Protsahan with support from LMB Productions and in collaboration with UNICEF India, worked with children in Pune to spread awareness on the issue of Open Defecation (OD) and make India OD-free.
“The community toilets in our slum clusters are not clean at all. They are extremely dirty with flies hovering around. Didi, we should together create a film to teach the community about the menace of dirty toilets. It will be so much fun!”
– Geeta, an 11-year-old girl from the community. This film eventually ended up in construction of 18 community toilets in a radius of 10 KMs, all advocated by children and young girls.
Over a billion people worldwide defecate in the open. This amounts to almost one in five people in developing countries not using any toilet facilities. In India, the figures are even more shocking. The discussion on Open Defecation was tackled through the innovative ‘understanding by doing’ method which was a precursor to the film-making process. The film’s script, shooting, and presentation were all led by the children themselves while creatively interacting with over 3,000 community dwellers as their audience.
