KC College students construct 107 toilets for Karvale villagers

With an aim to make Karvale village near Saphale, in Palghar district of Maharashtra, free from open defecation, students from the National Service Scheme (NSS) unit of Kishinchand Chellaram College of Arts, Commerec and Science (KC) constructed over 107 toilets for the villagers.

The initiative was undertaken in 2005 by constructing a single toilet. Over the years, students created awareness about sanitation and health among the villagers, and successfully built over 107 toilets.

For the past six months, over 300 student volunteers from the NSS unit have been visiting the village at least once in a week to complete the toilet construction work.

“I never thought that I will be participating in an intiative to build a toilet for the villagers. It has been a good experience how the villagers themselves helped us construct toilets from them. There are more than 100 families residing in that village and we have built one toilet per family. We are happy to see that we are able to provide basic necessities to the villagers,” said, Prasheel Nair 18, a first year student.

From a mere three per cent sanitary facilities in 2005 to 78 per cent by end of December 2016.

To support the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ announced by the Prime Minister, principal Manju Nichani along with NSS Programme officer Dr Satish Kolte decided to set a goal of providing sanitary facilities to all families of the adopted village by end of December 2016. The initiative received a huge financial support from renowned builder Niranjan Hiranandani.