mumbai sandeep chauhan was just three when he was attacked by a leopard outside his home in chinch pada in sanjay gandhi national park sgnp it was 730pm and his dadi had taken him outside to relieve himself the big cat dug its claws into sandeeps arm and tried to drag the child by the scruff of his neck when his mother alerted by the commotion ran out of the house threw a lota at the leopard and pulled her child from the jaws of death a few months later the same thing happened to sandeeps fiveyearold sister aarti the leopard had a firm grip on her neck and began running with her says chauhan then my mother yelled so the leopard got frightened and dropped my sister but aartis wounds were fatal she died on the way to hospital today 19yearold chauhan is one of 174 youth activists across 22 tribal padas in sgnp and aarey colony advocating for community toilets and working to alter ageold behavioral patterns of defecating outdoors the youngsters write scripts focusing on scenes drawn from their own lives for instance 17yearold preeti rawte was once harassed by visitors to the national park who climbed atop trees to watch her while she answered the natures call so a similar scene found its way into a recent play to create awareness about the need for indoor toilets these adolescents have all been trained as wash water sanitation and hygiene champions by sahyog an initiative of committed communities development trust ccdt which is sponsored by plan india since 2015 the sahyog programme has been working on the interrelated issues of health sanitation hygiene and malnutrition when we started 48 of tribal children between 06 years were malnourished says rashmi thakkar ccdts associate programme director now in 12 padas 35 of the formerly malnourished kids are a healthy weight sahyog has also set up communitybased monitoring groups comprising adolescents and adults who are trained to identify hygiene and sanitation issues and then work towards a solution since forest officers dont allow permanent constructions on forest land the teenagers advocate using natural materials like mud and karvi plants but even once toilets are built problems persist recently chauhan and rawte were both part of a group that approached the parks forest officer because chinch padas community toilets didnt have any doors or electricity after long struggle doors were installed last year and women started using indoor toilets since the day my sister died having a toilet means more than privacy or hygiene for my family says chauhan in a sahyog brochure it is actually a lifesaving utility