Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched the feet of a 104-year-old woman from a village in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district as a sign of respect for her efforts to make her village open-defecation-free. The lady had sold her goats to build two toilets at her home.
Felicitating Kunwar Bai from Kotabharri village at the launch of ‘Rurban Mission’ in Rajandgaon district (the state’s Naxal stronghold), Modi lauded her efforts and said that it was a big sign of a ‘changing India’.
Kunwar Bai sold 8 to 10 goats to build toilets at her residence. She showed them off to the villagers with an ulterior motive to educate and inform the villagers about the importance of toilets. Reportedly, each house in the village now has a toilet.
“An elderly woman of 104 years who stays in a remote village, does not watch TV or read papers, but the message of building toilets under clean India mission somehow reached her. She sold off her goats to build toilets at home and also encouraged others from the village to build toilets,” Modi said at the event.
Unlike typical bureaucrats, Modi doesn’t shy away from touching the feet of elders at public functions while he felicitates them.
