Elimination of open defecation in the Nadia district of West Bengal has earned it the United Nations Public Services Award 2015.

Till October 2013, the district, located in the south of the Indian state of West Bengal had 35% of its 5.2 million population defecating in the open.

Sabar Souchagar(toilet –for-all),a programme by the district administration in 2013 has helped to build 365,000 toilets .This is the reason why the practice of openly defecating dropped to a mere 0.2% with the district aiming to be free of this practice by March next year.

This programme was launched prior to Prime Minister Narendra Modi?s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (clean-India-campaign).

The former district magistrate, Dr. P.B Salim is credited for achieving this feat in so short a time period. He said that getting people to use the toilet was the biggest problem since the open defecation had been in practice for ages.

He also said? It is the will of the people and mostly the children that have helped the district achieve this feat. Every Monday nearly one million children took the pledge not to defecate in the open?Even religious leaders helped to spread the message during gatherings. On Friday prayers in mosques and Sunday mass in churches, using toilets was one of the agendas?

The cost of each toilet amounted to Rs.10,000.As the state has been suffering from high debt, the allocation of Rs.620 billion was gotten through many central government schemes like ?Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan(NBA)?, National Rural Livelihood Mission(NRLM) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA).

I think that this is an excellent measure, the benefits of which are sure to last for generations to come. The measures to reach out to the public like making children take oaths to stop openly defecating (which obviously impacts their families) and  creation of awareness during religious services are especially noteworthy. The district of Nadia is now a role model for the rest of India to emulate.