EVENTS AND ISSUES

New Delhi, 10 April 2006

NHRC Chief’s Concern

POOR SANITARY FACILITIES FOR MASSES

By Radhakrishna Rao

Justice A.S. Anand, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has expressed his serious concern and displeasure over the painfully slow progress in the task of eradiation the age old, inhuman practice of manual scavenging which is a blot on the fair name of India, in some parts of the country.

As such he has made an impassioned plea to the State Governments concerned to set a six-month target to convert all the dry latrines into wet latrines and at the same time carry out surveys in the rural areas to collect data on the eradication of this inhuman practice – and rehabilitate the community engaged in it without further delay.

Though over the last three decades vigorous efforts are on to liberate the scavengers from the demeaning practice of carrying the night soil on their head, certain pockets in the country still continue with this highly despicable practice.  Social workers and voluntary organizations in various parts of India are quite optimistic about putting an end to the manual scavenging before the end of the next year.

Indeed, the carelessness in handling human waste has been at the root of many life threatening diseases and epidemics breaking out with recurring regularity around the world. Studies go to show that about two million people a year, mainly children, die from diarrhea in various parts of the world.  

Over 2.6 billion people or about 40 per cent of the world’s population are without hygienic toilets at this moment. In India, according to conservative estimates, about 772 million people do not have a private place to answer the call of the nature. In consequence, vacant lands, fields, bushes, roadside and railway tracks are being used for defecation with the serious consequences for the environmental well being.

In contrast, in China around 700-million people are forced to make do without private latrines. “Lack of adequate sanitation is not just a problem of convenience”, says a spokesman of United Kingdom-based Wateraid, “it is also a major health hazard”.

It has been computed that in China, India and Indonesia, twice as many people are dying from diorrhoeal diseases than from HIV/AIDS.  In Asia, half the population is without proper and adequate sanitation. Stephen Turen of Wateraid points out that poor sanitation and polluted water are engines that drive the engine of diseases, death and poverty in the developing countries. “Major progress towards reducing world poverty will falter until water and sanitation problems are urgently tackled”, says he.

Coming to India, only half of its urban population has access to proper toilet and sanitary facilities and for those living in slums and shanty towns on the outskirts of the cities, answering the call of the nature is a sort of daily struggle.  Each day, millions of slum dwellers across the length and breadth of the country troop off into the thorny bushes, open space and railway tracks for defection. Here the problem of pigs and snakes attacking the children is real and serious.

There are lots of these lurking in the bushes.  You have to make sure that they don’t bite, says a slum dweller in Bangalore.  And during heavy rains followed by floods it is a veritable hell for the slum dwellers trying to ease themselves out. “We have to wade through waist-high water” says another slum dweller in Chennai.

Significantly, among those listed as having more than ten million people deprived of the use of hygienic lavatories are such unexpected entrants as Romania, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and Morocco.  But the problem facing India in terms of making available sanitary and toilet facilities to its masses is compounded by the rapid and chaotic urbanization.

Of course, the States such as Maharashtra have shown that through active community participation low solution to the sanitary problems can easily be provided. The Gram Swachata Abhiyan campaign launched in parts of rural Maharashtra has resulted in each house in the rural areas having its own toilet.

In this endeavour, the community provided both the labour and materials perhaps the most stimulating aspect of the campaign was the self-reliance it helped generate among the people.  Indeed as an official of the Maharashtra State Water and Sanitation department pointed out “At least, people won’t have to wait for the development to reach them”.

Many voluntary organizations in other parts of India are also active in providing community-based toilet and sanitary facilities with a focus on slum dwellers in urban areas.  For instance, the Bangalore-based Gram Swaraj Samithi has set up a low cost but hygienic toilet and sanitary complex in the Ullalu suburb of Bangalore.

This sanitation-cum-toilet complex with self-sufficient waste water treatment, rain water harvesting and biogas generation facilities cater to the need of 500 slums dwelling household. The unique feature of this facility is the biogas plant that makes use of the human waste to produce energy. 

Designed by the German architects, Lenzinger Berry and Stettler this innovative sanitation complex falls back on a novel underground waste water treatment system. All the commodes here have pits beneath them which are interlinked.  The first stage of waste water treatment takes place here as the sediment settles down in the pit and the only water flushes out. This partially-treated water is again treated in the secondary treatment plant which uses gravel filters. This water can actually be reused in the toilet. But initially we will use it only for gardening purposes.  Once laboratory tests approve the treated water for reuse in the toilet, we will go ahead with it” said a spokesman of the Gram Swaraj Samithi.

But the Sulabh low cost toilet complexes which are found virtually in every city and town of India have helped usher in a silent sanitary revolution in the country. The success of Sulabh sanitary and toilet technology has attracted the attention of a number of countries with the result that the Sulabh International founded by the visionary Dr. Bindeshar Pathak has been invited by many countries in Asia including China and Thailand for the setting up Sulabh toilet complexes.

Dr. Pathak conceived the idea of Sulabh toilet complex with a view to end the menace of manual scavenging. The Sulabh toilet complexes are both functionally efficient and aesthetically appealing.  They cost less than fight of the price of the of the conventional models and require two to three litres of water for flushing out in Sulabh complex, each toilet is connected to two equal sized airtight pits by a brick drain. Only one pit is used at a time while the other pit is kept closed. As soon as the first pit gets filled, the other is pressed into service.

The World Bank and many UN agencies have suggested that the third world countries faced with the problem of sanitation and shortage of toilets should adopt the Sulabh mode. –INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)