SWACHAA BHARAT SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS SERIES 1: OPEN DEFECATION

SWACHH BHARAT SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

SERIES 1:  OPEN DEFECATION

http://india.gov.in/spotlight/
swachh-bharat-abhiyaan-ek-kadam-swachhata-ki-ore

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/
2014-11-18/news/
56222308_1_manual-scavengers-nhrc-issues-their-rehabilitation-act

      FAD vs FACT

(With due respects to images the intent is good but not sustainable)

The idea of cleanliness and Hygiene, which westerners and their prototypes in India, think is alien to the psyche of the brown skinned Indians was somewhat jolted by the campaign of Swachh Bharat by Shri Narendra Modi.  There can be no doubt about the need of such wakeup call after demonstration of more than 60 years of democracy, a few Nuclear devices, a few wars, a few space missions and very recently (relatively) the economic strength, which pulls the same western or westernized brown people, irrespective of the stench of uncleanliness and lack of Hygiene, towards We the People.

Before getting into main issue of the probable questions, the reason why this wonderfully unsophisticated write up emerged in the first place needs to be explained. Hence let the tortures begin.

I have been visiting Mumbai umpteen number of times and as soon as the door of the plane opens the smell of Mumbai – the commercial capital and also the glamour capital of perhaps the SAARC nations combined together fill the nostrils. As Naïve it may sound I always believed it to be the smell of the sea and though not very pleasant, inhaled it gleefully as natures gift . My brother who stays in Mumbai however had a different story to tell and I wanted to dismiss his story as nothing but a propaganda of defamation, though why would he do it was unanswered as he loves Mumbai and wouldnot budge from the city despite of the floods, the jammed roads etc. .

To the horror of my ‎Olfactory receptor, the Sea made by God had nothing to do with the variation in the smell, it was however the sea of humanity and their involuntary routine which was responsible for this. The smell to me has never been the same ever since. Why I started yielding to my brothers story though is the fact that nowhere else does the smell of the sea smell the same as it does in Mumbai.

Given the above experience and the fact that as a profession, water and sanitation studies have been a key business area it has forced me to look at the concept of Hygeine and Sanitation from a view point of a novice and to simplify and get to the logic of things or why and how things do not work out . First of all the wrong notion of Indians being a chronic lovers of filth has to be removed from the framework of understanding to remove any stereotypes of behavior of we the Brown People.

Tackling the first issue which is the biggest stinker of them all and the bane of policy makers and implementer is the Open defecation Routine. For the purpose of simplification this has been divided into an Urban and Rural phenomenon.

Rural Open Defecation

The first natural question is obviously not to ask Why do people Defecate irrespective of being Indians or otherwise but what makes people go for open defecation? . The answer to this very obvious question can be rattled off by researchers (though they still go on asking the same from respondents again and again)  as well as the 5 year old taking a shot at open defecation on the approach roads of the villages- Lack of toilets-Bingo! we got the problem and the solution is : Subsidise Toilet materials, engage contractors , get procurement tenders for cements and bricks add in a few concepts of shramdan ( cheap or unpaid labour by the household) to please the sustainability experts and give a sense of ownership to the owners. Result imagined : there is no Open defecation, a few claps and mission accomplished - well time to snap out of it .

Lets try to break reasons for lack of toilet facilities in various sub parts. 

Why do people not have toilets or Why do they Prefer Exhibitionism of their Metabolic Functions 

Economic: Money for shitting is not a great Idea

• There is no space for toilets either because the house was never designed like that or the space is so small that people have to sleep outside. This is true even for those houses designed under various welfare scheme. It still is not clear if the welfare schemes were for the contractors or the owners. But that’s a different topic altogether.
• The Cost of making the toilets even if the land/area is available.

Motivational: It’s as simple as breathing who cares ?

•  Ease of going out for Open Defecation
•  Tragedy of commons - everyone’s shit is no ones shit, hence dump it and forget it.

Infrastructural: Where does the shit go?

•  Who and how the septic tanks will be cleaned. Ok, even if you tweak the Supreme Court guidelines and get someone drunk enough to clean up the septic tank where to dispose of the sludge? The obvious choice - the nearby river or the common property unused land. Does it solve the problem? Sewage lines or even closed drains are things too futuristic and “star warish” for these areas.      
• Who is going to ensure that the toilets are supplied with water to be able to be flushed? For the uninitiated running water is a distant dream of majority of rural dwellers in India (cannot comment on other developing nations but the situation should be the same). By the way new technologies still are more on the award winning and text book stage. Hence a stinky toilet in your backyard at present can not compete with an option of going out either in  a designated area with blessings of the elders or in common property including approach roads. The cemented roads are the preferred choice largely because they are safer and easier to dump upon.

One or a combination of the above factors lead people to use the so called welfare schemed toilets to be used as storage spaces of an unintended kind.

 Urban Open Defecation

The proximity to a town, once anyone approaches from the railway lines specially in the mornings, is confirmed by the mass movements observed near the railway tracks. The issue and the question once again is as to why these pilgrimages to India’s progress is marred by these observations.

As can be seen during the same train ride the slums hardly have places for two people to walk on the same street, having a roof on top is the utmost priority and a designated place within the confines of the home for something as natural as breathing is of the least concern. (Though you will also find a sea of dish antennas jutting from many of these shelters showing dreams and glamour of bollywood).

The problem in these slums like any other urban problem is that of space. Hence we have the so called toilet on wheels or community toilets specially in larger towns and cities.This has no doubt reduced the cases of open defecation but cannot keep pace with the massive growth of humanity either in terms of space or management of these community toilets.In addition managing these facilities is a dreadful job . Can you imagine a person on 24 hour duty across 365 days listening or watching people go inside the toilet?

Many of the Rural reasons for non-usage apply similarly to these urban slums.

Given the severity of the matter and the need for immediate solutions to this menace requires not only political and bureaucratic will but also technological up gradation in the way our sanitation systems work. The solutions of subsidizing toilets and allocating toilets are what the Strategists may call a shotgun approach and will not take us to the target of OD Free status. Innovations like Chemical toilets have their own share of environmental woes and may or may not be the solution one is looking for but similar options have to be mass marketed.

Does that mean one has to give up on the dreams? The answer is NO, on the contrary the dream has to be shared by one and all and not by the Prime Minister alone. 

In the same villages we have households using toilets who would face the same issues of disposal and cleanliness albeit slightly differently. What motivates them to use toilets when their counterparts go for open defecation? Maybe the reasons for their usage of toilet facilities are that these households are economically well off, there are  more empowered women in household, greater respect for privacy , awareness and knowledge of pathogens, have been influenced by Vidya Balan or have some relatives in better off locations etc. Media and communication go a long way in raising aspirations and some of the promotions at least have enough matter to crack the whip on need for privacy in a predominantly purdah loving populace. 

From Dreaming to Pushing to Pulling

If persuasion is not enough stringent measures like cutting down the rationed grains for households not having a toilet, holding back of funds of Gram Panchayats not complying with Zero Tolerance towards OD etc need to be introduced along with incentives for compliance. Community Toilets on lines similar to their urban counterparts should be better managed as the catchment area is known and not expanding every month.

Even the poorer household who are to be given subsidy on construction will demand the construction at the cost of the contractors and bureaucrats who only build toilets on paper or for photo ops which become defunct in a few months. Make people realize that it’s their responsibility to have a toilet and avoid open defecation as much as it’s their responsibility to earn their own livelihoods. The approach will have an effect not only on the rapid acceptance of the need for having and using the toilet but also lead to more efficient usage of the resources presently wasted which is criticized by many who have seen the toilet work done in these areas.

As far as disposal of waste is concerned , composting and with guidance of existing models of people like Shri Bindeswari Pathak, supported by funds from CSR kitty of corporate can go a long way . Solutions exist, unfortunately we have a habit of rediscovering solutions for the same age old problems with every change in leadership and management.  The solutions cannot be compartmentalized but has to be seamless from ensuring access to toilets to cleanliness to the safe disposal profitably. 

As one of my faculty used to say the “Day India will Eat in open and shit in Private will be the day it will be Developed”. The Holistic solution of the Open defecation is not limited to making pits and giving slabs if that message is understood the battle against the shit problem will be half won, let the people defeat the remaining half.