LIVING A FILM SHOOT

This is not the story of just another film shoot but rather the story of a transformation because of it!

Ascenic rural location is chosen. A film crew with its crew members and cast comes in from the city with their equipment. They shoot an ad film. They pack up. They go back to the city. But that is not what happened in Ramkula.

With the majestic Narmada flowing along on one side, Ramkula is an idyllic village near Barwah in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh, very similar to lakhs of villages in India’s heartland. Ramkula would be the dream of any ad film director who wants to capture rural India in all its glory- the scenery is picturesque and the typical slow village life of heartland India can be found in all the activities that the villagers undertake.

However, the tranquil scenery is not the only feature that Ramkula shares with other villages in India’s heartland. Ramkula exhibits symptoms of an issue that is typical of most parts of rural India- the lack of hygiene and sanitation. Many steps have been taken at Ramkula towards improving the infrastructure for sanitation, thanks to the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Toilets have been built in houses and facilities like hand wash stations and separate toilets for boys and girls in schools are now present in Ramkula and nearby villages. But the infrastructure alone has not resulted in marked improvements or solved issues pertaining to hygiene and sanitation conditions.

At Ramkula, like the rest of the country, the attempt at creating a sanitation revolution had one missing element- behaviour change. Ramkula’s children still sometimes defecated in the open and didn’t understand the need to wash hands before eating while their mothers who believed that water from the local source was potable chose not to boil or filter the water before letting the children drink it. This was the situation when Ramkula was chosen to be the location of Hindustan Unilever’s Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat campaign film. The Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat team got into action as soon as the film crew arrived at Ramkula. The team visited the four primary schools at Ramkula and the nearby villages of Lakhanpura and Barwaha and more than 600 children were taught ‘Haath, Munh, Bum’- the three healthy hygiene habits of washing hands with soap at five critical occasions, drinking water from a water filter or after boiling and using a toilet and keeping it clean. Along with the children, their parents were reached out too, through sessions at the Mohalla Sabhas at the three villages where they were also educated about the need to follow the right hygiene habits. The children as well as the adults who attended the sessions have pledged to inculcate them in their daily lives.

It doesn’t end with the social transformation in hygiene and sanitation habits alone. The film crew came in to Ramkula only with their equipment and crew members but no actors. The kids who are members of Ramkula 11, Lalli’s cricket team featured in Hindustan Unilever’s Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat ad film are from Ramkula itself! Yes, that’s right- the perfect show they put up completely belies the fact that they are not professional actors. The kids who were chosen from Ramkula, brilliantly acted, or rather lived their roles as Ramkula’s 11!` To watch the Ramkula 11 in action in a moving film and to know more about HUL’S WASH interventions, log on to www.hul.co.in/sasb