The young people of Shikdamakha in Assam didn’t wait for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to set standards in sanitation, which has today resulted in the village being one of the cleanest in the entire country.
Most people in the sleepy village of Shikdamakha, some 100km from state capital Guwahati, haven’t heard of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the central government’s flagship water and sanitation program. But it doesn’t matter for the 89 households in the hamlet nestled in the hills of Karbi Anglong because the youth in the community have already taken strong action to keep the village clean.
This was made evident when the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation published a Village Cleanliness Index. Shikdamakha earned the maximum points in the cleanliness sub-index of the national gauge. The cleanliness drive was started in the predominantly Tiwa village four years before the launching of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015. It was the youth of the village who motivated the rest and conducted cleanliness competitions among the households on Christmas, which helped them to get their entire area clean.
“It was in 2010 when we first started the cleanliness drives. There was a weekly market in the nearby area and mounds of organic and inorganic waste left behind after every market day before Christmas celebrations annoyed the villagers,” Elvin Phangcho, a schoolteacher and member of Saint Anthony Youth Association (SAYA), told VillageSquare.in. “To get rid of this, sub-committees were formed to maintain cleanliness.”
Following this, SAYA conducted a competition among the villagers on cleanliness. “We thought we’d motivate the villagers by conducting a competition. It yielded good results. People got engaged and cleanliness has become a way of life for the village,” Phangcho said.
The villagers make bamboo baskets and place these in front of their houses and on the roadside. They also make it a habit of sweeping the roads thrice a week. Both men and women take part in the community cleaning drive.
“Now, people from all families come out and join in the community cleanliness drives such as sweeping roads. As we do it regularly, we hardly find any dirt on the roads,” said Holvis Maslai, a village elder.
The village was established in 1953. “Our ancestors say that it was a place full of fear. Shikdamakha means trap of hillocks. There were beliefs that ghosts used to catch humans here by laying traps on the hillocks,” Maslai said.
The village has also earned the coveted open defecation free (ODF) status recently. District Nodal officer (DNO) Morning K. Phangcho said that it was the effort of the villagers that was responsible for the accolade. “The credit goes to the villagers for being so conscious about cleanliness,” said Phangcho.
The villagers also advocate a plastic-free way of life. The local vegetable sellers and other traders do not use plastic bags. Phangcho said that if some outsiders use plastic bags, the villagers ask that person to immediately dump it in a particular place.
Phangcho, who is an engineer with the public health engineering department, said that for making the village ODF, the department has helped the villagers in getting proper sanitation systems.
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