These 'whistle-blowers' keep people from defecating in open

Madurai: In many villages in Madurai district, men and women armed with whistles keep people from defecating in the open. Trained volunteers reach the spots which villagers use for defecating as early as 4am and advise them to use the toilets at home. Though efforts have been taken in the past to deter them, this community-led approach seems to be yielding better result.
Only those who do not have toilets at home can defecate in the open, but with two conditions. One, they have to dig a small pit and close it with soil once they are done with. Two, they have to construct toilets as early as possible. The government is providing assistance for this.
To start with, 35 volunteers trained by DRDA reach the villages allotted to them. They are trained under a programme called K2K - Kanmoikarai to Kazhipparai (from tank bund to toilet). Their work starts with meeting people and explaining the health risks of open defecation. From the next day, the volunteers, along with a few locals, will keep vigil at many spots. These volunteers include well-educated youngsters, many of them MBA graduates and research scholars.
V Pandiarajan of Thevacherry village says it is not an easy road for them. They faced opposition from the villagers. For example, a man from Achampatti village near Alanganallur has two toilets at home, but still opted to defecate in the open. The volunteers made him understand the health risks of open defecation and they not only made him use the toilet, but also turned him into local motivator. Now the village is among the open defecation-free villages in the district.
C P Ranith, a researcher in MKU, says once the villagers realised the importance of using toilets they stopped using open areas for this purpose. In fact, if he gets delayed by few minutes these days to reach the village, he gets calls from the villagers who help him.
Additional collector Rohini Ramdas says K2K is similar to community-led total sanitation, customised for the locality. There are around 420 village panchayats in Madurai district out of which 68 panchayats have been declared open defecation-free. Although it is the result of the combination of many efforts taken so far, K2K has made a big impact.