To accelerate the efforts to achieve complete sanitation in rural areas and in an attempt to equip the households in Perambalur, Tamil Nadu with toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission, the DRDA (District Rural Development Agency) has built 4,666 toilets in 121 villages in just 48 hours.
4000 construction workers including those under MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) worked to construct toilets. The work started at 7 AM on 13 February and ended at 7 AM on 15 February.
“This is the first time that such initiative has been undertaken by the government. The cost incurred for building the toilets was Rs 7.2 crore. 3.6 lakh concrete cement rings, 6.6 lakh hollow cement blocks and 30,000 cement bags were utilised for the purpose. Many beneficiaries gave sand, doors and basins,” officials said, as reported by The Times of India.
A large number of public servants from the Assistant Director to low-level employees were given the responsibility to implement and execute the construction work. Around 2,000 masons and a handful of engineers from government gave the required training on 12 February. The engineers also organised special training session in four unions in the district by experts.
Though 6,000 toilets were decided to be completed within the time frame, they could only complete 4,666 toilets.
Many other developing countries like Afghanistan, Congo and Burundi are ahead of India in terms of sanitation, and we should also start concentrating on increasing the number of toilets and educating people about their use. Because just using toilets will help eliminate the spread of many diseases.
The Logical Indian applauds the initiative by the government and hopes it inspires people to stop open defecation.
