Patna: Jeevika Didis (Women’s self-help groups) are leading Swachhata Hi Seva – 2023 in Bihar and driving the theme of ‘Garbage-free India’. The major focus is to educate, participate and motivate communities for shramdaan and cleanliness activities. A massive Janbhagidari is gaining momentum for cleaning common places, market areas, streets, waste sites, banks of river Ganga, and tourist, historical and religious sites across the state.
Jeevika is a community-based organization in Bihar having around 10 lakh women self-help groups, and a network of more than 74 thousand village-based organizations, thereby uniting approximately 1.24 crore women for Swachhata Hi Seva in the state. Women joining hands to reach out to villages for awareness generation and undertaking mass cleanliness activities is a true reflection of ‘Nari Shakti’, the Union Jal Shakti Ministry stated today.
A comprehensive plan for Har Din–Ek Gaon (Every day – one village) has been rolled out with a set of interventions planned throughout the day witnessing active participation from all sections of society including Government officials at the state and district levels. District Magistrates (DMs) with their teams are in the field holding cleanliness drives and undertaking shramdaan (voluntary labour). DMs have been undertaking cleaning activities in spots with heavy footfalls, local markets, institutions, streets etc. Jan Samvads were organised by the Government to promote the theme ‘Garbage-free India’ and address the sanitation needs of the communities. Sanitation workers are being felicitated for their contributions and special health camps are being organised for their wellness.
Making children a ‘Gateway to Total Sanitation’, school-level cleanliness drives have undertaken and school children are being educated about the importance of hygiene. They are ‘Sanitation Ambassadors’ for disseminating ‘Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus’ messages to their families and neighbourhoods. Approximately 30,000 school activities have been conducted in schools reaching out to more than 65 lakh children. This was further followed by mass meetings at the village level to provide Individual household latrines for new families or leftouts. To date, 36,000 individual household toilets have been constructed, the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti said today.
Jan Samvad or onsite field meetings are organised with public representatives, field functionaries and influential people of the community, who are all coming together to make villages ODF Plus. Swachhata Chaupals are organised to generate awareness and actions for the management of liquid and solid waste at the household and community levels.
The state is gearing special campaign for cleaning the Ganga Ghats covering 266 Gram Panchayats in 12 Districts of the State. Communities, Nehru Yuva Kendra, and Sanitation workers are leading a cleanliness drive on the banks of the Holy Ganga. With these synergized efforts and the participation of approximately 5.80 crore people from all walks of life, the State is likely to rapidly progress towards ODF Plus targets by making Sanitation everybody’s business, the Ministry stated.
– global bihari bureau
