Swachh Shimoga

Last December, Mohan was ­thoroughly embarrassed when a few foreigners, who wanted to buy the terracotta pots and lamps he was selling, walked away in disgust from his shop because of the foul smell of urine. “There was no toilet in the area, so everyone would run behind their shops to answer nature’s call and the entire market would smell bad,” he says.

RC Shimoga, D 3180, along with RC West Springfield, D 7890, USA and TRF under a Matching Grant ­constructed two pay and use public toilet blocks at a cost of $33,870 in two localities. Now not just the atmosphere of the market has improved but “the ­number of footfalls to my shop has also improved,” adds Mohan.

PDG Dr P Narayana says the purpose of building these toilets was not just to curb the unhygienic practice but to help women working as sales girls in many of the shops in these places to defecate indoors in privacy.