In Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, 200 young women, mostly graduates, have motivated over 1,500 villagers, so far, to construct toilets in their houses, that too without getting any government aid. These girls stay at each village and educate residents about sanitation and hygiene. They use different tools to make villagers aware -by singing songs, playing skits, conducting march-pasts with school children and group discussions with different sections of society , narrating to them how open defecation affects their daily life.
One of the volunteers said, "The biggest challenge we face, even from women, is to make them under stand about the importance of dignity. Some of them make excuses, like they cover their faces with dupattas while defecating in the open. But we don't lose hope and visit them again with innovative ideas to counter their arguments."
The volunteers said that educating men, especially elders, was more difficult than convincing women.
Read more of this in a report by Pankul Sharma, published in Times of India...
