Salute this Forest Officer who built 497 Toilets in Kerala’s Tribal Colonies- let’s appreciate her

There is nothing in this world that can stop women from doing many many good things in life. They are bound to achieve at a very young age and also they are destined to get better and brighter when they become old. Would you possibly believe that a woman brought a drastic change to the state at the age of 50? She proved that age is just a number in today’s world.

To achieve phenomenal things in life, a strong vision with intensity, tenacity and will power is just enough to drive one forward.  P.G Sudha is not just a name but a countless of emotions that are pinned to it. That sums up the essential woman for you! The fact that P.G Sudha set herself as an epitome of sheer class is something that others are really proud of.

P.G Sudha, beat forest officer (Credits: SpeakingTree.in)

What makes her so special?

Hailing from Ernakulam district of Kerala, P.G Sudha is a potential beat forest officer by trait. She deserves a certificate of excellence for coming up with an initiative of building as many as 497 toilets in the tribal colonies of the Kuttampuzha forest in a bid to get rid of defecation. She chose this activity as her personal interest because she always wanted to make the environment neat and clean.

With grit and determination, the beat forest officer put in a hoard of efforts to bring a slight change. Much to her constant hard work, there came a fruitful news from Kerala Government as the state was declared open defecation free, making the third state to achieve this feat. The proud and belligerent woman won the Chief Minister’s Open Defecation Free campaign award on November 1, 2016.

P.G Sudha has her say on the whole story:

“Life is tough in these tribal colonies, where facilities are minimal as compared to other parts of the area. One has to walk for three hours to reach the tribal settlements,” she added.

“The reason that people here did not have toilets was that they were simply used to defecating in the open and even if someone did want a toilet, constructing one would have been too difficult. The area’s terrain means that the transportation of construction materials is very difficult if not nearly impossible,” the beat forest officer told.

“Though people here can afford a toilet, the colonies had none. That is because they are comfortable with open defecation. Secondly, construction of toilets is not an easy task, since bringing building materials from outside is a herculean task.”

“The biggest challenge was not the construction but actually transporting the materials. This is why everyone was reluctant to take up the job. These tribal colonies are remote, there are no proper roads to get to them. In fact, to reach some of these settlements one has to walk for 15 to 20 kilometers because there aren’t any other means,” Ms Sudha tells NDTV.

“We had to be very careful. We had to avoid confrontation to ensure that the operation ran smoothly,” she says.

“We would brainstorm and find different ways to transport the construction material to the site. We would be sometimes carting it for kilometers and at other times we would be using rafts to transport the material. Once, the load was so heavy that the raft capsized and the material swept away. But we did not give up,” she concluded.