Reading Rukmini Shrinivasan article in The Hindu 9th June 2014, “The battle for toilets and minds I was reminded of my experience in marketing two door refrigerators in the ‘70’s. A large number had been purchased in Calcutta but there were repeated complaints. Finally I asked a senior service engineer to visit Calcutta and determine the nature of the problem. A week later his report was handed in.
“I inspected the six 2 door fridges as asked. They have been
correctly installed. I observed vessels of milk, vegetables, rosgullas and
sandesh left in meat safes outside the fridge. Butter was kept in a bowl of
water. Water was taken from earthen pots. I asked for the fridge doors to be
opened. In the fridge section there was only a Flurys cake box. In the freezer
section two trays of ice. Nothing else was kept inside. I asked the reason. All
six fridges have been purchased for status in the community. To use them is
seen as ‘unclean’. With nothing to chill the thermostat is packing up. There is
no technical defect with the 2 door fridges. We have to educate the customer on
its use.”
Changing Indian habits in sanitation will be an exercise in
education of heath and hygiene, creating awareness, and reorienting the mind
set in keeping the sanitation facility clean. Volunteering at the Gandhi Peace
Foundation, I was asked to demonstrate to school children ways of keeping the
toilets clean. The government had built new modern toilets with bright tiles on
the floors and walls. Upkeep of the toilets was the students’ responsibility.
The school had made a roster. The toilets were soon stinking and flooded. No
student wanted to clean the toilet as it was a social slur. They continued to
use their compound walls to urinate. I engaged a group of forty boys in a Tom
Sawyerish adventure, but I suspect that the novelty wore off with my departure.
Later in all my interactions with the children I would always ask, “will you
clean your toilet?’ The children without hesitation would say ‘no’. ‘Its others
job to clean the toilet.’ The idea was to keep a toilet unused. This was
perceived clean!
Sometime back I read a news item filed by Xinhua that about
74 percent of households in rural China now have access to sanitary
toilets, while in 1993 found only 7.5 percent of households had access to
sanitary toilets. A sanitary toilet in rural China refers to a toilet, under a
roof with walls and a standard digestion tank. It can either be dry or flush. A
national initiative launched in 2004 to improve rural sanitation and combat
infectious disease had seen the central government of China allocate about 8.3 billion
yuan ($1.3 billion) for 21 million rural toilets.
I refer to the China
story because way back in the mid ‘80’s attending conferences in South East Asia, we women always spoke of the condition
of public toilets in our countries. I was amazed when the others rated the
Indian facility far ahead of that in their own countries. Today Indian
Sanitation is deplorable and non existent while Malaysia,
Indonesia, and of course Singapore
have revolutionised their facility.
I have no study to hold up but I would guess that a lot of reservation in using a Sanitation facility
boils down to it being perceived unclean. Which is why all Indian public
toilet floors are doused in water and there is none in the flush cistern. Water
is thrown around as an act of cleaning, purification. Secondly the question of who will clean the unclean facility? The third
reason is as Rukmini S pointed out there has been no awareness created
connecting good sanitation with good health for the family. This is the
carrot.
Convince the mother in the household that using a sanitation
facility will mean her children will enjoy good health which will translate
into good future. Most of the social changes in the last two decades have come
about by influencing the women folk and giving them the benefit picture. We should not make the need for sanitation
a women issue. It’s a national priority and women should be the change agents. Women
will be empowered when the toilet in the home is under their jurisdiction. Would Idea Cellular like to consider giving social
messages with A Bacchaan on ‘no ullu
banowing?’
suraksha
@surakshag11
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