CLTS in Village Anghla, Lakhanpur block, Sarguja district, Chhattisgarh

We visited village Anghla, Lakhanpur Block of Sarguja District. The event planned was CLTS/ Mass Awareness Campaign. The villagers assembled in the gram Sabha office. There were about 50 community women. The meeting was also attended by the Sarpanch and the engineer for SBM. The meeting started with introduction. Abhishek Kumar was the facilitator with initial greetings; he started the meeting by asking about their usual day. It was a very interesting way of bringing people’s attention and how to open up the topic of defecation. People started by saying that they start the day by cleaning the house and the surroundings. Then they said they go out, "Ghumne Chale Jaate”, they said we go to freshen ourselves. After insisting on what is done afterwards, they said they just go out walking.   So our facilitator Abhishek asked about the need for them to go for a walk. Initially the participants were very shy and they seemed embarrassed to answer that question. There was some reaction; but there were a lot of smiles, laughs and some quirky comments about why there was a need for that to be told. Though hesitant initially, they said they went for a walk and they went for a round.  It was asked whether there was a need for them to walk and roam around as an exercise. When they slowly opened up; though their initial answer was that they went to freshen up, after much probing and a few minutes of conversation around the topic of freshening up, the facilitator asked openly whether they went to defecate.  Finally, they agreed and mentioned that they actually went to relieve themselves or defecate. In their defence they also mentioned that they also picked fire wood from the jungle so their trips are not wasted.  When a question was asked to the community on why they would defecate in public. They said that they get fresh air and felt fresh defecating in the open was hygienic. So in order to get the conversation going it was further probed on how many times that a person defecates in a day. They mentioned it was twice daily and sometimes when they have a diarrhea they would frequently go to defecate. The discussion shifted to the amount of fecal matter which is spread in the open when people defecate in public.  They were quiet surprised at the overall quantity of fecal matter which is left in the open. The community women raised a question saying that it mixes with soil or it dries down. It was explained to them that it doesn’t happen in at least 3 to 4 days minimum and it was explained to them that the human fecal matter doesn’t decompose but in contrary it stays there for many days Though they were surprised they also asked why they shouldn’t do, as they felt open defecation is very good, they get fresh air they do it in the open and the fecal matter decomposes with the soil. They felt when it rains it gets dissolved in water so it cleans itself. They also mentioned that sometimes the pigs come and eat and again it is cleaned. The discussion progressed into the next point on agenda, or the most important point; the ill effects of Open Defecation and how it affects the environment as well as the ill effects to the overall health and hygiene of the community. This was demonstrated through some practical examples. One of the tests, the drinking water test on a clean transparent plastic cup was shown to them, first drinking water was poured into a clean and transparent plastic cup and was offered to drink, the Sarpanch volunteered to drink that. After a while, cow dung was brought in and a strand of hair was used to touch the cow dung and then the strand of hair was dipped in the water. The water looked clean and then the community was asked for any volunteers to drink the water again. There were no takers. The people were vehemently against drinking the water which is impure. The facilitator asked them on how the water could be polluted as it was still clean as it looked clear, there was no visible contamination. They were asked a question on how could one strand of hair could pollute the water.  But the women vehemently refused and said, because they saw the water being contaminated by a strand of hair which had been in contact with cow dung. This led to the discussion on how flies can contaminate water and other eatables when they have six legs. Flies sit on all the waste material and also the fecal matter left in public and open. People were also made to understand how the fecal matter which is left in open can get back and cause various water borne diseases like Cholera, Diarrhea, Typhoid, Hepatitis A, E etc. People slowly started to understand the ill effects of open defecation, the possible diseases which spread and how this causes lot of illness. The community was shocked at the number of people in the country dying out of preventable water borne diseases and how each one contributes to the environmental sanitation. To elaborate the point clearly, people were also asked about the common water borne diseases and the problems it causes to the family; it was explained to them on the amount of money involved and spent on treating people. The community was also shown, SQS vial, the kit for checking the purity of water, they were told on how the quality of the water that they have been drinking and the contamination can be checked by keeping the water for the stipulated time. Now being aware of the contamination and the ill effects of Open Defecation being explained people grew very conscious of the fact that they have been drinking contaminated water. People were so eager to get the kits and check the available water sources in order to check for the contamination. So Abhishek, the facilitator guided them to the person whom the kits were available and suggested that they should check for the purity of water. The community was asked about the common ailments and what are the diseases repeatedly occurring in their households. They were taken through a process of calculating the amount of money when a child or a member of the family is affected. They calculated that and they spend a minimum of Rs1000 to 1200 every time one member falls sick and if it is a couple of times a year, it is almost Rs2000 multiplied by the number of people in the family who fall sick. So on an average if there are 2 children who have fallen sick twice in a year and if it had repeated for the last 5 years, then they have already spent about Rs20,000 to Rs30,000 so far; they were amazed at how much has been spent already in the last few years.   It was also observed that out of 2977 people in the village only 300 people had access to toilets and use toilets and the rest defecate in open. People started to understand the veracity and the ill effects of open defecation. But a silver lining to the grim issue was that when the people were asked about hand washing almost all of them said that they use soap to wash their hands. The community was encouraged to give a self-applause by a community clap, which was enjoyed by all. It was also a good learning to understand that the people were conscious of hygiene and sanitation. The community was asked about how to proceed with the construction of the toilets, in order to ensure people’s participation, they were asked about how many owned a television or a cell phone. As Cell phone was not commonly used in Anghla, people were asked about how many owned a television. Most people raised their hand. The facilitator asked whether the TV was bought by them or they were provided by the government. So the community answered that it was bought by them as per their choice. The facilitator then made a comparison on how the cost of a television or the amount of money that they have spent on ailments caused due to water contamination can actually build a reasonably good toilet which could save them from so many problems. The meeting ended with the community being informed about the future plans, Swacch Bharat Mission and what is expected of them in the near future. They were also briefed on the upcoming VSP where they will be planning for their village. Rabindran David Shelley

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