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Journalism of Courage
IT8217;S TOUGH, looking at the lush green patches of sugarcane and banana plantations around Ankalkhop, a prosperous village 25 km north of Sangli, to correctly visualise the landscape nine months ago. Then, the predominant features were piles of stinking garbage, overflowing sewage lines, unhygienic conditions at the nearby Dalit slum. Mosquitoes bred freely, encouraged as much by the exposed sewerage as by the defecation in the open.
It took the Maharashtra government8217;s novel contest for the title of three top clean villages to galvanise the community into action. At that point of time, it seemed audacious for Ankalkhop to aim to be 8216;8216;a role model for development and prosperity through active people8217;s participation8217;8217; on parameters like public health, individual hygiene, education, self-employment schemes and harmony among villagers. Today, Ankalkhop is recognised as the cleanest village.
The garbage-pockmarked wastelands have given way to patches of green. The waste-water is routed through open and concealed drainage lines to new sedimentation tanks, where it is treated and re-directed to sugarcane and banana fields.
But it8217;s the transformation of the Harijan-vasti 8212; as villagers refer to the slum 8212; that is the most dramatic. The cluster is now clean, with the 110-odd dwellings neatly painted in ivory cream and brick with attached cement-concrete bathroom blocks, a black stone approachway, a row of newly raised public toilets, biomass and gobar-gas plants for alternative sources of energy and, above all, a carefully worked out culture for cleanliness-through-awareness.
Good habits can be as addictive as the bad. The statewide Sant Gadge Baba Village Sanitation Campaign, which followed the Cleanest Village contest, also triggered a flurry of activity across Ankalkhop, uniting villagers for causes as varied as conserving the environment, banning liquor and gutka, implementing family planning schemes, promoting small savings and converting public urinals into urea recovery plants. 8216;8216;We have also been discouraging use of plastic bags. The village women have donated sarees to make cloth bags,8217;8217; adds Ankalkhop sarpanch Suman Suryawanshi.
The village of 14,000 people, mostly agriculturists, takes special pride in the harmony and understanding among its residents. 8216;8216;We don8217;t have a police chowki, nor do we need one,8217;8217; boasts villager Ajit Patil.
For village elders and leaders, executing the clean village campaign, though, was easier said than done. 8216;8216;Like in any development initiative, scepticism and doubts cropped up when we chalked out plans for the contest,8217;8217; says Gramsevak P R Suryawanshi. 8216;8216;We started with a handful of people and managed to bring the rest together when our efforts started showing results.8217;8217;
As corporate honchos would agree, that is the best man-management principle. And at Ankalkhop, they have shown it works.
