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“How are you so healthy, Sonu?” “Should I tell you the secret of this? I have a toilet at home. If we use a toilet, it saves us from many diseases. That’s how I keep good health,” replies Sonu, as he takes his school friends to the toilet constructed at his home. The conversation in a comic at once catches the fancy of children, who can be the real messengers of Swachh Bharat Mission’.
Visualising so, the district administration in Sirmour in Himachal Pradesh, which is one of the most backward districts in the country, has done some forward thinking and has reached out to primary students with the message on cleanliness through cartoon stories.
Titled ‘Ghar Ghar Shauchalya’, the comic is initially being sent to the primary schools around district headquarter Nahan as a part of ‘post ODF (Open Defecation Free)’ exercise, aiming to sustain the ODF status by educating the kids.
The hill state of Himachal is the second state after Sikkim to become ODF under the Swachh Bharat Mission (rural). In bigger states, Himachal is the first state to be declared ODF last month.
“It is a small attempt. We want to catch them young for effective results in the long run,” Deputy Commissioner, Sirmour, BC Badalia told The Statesman.
Badalia got this idea of comic implemented through the District Rural Development Agency in Sirmour, which brought out 1,000 copies of the comic recently.
There are six stories in the 58-paged comic, which focus on the importance of sanitation, hand wash, nail cutting, individual hygiene, garbage and solid waste management and related issues under Swachh Bharat Mission.
The stories were compiled and dialogues were written by different people and the cartoons were created by Jitendra, a Panchayat Secretary in Nageta in Paonta Sahib area in Sirmour.
There is a story on Deputy Commissioner, BC Badalia, in the comic, who gave much impetus to the mission in the district during a special drive in October in the run up to HP getting declared ODF.
In one of the villages, Badalia searched for the poorest of the poor resident and contributed physically in the construction of the toilet through ‘shramdaan’ for some time to make it more convincing.
He created awareness amongst the villagers that construction of a toilet doesn’t cost much and its advantages are much more.
“We had taken every one along in the drive in October, including officials, NGOs and industry. The village level sanitation committees were asked to do a door to door survey on the issue. We ensured that the schools had toilets and water connections.. We are also focusing on community toilets,” the DC said.
According to Deputy Director, DRDA, Sirmour, Vivek Sharma, the comic was taken up as an activity under Information Education and Communication (IEC) in Swachh Bharat Mission.
“After we distribute the comics, we will take a feedback from the children in interview form as we see this as an exercise for sustainability post ODF in next generation,” said Deputy Director, DRDA in Sirmour, Vivek Sharma.
Sirmour is the same district, where an ITBP jawan, Vikas Thakur had donated Rs.57,000, contributing his two months’ salary on October 2 this year to build toilets in Badhana village and had made it to the 25th edition of Prime Minister’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
The ITBP jawan had taken the initiative after some families in the village had expressed inability to construct toilets for financial reasons.
– By Archana Phull
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