In a unique initiative promoting sanitation, brothers in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi district offered toilets as gift to their sisters on Raksha Bandha this year. The programme "Anokhi Amethi Ka Anokha Bhai" saw over 850 men registering themselves, of which over 400 finished the toilet on time before the festival.
The campaign was launched to create awareness about sanitation and move towards making the district open defecation free. The campaign was launched by the Zila Swachchhata Samiti (district committee for sanitation) which comprises the district magistrate, chief development officer and the DPRO.
The toilets were constructed by the registered brothers with their own resources but the district administration gave away prizes on successful completion of the toilets. Cash prizes of upto Rs 50,000 and mobiles were given to three lucky draw winners at a district-level programme.
The construction of toilets were checked and verified by a team of officials before prize distribution.