“Shubrata” or Cleanliness in Telugu is a very successful campaign with people’s participation to construct over 1,00,000 pucca toilets in Nizamabad district, Telangana state (then Andhra Pradesh state), India in a period of just SIX MONTHS (from June to December) in the year 2002! It was much ahead of its time, many years ahead of the Swatch Bharat Mission (2014-2019) or even the Atal Nirmal Gram Yojana (2003) to push for permanent toilets in the rural areas of the country. It was a true people’s movement. People of the district were totally involved in this drive that no other programs mattered during that period. It was the main topic of discussion in every forum then.  Its foundation was the School Sanitation  Program, where 2- 5 toilets were built in each of the 1000 selected schools in the district, with the technical and partial fund support of UNICEF in 2001-02 period.  Toilet trained and used to children- mainly girls- were a great brand ambassadors and pushers for Shubrata-the house toilet program. G.Asok Kumar, the Collector who conceived, facilitated, and led the program played on the “Atma- Gaurava” or self-pride of women. He declared that he expected NO “guard of Honor”  from the women when his car passes through the village roads in the early morning or late evenings. (Women and children squatting on the roadsides for defecation get up and stand with the mug (lotta water)  in hand when any cars pass by!) When the toilet-drive got over in a year, more than 1,40,000 toilets- MANY of them as toilets with small bathing space attached- were built in the district with total participation of the beneficiaries- involving their physical labor as well as fiscal contributions . This ensured the appreciable usage of over 87% in a survey conducted by an independent agency some time later.

This drive to make over 1.4 lakh+  toilets along with the innovative  to form 1600 habitation drinking water committees  (then in 2001-02) ensured good health to the people of Nizamabad, which was a significant part of my declared resolve  “to improve the quality of life of the people of Nizamabad” during my tenure as Collector there. The diarrhea and GE cases plummeted from over 5000 to less than 200 in a year!

Good health, Good quality education (all children in school, no child labor in many mandals), and Good times--the Indur Utsavs; development of many tourism destinations (like Mallaram forest, Asok Sagar, Ali Sagar, Armoor Gutta etc ) and regular cultural programs for entertainment were the key elements which helped to improve the quality of life!

No wonder that the people have named a 200 acre lake in Nizamabad as Asok Sagar, which is a popular lake tourist destination even after about 2 decades now!