The Mission Swachh Punjab made a giant leap when 1015 Gram Panchayats across the state declared themselves open defecation free. With a sum of Rs. 1200 Crore, this program was launched with a vision to make Punjab open defection free and provide latrines to all poor people in the villages.Disclosing this, a spokesman of the Punjab Government said that while the primary focus of the program is to bring in behavioral change to prevent open defecation, 8 lakh individual households latrines will also be constructed during the process. All rural households without latrines are being encouraged to construct toilets of their own choice and an incentive of Rs 15000/- per toilet is being provided to the households. As on today work has been going on in more than 3000 villages simultaneously.
He said that this program stands out from earlier efforts in two significant ways. Firstly, though the program envisage the construction of 8 lakh toilets, yet, primary focus of the the program is to change the behavioral of the people and create demand for latrines and safe sanitation. Earlier, in a rapid survey done by the world bank just before the launch of the project indicated that only 54% of those who have toilets use these regularly. Secondly, contractors have been eliminated from the toilet construction; now the individuals , on their own, are constructing the toilets of their own choice. and an incentive of Rs. 15000 is being credited to their bank account directly.He said that in the last six months, 36000 households have been provided with the latrines of their choice and 1015 Gram panchayat have declared themselves open defection free. Meaning thereby, that no household is without latrine in these 1015 villages and nobody defecates in open in these villages. The program has motivated the people to such an extent that these villages have formed Nigran committees which goes around the villages every morning to ensure that nobody is going for open defecation.
He stated that the department aims to provide 5 lac latrines by the end of this year. With this, It is estimated that approximately 6000 villages shall be made open defecation free by the end of the year.The DWSS has also embarked upon a ambitious plan of providing free of cost water supply connection in all the houses in the village .The cost connection shall also be borne by the department. So all the house hold shall have access to safe drinking water supply and safe sanitation servicesÍ He said that the department of water supply & sanitation has mobilized 1000 motivators, 200 master motivators and departmental staff to implement this programme in all the villages of state. The motivators are using Community Lead Total Sanitation methodology to trigger the rural communities .