Team Swachh Chhattisgarh felicitated by Delhi Daredevils and UNICEF

RAIPUR, 21st May 2016: A group of 30 young adolescent girls and boys from Rajnandagaon district of Chhattisgarh, were felicitated today by senior officials of the state government, the CEO of Delhi Daredevils team and UNICEF for their special feat in making their respective village’s open-defecation free.

These ‘Team Swachh’ champions also interacted with the members of Delhi Daredevils players. The interaction was held under the backdrop of the UNICEF and Delhi Daredevil’s joint initiative, ‘Dare to Care’, which urges Indian citizens and the large support base of Delhi Daredevils to advocate for the rights of adolescent girls, especially those who are excluded and marginalized.

Rahul Dravid, mentor Delhi Daredevils team, Imran Tahir, Mayank Aggarwal, Rishab Pant, J.P Duminy Hand commentator Ian Bishop shared cricketing experiences with the young boys and girls from Team Swacch. They also discussed the importance of separate toilets for girls in all schools, to E girls remain in school and don’t drop out.

Eighteen years old, Bharati who is a leader-champion, from Heeravahi village led the campaign by ensuring a toilet for every woman and girl of her village. Her inspiring story has highlighted the urgent need of toilets for women for their dignity and safety.

“Open defecation is not just only unhygienic, but unsafe for girls. We created awareness in our community about the need of building toilets through special projects. Today, while we have community toilets, people are making efforts to build private toilets as well,” she said.

According to Swachhta Status Report released by the National Sample Survey (NSS), more than half of the rural population in India still opts for open defecation. The survey estimates that 52.1 per cent of people in rural India choose open defecation as compared to 7.5 per cent in urban India.

Speaking to the media, Mr. M K Raut, Additional Chief Secretary, said, “I congratulate both Delhi Daredevils and UNICEF for the grand success of the initiative. I am confident, that our Team Swachh champions will help catalyse the larger public and create much-needed awareness on the importance of sanitation.” He added that the Govt has made significant strides in making the state free from open defecation, ensuring safety and dignity for women. At the time of launch of the SBM-G in 2014, we had only 20 ODF villages in Churiya block of Rajnandgaon to begin with. Our efforts have resulted in making 1850 villages open defecation free across the state.

Mr. Prasanta Dash, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Chhattisgarh, said, “UNICEF will continue to lend support to the state government in using Community Approaches to Total Sanitation (CATS) model to end open defecation with special focus on women and adolescent girls.”

Rahul Dravid said that through the ‘Dare to Care’ initiative with UNICEF, the team was successful in highlighting urgent issues of adolescents, particularly those related to education, child marriage, sanitation and participation. “I congratulate UNICEF and Government of Chhatisgarh for this fantastic campaign which talks about building toilets and impats so many lives especially the lives of the young girls, “he added.

Mr. Hemant Dua, CEO, Delhi Daredevils too lauded UNICEF’s efforts in engaging the adolescents. “I, along with my team, am proud to be associated with UNICEF and our collective ‘Dare to Care’ initiative. I am sure that the Team Swachh champions will help bowl out diseases from the lives of children,” he said.