Sathappan Narayanan
India is the No. 1 country in the world for open defecation, with over 344 million people without regular access to toilets in the country, according to 2017 statistics from the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to fix this long-standing issue through the Swachh Bharat, or Clean India, mission. Swachh Bharat has made huge gains so far, but many challenges remain.
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Fresh faeces is filled with viruses and bacteria, able to transmit ailments including diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, Hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. Transmission occurs when flying insects land on deposits and carry the viruses elsewhere or when excrement contaminates water supplies in groundwater or wells. Poor hygiene practices, like not washing hands after defecating, are common in poor and rural communities, making these areas especially susceptible to diseases.
Just recall your facial expressions while you were passing through the toilet area (just passing through, not after using) of our major airports. You might have covered your nose to avoid the stinking smell emanating with every opening and closing of toilet door. If you recall your last usage of an airport toilet, can’t you remember spitting of sputum, chewing gum, cigarette and paan masala remains in urinal /toilet bowls & wash basins? This being the status of airport toilets wherein the majority of users are bound to be in top income group, it is no wonder of poor status of other public toilets in Railway/bus stations, trains, roadsides which are used by people of all categories.
Who is responsible for the poor condition of our toilets? Cleaners or users? Simple fact is both are responsible. Casual attitude of users who neither bother to rinse the toilet before and after use nor self-restrict the impulse from spitting or throwing garbage and as well cleaners who either not doing their cleaning duty as per norms or driven by an attitude of “what is the use of cleaning, knowing in no time users will mess it badly”.
Forget about public toilets for a moment and focus your attention on toilets in our homes. How many of us maintain our toilets well? How many feel it is taboo to self-clean toilets? In case not self-cleaning, options available are to call professional cleaners. Reality is to avoid paying professional cleaners, most of the household direct their servant maid to clean. Neither a professional nor a willing cleaner, poor maid hardly does a good job. What is the solution? I feel, best solution will be cleaning by every member of the family on specified days of week/month. What is wrong in cleaning stains and germs of faeces coming out of our own body. As we know we cannot do away with keeping it beneath a few microns of our skin, let us shed the taboo about shit and happily clean our toilets for our own well-being. Once we practice this at our homes, we are bound to be more responsible in keeping our public loos well.
No Governments can achieve success in any project without participation and cooperation from its citizens. Governments can only initiate good lifestyle. It is in their own interest and the duty of citizens to co-operate and make such missions successful.
