Sanitation: Shrouded in the Dark

You need to believe me if I tell that the people of Indus Valley Civilization used toilets 5000 years ago in India. Now, what will you do if you get to see a man urinating on the rampart of ‘Red Fort’ in Delhi?  Even better, how will you feel when you see a person defecating on railway lines among fast moving local trains in Mumbai?  

Today, we live in a country which is for all practical purpose worlds’ largest “Open Air Toilet”.

As a child I got to read a story of D.M Mirasdar in which a urban person is amused to see everybody in village going ‘to fetch milk’ in the morning.  This act of ‘fetching milk’ continues unabated to this day as about 70% of rural Indians don't use toilets. Sanitation is inextricably related to Caste system/Untouchability, Position of women, Health, Education and Environment.  

Untouchability is perpetuated by manual scavenging and other unclean occupations. Recently I got to watch Marathi movie called ‘Fandry’, it shows how ‘low castes’ are forced to do unclean works. Caste system dictates Dalits should do manual scavenging, which is De-humanizing practice that continues even today despite two laws of 1993 and 2013. 99% of Manual scavengers are Dalits and most of them are Women. Gandhiji was aware of Sanitation and Untouchability linkages that is why he focused on cleanliness and hygiene and cleaned toilets regularly in order to wipe out stigma associated with so called ‘low work’. In order to do away with this de-humanizing practice of manual scavenging we need to do away with open defecation and dry latrines by improving Sanitation facilities. Many persons die during cleaning manholes this must be immediately stopped and I think Robots should be used to clean sewage and manholes.

Position of Women and Sanitation are related.  99% of Manual scavengers are Dalits and 95% of them are women. In India women are constrained to rise before the dawn to relieve themselves under the shroud of the dark. They do not find any convenient way to answer nature’s call after that. Open defecation cause enormous hardship especially to women. Women’s are harassed are raped while answering nature’s call. Recently I got to read findings of report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) which says most of the vendors in Dadar area of Mumbai, and mainly women are facing problems related to urinary bladder as they don’t have toilets available for them.  Maharashtra Government has started “Hagandari Mukt Gaon Yojana” i.e “Open defecation free village scheme”, but toilets are not being constructed if at all they are being constructed they are not used.

Health hazards of open defecation are not properly understood.  The single biggest killer of our children’s is diarrhea, i.e. more than 1 lakh children die due to it every year in India. This is caused due to human excreta mixing into drinking water. Malnutrition, morbidity along with undernourished, pot bellied, stunted children are effects of poor sanitation facilities.  Now if Government wants to reduce Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) it must improve Sanitation facilities.  Diarrhea, Malaria, Cholera, Chikungunya, Japanese Encephalitis are diseases directly related to open defecation and lack of sanitation facilities. Vectors like housefly spread these diseases.  In my village in year 2004-05 most of the elderly population died due to chikungunya and other vector borne diseases. We live in a country where 70% health expenditures are out-of-the-pocket; this incurs huge expenditure on poor citizens making them perpetually poor. This makes open defecation as one of the reason for India’s poverty. It ruins health, which is the main, nay only asset of the poor. ­Economic consequences of open defecation need to be properly understood and explained to the masses.

The ‘South Asian Enigma’- The term coined by economists for higher prevalence of under-nutrition in South Asia and mainly in India despite higher income than say sub-Saharan Africa is due to poor sanitation facilities. Poor sanitation leads to lower height, lower weight in children. It increases morbidity and mortality. Around 33% of child deaths are due to diarrhea and 42% of our children are underweight. Open defecation is largely responsible for it.

Now, let’s come to the solution side of the problem. We need to focus on smaller things. If government is constructing public toilets it must take opinion of women in village into consideration regarding location of such public toilet. In a village I saw Public toilet constructed right next to Chawadi (Meeting place for villagers). Anybody who has little bit understanding of Indian society will tell no women will use a toilet which is next to village Chawadi. Therefore people’s participation is necessary in such schemes. These small things will make bigger difference. Next issue we need to solve is, if people don’t have water to drink how will they use it for toilets?  Short-term solution lies in constructing toilets which require less water. Many Indians don’t feel comfortable with western style commode besides these commodes require lot of water. Long-term solution is Water harvesting and Water management. Water and Sanitation are complimentary to each other.

 Robots and Artificially intelligent devices should be used to clean sewage lines and manholes. Our attitude towards open defecation needs to be changed; I have seen people who prefer to go out in fresh air. They need to be told impacts of open defecation on health and its contribution to poverty and disease. Various Government programs like Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), Nirmal Gram Puraskar and Open Defecation Free Village should be employed rigorously. Recently one politician said ‘Pehle Sauchyalaya, Phir Devayalaya’ I support that. We need an all out war against open defecation. Is government listening?