Sunita Devi (born 1980) is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

mason honoured for building toilets. In her village 90% of the women did not have access to a toilet. After her work they all now have access. She was given the

Nari Shakti Puraskar The Nari Shakti Puraskar () is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is presented by the presi ...

award in 2019 by the President of India.

Life

Devi was born in 1980. She graduated with a degree in political science. She was surprised to find that after she married in 2010 her new home did not have a working toilet. Her village, Udaypura, was 115 km from the state capital

Ranchi Ranchi (; ) is the capital city and also the largest district by population of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern ...

. Neighbours in her village were in a similar situation but she was unable to raise this as a problem because of etiquette. Only 10% of the women had access to a toilet and the rest had to defaecate in the open. When others including the

Swachh Bharat Mission 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 Defe ...

-Gramin (SBM-G) arrived in her village in 2015 and started to talk about toilets. The mission wanted to create an

Open defecation free Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outside ("in the open") 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 ...

community and they were offering a grant of 12,000 rupees for each toilet constructed by a rural family. PM interacts with recipients of Nari Shakti Puraskar 02

PM interacts with recipients of Nari Shakti Puraskar 02

Devi took an interest. She wanted to train to be a mason but her father-in-law objected because she was a woman. The job of being a mason was done by men, although many masons considered the task of creating toilets too small to be worthy of their attention. With her husband's support she persevered and became a "Rani Mistris" (woman mason). There was opposition and some asked to leave Udaypura when she tried to interest other women in the task. Devi was astounded that they objected to her building toilets, but they raised no objection to women defecating in the street. She was given the

award in 2019. The "2018" award was made in the Presidential Palace by the President of India on

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...

. A year later the President honoured another woman Kalavati Devi who had also trained as a mason to build toilets in

Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary ...

. At the award ceremony the Prime Minister singled out the work of the ''Swachh Bharat Mission'' which had inspired Devi to her work for particular praise.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devi, Sunita 1980 births Living people Indian Freemasons