UNLIKE body functions like dance, drama and songs, defecation is considered very lowly. Toilet is part of history of human hygiene which is a critical chapter in the history of human civilization and which cannot be isolated to be accorded unimportant position in history.In India, how can any one ignore the subject of toilet when the society is faced with human excretions of the order of 900 million liters of urine and 135 million kilograms of fecal matter per day with totally inadequate system of its collection and disposal. The society, thus, has a constant threat of health hazards and epidemics. As many as 600 out of 900 million people do open defecation. Sewerage facilities are available to no more than 30 per cent of population in urban areas and only 3 per cent of rural population has access to pour flush latrines.
Seeing this challenge, the subject of toilet is more important because lack of excremental hygiene is a national health hazard while in other problems the implications are relatively closer to only those who suffer from unemployment, illiteracy and poverty.
As sewerage based toilet remains and will remain out of the reach of the majority of population in India, the challenge is to propagate and ensure installation of toilets, which are affordable, upgradeable and easy to maintain.
India needs to take up the sanitation issue on a priority basis since it affects the all-round development of the majority of its people, especially women in the lower strata of society. "Sanitation is closely linked to female literacy in India," says a United Nations Children's Fund .Over 700 million people defecate in the open - along roadsides, on farmland, in municipal parks and so on. According to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, a single gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, one million bacteria, a thousand parasite cysts and a hundred eggs of worms. No wonder, water contaminated with faecal matter causes
Is the filthy nature of our toilets the reason many of us simply prefer to 'Just do it' in the open? It can't be said that the civic authorities did not think of the man on the street. Indeed, they seem to have thought only of men. No one thought women might be in need of some conveniently located `conveniences'. The women folk presumably just had to hope they would be within walking distance of a relative's home at all times. Then again, the conveniences for men didn't seem to take into account those men who might value their privacy. So these `facilities' were often housed within no more than a wall and a half.
The absence of toilets is devastating for women. It severely affects their dignity, health, safety and sense of privacy, and indirectly their literacy and productivity.Women are forced to endure punishing restraints.
Take Khan Market, an upmarket locale where you can buy everything you need for your house, spouse and pet as well. The public toilet there is manned by smiling attendants who charge you a rupee or two, depending on whether you are a man or a woman, and hand over a receipt in turn. Positively fragrant with disinfectant, it lives up to the board displayed outside: "If it's clean it has to be Mokleen." Conversations like, "Hi! How come we always meet here?" "Yeah, bathroom friends!" can only take place in cheerful places like this. And when ads on the walls challenge you with remarks like "Rok Sako To Rok Lo", or indeed, to "run for your mind", there's an unmistakeable intellectual dimension too.
However, not everything is hunky dory. Whereas the toilets maintained by private companies like Fumes International, Sulabh International and the like are generally well maintained, those run by the NDMC and MCD are less to write home about.
How about making it illegal to urinate on within certain distance of any public roads and sidewalks and actually enforcing these laws by better policing?
Seeing this challenge, the subject of toilet is more important because lack of excremental hygiene is a national health hazard while in other problems the implications are relatively closer to only those who suffer from unemployment, illiteracy and poverty.
As sewerage based toilet remains and will remain out of the reach of the majority of population in India, the challenge is to propagate and ensure installation of toilets, which are affordable, upgradeable and easy to maintain.
India needs to take up the sanitation issue on a priority basis since it affects the all-round development of the majority of its people, especially women in the lower strata of society. "Sanitation is closely linked to female literacy in India," says a United Nations Children's Fund .Over 700 million people defecate in the open - along roadsides, on farmland, in municipal parks and so on. According to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, a single gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, one million bacteria, a thousand parasite cysts and a hundred eggs of worms. No wonder, water contaminated with faecal matter causes
Is the filthy nature of our toilets the reason many of us simply prefer to 'Just do it' in the open? It can't be said that the civic authorities did not think of the man on the street. Indeed, they seem to have thought only of men. No one thought women might be in need of some conveniently located `conveniences'. The women folk presumably just had to hope they would be within walking distance of a relative's home at all times. Then again, the conveniences for men didn't seem to take into account those men who might value their privacy. So these `facilities' were often housed within no more than a wall and a half.
The absence of toilets is devastating for women. It severely affects their dignity, health, safety and sense of privacy, and indirectly their literacy and productivity.Women are forced to endure punishing restraints.
Take Khan Market, an upmarket locale where you can buy everything you need for your house, spouse and pet as well. The public toilet there is manned by smiling attendants who charge you a rupee or two, depending on whether you are a man or a woman, and hand over a receipt in turn. Positively fragrant with disinfectant, it lives up to the board displayed outside: "If it's clean it has to be Mokleen." Conversations like, "Hi! How come we always meet here?" "Yeah, bathroom friends!" can only take place in cheerful places like this. And when ads on the walls challenge you with remarks like "Rok Sako To Rok Lo", or indeed, to "run for your mind", there's an unmistakeable intellectual dimension too.
However, not everything is hunky dory. Whereas the toilets maintained by private companies like Fumes International, Sulabh International and the like are generally well maintained, those run by the NDMC and MCD are less to write home about.
How about making it illegal to urinate on within certain distance of any public roads and sidewalks and actually enforcing these laws by better policing?
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