JEEViKA

An Initiative of Government of Bihar for Poverty Alleviation

Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society
State Rural Livelihoods Mission, Bihar

Rome was not built in a day

Rome was not built in a day November 06, 2019 / Mahua Roy Choudhury

This saying might be old but is still applicable to this day, similar is the case of Rampur village, in Sonagopalpur Panchayat of Sampathchak block in Patna District. The village has been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), and ever since Jeevika stepped in 2015 with the support of Health, Nutrition and Sanitation (HNS) team and took the pledge of making the village ODF, things have never looked back since. Around 450 toilets have been constructed .Undertaking this task was not easy as the hurdles were many; the first and foremost hurdle was the behavior of people who were still sticking to the old practice of defecating in the open. Availability of land was another very crucial hurdle to overcome. Apart from this, the  village was down with diseases like Diarrhoea, Cholera etc. The office bearers of Aachal Village Organisation Smt. Chando Devi and Smt. Geeta Devi took extensive mobilizations and hard work to aware people on using toilets. The joint efforts of the community and Jeevika made the village Open Defecation Free. People are now aware of the benefits of having a toilet and they are extensively constructing toilet. The funds are being properly utilized to make toilets in the houses of people who didn’t have one and nobody has to cover their nose while roaming around the village, this little Rome of its own is now flourishing.