From Shame to Pride – The Village that Chose Cleanliness

For years, the people of Bhagalpur’s small hamlet avoided talking about sanitation. Open defecation was routine, toilets were seen as unnecessary, even shameful. But when AIDENT facilitators began their community meetings under the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) model, everything started to shift.

Instead of building toilets for the villagers, AIDENT worked with them using discussions, maps, and self-assessment exercises to help communities see how open defecation was harming their children’s health and dignity. Once the realization sank in, change began from within.

Women’s groups took the lead, mobilizing families, training local masons, and pooling resources to build their own toilets. Within months, the entire village was declared Open Defecation Free (ODF). But what stayed behind was not just new toilets, it was new confidence.

“Now our daughters go to school without fear. Cleanliness has become our identity,” says Shanti Devi, one of the first volunteers.

Through hundreds of such villages across Jharkhand, Haryana, and Bihar, AIDENT has helped more than 15 lakh people adopt safe sanitation practices proving that real change comes when pride replaces shame.