Come July, Rohtas will be officially declared Bihar's first open defecation-free district.

Rohtas district magistrate (DM) Animesh Kumar Parashar told The Telegraph on Thursday: "We will announce Rohtas open defecation-free in the next 15-20 days, as 80 per cent of the work has been completed. We will complete the remaining work within the stipulated time. Altogether, 160 out of 245 panchayats have been declared open defecation-free till now."

Parashar said 1.79 lakh toilets had already been constructed in the district in the past year.

Asked about the achievement, Parashar said: "We took open defecation-free as a mass and a social movement focussing on behavioural patterns. "This collective behavioural change was the result of community participation," he said, adding: "Our focus is not only to construct toilets but also to ensure a village open defection-free through collective behavioural change."

"Sanjhauli was made open defecation-free in 55 days only. Over 6,000 families have built toilets in 64 villages spanning six gram panchayats in Sanjhauli," Parashar said. He added that a district-wide campaign, Mission Pratistha, had been launched in June 2016 to make the district open defection-free in a time-bound manner.

The DM said: "Our next target is to make Rohtas clean and green with projects being readied at the panchayat-level to make the district a green zone area."

MNREGA functionaries are being engaged in the green cover project, Parashar said, and added: "Every panchayat has been asked to make a detailed project in this regard."

Incidentally, Sanjhauli in Rohtas district was named the first open defecation-free block in the state under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan last year. The district had hit the headlines earlier after a woman, Phool Kumari, mortgaged her mangalsutra to raise money to build a toilet at home. Impressed by her work, Rohtas DM Parashar had made Phool Kumari the brand ambassador of the total sanitation programme in the district.

The Bihar government has set an ambitious target to make the state open defecation-free by 2019. "It will provide assistance of Rs 12,000 to each above poverty line family under Lohia Swachh Bihar Abhiyan for construction of toilets to make the state open defecation-free by 2019," rural development minister Shrawan Kumar had informed the state Legislative Assembly in March this year.

The minister had said a staggering 1.60 crore of 2.13 crore families residing in rural areas did not have toilets in their houses and added that the state government will expedite toilet construction by involving elected representatives of panchayats and zila parishads. He had then said 526 gram panchayats and over 3,000 villages in Bihar had been made open defecation-free.

Local residents, especially women, driving the change for health and sanitation, also made a big contribution towards Rohtas's success story.

"We stand up to two hours near the fields to stop those who defecate in the open and persuade them to change this habit," said a resident of Attimi village in Nasriganj block of Rohtas district. "Our efforts made them change their habits," she said with a sense of pride.