Pipersenia: Focus should be on behavioural aspect

Swachhathon 1.0 in the city

GUWAHATI, Aug 22: The Curtain Raiser of Swachhathon 1.0, organized by Mission Directorate Swachh Bharat Gramin (Assam), took place in the city on Tuesday.

The event held at Assam Administrative Staff College, Khapara was organized with the objective to crowd source ideas for some of the pressing problems related to Sanitation and Hygiene in Assam. The event started with the lamp lighting ceremony by PHED Additiol Chief Secretary V B Pyarelal in presence of SBM (G) Mission Director Siddharth Singh, State Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia and others.

The state-level event received 98 participations from all over Assam who had been selected after the Swachhathon 1.0 contest at the district level. Participants presented innovative, novel and viable solutions on various topics such as Monitoring Usage of Toilets, Triggering Behaviour Change, Toilet Technologies in Difficult Terrains, Working Solutions for Maintence and Operations of School Toilets, Technological Solutions for Safe Disposal of Menstrual Waste and Solution for Early Decomposition of Fecal Matter.

Swachh Bharat Mission (G) Mission Director Siddharth Singh said: “Swacchathon 1.0 is an initiative to bring different innovative ideas in order to make Assam an ODF state within this year. I am glad to announce that our target was to provide sanitation facilities to 8.5 lakh families, but we have already exceeded our target by providing all the facilities to 10.4 lakh families.”

Additiol Chief Secretary VB Pyarelal said: “I hope this initiative will be able to give a sustaible solution to make Assam ODF by the estimated time frame. For achieving our goals, it is not sufficient to construct the toilets only; we also need to create awareness on its use and maintence actively.”

On the occasion, Pipersenia launched the trailer of a movie called ‘Ajanite Mone Mone’ based on Swacchta produced by Swachh Bharat Mission and directed by Upakul Bardoloi. This movie is scheduled to be released on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2. On concluding the event, he said, “I think we still have a long way to go. Just by building toilets and talking about it won’t make us reach our goals. We need to focus on combating behavioural and psychological aspects as well.”