Xmas gifts come early with Swachh messages

RANCHI: Sunday’s are usually busy for Suman Saran. With the children at home, it ends up increasing her workload, and her level of irritation. But this Sunday was different. She was pleasantly surprised to see a man dressed in red and white standing on her doorsteps. Before she could fathom the reason behind Santa Claus’s early arrival, the person flashed a smile, reached inside his bag and brought out a gift — a saree for Saran.
She was not the only one to receive such generosity from Santa and before time. A number of families of Jory village in Lohardaga district got gifts. From blankets and sarees to torch lights and tiffin boxes, the gifts were varied. But they were distributed not without reason. For Santa was there to felicitate those who have given up the practice of defecating in the open and are now regular users of toilets.
The campaign, which kicked off in Jory, is likely to continue throughout the district till Christmas Eve, and hence the idea to get Santa Claus to deliver messages wrapped in gifts.
“A total of 353 villages across 66 panchayats will be covered and the families rewarded. They will be gifted blankets, sarees, torch lights, tiffin boxes, t-shirts, pencil and colour boxes. This can encourage those defecating in the open to give up their habit,” deputy commissioner of Lohardaga district, Binod Kumar, told TOI.
The gifts are being sponsored under several social security schemes that are already underway. In August, Lohardaga became the first district in Jharkhand to become open defecation free. As per the 2011census, the district has a population of 60,000 and toilets have been constructed in around 59,600 homes across 66 panchayats under the Swachh Bharat Mission, records suggest.
And yet a large section of the rural population has been defecating in the open despite having toilets at home, district authorities said. They attributed the problem to people’s refusal to let go of their old habits. Realizing the need to bring about behavioural change, Kumar went back to the drawing board and came up with the idea to use Santa to improve toilet practice.
After a month of planning and preparation, 66 Santas — all sanitation officers — were send out on Sunday morning to spread the message of cleanliness and hygiene and reward those who have stopped defecating in the open. The sanitation officers are at the forefront of Swachh mission and it was based on their feedback that the families to be rewarded were chosen.