Yashodhara V Bangera

Daijiworld Media Network - Moodbidri (SP)

Moodbidri, Jan 16: A girl from near here, who steadfastly followed up the matter of building a toilet at her home with her parents, finally succeeded in convincing them to bend to her wishes. Kavya, an eight-year-old girl from Moodukonaje in Shirthady gram panchayat here happens to be the girl who contributed in her small way to the concept of Swachh Bharat.

Kavya is the younger of the two children of Sheena - Leela couple from Kudrail in Moodukonaje. The couple work as coolies. Kavya happens to be a student of the local government primary school. She was inspired by the talk about cleanliness delivered in her school by health workers. Kavya was worried that her family does not have a toilet of its own. Therefore she began to pester her parents to build la toilet. The parents finally agreed to her demand but encountered a number of problems.

The family had got their house which had thatched roof, repaired some years back. For this purpose, they had raised loan of Rs 1.5 lac. Even then the issue of title deeds could not be sorted out. The family depended on open defecation. Under pressure from Kavya, the family contacted panchayat officials but the response it got was not encouraging. Finally, unable to withstand pressure from their daughter, the couple pledged gold ornaments belonging to family members, and built a toilet-cum-bathroom at a cost of Rs 30,000.

Their application for toilet has been pending with the local gram panchayat since a year. As per the suggestion of the people there, a month back, the application filed in the name of Leela was replaced with the one in the name of Sheena. The family came to know only now that the place where they built the toilet is attached with a religious belief about it being the route used by serpents that cannot be interfered with. Therefore, they are now forced to undertake remedial measures in consultation with experts, before the toilet can be put to use. In the meanwhile, they are expecting help from the panchayat at the earliest.