New Delhi: Inspirations are many, from murals to local art and to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) itself – be it the logo or messages that encapsulate the theme of the campaign. The canvas – walls of toilets. The objective to beautify the toilets is to participate in the ‘Swachh Sundar Shauchalaya Contest’ (clean beautiful toilet contest). But district authorities of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh decided to think differently. Each village in the district adopted a distinct theme for decorating their toilets. For instance, Kolamai village of Firozabad District chose to depict United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
From goals like ‘good health and well-being’, ‘clean water and sanitation’ to ‘affordable and clean energy’, each toilet in Kolamai village picked one of the 17 goals to adorn the walls of the toilets. This way, of the total 158 individual household toilets in the village, 83 have been painted and 75 are still being beautified.
One of the toilets in the village depicting goal of ‘climate action’
Talking about the reason behind depicting SDGs, Neha Sharma, District Magistrate, Firozabad, says,
The SDG theme has been envisaged with the objective of bringing a pictorial communication between the apex agency on sustainable development that is the United Nations and the last villages in the rural hinterlands of Firozabad District, Uttar Pradesh. Every toilet evokes a sentiment of sustaining sanitation through these 17 SDGs.
Taking inspiration from hand painted movie posters, toilets in Tundla Kham village have been beautified, with a filmy twist to the swachh theme. Each toilet has an image of a Bollywood star with dialogues like Shah Rukh ke fan toilet use karte hai’ (Shah Rukh’s fans use Toilets), ‘Save your conscience, adopt toilets’, and others.
Firozabad Bollywood Theme TOILETS painted- Swachh Sundar Shauchalay Campaign #MyIzzatGhar @swachhbharat @paramiyer_ @YUGALJOSHI @mahimavashisht @anandshekhar73 @anooptripathi12 @firozabaddm @nehajainias @sbmgup @akshaykumar @BeingSalmanKhan @iamsrk @SrBachchan pic.twitter.com/epbfmGSWDk
— Swachh Firozabad (@SwachhFirozabad) January 21, 2019
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Explaining the reason behind choosing Bollywood theme to promote toilet usage, Neha Sharma says,
Imagine your favorite Bollywood star asking you to you use a toilet, will you say no? I guess not. We are trying to strike a similar chord with villagers. Also, actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and others are often seen promoting toilet usage, being brand ambassadors of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign.
To give a rich new look to toilets in other villages, the district administration has resorted to cultural wealth like Warli painting from Maharashtra, Madhubani from Bihar, Thanjavur painting from South India and Alpana from West Bengal.
Our aim is to not just revamp and redecorate toilets, but also create awareness about some or the other things including sanitation, says Neha Sharma.
Warli painting from Maharashtra giving a new look to toilets in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad
Swachh Sundar Shauchalaya Contest
‘Swachh Sundar Shauchalaya Contest’ (Clean Beautiful Toilet Contest) instituted by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MoDW&S) aims at promoting toilet usage and mobilising rural households to beautify their toilets. A month long contest that kick-started on January 1 encourages households in every district, village, and block of India to decorate their toilets and compete to secure the top position.
Participants can share pictures of their beautified toilets on social media – twitter and facebook, with the hashtag #MyIzzatGhar and motivate others to do the same.
So far the contest has witnessed over 50 lakh toilets being decorated with messages of Swachhata (cleanliness).
Also Read: Beautify Your Toilets And Stand A Chance To Win Swachh Sundar Shauchalaya Contest
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
