Some families defecate in open in Aurangabad's open defecation

The nondescript Pokhri village here may have been declared open defecation free (ODF) but some families claim that they cannot afford to build toilets and are forced to attend to nature's call in the open.
Sixty-year-old Dwarka Bai Limbaji Pawar, who lives in one-room house with her family in the village, about 6-km from here, said "We have received no funds for building toilet and cannot construct one on our own.
"We work in the farms as labourers and hardly manage to make our ends meet...We defecate in the nearby fields only," she said.
Pokhri became ODF on October 2, 2015 under the Swachh Bharat Mission, a feat few villages of the Marathawada region of Maharashtra enjoy but some families, of farm labourers who live in slums at one end of the village, claim they do not have access to toilets.

Ruksana, a mother of eight, said there is no toilet in her house and she can not afford to build one as she hardly make her ends meet with a meagre income.
As a result, she and her seven daughters, aged between four and 15 years, are forced to defecate in the adjacent fields like others.

Causal labourer Malan Bai said "You can see a difference here as many of the upper caste farmers, who own the lands, have got the toilets built in their houses by spending from their own pocket and also received a sum of Rs 12,000, the amount given by authorities in this regard.

"But we can't do. If we spend our money to build toilets, then how will we purchase food to feed ourselves?"
Sarpanch Amol Kakde, however, dismissed the claims saying about 47 families living in the 'wadi' (hamlet) have actually encroached upon the government land and are not "considered" as part of the village and counted among its families.
The village, which has 80 per cent literacy, has amenities
like RO water filter, solar-powered street lights and CCTV surveillance.
Kadke said 265 families of about 1,300 people live there and every household has individual toilet which are connected to 40-45 soak pits and further to a drain outside the village.

He said the village had also received ISO 9001:2008 certificate last year and Nirmal Gram Award back in 2007.
Some villagers claimed that they had built the toilet but were yet to receive a sum of Rs 12,000 even after the passage of several months since they informed the panchayat.
A woman claims that she got a toilet built in her house about a year ago but the village authorities have not given her Rs 12,000 yet.
Pandernath Namdeo Balerao, a watchman, said his family has been living here for generations in the village but he lacks toilet facility in his house.

Though they have access to community toilet near their houses but they said it remains locked and the keys are with village 'kotwal'. If anyone wants to use it, he or she has to ask for them.
"The rich upper caste farmers can afford to build toilets and receive the SBM fund for toilet construction. But most of us are just farm labourers belonging to SC/ST who can hardly make the ends meet," Balerao said.
When asked if 47 families are defecating in open then how can the village be considered open defecation free, the Sarpanch said "They are not counted in Pokhri and all the 265 other families, as per the 2011 census, have individual toilets."

Kakde, later talking to