Bajura women launch sanitation campaign

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PRAKASH SINGH
BAJURA, March 4 2016: Women of Bajura district have started focusing on sanitation issues apart from their conventional household chores. The activists from the Women Rights Forum of Bajura have started the sanitation drive after people started getting sick from the open defecation in the district. Bajura was declared the 16th open defecation free (ODF) district on November 18, 2014. In the year 2011/12, only 10.53 per cent of houses had toilets; but in a short time, 100 per cent houses built toilets through support of GSF making it an ODF district. Sanitation drive coordinator Janak Bhatta has attributed the change to the great efforts from the women of the district. For example, contributions of Rithu Sarki of Trapa, Brahmatola-3 have inspired the drive not only in the VDC, but also in the district, he added. Sarki is a single woman, whose husband Naulo Sarki died five years ago in course of a job in Delhi. She has a hard time to live hand-to-mouth and earn through agriculture, but has inspired many others in the village. They have also established a trust for the drive in which women deposit Rs 20 each for the cause, informed Devika Shah, another activist. After the district was declared ODF zone, they aim to involve all people in the cleanliness drive within next 10 years. They aim to install toilets in every house, clean houses, fix proper garbage disposal areas among others to achieve the same in 40 houses of the village under women’s supervision, according to the activists.
A version of this article appears in print on March 05, 2016 of The Himalayan Times.