‘Is India’s lack of toilets a cultural problem?’ is the burning question of the day. The mindset of Indians is at the root of the derogatory situation which makes raise this question. The existence of low caste and backward classes, and the existing negligence by the rest of the Indians are responsible for the unawareness of those people. As a result, in many parts of our nation people lack toilets and prefer the open defecation. The context of lacking toilets may be a cultural issue. In the villages, the situation appears to be worse as two-thirds of the villagers have no toilets. Evidently, open defecation is common to them, and it is the major barrier in the course of achieving millennium development goals with the inclusion of reducing by half of the total number of people with no access to basic sanitation by 2015. In the opinion of a biographer, Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India, had a ‘Tolstoian preoccupation with sanitation and cleaning of toilets’. With reference to an incident experienced by Gandhi during visit to inspect the toilets in Rajkot city, Gujarat, he said: “He (Gandhiji) reported that they were ‘dark and stinking and reeking with filth and worms’ in the homes of the wealthy and in a Hindu temple. The homes of the untouchables simply had no toilets. ‘Latrines are for you big people’, an untouchable told Gandhi”.
Years later, Gandhi took a step of encouragement for his disciples to work as scavengers and sanitation officers in villages. In this regard, Madhav Desai, his diarist and hardworking secretary, recorded the villagers’ attitudes: ‘They don’t have any feeling at all. It will not be surprising if within a few days they start believing that we are their scavengers’.
Obviously, the cultural attitudes of India are at the root of this enduring shame. More than half a century passed after the Independence of India, yet many Indians go on littering implicitly and relieving themselves in the open. However, they keep their domestic areas clean and tidy. The state has become unsuccessful in extending the facilities of sanitation, for the unawareness of the people at large.
The city dwellers as well as residents of Indian cities are also remarkably blatant and blameable. For instance, once in the suburb of Gurgaon a rich and sophisticated and educated resident sent his servants with pet dogs outside for open defecation of the dogs, and the rich man refused to clean up the mess on demand by the other neighbours and said that his apartment was clean and tidy and no place for his dogs. This is not a rare case; it is common in all cities in India. Such situations tell us that not only the ignorant villagers but the educated city dwellers also are equally responsible for such problems.
However, the situation in villages is gradually getting better. The rate of access to sanitation facilities rose from 40 per cent (in 2002) to 51 per cent (in 2008– 2009). According to the survey reports, more than 60 per cent homes in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu are still lacking toilets. The behavioural and cultural indicators show: More than 70 per cent Sikh and Christian households have access to improved sanitation while Hindus only 45 per cent.
India campaigns on sanitation and hygiene by providing subsidies to build toilets and increased the integrated expense on sanitation by nearly three-fold in 2005. The government of India started a scheme to award the councils of villages with a view abolishing the act of open defecation in rural areas. The village councils of Kerala performed with 87 per cent and picked up the awards while 2 per cent of councils in badly off Bihar won in a dull commentary with respect to its sanitation.
Haryana and Himachal Pradesh can be the role model for other states as both have been successful by using and empowering local people for tackling open defecation. They are also succeeded in building toilets and adopting good waste management. Providing subsidies to poor households to build toilets, Haryana leads campaigns with women volunteers encouraging people to build toilets in its patriarchal and less progressive condition. According to the government survey reports it is said: ‘Himachal Pradesh has toilets today in its every home’.
Above all, the condition will go on till people stick to their age-old cultural attitude of community sanitation. The mass awareness and active initiatives of the people irrespective of their status, is a must to make the target successful in near future.