Mangaluru
The Anti-Pollution Drive Foundation (APDF) recently delivered free toilets to nine Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in Kadeshwalya gram panchayat, Bantwal taluk. The handover ceremony featured local leaders, including gram panchayat president Bharathi S Rao, Vice-President Suresh Kannottu, and Panchayat Development Officer Sunil Kumar, alongside Geetha Surya, Project Coordinator of APDF, and the beneficiaries.
Abdullah A Rehman, founder and CEO of APDF, announced that two more toilets are under construction and will be completed soon. Each toilet, valued at approximately Rs 50,000, was built under the foundation’s Prati Rural Manege Shauchalaya (PRMS) project, which aims to provide sanitation facilities to 100 BPL families in Dakshina Kannada by the end of the current financial year.
The APDF secured Rs 10 lakh in corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding from Alkraft Thermotechnologies Pvt. Ltd. in Chennai and the Dr PA Ibrahim Foundation in Kozhikode after Kadeshwalya gram panchayat requested assistance for 11 families lacking resources in February.
Since launching the PRMS project on March 12, 2019, APDF has provided free toilets to 22 families. While Dakshina Kannada is designated as an Open Defecation Free (ODF) district, some areas still lack adequate sanitation. Abdullah emphasized the importance of toilets for all families, highlighting their role in promoting dignity and hygiene, particularly for women and children.
