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| India lags behind in sanitation facilities | | | Sunita Vakil | 4/5/2012 10:52:49 PM |
| That India is a country of contrasts was established
by the latest census data which says that nearly half of
India's 1.2 billion people have no toilet at home but more people own a mobile phone. Only 46.9% of the total 246.6 million households have toilet facilities. If the rest 3.2% use public toilets and 49.8% defecate in the open. But in stark contrast, 63.2% of the households own a telephone connection and 53.2% of mobile phones. These and many other contrasting facts which have come out in census 2011 reveal a country where millions have access to cutting edge technology and consumer goods rather than basic facilities. Clearly ours is a nation which has its priorities in the reverse order. We have households with no toilets but cell phones. People do not have access to clean drinking water but have Pepsi and Coke. Millions travel in unreserved train compartments packed like sardines and the government is planning to introduce bullet trains. And despite all the talk of progress, half the Indian households lack access to the most rudimentary facilities. Indeed, the census report presents an alarming development. That nearly half of India's 1.2 billion people live each day without a proper toilet in shocking. It seems the government has no solution for continuing poverty and illiteracy. The grim picture of the world's third fastest growing economy was unveiled through the country's latest census report and is embarrasing to every Indian. India with its inherent paradoxes and its recently acquired economic prosperity has failed miserably to provide sanitation cover to its people.It is deplorable that as we progress more towards an age of digitisation, more than half of our population continues to be deprived of basic sanitation. There are many ills, especially open defecation, considered the riskiest sanitation practice that afflict India. Insanitation stems from poor financial conditions, absence of sanitation facilities and lack of awareness. The rural areas lack basic amenities for want of funds, official accountability and lack of political will. On the other hand, the urban areas fail to cope with an increasing pressure on limited civic amenities due to a rising population and migration from villages. About 77% homes in the eastern state of Jharkhand have no toilet facilities, while the figure is 76.6% for Orissa and 75.8% in Bihar. All three are among India's poorest states with huge populations. The situation seems to be no better in other states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. These figures are appalling. It is a shame that India that is vying to be an economic superpower cannot provide basic amenities to its citizens. In J&K 8.9% households still have their latrines emptied by human scavengers and sweepers. These alarming figures shed light on the contradictions in a country that is experiencing an economic boom while struggling with poverty. Hordes of people relieving themselves in the open each morning is a common sight in India. Open defecation is rife bacause there are simply no adequate toilet facilities. Even the state capital has not been able to rise above this trend. 97.7% of the 5.48 lakh census households still have no access to toilets. "Open defecation continues to be a big concern for the country as almost half of the population do it", Registrar General and Census Commisioner C.Chandramouli said while releasing the latest data. Reports have repeatedly placed India at the top of the nations in which people regularly defecate in the open. Jairam Ramesh, India's Rural Development Minister recently called for making India "an open defecation free" country in the next 10 years. Why is it that in the year 2012, half of all indians do not have a proper toilet? clearly, there is not one single reason. For one, it is difficult to expand sanitation services to keep up with rapid population growth. Also, there are millions of people who still are not aware of the strong link between toilet use and health. In many parts of rural India, a toilet is not just about infrastructure but about age old traditions.
A poor family would rather build a home or a shop and rent it out rather than have a toilet and continue to go out in fields for daily rituals. India has traditionally treated sanitation as a taboo subject and decision makers are reluctant to speak publicly about it. The major problem of course is the culture and tradition by which toilets are seen as unclean which should not be inside the house. Associated with that is the preferance for open defecation. Also vast number of people in this country remain illiterate and the challenge of selling sanitation to them is much harder. This has also been borne out by the Census Chief who blamed "cultural and traditional reasons and lack of education" for the persistence of poor sanitation.
Until the time people get rid of skewed attitudes to sanitation and hygiene, nothing is going to change. Also, as long as sanitation is stigmatised, the crisis will continue. We urgently need to create an innovative health education policy that would lead to intrinsic positive behavioural changes amid our populace. And above all, the government needs to build a potential will for sanitation so that men, women and children can enjoy the fruits of economic reforms holistically. It is a tragic irony that in India the sense of hygiene is missing. It is a typical Indian way of life to keep your house clean and spread the dirt outside. It is not unusual to see many Indians relieve themselves in the open unhesitatingly but keep their houses spotlessly clean. In many modern colonies people send their pet dogs outside to defecate in parks or streets and don't bother to clean up the mess. And these are the same people who berate the government at any given opportunity believing that the latter is at the root of all evil. This sort of selfish behaviour permeates all aspects of life. Agreed that the state may have failed to extend sanitation facilities but people must also do their part.
And women often have a harder time. Poor availability of toilets is one of the biggest concerns for womenfolk, both in rural and urban areas. Lacking access to a toilet is something more than embarassment and inconvenience for a women. Other than being a significant health hazzard, in rural areas it also hampers the ability of girls to attend schools. Many parents keep girl students away from schools if there are no toilet facilities fearing that they will be molested. There have been a large number of reported incidents where women have been raped when they went to defecate in the open during early morning or late night hours. A Union Minister had recently said that women in rural areas demand mobile phones but not toilets. This was proved wrong by the 20 year old tribal women Anita Narre whose rebellion not only ensured a toilet in her marital home but she is also credited with ushering in a sanitation revolution in the backward region in Madhya Pradesh. The correlation between hygiene and health can never be underestimated. Reports have time and again underlined the staggering cost of insanitation. Poor sanitation adversely affects the health of millions. It is a major contributor to water borne diseases which in the past three years killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five worldwide.
More children die of diarrhoea, a preventable condition, directly linked to fecal exposure than AIDS, malaria and measles put together.Linkages between good sanitation, improved public health and economic growth are long proven.
Instead of wasting resources on prevention and cure, India that loses out Rs 2.4 trillion a year due to insanitation must boost hygiene practices. The whole point is whether India can bridge the impossible contradictions and make people think that they need a toilet as desperately as they need a mobile phone. |
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