Events & Issues
New
Delhi, 14 October 2013
Politics On Toilets
MEANINGLESS VIEWS, NO ACTION
By Dr S Saraswathi
(Former Director, ICSSR, New
Delhi)
There can be no better example of a
non-controversial topic raising bitter debate in the country and a non-political
issue assuming political overtones than the recent exchange between top
politicians over construction of adequate toilets in India. Not only is it a most
ridiculous state of public discussions, but worse reveals a sorry state of
sanitation in India.
BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate
Narendra Modi’s remark during the course of his speech on Gandhi Jayanti that “India
should build toilets before temples”, triggered a superfluous debate. He was emphasizing
the importance of development in which provision of basic facilities required
for healthy life comes first. Politically viewed, his remarks are but
reiteration of what Union Minister for Rural Development, Jairam Ramesh said a
few months ago.
“Toilets first, temples later” has good
chances of becoming an accepted “secular” election slogan for both principal
national parties. For Ramesh, it is a matter of national shame, that 60% of
world’s population without toilet facility is in India. “There are more temples in
the country than toilets”, he stated when he was in charge of sanitation which incited
VHP and the Bajrang Dal to react as if it was an attack on the faithful and a
call that is likely to weaken – nay “destroy the fine fabric of religion and
faith”.
The Minister’s further elaboration: “No
matter how many temples we go to, we are not going to get salvation. We need to
give priority to toilets and cleanliness” added fuel to the fire. Presently, Modi agrees that villages have
hundreds of thousands of temples but no washrooms. He recalls how Gandhiji emphasized the importance
of this issue.
The advices could have received
positive response but for the intervention of another politician raising
suspicions over Modi’s credentials to offer this opinion. He recalls a past observation
made by Modi that those who clean toilets get spiritual pleasure out of it. The
context and the intention of the observation, if true, have not been revealed.
The general public is not interested in the debate, but on the contrary, sick
of this meaningless exchange.
The 2011 census states that 49.8% of
households have no toilet facilities and defecate in the open. It is a constant
reminder of the country’s poverty seen in its inability to provide even minimum
basic facilities. India
stands next only to Ethiopia
with the largest percentage of population without toilet facility.
Indeed, India needs a toilet revolution. The
fight is many sided – against open defecation, manual scavenging, and the
treatment of scavengers as descendants of “unclean castes”. In many places,
illegal and improper sewer connections from private houses and shops to drain
sewage into stormwater drains and public waterways pose a big heath hazard right
in the heart of cities like Chennai. Success of the long-awaited toilet
revolution will lead to progress in health, education, environment, and even
social interaction. It is also necessary to fulfil our commitment to ensure
human rights for all.
The situation is much below the
national average in some States. About 77% of homes in Jharkhand, 76.6% in
Odisha, and 75.8% in Bihar lack toilet
facility. The Census Commissioner stressed the despicable practice of open
defecation in the country while releasing data and attributed this to
persistence of traditional practices and lack of education. The BBC took
pleasure in broadcasting to the world the glaringly contrasting picture of nearly
50% of India’s
total population having no toilets, but a higher percentage of people owning a
mobile phone.
Urbanization has progressed fast in India and in
the process has seen growth of slums and its population. Large infrastructure
projects like metro, railways, and power supply are undertaken unaccompanied
with simple but essential things like public toilets not to speak of private
toilets. In fact, railway tracks have
become convenient toilets not only for those using the railway but for people
living along the tracks. Waterways not excluding the holy Ganga
have become natural toilets and pose the biggest challenge to sanitary
authorities. Proliferation of cities with local and migrant households forming
slums without private toilets at home and depending on woefully inadequate
number of public toilets worsens the situation.
However, construction of clean
toilet is a universal problem across nations. It’s not without a felt need that
the World Toilet Organization – also known as the World Toilet Foundation – was
set up as a non-profit organization in 2001 with the objective of “eliminating
the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation”. It has over 150 member
organizations in over 50 countries.
This Foundation organizes World
Toilet Summit annually. So far, 12 summits have been organized – the latest in Indonesia. These
are intended to discuss the growing sanitation crisis as a world problem and representatives
from NGOs, governments, sanitation industries and business people participate.
Several countries are facing
problems like India
in different degrees and are experimenting with various methods. Firm action
and continuous efforts alone will succeed. The toilet revolution in Linfen, China
needs to be emulated. This city has also won UN Habitat’s International Award
for Best Practice. Linfen’s revival started in 2008 and one of its key projects
was “toilet revolution”. In the World Toilet Summit 2011, China’s environmental
problems concerned with toilets became the focus. A massive toilet
transformation project was undertaken. Foreign tourists’ comment on toilet facility
as “inconvenient” was taken as a challenge to trigger this revolution. It has
adopted the strategy of public participation.
Thailand too has recently taken up the third
phase of Public Health Ministry’s Master Plan, which includes “toilet
revolution” with the object of covering 90% of households by 2016. A major item
is to replace old “squat toilets” with western style seated toilets in Bangkok.
All countries seem to have undergone
“toilet revolution” at some stage of their economic development. England of course is the cradle of
toilet civilization. The Bay West Revolution in Europe
signifies economically sound alternative to washrooms. It only confirms that
this revolution is now overdue in India. Sulabh International’s
efforts have produced some results but much below the requirement. How much can
an organization do?
The Supreme Court last October directed
the Union and State governments to provide basic
infrastructure including drinking water and toilets in all schools within six
months. The order has led to some action. School surveys have revealed that lack of
toilet facility is a major obstacle for education of girls.
Toilet revolution is inextricably
linked with mechanization of sewage operations and liberation of manual
scavengers from their unclean occupation and their education and rehabilitation
in clean jobs. Manual scavenging was abolished under the Employment of Manual
Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act in 1993 by Parliament
but State governments have to adopt the law as the subject falls in the State
list. A revised version was introduced in 2012 putting the responsibility on
local bodies and railway authorities to construct adequate number of toilets in
their jurisdiction. But it is still short of assuring total liberation and
rehabilitation of those employed in this field.
Public cooperation, commitment and
involvement of authorities at all levels are indispensable for achieving the toilet
revolution. It’s strange but true that people who give donations for temple
festivals are not so forthcoming to construct toilets, even for the benefit of fellow
devotees at the site. Action rather than
meaningless debates is the need of the hour.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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