The ABCD Quiz To Sanitation
A district level quiz competition was organised primarily aiming to curb one of the grave concerns faced by our country – open defecation. Project ABCD (A Behavioral Change Demonstration), which is on the lines of the Swachha
Bharat campaign is reaching out to 164 schools in 120 villages in Magadi, Kanakapura and Ramanagara to create awareness and train teachers and children on the importance of sanitation and basic hygiene.
The quiz competition conducted at school and district levels was structured to check the awareness level on WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) amongst students. The district level quiz competition, which is the final leg of the program, had participation from 300 students from across 50 schools. The winners walked away with medals, certificates and gifts.
Project ABCD is being undertaken by Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM). They claim to have ensured 100% sanitation in 27 villages. Over one lakh people from rural India have been trained on sanitation through this program and motivated to construct household toilets. By the year 2016-17, the firm has set a target of 40 villages to become open defecation free in Karnataka.
“Educations is the best way to effectively bring in a constructive change in the society. Open defecation is a serious social challenge in India. Every year 200,000 children in India die from diseases caused by fecal contamination. We strongly believe that educating and motivating the villagers including children, parents and school teachers on the basics of hygiene and the importance of sanitation is necessary,” said Naveen Soni, Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.
The project mainly drives consciousness towards the use of toilets, which begins from the grassroots by identifying gaps that exists in the sanitation facilities in rural areas and bridge the gap with a widespread awareness drive. An interactive like quiz approach would help bringing a behavioral change in children furthering the change to adults.
This may contribute to reduce missing school hours. Earlier, adult girl children used to go to their home for toilet usage and miss classes leading to loss of about one to two hours of school. TKM claimed that with the implementation of the ABCD project, school missing hours have reduced to zero.
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