Rural Sanitation

The district of Cooch Behar was selected for the implementation of Total Sanitation Campaign with effect from 2002-03. The basic aim of the TSC project is to provide accessibility to Sanitary facilities to each and every household. For this purpose, each and every house hold in the district is being persuaded or encouraged to use and maintain a IHL. The BPL house holds are provided with 75% subsidy to construct such IHL.

Second, important component of the TSC is the School Sanitation programme including that for the AWCs and other such institutions. Here the aim is to inculcate hygiene and sanitary habits among school children. This also helps in the retention of the girl children in our schools and ultimately the school children acts as “Messengers of Sanitation” for the community.

Similarly the project also provides for installation of community run toilet blocks in important public places like rural hats, market places, highways etc.

The overall ultimate aim is the 100% stoppage of open defecations throughout the district, to develop sanitary and hygienic habits and cleanliness among the masses and to make the district Nirmal District or fully Sanitized District in the long run.

So far one Panchayat Samiti namely Mathabhanga-II and 29 Garam Panchayat of the District has been awarded with Nirmal Gram Purashkar by the Govt. of India for the effective implementation of the total sanitation programme. For the year 2009-10 sixty numbers of Gram Panchayat and two numbers of Panchayat Samities have been proposed for moving the GOI for Nirmal Gram Purashkar.