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Progress is rarely without difficulty but then diligence is the mother of good fortune.

यूपी उदय मिशन
यूपी उदय मिशन
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From the ancient times hindu religion had been divided by the Varna system. The worst state of condition in this system is ofDSC00296 the section that had been given the responsibility of service to the society. Due to the nature of the work they handled this section of people came to be known by the names of untouchables. With the changing times some of the castes among these people left their ancestral work and got a social status but there are still a few castes that are bearing the burden of the age old varna system. One of the section among these is of Manual Scavengers who are engaged in the removal of excreta manually for their livelihood. This system is particularly established in the western districts of Uttar Pradesh. Budaun district is one among the districts where till date more than 2000 families are doing the job of manual scavenging for making the both ends meet. For people known to Budaun the name itself depicts the picture of a district where there is a widespread poverty, illetracy, illness and crime. The river basins of Ramganga and Ganga makes it a fertile land for dacoits those are still in existence. Diseases are so common to the district that if there is a discussion on Polio on state or national level there is the name of Budaun district that has to be discussed separately. With the initiation of the summers diarrhea takes a disastrous form both in the rural and the urban areas and by the time monsoon arrives it is in the most dangerous form. With the onset of monsoon apart from Polio and Diarrhea several other water borne diseases take a destructive form. This is one of the reasons why district Budaun despite having a good crop of Menthol, wheat, sugar cane and potato is still a backward district on all development indicators. The reasons that attribute to its backwardness are two fold one being Education and the other Sanitation.

The main cause of pollution in the rural areas is the dry latrines spread across the length and breadth of the village and are proving a contributor to the spread of the infectious diseases. The newly arrived District Magistrate Mr. Amit Gupta took a vow to end this peril of Dry latrines. Transferred to Budaun on 31st October 2009 Mr. Gupta was very much concerned by the development indicators of the district those are among the worst in the state. He was amused by the fact that despite having good crops like menthol, sugar cane, wheat and potato why is it that there is so much backwardness in the district. He got the answer when he visited the village Ramzanpur. He came to see the real picture of the district villages. To quote Mr. Gupta “When I visisted the village I walked through the open vents of the dry latrines those were present on almost all the houses. In these dry latrines the excreta remains for 24 hours and a majority of houses have a distance of not more than a few feet between the place of cooking and the toilet and a few houses have even attached ones.”  On seeing this situation he immediately got the answer to the problem of the district. As soon as he got back from the district he called a meeting of the district officials and asked them to make a determination to end these dry latrines from the district.

Generally the government machinery is known for its incapacity and its corruption but Mr. Gupta asked the District PAnchayat Raj Officer Mr. R.S. Chaudhry to sensitize the district officials and to get them engaged in this work which Mr. Chaudhry did efficiently. In the sensitization meeting Mr. Chaudhry initiated his address by asking a question if any one of those present here would like to handle the excreta of other person and for that he or she can be paid 2000 or 5000 rupees. None among the present officials responded back to it. Mr. Chaudhry said that while walking on the road if the human excreta gets on our feet then we try to get if off by rubbing against the grass and then by water and finally after reaching back home we try to wash it thrice so that not even a smallest particle is left over. He added, the excreta once discarded, we don’t want to look back is handled by the human being like us only and that too for merely a single bread. He asked the audience if they consider this is right the answer came in one voice that this is not right and they will do all that can be done to abolish this cruel practice. This was the initiation of a new program in Budaun district.

The district Magistrate then got started the work of survey. The initial survey in the district revealed more than 15000 dry latrines in the 73 Gram panchayats. On the instructions of the district Magistrate the conversion of these dry latrines to pour flush latrines was initiated.

Now the question was as to how to make this program a success. Both the groups (The community with dry latrines and the manual scavengers) had paradoxically opposite benefits. For the success of the program it was essential to have both the groups at the same platform and get them ready to take active participation. When talks were initiated with the Manual Scavengers three problems of importance came to the fore front. The first problem was of the section that had been into this profession of manual scavenging by birth and this had been their ancestral profession. They considered it as their profession and that is the only way they can earn their livelihood. They did not saw any taboo or any social evil attached to this work. The second section was of the people who wanted to get rid of this work but due to lack of any other employment opportunity they were forced to take this work. The third section was that wanted to get rid of this socially backward work but the people in their villages who are having the dry latrines restricted them to adopt any other work and continue with this. All the three sections involved a different strategy and this was what Mr. Gupta’s team did. Mr Gupta thoroughly studied the angles associated with this program and then decided to take over the category of manual scavengers who do not have any other employment opportunity. Mr. Gupta devised a comprehensive strategy to rehabilitate this section of society. He decided to give the benefit of the different schemes of government to the manual scavengers so that the dependence on this work is mitigated. He asked the District Supply Officer to provide the Manual Scavengers who are ready to fore go their work with BPL and Antyodaya cards. Within a week after the instructions were given more than 300 Antyodaya and BPL cards were provided. The manual scavengers whose children are studying were provided by the special scholarship and those who were eligible for any of the pension schemes were provided by it. A few of the workers were provided with the Mahamaya Awas and the Indira Awas. The job cards were made for the manual scavenger’s family and in order to provide immediate relief new works were started to give employment to them. This resulted in helping the manual scavengers to take decision to leave the work who in absence of all these social security measures were finding it difficult to leave the work. This was a positive beginning of the program.

Overwhelmed by the response to the program District Magistrate Mr. Amit Gupta decided to help people in converting the dry latrines to pour flush ones. The families using the dry latrines were identified and during the survey itself it was known that a majority of the families were having a sper structure in their dry latrines. It was also known that this super structure could be used in the pour flush design too and that this would not take more than two days to convert a single latrine. As regarding the cost it was found that with a super structure already in place not more than 1600 rupees would be needed for the conversion. And thus sbegan a mega conversion drive.

The district Magistrate ordered the DPRO to identify for the first phase of conversion drive the villages having the largest number of dry latrines and according to the need the required funds be transferred to the respective Gram Panchayats. Now came the question of resources. In the first phase there were more than 16000 dry latrines to be converted in 73 identified villages and at the district level there was fund only adequate enough to support conversion of 6000 toilets. Taking note of the precious funds transferred to the gram panchayats and which were lying unused in the accounts the funds were transferred back to the district and it was decided to provide funds to those gram oanchayats here conversion drive has to take palce. Within a month 15 million rupees were brought back and now the district had enough amount to take the conversion drive in full swing. On one hand where the manual scavengers were getting rid of this menial job the villagers at the same time were getting help to control the deadly diseases and an overall clean environment in the district. Within a short span of two months 14000 dry latrines were converted to pour flush ones and 51 villages wre made completely free of dry latrines menace. As much as 566 families associated with the work of manual scavenging were rehabilitated. A fact worth mentioning is that where as in some villages there was a progress of as little as 6 and 9 toilets in two months there were villages like sakri jungle, Ramzanpur, Shekhupur and Kheri where despite the heavy rain 632, 718, 565 and 470 toilets were constructed respectively.

The second section that was made to continue this profession was tried to provide support by the administrative tactics. The District Magistrate Mr. Amit Gupta ordered all SDMs that if any person is found restricting any manual scavenger from leaving this job shall be dealt with very strictly within the existing provisions of law. If necessary they shall be booked under the criminal acts and further actions be taken accordingly. The clear message from the DM’s desk demoralized any such attempt to restrict the manual scavengers from leaving their jobs. The third section that wanted to remain associated with this profession by their own will was a difficult task to handle. But as the saying goes where there is a will there is a way. One day a president of Balmiki Sena Mr. Mukesh came to The DPRO for an issue with the Sanitation worker. The DPRO responded that he will certainly look into the matter but only if the Balmiki Sena supports this program. Mr. Mukesh was more than happy to work for the betterment of their own community. He also organized the influential people from their community Mr. Kalicharan being an important one among them and went along with this program. For the program the vehicle and the posters were provided by the District Panchayat Raj Office. The poster named Naya Savera brought a new morning as its name meant to many vilalges. Balmiki Sena even threatened that they would totally boycott the family that will still be engaged in te manual scavenginag ant that they will not get into marriage relationship with any such family and this brought a real change. They also tried to boost the lsot confidence among the manual scavengers. They also told that they are the descendents of Maharishi Balmiki who has the credit of writing the Ramayana. And they also told that Luv and Kush despite belonging to such a deity had to face the blot of manual scavenging and so they shall leave this job and get into other respectable professions. This helped in changing the mind of people who considered this work as the only means of earning the bread. They also compared the status of manual scavengers in the way that nobody cares or maintains a distance with a begger but every one tries to get away from the manual scavenger and this is only because of the work they are doing. These words created a lasting impression on the minds of the manual scavengers and motivated them to forego this menial job.

For the successful implementation of the program it was essential to have a set of workers matching the government structure. For this at the Block level and at Village level the motivators were appointed. Usually there is a delayed payment to the motivators and thus it makes them lenient towards the cause. So in order to make payments available for the village motivators an amount matching to their honorarium wa transferred to the accounts and the Village Secretary and the Gram Pradhan were told to pay the amount instantly to the motivators. Payments to motivators gave required pace to the program. The financial help of rupees 5000 per month by Unicef in the form of honorarium to Block motivators also helped a lot.

Trainings were also conducted for Village motivators and the gram Pradhans from the district. For regularly motivating the motivators the district coordinators regularly visited the villages.

The success of this program had a great role of timely actions and effective monitoring. For the transfer of funds the District Magistrate and the Chief Development Officer gave the District Panchayat Raj Officer a full liberty and with the efforts of Chief Accountant Mr. Rohtash Kumar and the manager of the UP Gramin Bank Mr Ranveer Singh it became possible to transfer funds from the district to the gram panchayats. Mr. singh took care of any difficulty faced in the transfer of funds by talking to his district staff on phone. The support extended by the banks helped in providing the much needed pace to this program. The District Magistrate had ensured for effective monitoring the daily assessment of progress by e-mails every evening. The District Panchayat Raj Officer collected daily progress from the villages and reported it to the District Magistrate. Every morning at 8 pm the District Magistrate assessed the report and compared with the last days progress and talked about the progress block wise by the SDMs, BDOs and the DPRO.  Mr. Gupta also nominated a senior District Official for each Block as a nodal officer for that block so as to get updated report on conversion of dry latrines and the rehabilitation of manual scavengers as well. SDMs took regular meetings at the tehsil level and provided whatever support they needed. This new experiment at the district level proved a success. The role of BDOs is especially worth appreciation in this entire program. The Block Development Officers have undertaken meetings at village level and did effective monitoring of the program at the block level.

There is also an effort to get the toilets constructed in houses of the workers connected with the government machinery. The departments in the district are providing with the information on the status of the toilets in the houses of their employees and those who do not have a toilet are being motivated to go for it and this has shown a positive response. From the shiksha mitra in education department to ration dealers in the District Supply office all have started constructing toilets in their houses.

The resources available in the district played an important role in effective monitoring of the program. District Magistrate Mr. Amit Gupta has spared one of his Personal Assistants fully to get reports from the district officials. The three desktops and four laptops available in the DPRO’s office helped in imparting the information timely and compiling the achievements and its reports. All the assistants in the office of the District Panchayat Raj Office are computer friendly and that helps a lot. The District Facilitator Mr. Ahmad Shahvez of the UN- Joint Convergence Program, District Coordinator Parikshit Seth and District TSC Coordinator have worked hard to get the things on line and to make the progress available online.

Today district Budaun has become a role model for Uttar Pradesh. To quote Mr. Amit Gupta “if things remain normal and all goes as it is planned and going then by the end of December the District will be made free of dry latrines” From several years the community that has been suffering the unimaginable societal discriminations is now looking at the new morning of equality and equity and the district is seeing the silver lining in the dark cloud to eradicate the polio menace. Congratulations to Mr. Amit Gupta and his team Budaun.

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