S Damodaran (born 12 March 1962) is the founder of the NGO Gramalaya , based in Tiruchirappalli. Gramalaya, established in 1987, was initially focused on the economic improvement of rural people. Later, realizing that the more urgent and immediate concern is the unavailability of clean drinking water and toilet facilities, the NGO shifted their focus to water and sanitation. Gramalaya aims to eradicate open defecation by providing eco-friendly toilets. Gramalaya is now an important resource center of the Ministry of Jalshakti, Govt. of India. The NGO has been functioning with the support of Government, donors and corporate groups under CSR initiatives. [1] It was Gramalaya's efforts that helped transform the Thandavampatti village in Tiruchy into the first open-defecation free village in India in 2003. [2]
Damodaran secured a BA degree in Corporate Secretaryship in 1984, MCom degree in 1986 and MBA in Project Management in 2011. [3]
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order ... without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex." The award criteria include "service in any field including service rendered by Government servants" including doctors and scientists, but exclude those working with the public sector undertakings. As of 2020, the award has been bestowed on 1270 individuals, including twenty-four posthumous and ninety-seven non-citizen recipients.
WaterAid is an international non-governmental organization, focused on water, sanitation and hygiene. It was set up in 1981 as a response to the UN International Drinking Water decade (1981–1990). As of 2018, it was operating in 34 countries.
Community-led total sanitation (CLTS): is an approach used mainly in developing countries to improve sanitation and hygiene practices in a community. The approach tries to achieve behavior change in mainly rural people by a process of "triggering", leading to spontaneous and long-term abandonment of open defecation practices. It focuses on spontaneous and long-lasting behavior change of an entire community. The term "triggering" is central to the CLTS process: it refers to ways of igniting community interest in ending open defecation, usually by building simple toilets, such as pit latrines. CLTS involves actions leading to increased self-respect and pride in one's community. It also involves shame and disgust about one's own open defecation behaviors. CLTS takes an approach to rural sanitation that works without hardware subsidies and that facilitates communities to recognize the problem of open defecation and take collective action to clean up and become "open defecation free".
In 2020, 97.7% of Indians had access to the basic water and sanitation facilities. India faces challenges ranging from sourcing water for its megacities to its distribution network which is intermittent in rural areas with continuous distribution networks just beginning to emerge. Non-revenue water is a challenge.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation was a ministry of the Government of India formed in 2011. From May 2019, the ministry has been merged with the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outside rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do not have a toilet readily accessible or due to archaic traditional cultural practices. The practice is common where sanitation infrastructure and services are not available. Even if toilets are available, behavior change efforts may still be needed to promote the use of toilets. 'Open defecation free' (ODF) is a term used to describe communities that have shifted to using toilets instead of open defecation. This can happen, for example, after community-led total sanitation programs have been implemented.
Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India on 2 October 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management and to create Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages. The program also aims to increase awareness of menstrual health management. It is a restructured version of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan which was launched by the Congress in 2009.
Gutta Muniratnam was an Indian social worker, a member of the National Planning Commission of India and the founder of Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS), a non governmental organization engaged in the social welfare activities in over 2500 socio-economically backward villages in the Rayalaseema region, spread across the present day states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He was honored by the Government of India, in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
This is a list of Indian states and territories by the percentage of households which are open defecation free, that is those that have access to sanitation facilities, in both urban and rural areas along with data from the Swachh Bharat Mission, National Family Health Survey, and the National Sample Survey. The reliability of this information can be questioned, as it has been observed that there is still open defecation in some states claimed "ODF".
Suhas Vitthal Mapuskar was an Indian physician and social activist who was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India posthumously in 2017. He had received the Nirmal Gram Award from late President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in 2006. He dedicated his life to make Dehu village open defecation free beginning as early as in the 1960s. He is known for his work in the field of rural sanitation in Maharashtra.
Parameswaran Iyer is an Indian civil servant and the former CEO of NITI Aayog. He is currently serving as India's nominee as an Executive director in World Bank.
Marachi Subburaman is a social worker who is rendering services related to eco-friendly sanitation and water conservation for rural areas in India through a Non-governmental organization viz Society for Community Organisation and People’s Education (SCOPE) based in Trichy, Tamil Nadu founded and run by him. His contribution to the field of sanitation was recognized nationally and towards the social service he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in 2021.
Om Prakash Gandhi is a social worker from the Indian State of Haryana dedicated to the cause of girl child education.
Narasingha Prasad Guru is an author and a lyricist from the Indian State of Odisha. He is a pioneer and a promoter of the Koshali language, also known as the Sambalpuri language, which is a language spoken in the western parts of Odisha. He has composed over 10 books in this language and composed around 500 songs. He has also compiled a dictionary of the Koshali language.
Thavil Kongampattu A V Murugaiyan is a thavil player from the Puducherry Union Territory in India.
R Muthukannammal is a seventh generation veteran Sadir dancer from the Indian State of Tamil Nadu. She is the only surviving person among the 32 Devadasis who served the deity at the Viralimalai Murugan temple and she is the last woman to have the ceremony pottukkattutal of dedicating oneself to God performed at the Viralimalai temple. In the year 2022, Govt of India honoured Muthukannammal by conferring the Padma Shri award for her contributions in the field of art. The dance form Sadir, variously called as Sadiraattam or Parathaiyar Aattam or Thevarattam, is a classical Indian dance from which was reinvented, modified and rechristened as Bharatanatyam through the efforts of E Krishna Iyer in 1932. However, Muthukannammal has chosen to call her art form Sadir, making her the only Sadir exponent today.
V L Nghaka is an academic from the Indian State of Mizoram known for his efforts for the propagation and development of the Hindi language in Mizoram. He authored the first Hind-Mizo dictionary and got it published in the year 1965. In the year 2022, Govt of India honoured V L Nghaka by conferring the Padma Shri award for his contributions to literature and education. As per his citation for Padma Shri award, "He built a cultural bridge between Hindi and Mizo language by drafting a Hindi-Mizo dictionary. As an interpreter, he was instrumental in bringing the government and Mizo people closer.”
Chirapat Prapandvidya is a Thai archaeologist, Sanskrit scholar and an Indologist. He was the founder and the first Director of Sanskrit Studies Centre at Silpakorn University in Bangkok. He has also published over a hundred articles on Sanskrit and Indology. In the year 2022, Govt of India honoured Chirapat Prapandvidya by conferring the Padma Shri award for his contributions to literature and education.
Sakini Ramachandraih was an Indian vocal folk singer and Dhol player from the Bhadradri town in the Telangana State in India. He was known for his expertise in "Kanchumelam-Kanchuthalam" an art form particularly identified with the Koya tribal community in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This art form is almost on the verge of extinction and Ramachandraih was the only surviving practitioner of the art who could narrate the history of the sacred festival "Sammakka Sarakka Jathara" in both the Telugu and Koya languages in its totality. In the year 2022, the Government of India honoured Ramachandraiah by conferring the Padma Shri award for his contributions to art.
Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai is a tribal social worker from Taparwada Village, Tapi district, Gujarat, India, known for her work in transforming several villages in Gujarat to open-defecation free villages. She is also known for her work for the empowerment of rural women by setting up a large number of self help groups of women. In the year 2022, the government of India honoured Gamit Ramilaben Raysingbhai by conferring the Padma Shri Award for her contribution to social work.