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Open defecation is now a thing of past in Bangladesh

Bormi (Bangladesh) - Through a dogged campaign to build toilets and educate Bangladeshis about the dangers of open defecation, the densely populated South Asian nation has managed to reduce the number of people who defecate in the open to just 1 percent of the 166 million population, according to the government - down from 42 per cent in 2003.

Answering nature's call was once a nightmare for Rashida Begum, who had to creep around the jungle for a suitably private spot. Her home had no toilet, like the thousands of others in her crowded cluster of farming villages outside the capital.
In just over a decade, that's all changed, in her neighborhood and many others.
Through a dogged campaign to build toilets and educate Bangladeshis about the dangers of open defecation, the densely populated South Asian nation has managed to reduce the number of people who defecate in the open to just 1 percent of the 166 million population, according to the government - down from 42 per cent in 2003.
"Once it was our habit to go to the fields or jungles. Now, it is shameful to us," Begum said in Bormi, a cluster of poor farming villages just outside Dhaka, the capital. "Even our children do not defecate openly anymore. We do not need to ask them; they do it on their own."
Bangladesh's success in sanitation - something so far unattained by its wealthier neighbor to the south, India - came from a dogged campaign supported by 25 percent of the country's overall development budget.   "The government has made a huge commitment," said Akramul Islam, director for water, sanitation and hygiene of the development NGO Brac. "The government decided that funds should go to the extreme poor who do not have latrines. So that basically gives a big push from the public sector for spending on sanitation."
The government's engineers also partnered with village councils and charities to spread the message on how toilets are key to better health. Rising incomes - moving from an average of $1,154 in 2012-13 to $1,314 in the last fiscal year, according to the World Bank - also helped to drive demand, Islam said. 

Sanitation victory at a cost

• Bangladesh's sanitation victory didn't come easy. Millions of dollars from the government and charities were spent
• Many villagers - particularly men - preferred going outdoors, where they could think in private, survey their lands or just feel the evening breeze or gaze at the sky
• For women having no toilet was both a nuisance and a danger, as many said they had to wait for nightfall for privacy
• Back in 2008, most people in Bormi had no choice but to use the surrounding forests to defecate.