In the next few days, the parents of as many as 250 girl students in Karnataka’s Belagavi will find a letter posted to them, written by their own children.
The letter intends to address a long-standing issue of Nandgaon village- open defecation.
250 girl students of Government Primary Girls' Schoolin Gokak taluk wrote to their parents asking to be provided with toilets, reports Ravindra Uppar for The Times of India.
In their letters that they posted from the Nandgaon post office on Monday, the girls pointed out the risks involved with open defecation.
Speaking about how venturing out late in the night to relieve themselves often sends shivers down their spines, the girls also pointed out that the practice hurt their self-respect too.
School headmaster BH Kolakar feels that the children can play a crucial role in convincing their parents to build toilets at home, which is in tune with the Clean India campaign.
For Gokak's block education officer GB Balagar, the girl students have shown an innovative way to spread awareness about hygiene among the public.
“We will take this idea to all primary and high schools in our purview. There are 281 government primary and high schools in our range, and the initiative is being taken to all the schools. There are 52,217 students studying in these schools," Balagar told TOI.
The school has also urged the parents who have already built toilets at their homes, to write to the school explaining what motivated them to do so.