chennai the sleepy village of amarambedu in gummidipoondi taluk in thiruvallur district was no different from any typical hamlet of tamil nadu till recently people of the village had been taking morning strolls to shame to nearby forests in order to answer natures call for decades it was a perfect example of rural tn which even while acquiring the progressive tag did little to end open defecation against a national average of 50 tamil nadus share in open defecation going by the latest census figures is 46 life in amarambedu meanwhile is undergoing a refreshing change the stench of faeces is no longer there in the air and on sunday the 300odd village folk joined by district collector k veera raghava rao members of the rotary club of madras and volunteers of gurgaonbased feedback foundation will take out a walk to dignity marking the end to generations of open defecation thanks to the efforts of the rotary and feedback foundation in blending government assistance with constructive communitylevel intervention today all the 108 houses in the village have toilets that are being put to regular use less said the better about amarambedu villagers earlier tryst with toilets the earlier 20 toilets the state and central governments forced some residents to construct as part of the governmentsponsored housing schemes have either been converted into kitchens or stores bringing about a behavioural change in the minds of people was more difficult than constructing toilets for them said p suresh rotary director in charge of community service on reviewing governmentsponsored sanitation schemes we realised that unless we engage professionals to convince the members of the local community our endeavour would only result in money going down the drain hence we engaged the foundation for 10 months said k n raja cochairman of rotarys sanitation project while one resident said he wanted a toilet right in the middle of the forest where his family had been going for their morning ablutions for ages another resisted sacrificing a portion of his barn for constructing a toilet his reasoning was that protecting his cattle was more important than having a toilet for his family said suresh rahul of feedback foundation who spearheaded the community intervention programme said we used to take the village folk to the nearby forests to teach them the hazards of open defecation we would dip a strand of hair in faeces and then in a glass of water and ask them to drink it when they refuse we would say it was no different from the food they eat as flies carry faecal matter from the fields to their plates it opened up their eyes he and his colleague pauline jacintha will stay in the village for the next few months to make sure nobody drifts back to open defecation rotary meanwhile has made a short film on the campaign and was working towards taking the fight against open defecation to more villages with government assistance said raja