The best laid plans of men and mice often go awry; and this is largely because of lack of proper execution. In our country, every successive Government comes up with different programs and campaigns for the betterment of people. Often, thousands of crores are spent on various schemes, and mostly with good intentions. But if the schemes are not executed properly, they fall flat on their face. 

Precisely the same kind of unsuccessful execution of two highly ambitious schemes, the `Mid-Day Meal Scheme’ and the `Swatch Bharat Abhiyan’, was being witnessed in some districts of Uttar Pradesh- India’s most populous and largest state. But thanks to the stewardship of IAS officer Ms Durga Shakti Nagpal, mid-course corrections brought about by her turned these failures into huge successes.

At the time of bringing about the changes, Ms Nagpal was posted in Mathura & Kanpur (Rural). In an interview with Indian Masterminds, she talked about her approach to these two schemes.

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Committee of Mothers 

Says Ms. Nagpal, “ the Government appoints us to ensure the execution of development programs. It’s the duty of officers to keep an account of each rupee spent by the government for the people.’’ 

So, during her posting in Mathura, Ms Nagpal used to conduct lots of field visits, specially in schools. There she noticed that the attendance of students in the classes was extremely low even after the launch of Mid-day Meal program. “This was really shocking for me. The purpose of that mission was not being fulfilled. The main idea behind this program was to provide nutritional food to the children at least one time a day. This way they won’t have to work as child labour. They could come to school, get education and food at the same time. But, on ground level it was not providing any remarkable results”, she added. 

After this, she thought of tasting the food. She found out the even though the menu was followed, the taste of food was really bad. It seemed be the only reason why the children were not coming to school! She thought to do something about it. “When a child is growing up, it’s the mother who can ensure that they develop taste & interest for different food items. Only a mother could tell what kind of food will her child like. So, my team decided to make a committee of mothers who would monitor the process of cooking in school”, she added. 

This idea was so successful that in few weeks, the number of children doubled in almost every school of the district. This step was was taken up by some other districts in the state as well. 

Breaking the Locks of Mind

Ms. Nagpal is a 2010 batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre. In the early days of her career, she was associated with UP cadre. During those years, she served in Kanpur (Rural) for a brief period. There she started intensive awareness campaigns to encourage people for using the toilets. Actually, hundreds of toilets were constructed under the Nirmal Bharat Yojna (Now known as, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan) in the district. The government was paying Rs. 9000 for construction of each toilet while the beneficiary had to pay only Rs 1000. However, after the construction of toilets many people put locks on them. 

In a survey, Ms. Nagpal’s discovered something very strange and unexpected. “The people,’’ she said, “ believed that all the excreta going under the soil was polluting the water. It was a major misconception and they were not ready to listen to us. They believed we are brain-washing them because we are under pressure from the government and want our program to succeed at any cost. We decided to identify few educated people in various villages, who are teachers or head masters, and organized several workshops with their participation. We used to sit in those workshops but won’t talk. When people from their own community started to make them understand the importance of using toilets, then they started believing us. Slowly the locks were broken and people started using the toilets.’’

This way Ms. Nagpal not just solved the problem of open defecation, but also stopped many diseases caused by this practice. At present, she is posted as the Deputy Secretary in the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry. But her success stories in Uttar Pradesh still inspire many people.