In the erstwhile village of dreampur, the young babli woke up with
a start, scratching her head the young 8 year old wondered, "hmmm, another
bad dream let me get up only, I have to go to school on time today and then
there is a battle to be fought". The dawn was in its full swing outside
but the night slumber had still enveloped everybody but a determined babli had
got up.
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| Image source: www.domex.in- Toilet for babli initiative |
Quietly she took her bucket and filled it with half water and then
got out of the house, quietly closing the door behind but her mother's ever
sharp ears even noticed that quiet sound, "babli where are you going? its
still night..come back and sleep.", she whispered, "ma, you know na,
the battle that has to be fought, and I need to go for everything to be good
today.", with a sigh her mother woke up, “yes beta I know” she kissed her
forehead, “go safely and come back I will wait for you” and then she cried
hugging her, thinking of the young girl next door who had just died yesterday
after she lost the battle.
And babli then started on her path, aiming for nothing but victory
today. She had only gone about 200 steps, when that nasty, weird uncle leered
towards her, “babli beta come here, I will give you sweets where are you going?”,
but she just ran ahead along with water droplets trailing her hastened path.
She stopped only when she reached the field, the open field that
had claimed her friend lata’s life, she shed a tear in her memory but had to
quickly move on for the smell of the open defecations nauseated her, seeing her
like this the young boys from her village laughed at her, “ohhh look at babli
she will just vomit, why babli you don’t like this smell?” they teased her and
she ran again to escape them.
Half an hour had passed and she looked at the sky, anytime the sun
will rise in the full swing and then she will lose the battle, timing was very
critical, she reminded herself and stopped crying. After another 10 minutes of
walking she finally found a nice big bush from where you could not see anything
of the other side, she smiled for the first time and set out to check the
backside.
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| Image source: www.colorsmagazine.com |
But she was disappointed, some animals had already defecated there
and now there were insects and flies on it, she looked at sky worryingly again
and decided she doesn’t has time or energy to look for any other hiding place
for her battle and she decided to start at this place only.
Closing her nose and crying she found a vacant spot and sat there
for her battle, battle to do a daily chore, defecation in open, she did it
looked around if anybody else was there and washed herself, suddenly a big
shadow loomed over her. “what do you think girl? This is your father’s property
huh? You will do anything you want huh? And without even listening to her he
hit her with his lathi and left her bleeding from head.
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| Image source: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/10/08/why-many-indians-cant-stand-to-use-the-toilet/ |
Somehow she reached home crying, with her tears mixed with blood
from her forehead, her mother ran out to see what had happened, she only said, “I
lost ma, another day of battle, I am tired ma now like you I will also only go
in night” and with that she surrendered to days of stomach pain, illness since
she could not defecate every morning only when its night that too dodging all
the threats that loomed and getting infected every day or so with numerous
diseases that flies bought along.
Can we help babli win this battle every day? Yes we can, its time
young girls and boys in India defecate in toilet and not fight a battle
everyday and domex is helping us do our bit for the same. You can start by clicking at:
With every click domex contributes Rs.5 for
making villages open defecation free!!
You can bring about the change in the lives of millions of kids, show your support for the Domex Initiative. All you need to do is “click” on the “Contribute Tab” on www.domex.in and Domex will contribute Rs.5 on your behalf to eradicate open defecation, thereby helping kids like Babli live a dignified life.
Let’s save all the bablis and latas from this inhuman condition! Let’s
have our villages open defecation free!
This post is a part of Indiblogger in
association with Domex- Toilet for Babli initiative
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