How Tulsi plants, Rangoli script Ganjam’s ODF success story in Odisha

Strap: The ODF district had a meager toilet coverage of 18% in 2014

Manish Kumar

Ganjam: Narmada Swain, a 23-year-old Swachhagrahi  (local volunteer) working in her Golamundala village in the Kabisuryanagar block of the Ganjam district of Odisha under the Swachh Bharat Mission since March 2018, is now motivated to witness her mission---to ensure her panchayat becomes Open Defecation Free (ODF)---become a reality.

But her journey was painstaking and arduous. “We were entrusted with the task of making sure that people are encouraged to construct toilet and actually use it. Earlier, my village had only 50 households with toilets out of the total 400 households in 2014, but now all households have toilet and are using it,” Narmada told Firstpost.

The young grassroots worker of the ambitious sanitation mission of the Union government explains that after being trained, she went to uncovered households to persuade people to construct toilet, organised discussion sessions with group of non-interested villagers and apprised them about the health hazards of open defecation. Her village now has 100 percent toilet coverage and is free from open defecation.

Tackling the ‘Ganjam Slaute’

However, the journey was not as smooth as it seemed to be. Even by last year when all the households had toilets, not everyone had shunned open defecation and the district administration had to think of innovative ways to ward off the menace. The local issues required the administration to work on behavioral change to boost the ownership and usage of the toilets.

In Ganjam as per the own admissions of the villagers, many people consider the agricultural land as pious and shun defecating onto agricultural fields, which is otherwise not the case in other parts of the country. They often line-up on road sides for open defecation.

The district was also notorious for a strange practice locally termed “Ganjam Salute”, which was also mentioned by journalist Ruben Banerjee in his biography of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Many men and women used to sit along the Ganjam roads to defecate, but whenever vehicle lights flashed, they used to suddenly stand up one by one mimicking a ‘salute’ for an outsider. This was the story when the district was not open defecation free.

To tackle the localised issue, the district administration based on the inputs from many locals, roped in women Self Help Groups (SHGs) and swacchagrahis to take an innovative way to ward off open defecation. Many SHGs soon started planting Tulsi (Basil, which is considered sacred by Hindus) plants and painting Rangolis along the street sides to discourage open defecation, which became a trend in many vulnerable parts of the district.

Narmada also jumped onto the bandwagon and started taking other women on board to discourage the willful defaulters who loved to defecate in the open despite having toilets of their own. Like Narmada, other swacchagrahis and women joined the movement.

Sasmita Das, another grassroots worker at the Chingulikhol village at the Beguniapada tehsil of the district, joined in to execute the maverick plan. “We saw that despite having toilets, many used to go onto the street sides making the whole area dirty. We started planting Tulsi and making Rangolis after cleaning the area to create a feeling of sacred place so that the God-fearing people are discouraged. It soon started making a difference and out of guilt many shunned open defecation,” Sasmita says.

With the help of women SHGs of the panchayat, they soon had 550 volunteers running a mass campaign to ensure behavioural changes for improved sanitary habits in the area.

Narmada and Sasmita say they were paid Rs 150 as incentive when a toilet was constructed in their village and the families started using it.

Offering roses, halting ration

Apart from planting Tulsi and making Rangolis, the district administration also tried other ‘name and shame’ tactics to target open defecation. From November 2018 onwards, many grassroots workers embarked on another mission to give roses to the willful defaulters who were found defecating in the open.

Several blocks like Beguniapada even tried to threaten the defaulters with punishment, like stopping their quota of government ration if they continued open defecation.

Such drive was earlier implemented in some of the most vulnerable areas in several panchayats of the district and later extended to other areas as well. Some of the panchayats where it was tested and yielded good results included- 10 gram panchayats of Sanakhemundi block, nine gram panchayats of Purusottampur block and seven gram panchayats of Kukudakhandi block in the district.

According to the officials figures, before the starting of the SBM, Ganjam had a toilet coverage of meager 17.83 percent as out of the total 6,08,751 village households 5,03,513 (82.71%) did not have toilets of their own and the notorious ‘Ganjam Salute’ was rampant. Now, it has 100 percent toilet coverage across all the blocks.

“The solution through such innovative ideas was a brainchild of the district administration which planned taking on board community level workers and women and create a mass movement. Women helped to magnify the movement and acted as the harbinger of change. We targeted many vulnerable areas to change the mindset of the people,” says Gokul Maharana, district project coordinator, Water Sanitation Mission, Ganjam.

The district administration is now overwhelmed with the figures, as while Odisha is still among the worst performing states in terms of toilet coverage, Ganjam has achieved 100 percent sanitation coverage and has been declared an Open Defecation Free (ODF) district.

“We observed that despite having toilets many people in rural areas used to go outside for defecation. We tried some fresh ideas to tackle the issue. The main objective was to bring behavioural change among villagers so that they are encouraged to use toilet. We will continue our mission with good ideas to discourage open defecation,” Ganjam district collector Vijay Kulange told Firstpost.

The overall situation in the state is yet not hunky-dory as Odisha remains the second worst state of the country under Swachh Bharat Mission, with merely 78 percent (till Jan 5, 2019) toilet coverage, while many other states have crossed 99 percent coverage. The state, however, had only 11.72 percent toilet coverage before the Swachh Bharat Mission started, the worst in the country.