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INDIA: When Toilets Were as Scarce as Hen’s Teeth

Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 19 2009 (IPS) - Dr. Bindeshwar Patak, the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate and founder of a grassroots sanitation movement in India, recounts the days before his country’s independence in 1947 when toilets were a rare sight in remote villages and towns under British rule.

An English woman, who was planning a trip to colonial India, wrote a letter to the owner of a small guest house who was also doubling as the town’s schoolmaster. She was concerned as to whether the guest house contained a WC.

The school master, not fluent in the nuances of English acronyms, asked the local priest if he knew the meaning of WC.

Together they pondered possible meanings of the letters and concluded that the lady wanted to know if there was a Wayside Chapel near the guest house. That the letters WC (water closet) could mean a bathroom, never entered their minds, said Dr. Pathak.

So the schoolmaster wrote back: ‘Dear Madam, I take great pleasure in informing you that the WC is located nine miles from the house. It is located in the middle of a grove of pine trees, surrounded by lovely grounds.’

‘As there are many people expected in the summer months, I suggest you arrive early. There is, however, plenty of standing room. This is an unfortunate situation especially if you are in the habit of going regularly.’

‘I would recommend that your ladyship plan to go on a Thursday, as there is an organ accompaniment. The acoustics are excellent and even the most delicate sounds can be heard everywhere. The newest addition is a bell which rings every time a person enters.’

‘I look forward to escorting you there myself, and seating you in a place where you can be seen by all. With deepest regards, The Schoolmaster.’

“No wonder,” said Dr. Pathak, amidst howls of laughter, “the British woman never visited India.”

Addressing the weeklong international water conference in Stockholm which concludes Friday, Dr Pathak said India has come a long way since the days of colonial rule in its efforts to meet the sanitation needs of a growing population of over 1.1 billion people in the world’s second most populous country, after China.

He said one of the world’s biggest toilet-cum-bath complexes is located in Shirdi in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which boasts 120 WCs, 108 bathrooms, 28 special toilets and 5,000 lockers for the convenience of pilgrims.

Still, India has over 600 million people without access to a toilet, and according to the United Nations, about 2.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to basic sanitation and about 1.2 billion have no sanitation at all.

Since he established the Sulabh Sanitation Movement in 1970, Dr Pathak has developed cost effective toilet systems and worked to change social attitudes towards traditionally unsanitary toilet practices in slums, rural villages and dense urban areas.

“The results of Dr Pathak’s endeavours constitute one of the most amazing examples of how one person can impact the well being of millions,” the Stockholm Water Prize nominating committee said in its citation.

First presented in 1991, the Stockholm Water Prize is considered the world’s most prestigious prizes for outstanding achievement in water-related activities. The annual prize includes 150,000 dollars and a crystal sculpture.

When he started his social reform movement in 1970, Dr Pathak was aiming at solving three basic health problems facing India: defecation in the open, cleaning of bucket toilets manually by the people called human scavengers, and public places without facilities of toilets and urinals.

In India, he said, women had to suffer the most; they had to go for defecation before sunrise or after sunset to ensure privacy.

Girls did not go to school because of lack of toilets and many children died because of diarrhoea and dehydration. And foreigners did not like to come to India because of lack of toilet facilities.

The human scavengers in India were treated as “untouchables” and were hated, humiliated and insulted by the people for whom they used to work.

In pre-independence Indian society, a person born in the ‘untouchable’ caste died as an ‘untouchable’. There was no chance of any change in the caste structure, Dr Pathak said.

Despite the fact that he was from an orthodox Brahmin family, considered one of the highest castes in India, Dr. Pathak decided to prepare himself to shed his own prejudices against ‘untouchables’.

“I went and lived in the colony of scavengers for three months,” he said, and personally experienced the lifestyles of the ‘untouchables’.

The Sulabh Sanitation Movement has so far installed 1.2 million toilets based on his technology and the government of India has also constructed 54 million such toilets.

Dr. Pathak developed two technologies – one for the conversion of bucket toilets into Sulabh toilets (twin-pit, pour-flush, compost latrines) converting human waste into fertiliser.

And a second, the creation of toilets for public places like bus stops, railway stations, tourist spots and religious places.

Back in the 1970s, Indians never paid for the use of toilets. Dr Pathak introduced the first public toilet in 1974 in Patna, in the state of Bihar, maintaining it on ‘pay and use’ basis.

“Initially, people ridiculed me, joked and had sceptical views, saying who would pay for the use of a toilet?” he said.

But on the very first day, 500 people came to use it and the total collection was about five dollars, he said.

Sulabh has installed more than 7,500 public toilets – besides the 1.2 million based on new technologies – and now other non-governmental organisations and private companies have started working in this sector.

The toilets built by Sulabh, individual as well as public, are used by 10 million people daily.

In the last three decades and more, Indians have developed the habit of making payments for the use of public toilets throughout the country.

This has helped to reduce the burden on the public exchequer for the maintenance of public toilets and bath facilities, he said.