Tamil Nadu - Nagapattinam   

Beauty contest for toilets

NAGAPATTINAM: For the second consecutive year, a beauty contest for toilets would be held in the tsunami-hit Kameshwaram coastal village in the district in December as a sequel to the success of the first toilet beauty contest held in the country here last year.

Dr. Shyama V. Ramani, Director, Friends-In-Need (FIN), an NGO based in Reims, France, who sponsored the toilet beauty contest last year, said that sanitation was a hush-hush subject and it was necessary to explore innovative schemes to motivate both men and women to value and use toilets.

She said that she had sponsored the first toilet beauty contest in collaboration with the Society for Community Organisation and People’s Education (SCOPE) of Tiruchi.

It created a big stir in the sanitation field both in India and abroad as it succeeded in elevating the status of the toilet to an installation that could add to the pride and the revenue of a family. Not surprisingly, it motivated 250 more families to construct Ecosan toilets.

There will be three first prizes of Rs.5,000 each for proper usage and maintenance of the toilets, for the best use of urine and compost for raising a kitchen garden and for innovative additions inside and outside the toilets to make toilets beautiful and attractive. Second and third prizes of Rs.2,000 and Rs.1,000 will be awarded in each category and mementoes will be given to all participants.

M. Subburaman, Director SCOPE and coordinator for the contest, said that the toilet beauty contest would give full three months for the families to make their entries prize worthy. He pointed out that Ecosan was the best toilet model for tsunami-hit high water table coastal areas.

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Beauty contest for toilets

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