Toilet Inauguration

T for Toilet, T for Temple-Toilet Inauguration

Date:- 18-09-2013, Village:- Vadasar.

We go to the temple to cure impurity of mind, and to the toilet to cure impurity of body.

According to our survey, 56% of families in the 3 villages do not have a toilet. We know that while building a toilet us easy, building the habits and mindsets to use a toilet is hard, and we aimed to create both the skills to build a toilet and mindset to use a toilet through our inauguration in Vadasar village.  We invited the 20 members of our Youth sanitation leadership training to this inauguration so they could learn and replicate the program in their villages.

Participants

• ·         Village primary school children
• ·         Village women
• ·         Primary school teachers
• ·         Government officers
• ·         Other village members
• ·         20 members trained at our 3-day training at ESI

·          To build the skills to create a toilet

•       We inputted a demonstration toilet in the 3 villages, with instructions for how to build a toilet, and information about the cost of a toilet and how to maintain a toilet.

To build the mindsets to use a toilet

•       We invited representatives of Tata Housing to share the importance of using toilets
•     J   Jayeshbhai Patel, Director of ESI shared why toilets should be revered as temples       
•      We inaugurated the toilets through a ceremony (lighting a diya, breaking a coconut, and giving it a name) to transfer the cultural attitudes that people give to temples to toilets.