Introduction

Melissa Eswein, globalsolutionspgh.org    July 16, 2014

Have you ever read a news story online that stuck with you, lingering in the back of your mind for the next few days after finishing it? On Tuesday, I shared this article on GSP’s Facebook page (if you haven’t liked the page yet, what are you waiting for?), and two days later, I still don’t think I have fully picked my jaw up off the floor. I knew that sanitation was a problem in India, but in a very abstract way, like it only happened to the extremely poor. It wasn’t until reading that not having access to toilets has made children actually malnourished– children that have access to healthy food and enough to eat—that I realized the gravity of the situation.

Half of India’s population defecate in the open. That is 638 million people. More people have televisions and cell phones than have access to a bathroom. When I read that fact, I had to check to make sure I wasn’t reading a satirical website, like The Onion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. Because so many people defecate in the open, children are exposed to bacteria that causes their growth to be stunted because their immune systems are too busy fighting roundworms and amoebas to support development. About 200,000 children under the age of four die each year. For the children that do survive, they are still impacted by the cognitive damage of lack of sanitation. In one study, six year olds who had access to bathrooms during their first year of life recognized more letters and numbers on tests than those who hadn’t. Later in adolescence, girls often have to drop out of school due to lack of bathroom facilities in school buildings.

Cue my immediate guilt for every time I have ever complained about less-than-meticulously cleaned public restrooms. I think those are bad and most Indian rivers are essentially open sewers because there is not an effective waste treatment system anywhere. Fortunately, over the last two decades, the government has made reversing the sanitation issues a priority by spending Rs1,250 billion on water and sanitation projects. They have been working to pay for more toilets, however, there is still the cultural obstacle of open defecation to overcome.

It may sound strange that once people have access to toilets, they still don’t use them, but it’s happening. In the words of one campaigner: “The government is mechanically releasing the money and targeting toilet construction without paying any attention to community involvement. As a result, most of the toilets, especially in rural areas, are lying non-functional. People use these toilets for storing fodder or cow dung cakes.” Therefore it is the job of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) to change the community’s opinion about the commonly held practice. The group’s goal is to eliminate open defecation by 2017. Another problem surrounds the caste system- many of the poor from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households are restricted to only using community facilities, where women face the risk of abuse.  

The Truth Stinks: India’s Sanitation Problem

Melissa Eswein, globalsolutionspgh.org    July 16, 2014

Have you ever read a news story online that stuck with you, lingering in the back of your mind for the next few days after finishing it? On Tuesday, I shared this article on GSP’s Facebook page (if you haven’t liked the page yet, what are you waiting for?), and two days later, I still don’t think I have fully picked my jaw up off the floor. I knew that sanitation was a problem in India, but in a very abstract way, like it only happened to the extremely poor. It wasn’t until reading that not having access to toilets has made children actually malnourished– children that have access to healthy food and enough to eat—that I realized the gravity of the situation.

Half of India’s population defecate in the open. That is 638 million people. More people have televisions and cell phones than have access to a bathroom. When I read that fact, I had to check to make sure I wasn’t reading a satirical website, like The Onion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. Because so many people defecate in the open, children are exposed to bacteria that causes their growth to be stunted because their immune systems are too busy fighting roundworms and amoebas to support development. About 200,000 children under the age of four die each year. For the children that do survive, they are still impacted by the cognitive damage of lack of sanitation. In one study, six year olds who had access to bathrooms during their first year of life recognized more letters and numbers on tests than those who hadn’t. Later in adolescence, girls often have to drop out of school due to lack of bathroom facilities in school buildings.

Cue my immediate guilt for every time I have ever complained about less-than-meticulously cleaned public restrooms. I think those are bad and most Indian rivers are essentially open sewers because there is not an effective waste treatment system anywhere. Fortunately, over the last two decades, the government has made reversing the sanitation issues a priority by spending Rs1,250 billion on water and sanitation projects. They have been working to pay for more toilets, however, there is still the cultural obstacle of open defecation to overcome.

It may sound strange that once people have access to toilets, they still don’t use them, but it’s happening. In the words of one campaigner: “The government is mechanically releasing the money and targeting toilet construction without paying any attention to community involvement. As a result, most of the toilets, especially in rural areas, are lying non-functional. People use these toilets for storing fodder or cow dung cakes.” Therefore it is the job of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) to change the community’s opinion about the commonly held practice. The group’s goal is to eliminate open defecation by 2017. Another problem surrounds the caste system- many of the poor from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households are restricted to only using community facilities, where women face the risk of abuse.  

Indian railways to have bio-toilets in all trains by 2022

By Tweet, www.deccanchronicle.com   July 22nd, 2014

Picture for representational purposes only Photo by: Photo: PTI/File

New Delhi: Seeking to provide a clean and eco-friendly travel to passengers, railways is planning to eliminate direct discharge type toilets from its entire fleet of passenger coaches and replacing the system with bio-toilets by the end of 2021-22.

Railways is envisaging to eliminate direct discharge toilet system from its entire fleet of passenger coaches by the end of 2012-12, the national transporter has said in a recent report to National Human Rights Commission.

Railways has assured the NHRC that it is making sincere efforts to overcome the problem of falling of human waste from train toilets on rail tracks.

The prevailing open discharge of human waste on tracks is not only corroding the rails, it is becoming a serious environment hazard for the railways.

According to a senior railway ministry official, corrosion costs railways over Rs.350 crore every year.

Continuing its efforts to provide a clean and eco-friendly travel to train passengers, railways has expedited the work of fitting bio-toilets in coaches with over 2,000 of them already installed so far. Railways have about 50,000 coaches.

Railways have installed bio-toilets in 2774 coaches till December 2013. The toilets have been fitted in Sleeper and AC coaches of premier and mail/express trains.

The green toilets not only prevent discharge of excrement on tracks and maintain cleanliness but will also help do away with manual scavenging.

The new-age green toilets have been designed by Railways along with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) keeping in mind the requirements of Indian trains.

The bio-toilets are fitted underneath the lavatories and the human waste discharged into them is acted upon by a particular kind of bacteria that converts human waste into non-corrosive neutral water.

"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with 'lotah' in one hand and 'dhoti' in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.

"This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report! to papers."

One Okhil Chandra Sen had written this hilarious letter to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in 1909. The letter is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi. This letter supposedly led to the introduction of toilets on trains.

Last year on April 13, a Google Doodle celebrated 160 years of the gigantic Indian Railways, which is a treasure trove of such historical nuggets.

For example, how many of us know that the idea of a railway to connect Bombay with Thane, Kalyan and with the Thal and Bhore Ghats inclines first occurred to George Clark, the Chief Engineer of the Bombay government, during a visit to Bhandup in 1843?

The idea took the form of reality and the first railway on Indian sub-continent ran over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay to Thane on April 16, 1853. The importance of the day can be gauged from the fact the Bombay government declared the day as a public holiday.

The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station destined for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles, on August 15, 1854, exactly 91 years before the country was to become Independent.

In 1951, the system was nationalised, making Indian Railways one of the largest networks in the world.

Other interesting facts about Indian Railways

Fastest train

New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India. It covers the 704 km New Delhi - Bhopal stretch in 7 hours 50 minutes. The all air-conditioned superfast train clocks a maximum speed of 150km/h on the Faridabad-Agra section.

Slowest train

The slowest running train in the Indian Railways is the Metupalayam-Ooty Nilgri Passenger Train that runs at the speed of 10 km/hour.

Longest route

Nagpur-Ajni route is the shortest.

Longest non-stop travel

Trivandrum - Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express travels the 528km stretch between Vadodara and Kota non-stop.

Maximum stops

The record for maximum number of stops by an Express/Mail train is held by Howrah - Amritsar Express with 115 halts during its journey.

Shortest station name

Ib, near Jharsuguda in Odisha and Od, near Anand in Gujarat.

Longest station name

Venkatanarasimharajuvariipeta on the Arakkonam-Renigunta section near Chennai.

World's longest platform

Indian Railways has the longest railway platform in the world in Kharagpur. It is 2,733 feet in length.

Longest rail bridge

Vembanad Rail Bridge in Kerala is the longest rail bridge in India covering a stretch of 4.62 km.

Longest tunnel

The longest tunnel of Indian Railways is Pir Panjal Tunnel of length 11.215 km.

Toilets for women: Government to rope in Public Sector Units

Press Trust of India,  Jul 13, 2014.

"We are getting hold of people, the PSUs to come and build toilets (for use by women). It is a priority of this government," she told on the sidelines of a function here.

Asked if were being asked to pitch in across the country, she said, "Yes", adding, it was part of measures to ensure assist PSUs the project as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

The minister, who was here yesterday for a book release, said she would be "very happy" to spend fund allocation under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development scheme to build toilets for use by women.

She also told reporters that the Centre was ready to launch Rape Crisis Centres across the country that would offer a range of support services for women victims of molestation and sexual assault.

"Women have to be given protection through many ways like education, employment, more specialised policing and Rape Crisis Centres," she said, adding the government was working in different ways and through different ministries.She added that women's safety and the specifics were being worked out.