There are certain strategies that have to be devised before completing each mission. The flagship project of the Government of India ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ was launched with enthusiasm across the country. But its purpose could be fulfilled in only a few districts. The rest of India is still following the three-pat method of Dhaka. In the remaining places, some special strategies were not made for the implementation of this plan. The result of this was that the fate of this scheme was same as the rest of the schemes, my plan failed.
On the other hand, there were some hardworking technical people who achieved success even beyond the targets set under the plan. One such gentleman is Indore (Madhya Pradesh) Collector P. Narhari.
Narhari tried to do something different from the old rule for the implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in his district. He made different strategies for this campaign, this strategy was very innovative.
He had a mountain-like goal of making 312 gram panchayats and more than 600 villages clean. Instead of constructing more and more toilets for cleanliness, he emphasized on behavior change among the people. Because they knew that people go to open defecation despite having toilets in the house because in it they see their joy and this pleasure giving stereotype has to be changed.
For this program, he started working on some important strategies along with the CO of the Panchayat. When he did a lot of research, he found that the villagers go out for defecation from 4 o’clock in the morning to 5.30 and at night till 8.30 o’clock in the evening. This means that they can never make this plan successful in 10 to 5 office hours. So he decided to work on it from 4 o’clock in the morning. For this, he himself went to a village once a week and advised people not to defecate in the open. They identified open defecation sites so that everyone could meet people who defecate in the open in real time. Apart from this, he also made public servants, other officers a part of his awareness mission so that the scheme should be operated in an inclusive manner and give results quickly. Narhari Sir himself also says that the officers should also include public servants in their work or campaigns because they have the ability to lead the people and they are also connected with the people at the local level.
In addition he formed three teams; Surveillance team, encouragement troupe and monkey army. The monitoring team consisted of village elders and citizens related to cleanliness awareness, who would talk to the people going out for defecation from 4 o’clock to 5.30 in the morning and make them aware, and citizens who go outside to defecate. Makes you feel ashamed. The encouraging congregation consisted of 30-35 people from all over the district, who went from village to village to make people aware against open defecation.
Apart from these, whose work proved to be the most interesting but the most beneficial is the monkey army. There were small boys in the monkey army, who used to pull the box of civilians going for defecation and make them feel ashamed and also tell what problem can come by defecating outside?
Apart from these, a more interesting embarrassment procession was also taken out. So that people can be ashamed of their own mistakes and stop this heinous act. Later, when the campaign was completely successful, then the Garv Yatra was also taken out.
At the most, the rural area of Indore became open defecation free within 6-7 months. Even now, he does complete monitoring of the plan so that there is no loose polity. Apart from this, Indore city has achieved the distinction of becoming the cleanest city in India by jumping straight from number 5 to the first position, fulfilling all the criteria of cleanliness survey.