INDONESIA

India

India

According to a new UN report nearly half of the world’s population doesn’t have access to a toilet. In India half the country goes to the toilet out in the open…. a practice that spreads disease and is particularly hard for women and the elderly.

That’s why Gopal Kumhar is taking great pride in his family’s new toilet. And it’s particularly important for his 85-year-old mother Ram Phooli Devi.

“Earlier I felt so bad for my blind mother who was forced to go toilet out, quiet far from the house,” he says.

Before, like everyone in this village of 900 people, she had to go to the toilet outside.

“I think this will help everyone especially women, children and the elderly. The men could ease themselves anywhere but the women had to face the brunt. This will also help to control the spread of disease which were at rise in the village due to lack of hygiene.”
 
Chavi Rajawat is the woman responsible for this toilet revolution.
When she was elected head of the village in 2010 she set about building a toilet in every house with the help from a local NGO Pragya Chaitanya. And she says women have felt the biggest impact.

“What usually happens is that the women only goes out to ease herself under the shelter of darkness which is usually prior to sunrise or post sunset. In the process in the areas where there is no electricity they often fall prey to a lot of accidents,” she says.

Women can fall in ditches and there are photographs of the women have fractured their arms and legs.

“And these are the stories that you don’t hear up.”

“In addition to this there is fear of snakes and lizards which are there in open fields and on top of that because they have to wait for so long hours to step out in the open, they face a lot of health issues, a lot of gynecological problems which Doctors are not there to attend to. They are always constantly complaining of headaches, stomach aches, and gastric problems and so on and so forth. What is even worse that when they are out to ease themselves and while they are in midst of it and if somebody passes by, irrespective of what stage they may be at, they have to stand up, instantly.”

Before people had toilets the roads leading to the village used to be filthy.
“It is not that these people do not want toilets,” she adds. “They definitely do. But the sad part is that for them, the priority is the food in the stomach of the family members and because they suffer the pains of the poverty.”

“I think that even though they want these toilets, more often they are not able to contribute towards it.”

Chand Sharma’s family paid half the cost of their toilet…the rest came from the village council. 

“Although it was tough for my mother to arrange even half of the money but the comfort it has provided is tremendous. It has not just helped us to go to the toilet comfortably but has also sorted our urinal problems.”

“Earlier even the farm owners did not allowed us to go to the toilet in their fields. It was so humiliating for me. I even ate less so I would have to go to the toilet…but now everything has changed.”

Her father Ram Kishore Sharma takes great pride in the fact that he had the village’s first toilet.

“When I noticed that the women of my house are covering their face out of shame while going out for open defecation, I immediately decided to construct the first toilet in this ward of the village.”

Pragya Chaitnya is the NGO involved in the project.  They are building dry toilets that don’t require water, says the NGO head Bhaskar Sharma.
“Till date we have constructed 200 toilets while the remaining will be constructed with in next 2-3 months. Thereafter, every house of this village will have the facility of toilet.”

Shyo ji’s family is eagerly waiting for their toilet to be built. It will particularly help her mother, says Moti Devi.

“At the moment I am forced to travel more than a mile to go to the toliet….it takes me almost an hour.”

It is estimated that one in every ten deaths in India is linked to poor sanitation and hygiene. 

The Indian Government has designed a country wide campaign to make the country open defecation free by the year 2022. Through the campaign a few sections of society are getting financial assistance to build toilets.

But there is still a long way to go. The toilet revolution taking place in Soda needs to happen across the country. 


  • India
  • toilet
  • Pragya Chaitanya
  • Soda Village
  • Jasvinder Sehgal

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