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they received the government incentive of
Rs15,000 in advance. Poor awareness about the
importance of sanitation was another reason.
Pooja also found that the field-level workforce
of 86 was grossly inadequate to cover 1,310
villages in the district. A chunk of their time
was consumed in preparing reports for data
analysis. Worse, there was little coordination Pooja Gupta cherishes the invitation from the
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to Delhi
between the SBM-G implementing officers to share her experiences
and the district administration.
To overcome people’s resistance to level gaps by facilitating regular and intensive
toilets, it was vital that they understood the dialogue between the district administration and
benefits of good sanitation practices. For this, teams working on the programme. This ensured
Pooja galvanised a host of social development they were more effective in what they did.
organisations operating at the ground level,
such as the Mahila Mohalla Committees and tHE fInAL PuSH
local chapters of the Nehru Yuva Kendra Gradually, the people of Gurdaspur district
Sangathan. With their help, she encouraged began to realise the need for toilets, and
the formation of Nigarani Samitis at the Gram some of them even began building those with
Panchayat or village level. These samitis their own funds. However, the pace was still
organised over 150 camps in schools across the sluggish. To speed things up, Pooja launched
district, where students were told about the ill- a large-scale drive during November 2017
effects of defecating in the open. The students with a goal to build 10,000 toilets every week.
played a critical part in educating their parents The entire SBM-G workforce was divided into
and others in the village. 90 teams of 20 members each, with students,
With an aggressive recruitment drive, ex-servicemen and people from gurudwaras
Pooja increased the count of swachhagrahis to also pitching in. Each team was provided
1,109 and deployed them across the district to with a Swachhata Rath to visit villages and
further disseminate awareness about the need disseminate information. As a result of the
for toilets. She introduced the popular and free drive, coverage began to rise and the district
Asana project management software to help was declared ODF on March 31, 2018.
with faster analysis of data and preparation “The last 13 months have changed things
of reports for the SBM-G portal, and trained for me,” says Pooja, who cherishes many
the staff on its use. This freed up a lot of the memories including the time when she was
productive time of the swachhagrahis and the invited by the Ministry of Drinking Water and
administrative staff. Sanitation in February 2018 to Delhi to share
With the help of Gurdaspur district her experiences and learnings over a ‘lunch
collector, she also helped bridge operating- and learn’ session. ˜

toILEt CovERAGE
l April 2017: 31%
l Declared ODF on March 31, 2018

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