Kerala's first open-defecation free panchayat: How Muhamma achieved it

In collaboration with the Swachch Bharat Mission, a brain child of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the panchayat has built toilets for all houses and institutions like government schools and anganavadi’s that fall under the jurisdiction of Muhamma panchayat.

Suchitwa Mission, a nodal agency for sanitation in Kerala also played an important role in implementing the project. The agency had undertaken a survey in which it was found that 281 households in the panchayat did not have toilet facilities. 

Speaking to The News Minute, panchayat president J Jayalal expressed his happiness over the achievement and said that the administration has built around 281 toilets for the houses that lacked sanitation facilities.

After inspection, the panchayat provided a total of Rs 13,500 for each house in the area that implemented the project. Of the total amount, Rs 10,000 was funded by the Suchitwa mission and Rs 3,500 by the panchayat.

“Some people just built toilets whereas some people opted for toilet combined with bathroom. The project was implemented properly and we will make sure that we maintain the status-quo through our continued efforts,” said Jayalal.

In an attempt to replicate the Muhamma model of success in every other panchayat of Kerala, a top Suchitwa Mission officer said that the agency has issued directives to every district administration asking them to work towards making Kerala an open-defecation free state byNovember 1. November 1 coincides with the Kerala Piravi day- the day on which the state of Kerala was formed. The agency has also made a proposal of Rs 113 crores to the central government for carrying out the initiative across the state. 

This is however not the first such achievement by the panchayat. In 2007, the panchayat was awarded the Nirmal Gram Puraskar by the central government for improving sanitation in the area. At that time, 50 percent of all households had toilets.