In just 26 days, 2 villages in Kaushambi become open-defecation free

ALLAHABAD: After 26 days of hard work on Community-led Toilet Sanitation commonly known as CLTS, the efforts of a woman village Pradhan and villagers have finally yielded fruitful results, when all the 153 families in Chakbijlipur village of Sirathu block in Kaushambi district constructed toilets in their households, thereby making their village open defecation free.
Residents of Chaktajpur village of Mooratganj block of Kaushambi have also constructed toilets after acknowledging the disadvantages of open defecation.The credit for this goes to CLTS teams who have been campaigning in Kaushambi with an objective to make villages free from open defecation.
“About 26 days ago, volunteers of CLTS launched awareness campaign among people at Chakbijlipur village and tried to convince them that defecating in open is shameful,” said DPRO (District Panchayati Raj officer) RP Mishra. He further added that the CLTS team with the help of woman village pradhan Mustari Bano and other villages were successful in their endeavor, when all 153 families of this village went ahead with construction of toilets. Similarly, 52 families of Chaktajpur village of Mooratganj block in district have constructed toilets.
“Earlier majority of people used to go to the fields. It was very embarrassing for all of us. With increasing awareness and acknowledging the advantages of toilets, villagers are now utilizing toilets,” said Radhey of Chakbijlipur adding that people of groups including women and children have pledged to create awareness on the issue among people of neighbouring villages as well.
A senior official of the district administration said, “We have been taking up four villages under every phase wherein villagers would be taking oath to utilise toilets to make their village free from open defecation.” He further added people of 10 villages have been covered and progressively, all the 26 selected villages would be covered phase-wise under the CLTS campaign.