Sunita Devi (born 1980) is an Indian 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 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 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 Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

. 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-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 outdoors ("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 Nari Shakti Puraskar 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 a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

. A year later the President honoured another woman

Kalavati Devi Kalavati Devi (born 1965) is an Indian mason who became an award-winning toilet builder in Kanpur. She transformed her own community by installing a 50-seat toilet and then moved to other communities. She has helped build 4,000 toilets improving ...

who had also trained as a mason to build toilets in

Kanpur Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...

. 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