Prime Minister Narendra Modi deserves to be commended for his Swachh Bharat (clean India) initiative launched three-years-ago of targeting to have toilets in every household by 2019. There is no point in hair-splitting on it being too ambitious a goal to be achieved in such a short time. At present it is a shame that 48 per cent of India’s urban population has no access to toilets and in rural areas, the number stands at 60 per cent. This reflects how little has been done in the past towards this essential index of public welfare which should have been deemed an absolute necessity. Now that consciousness on this front is growing, the issue must be tackled on a war footing. What matters is the spirit behind the move. When such an initiative is promoted by no less than the country’s prime minister, it must gain acceptability among all but the diehard sceptics. Unless ambitious goals are set, nothing would be achieved in quest of them. It is indeed appropriate that Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday is being observed as Swachh Bharat day. In a country where it was considered downmarket to even talk about toilets, Modi has indeed rightly questioned the society’s neglect of this basic need. The old practice of defecating in the fields which exists in much of the countryside today is particularly harsh on women and needed to be addressed. But that would not be enough. A toilet must have with it the supporting infrastructure like water supply, sewerage and waste management and the Modi government in conjunction with state governments needs to work on these vigorously with mass support.
The benefits this programme would bring to people at large are substantial. Every year, 200,000 infants die in India because of open defecation, according to a study by Brian Arbogast, director of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene Programme at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Open defecation leads to contamination of food and water and transmits diarrhea-related diseases. In addition, it can also cause mental and cognitive stunting to young children, Arbogast’s study said. Doctors have identified a number of other diseases that follow from open defecation: skin diseases, respiratory diseases, eye problems, scabies, intestinal parasites resulting in kidney damage, anthrax and tuberculosis. According to Ministry of Human Resource development data, close to 10 per cent of the 11 lakh schools in India do not have toilet facilities for female students. As a consequence, girls leave school on average at an earlier age than their male contemporaries. The safety of women is another major area of concern. Non-governmental organisations say there have been several cases of women being raped and killed on their way to relieve themselves. The corporate sector has stepped in with their own programmes for building toilets as a public welfare programme. They must chip in with greater thrust and focus. Regrettably, public participation is still deficient. It needs to be stepped up. Those playing politics on an issue of such public import must do some soul-searching.
