In order to sensitise people towards health and hygiene, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Government of Bihar, WaterAid and UNICEF have taken up a month long Gram Gaurav Yatra to promote sanitation in Bihar. PHED Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey announced the launch of Bihar Gram Gaurav Rath Yatra on January 28 that embarked on a Movement towards the noble mission of restoring human dignity and the self-esteem of rural Indians through the "GRAM GAURAV YATRA".

The yatra was flagged off by State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on January 28 from Rajgir in Nalanda district. During the rath yatra, which would continue till February 28 departmental secretaries and officers would travel to different places in the state to sensitise people. WaterAid India as a lead organization in this initative has developed IEC materials for raising awareness which where launched during the inauguration of the campaign. His Excellency, Governor of Bihar shall inaugurate the second phase of Yatra on 1s February and Hon'ble Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Raghuvansh Prasad Singh will join the yatra on 11th at Vaishali.

A new scheme "Jal Mani" was launched on the occasion that is aimed at providing quality water to children in schools. Filters are being provided under this scheme to schools that are capable of removing not only bacteriological contamination but also chemical contamination like Fluoride and arsenic. We shall study them in detail and share. Bihar has to create around 1.12 crore household toilets to achieve the targets set for universal coverage by 2012. So far it has been able to complete only 20 lakh toilets and hence has a long road to travel. At the launch of the event Mr Choubey (Minister PHED) said one crore 13 lakh toilets would be constructed till 2012 all over the State for the making of Nirmal (clean) Bihar. Mr. Anand Shekhar the Regional Manager of WaterAid India said that the yatra is a giant leap towards mobilizing communities for collective action so that a seemingly distant dream of making Bihar open defecation free is achieved. On 29 January there will be "shram daan" (Voluntary work) and Minister and the team will be accompanied by a team of masons and animators, with materials to construct toilets. The idea is to motivate large number of people to adopt toilets. Download the document here:Gram Gaurav Yatra