted to achieve ODF status earlier than the fixed target. But there are challenges like scarcity of water, scattered population, migration and socio-economic conditions of people.

“We are motivating them at the community level and using different measures to overcome the difficulties. Another challenge is to make dysfunctional toilets built during 1980s total sanitation campaign and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan in 2011 useable,” he says.