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UNICEF team visits Belapu

Belapu (Udupi District): A team of 17 members from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), representing countries such as Djibouti, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Sudan, Indonesia, and Nigeria, visited Belapu Gram Panchayat on Tuesday to study the Total Sanitation Campaign being implemented there.

The officials of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat informed the team that the population of Belapu was 3,684 comprising 1,934 women and 1,741 men. Among them, 276 persons belonged to Scheduled Caste and 11 Scheduled Tribe communities.

Of the 728 families in the village, 381 were living below the poverty line and 349 above the poverty line. The literacy rate in the gram panchayat was 92 per cent, the officials said.

The Total Sanitation Campaign was launched in Udupi district on October 2, 2005. The self-help groups, the NCC, and the NSS were involved in creating public awareness on sanitation. The campaigns on cleanliness were held in schools of the gram panchayat.

Various street plays were staged to convey the importance of health and sanitation to the people. Low cost toilets were constructed for the people who had no toilets. A subsidy of Rs. 1,200 each was given to families living below poverty line for the construction of low cost toilets. Families living above poverty line were encouraged to construct low cost toilets. Toilets were constructed at schools and anganwadis, they said.

To ensure continuity of the practices for total sanitation, the gram panchayat members were given the responsibility of supervising cleanliness in their wards. The self-help groups were asked to keep vigil, they said.

Deviprasad Shetty, president of the gram panchayat, said he had received the Nirmal Gram Puraskar from the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Various schemes such as Ambedkar Yojana, Ashraya Housing Scheme, and Swajaladhara were being implemented.

Renu Gera, UNICEF representative from Karnataka, was present.

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