Meet Komal Hadala, who single-handedly made her village open defecation free
The 21-year-old has helped build around 250 toilets and this has resulted in her village, Nithora, Uttar Pradesh, achieving open defecation-free status.
Open defecation is still practised in some rural and slum areas of the country. Despite the central government’s initiative, like Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, many places in India are still not open defecation-free.
Twenty-one-year-old Komal Hadala, has helped build 250 toilets in two years in her village, Nithora in Uttar Pradesh, that has now been declared open-defecation free.
However, it wasn’t easy convincing people and breaking stereotypes for this newly-married women.
Komal Hadala (Image: The Guardian)
Speaking with The Better India, Komal said,
“The task was inherently difficult. Sometimes the people would scold us. Sometimes they would scoff and scorn at us for being ‘jobless’. Often they would misbehave and taunt us as well.”
The mission to make the village open defecation-free started when Komal, who was born and raised in Delhi got married in 2017. Having grown up in the city, she never witnessed a home without a toilet, but when she got married and moved to Nithora, she was asked to accompany the other women to relieve herself in the outdoors.
Komal said, “We would walk in groups for kilometres to find a secluded place. Men would jeer at us, and sometimes, farmers would shoo us away from near their lands. It was extremely embarrassing”, reports The Better India.
Soon, Komal, who was repulsed by the idea, took matters into her own hands and spoke up against this practice.
Image: The Guardian
Before she could reach out to the people of the village, Komal approached her in-laws and husband who provided complete support. Later, she was joined by a few village women who supported her, when she went to the village head to ask for new toilets to be built.
With support from a few farmers, and the government, Komal got the funds to build toilets. “We were used to going to the fields since our birth. How would that change in a day? It took time, but the scenario eventually changed,” Komal told Indian Women Blog.
Now, Komal is a member of a government-run ODF initiative called Nigrani Samiti. The social crusader was also appreciated by the Norwegian PM Erna Solberg in 2019.
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