Dr. Yudhbir Singh Khyalia

PROJECT - TOTAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN (TSC)

Strategies adopted to achieve ODF status

Communication for Behavioral change

Implementation of ODF required large scale behavioral change consisting of habits as well as traditions and it applied for both the executers and beneficiaries of the program. Effective and innovative communication mechanisms were used for it and involved two levels. One was for trainers and other was for villagers.

For Trainers

Trainers too needed to change their mindsets and behavior as they had to believe first in the possibility of cent per cent target achievement. Further they had the onerous job of handling difficult people and difficult situations, often unreasonable. The group of trainers participated in it for learning:

•         What is the importance of sanitation in detail?

•         How shall one behave?

•         How to keep their cool?

•         How to prepare people for change?

For Beneficiaries and Villagers

Their training was continuous learning and primarily peer pressure was used to get compliance from them for practices of ODF. Gandhian methods were followed and no force was used at any stage.

It involved:

•         Telling them about diseases like polio and others associated with dirty surroundings.

•         Children and women were trained as change agents to mould the behavior of the most resisting persons in the village.

•         CEO personally monitored & guided District Monitoring Team to talk to highly resistant people.

•         Villagers themselves came with highly innovative methods to send the message down the throats of violators. Some of which were:

•         Teams of volunteers used moving guards at the dawn and dusk, who used Torches (flashlights) to expose habitual defecators in the open and also blew whistles at them. This pressure of shame forced people to discontinue their habits and start using latrines.

•         If some people did not relent even to this, volunteers themselves used KHURPI to bury excreta under earth to keep the place clean.

•         Women in the villages took the initiative, acted as leaders and persuaded the adamant people. Some men who were hesitant initially also came forward & joined the campaign along with women.

•         School students too actively participated in building the pressure on their families. They acted as “Swachhta Sainiks” and carried out Swachhta Rallies in the villages to create awareness among the masses.