Nadia district in West Bengal has nearly achieved the five-year target that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set out for the whole country - toilets in every household. Out of the 1.59 crore households in West Bengal, Nadia has 10.09 lakh households and by January 30 District Magistrate P B Salim hopes to provide toilets for all under a project named Sabar Souchalaya. In March last year, when he took over as DM, Salim ordered a survey and found that 3.09 lakh households (20 lakh people) in Nadia district did not have toilets. Between October 2013 and November this year, 2.15 lakh toilets were built. The district collector now hopes to cover the remaining 1 lakh households in the next six months. The feat has been recognised by UNICEF which sent a 12-member team to the district on Tuesday to verify the administration’s claims. The team met chief secretary Sanjay Mitra and principal secretary, Public health engineering, Saurav Das at the secretariat. “What struck me when I took over was that in Bengal while 40 per cent of the population still defecates openly, in Bangladesh it is just 4 per cent. But then I thought why not bring my district out of this. I believed it could be done,’’ Salim, who is from Thrissur district of Kerala told The Indian Express. To achieve his target Salim raised funds from various sources, including NREGS and NRLM (National Rural Livelihood Mission). He also roped in various social groups, including women, schoolchildren and religious and community leaders who took up the task with a missionary zeal. “Salim has proved that if you are honest and have the will to achieve you will be able to do it. We are going to organise seminars and workshops involving people from other states where we will exhort them to follow the Nadia model,’’ said Ashadur Rahman, West Bengal head of UNICEF.
