ODF

"When I tried to convince the villagers about toilets, sometimes they would scoff and scorn at me for being ‘jobless’. Often men would misbehave and taunt as well."

Over 16,000 community soak pits built. Houses in all 263 villages have individual toilets. Over 1 lakh trees planted across 400 acres. And the entire district is open-drainage free, which means no open sewerage anywhere! #ImpactThatMatters #IAS #Governance

It was not just the construction of these toilets that made him a hero but his patience and perseverance in persuading the villagers, who seemed to be against it.

A 2012 batch IAS officer, Dharma Reddy took charge as the collector of Medak in March this year. Soon after he was posted, he established direct contact with the people of his district.

The state must now work towards maintaining their ODF status and end the possibility of open defecation in the future.

Part of the Swachh Bharat mission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has issued an official document that mandates all state mission directors and municipal commissioners to identify public and community toilets in their jurisdiction and allocate these with unique Identification numbers.

These villagers braved death threats, vigilantly drove open defecators away at four in the morning, achieved ODF and are now using human excreta as manure.