Lack of land, incentives beat SBM in Bandhapada

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Bandhapada (Kendrapara): At a time when most of the Indian states have ensured 100 per cent toilet coverage, several villages in Odisha are struggling to cross even 21 per cent due to various reasons.
A visit by this correspondent to the Bandhapada village panchayat in Rajnagar block of Kendrapara district revealed that lack of land for toilets among villagers, fixed terrain near roads and delay in proving incentives to the beneficiaries responsible for the failure of the Centre’s flagship programme Swachh Bharat Mission.
With glaring government apathy and other reasons hampering toilet construction, the villagers are left with no option but to venture out and defecate in the open. “Most of us defecate in the open near ponds as we are left with little option. Women also ditch their dignity and go behind the bushes as the government has failed to take care of us,” said Subrat Raut, a resident of the village.
Another villager Manoj Rout explained that there are varied reasons why the village has been lagging behind. “One issue is the delay in payment of incentive to the villagers by the officials after they construct toilets on their own, while many poor families here do not have a land of their own to construct toilets. Moreover, many poor households cannot afford to invest Rs 12,000 before seeking reimbursement.”
Some villagers also told this newspaper that as the village is situated just at the corner of a road, many households close to the road do not have ample space to expand or offer space on their premises for toilet construction.
“Many do not have space to expand and thus cannot have toilets at their home. If the government can consider constructing community toilets at our village, the problem of open defecation could be tackled and most of us can shun the unhealthy practice of open defecation,” said Biswanath Biswal.
According to the guidelines of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) framed by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, there should be special volunteers named ‘swachhagrahis’ who would motivate people to construct toilets in their village and bring behavioural changes at the local level by creating awareness. However, villagers in Bandhapada said they have hardly ever seen any such volunteers visiting the villages.
According to the statistics, the Bandhapada panchayat has a total of 2,341 households out of which only 93 had toilets before the launch of the mission. Now, as per the current status, this panchayat has a total of 501 households with toilets while a total of 1,840 households are yet to be covered. So, the current toilet coverage in the Bandhapada panchayat stands at 21.40 per cent.