Cleanliness and Sanitation

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, BRICS, 30 Nov 2015

Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service

Cleanliness Is next to Godliness is a well-known aphorism that means that you need to be clean in body and mind if you want to approach God. And that is why Gods are also kept in a clean and tidy environment. The churches, mosques, temples and gurudwaras are usually kept clean and spotless. A clean place of worship not only helps one to be close to God but also helps one to meditate properly and to have healthy thoughts.

Keeping the environment clean has also become important in today’s discourse. There is a lot of environmental pollution especially in the so called developing countries which is having a serious impact on the human beings as well as on biodiversity and is leading to the climate change. The issue of the adverse consequences of climate change are today recognised all over the world and are being debated and efforts are ongoing to limit them. The UN had a meeting of its members last year in Lima Peru to consider how the world could contribute in limiting the ill effects of climate change. The action plans of many countries especially the large nations like China, India and USA are to be finalised in the Paris meeting on climate change to be held in December 2015.

India has a lot of poverty and environmental pollution. This is caused by several factors such as development activities of the government, production of electric power and not least by peoples’ attitude of polluting the atmosphere. It is also caused by lack of toilets in the homes of poor people which results in people defecating in the open. A shame for the country in the 21^st century and a source of environmental pollution and disease. Realising its importance, the Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi has initiated a ‘Swatchh Bharat abhiyan’ (movement to keep the country clean) and has declared a plan to construct large number of toilets in order to eradicate this unhealthy practice. Mr Modi has said “It is our social responsibility as citizens of India to help fulfil Gandhi’s vision of clean India by his 150^th birth anniversary in 2019 …’

According to the 2001 census it is estimated that about 600 million people do not have toilet facilities in India. In the absence of toilets people had to go outside in rural areas. But in urban centres there were dry latrines which had to be cleaned by poor people acting as human scavengers. This not only degraded and victimised these poor people it was a health hazard. It is estimated that worldwide about 2 million children suffer from diarrhoeal and about a third of them die due to absence of proper sanitation

In this situation Bindeshwar Pathak born a Maithili Brahmin in Bihar thought about the issue worked in villages to gain first-hand experience. He was appalled by the lives of the Dalits (lower castes) and the injustice and degradation they suffered. To alleviate their plight he started an NGO called Sulabh Swatch Shauchalaya (Clean Toilet Scheme) on 5^th March 1970. The NGO is now known as Sulabh International Social Service Organisation or Sulabh International (SI) in short.

SI has built hundreds of toilets based on a technology called two-pit flush toilet suggested by WHO both in rural and urban centres in India. Toilets have been built not only in villages but also in public places in railway and Metro stations.

19^th November has been declared as the world sanitation day and to mark it Sulabh International called convened a two day seminar. The objective of the Seminar was to discuss the problems faced by people using the existing toilets and how to build more toilets with the help of several corporate houses.

The problems of absence of toilets in homes and attendant problems especially for women were considered threadbare. How to maintain these and keep them clean was also discussed. The benefits that percolated to people in terms of human dignity and health were also highlighted.

Thanks to efforts of this organization and the Indian government’s efforts, the plan of keeping our environment clean and avoiding disease and shame for people who do not have toilets in their homes, is going on fairly well.

It also is in tune with Gandhi’s stress on cleanliness and sanitation. Gandhi had also worked ceaselessly for the emancipation of our lower castes termed by him as Harijans (God’s children) who were poor and suffered exploitation and injustice. Cleanliness also helped in sustaining our environment.

One hopes that policies along these lines are made by governments of and NGOs belonging to other developing countries of the world in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

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Dr Ravi P Bhatia – Educationist and Peace Researcher. Retired Professor, Delhi University. ravipbhatia@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 30 Nov 2015.

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