Jageer Singh, the pradhan of the dominant Rai Sikh community, says, вЂњWe were successful in changing mindsets unlike our neighbouring villages. PremoвЂ™s is among the 100-odd Rai Sikh families in Theri Mor Singh.ДЄt Dhani Satnam Singh village, barely 5 km away for example, people who initially used dry single- or double-pit toilets upgraded to ones with septic tanks on their own. The main challenge were the migrants and lower-caste Sikhs and Dalits,вЂќ says Sukhwinder Singh, consultant, DRDA. We had one belt of Rajasthani Chaudharies, another of Sikhs of upper castes. вЂњWhen we started, 70 per cent of the population was already using some form of toilets. Officials say the demographics of Sirsa helped achieve the initial success. New beneficiaries have emerged.вЂќ From 500-odd volunteers, the programme is down to 14 вЂњpaid motivatorsвЂќ in the district. The last survey to identify BPL families eligible for toilets was in 2010. But we havenвЂ™t been given funds for follow-up surveys. Says Indraj Singh, NBA project director for Haryana, вЂњThe true test of a sanitation campaign is the practice sustaining in the village. In the next three years, 283 of the 334 villages of Sirsa district got the award, which came with funds between Rs 25,000 and Rs 5 lakh depending on their population, to improve sanitation further.ДRDA authorities say cracks emerged soon after the government withdrew from the villages. Ther Mor Singh village won the Nirmal Gram Puraskar in 2008 for вЂeliminating open defecationвЂ™. Now we have to go to a canal 3 km away.вЂќДЄpart from whistling at defecators to shame them, the sanitation drive used measures such as mixing a glass of water with real faeces to tell villagers that the water they drank was similarly contaminated, and involving women and children as volunteers. Instead, the landowning farmers became so вЂmodernвЂ™, they donвЂ™t allow us into their fields anymore. вЂњIn 2007-08, the pradhan would come with the district authorities everyday and promised us the first government toilets if we motivated others to stop going to the fields.

The expert opinion is that once initiated into using toilets, households do not go back to defecating in the open. His wife Najab Bai, 70, is back defecating in the open. Today she goes to the fields to relieve herself, with Premo accompanying her for security.

She dropped out of school three years ago after Class VI to help at home. PremoвЂ™s daughter who accompanied her during patrols as a swachhata doot is now 15. A BPL-card holder who was identified in 2010 as among those entitled to a Rs 9,100 subsidy to build a toilet at home, she is still waiting for her funds. Those heady first days of the sanitation effort, however, are already long behind Premo. In the 2011 census, 87 per cent of the population in Sirsa was registered to be using toilets, the highest for a district in the country. Starting October 2007, the Sirsa District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) adopted this вЂњshamingвЂќ strategy among other measures as part of the UPA governmentвЂ™s Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) to achieve total sanitation. He cursed her, Premo says, but promised never to defecate in the open again. Putting her own embarrassment aside, she continued trailing him, firmly blowing her whistle every time Singh attempted to sit down. She gave in, but on the third day, she did not relent. It was the same the next day, with the old man begging her to let him be. I followed him to the fields and whistled every time he would start squatting to defecate,вЂќ Premo recalls, to giggles from the crowd around her. вЂњI remember the first time I found him, it was 5 am, around the time our daily patrolling would start.

There was this old man in her village, Ratan Singh. She wore it on a red thread around her neck. Six years ago, Premo Bai of village Theri Mor Singh was given a вЂњlal seeti (red whistle)вЂќ as a вЂњswachhata doot (community volunteer)вЂќ working on an intensive sanitation drive lasting two and a half months in Sirsa district.

Knee deep in the doot