“Even today, over 60,000 families living in slums either use the community toilet blocks or defecate in the open. To bring an end to this practice, the central government, Maharashtra state government, the Pune Municipal Corporation, NGOs and private companies will work in collaboration to construct individual toilets for each of these households. In the next 5 years we will completely rid Pune city of open defecation.” said Municipal Commissioner, Kunal Kumar optimistically.
Kumar spoke at the inauguration ceremony of the 1000th toilet built by “Shelter Associates”, a Pune based NGO, at Yamunanagar vasti in Vimananagar. “Shelter Associates” has been working to provide households with toilets and proper sanitation under their programme “One Home- One Toilet” from July 2013. Others present at the occasion were, Pratima Joshi- executive director of Shelter Associates, Lata Shrikhande- associate executive director Shelter Associates, VasantPatil- Nagar assistant municipal commissioner of Nagar Ward, Mrs. Bharati Kotwal from Yardi software private lmtd. (who funded the project in Yamunanagar) Suman Rokade and members of the community.
Kumar went on to say, “Every household in the slum must adopt the ‘One Home-One Toilet’ plan. The Municipal Corporation will cooperate to facilitate this. If the beneficiaries of this scheme share their experiences with others in the communities, they will inspire them to adopt the plan as well. The sanitation standards in the country can only improve when each person takes responsibility for himself and his household. I am sure that if the slum dwellers are educated regarding cleanliness and hygiene, they will accept change quickly and Pune will become an open defecation free city.”
Pratima Joshi said, “To build one toilet in each of the 60,000 potential slum homes, it will cost approximately 121 Cr. Through a partnership between Pune Municipal Corporation, private companies and citizens this goal can be achieved in the next 5 years and Pune could be the first city to become ODF and establish a partnership model that can be emulated by other states as well.”
The commissioner was felicitated by Suman Rokade, a resident of the settlement and the vote of thanks was given by Mrs. Lata Shrikhande.