Raipur: Kareena Khatoon, a resident of Manora, a development block in Jashpur district, was honored by the Prime Minister of the country, Narendra Modi. Kareena Khatoon teaches cleanliness lessons to her village, Dadgaon. The Prime Minister praising her actions on the stage said congratulations Kareena ji ... Kareena says that when the Swachchta Abhiyan (cleanliness campaign) was started in the country, she felt the strong urge to do something for her village too. She formed a group of 10 women who continuously worked hard in cleaning the entire village which changed the whole scenario. Kareena lives with her husband and children, runs a grocery shop and sewing machine for a living.
Kareena describes, when she used to pick up the garbage from outside the houses of people, the villagers used to taunt her as Municipal Wali, there were some who used to deliberately throw garbage at the same place after she cleaned . But instead of fighting with the people here, Kareena followed the Gandhigiri rule getting inspired from the movie Lage Raho Munnabhai. She cleaned the place again and again. A few days later the same people were embarrassed and the villagers stopped throwing garbage.
No sweeper comes to the village, so cleans the whole village
“No cleaning workers came to our Dadgaon”, told Kareena . “We cleaned the streets and every part of the village right in the morning. Now people have started understanding and there is no litter spread in our village”, she said.
What is a sanitary pad?
Kareena not only campaigned for cleanliness but also for the personal hygiene of the women in the village. She went door-to-door and told the women to use sanitary pads. The answer given by the women were shocking. The women did not even know what a sanitary pad was. “We made everyone aware. Women here did not even have money to buy pads. In such a situation, we distributed free pads to everyone from my small grocery store”, she added Even now, Kareena helps women when needed. Going to schools and Anganwadi, Kareena also informed the children about the importance of washing hands and the disadvantages of plastic use.
