As we switch on DD-I we frequently see the gaiety super star, who is ruling the Bollywood stardom for last fifty years, Amitabh Bachchan, with mischief in his eyes and a stern voice, aggressively emphasising on ‘Darwaza Band toh Bimari Bandh’. This is the part of the campaign to promote the very promising project launched by Modi Government to eliminate OD (Open Defecation) in India by October 2, 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It aims at building 75 million toilets across the country.
The success of ODF (Open Defecation Free) Project can be measured by taking the percentage of population in the village or community using toilets instead of pooping in the open. It is, when the people begin to use designated toilets rather than fields, urban parks, open trenches or rail tracks in the close proximity to the living space of others. Today 12% of global population practice OD and India ranks much higher on the list. The Swachhta Status Report 2015 recorded that 52% of the country defecated in open. The issue of OD was first highlighted in 2008 when the year was declared as International Year of Sanitation and emphasis was laid on WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). Today ODF project under sanitation forms an important part of Sustainable Development Goals. Research shows that OD not only results in diarrhoea and intestinal infection, but is an invitation to water borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis etc. It is also observed that OD results in child mortality and high levels of under nutrition.
‘Poor health is not by accident’ and therefore providing its people an access to sanitation is an important function of any state. This has to be done on two fronts. One is, of course, by providing safe and easy access to toilets. The second, that actually needs more vigor and persistence, is to bring in the change in the Mindset of the people as OD remains a traditional practice in many parts of India. In fact our society even has weird customs where the father-in-law will refuse to use the toilet used by the daughter-in-law. Women are worst affected by the OD practice. They have to relieve themselves in the early morning hours or wait till the dark dawns which results in very unsafe environment where women may be lurked and watched by men and in extreme cases, even raped. Therefore when ODF Project was launched the tag lines were ‘ghar mey pardah, aur kulhe mey sauch?’ and ‘No loo, no I do’ which motivated women like Priyanka to refuse to accept married life without a latrine. Toilets’ with proper enclosures, safety and availability of adequate water is the prerequisite for ODF to be successful.
There are certain loopholes in the implementation of ODF project. A Niti Aayog Report on Swacch Bharat Abhiyan pointed out on poor quality of operation and maintenance of the toilet facilities provided to the people. In spite of tall claims that two lakh and above villages have become ODF, irony has come to fore that people still go in open with bottles of water in their hands, thus falsifying the reports given by the bureaucrats. This raises doubt about the integrity of our officials.
It is interesting to study how different states in India have adopted various methods, both punitive as well as rewarding (carrot and stick policy) to promote ODF. Gujarat has passed a state law that forbids candidates in local elections from running for office if they don’t have a toilet at home. Osmanabad Zilla Parishad in Maharashtra has a novel idea to achieve its target of making 621 villages in the district ODF. Tehsil level winners from the villages who take early initiative in building toilet at home will be sent on all expense paid trip to Singapore. Other measures include imposing fines, asking the person caught defecating in open to squat, detention in police station, pasting photographs on the billboards, or even giving them red roses every time they are caught. Bombay Municipal Corporation has pulled in Salman Khan as their drive ambassador to promote ODF.
In Goa, the newly elected Village Panchayats are given the target of ODF villages. The huge inflow of migrants to the state has resulted in increasing the per cent of OD cases. The contractors hiring these labourers, the trawler owners etc. should compulsorily provide toilets to the workers they hire. Also the landlords who rent their premises to these workers should provide them with proper sanitation facilities. And to ensure that the contractors and landlords do so is the responsibility of the Panchayat. One needs to also accept the hard core reality that in certain parts of Goa, the locals still prefer to defecate in open. In fact urinating in public is a common sight. There are also instances where the toilets built with the financial aid given by the government are used as storage rooms by the recipients. Though our Chief Minister has sought collaboration with DRDO to come out with a technology to convert old buses into mobile toilets and garbage collection centres, there is also possibility that our state may be caught unprepared as to how to collect and utilise the liquid and solid waste generated once we achieve our target of ODF state.
ODF is the need of the time. Besides constructing toilets on large scale, enough measures should be taken to see that there is continuous running water, and timely maintenance of these toilets. Funds also need to be diverted to create awareness and enlighten people on the importance of ODF.
(The author is Associate Professor of Political Science, Govt College of Arts, Science & Commerce, Khandola).
