A Blind Spot In Mission Clean India

By Tehelka Editorial, www.tehelka.com   October 18th, 2014

Occupational hazard Sanitary workers are often exposed to deadly diseases. Photo: Vijay Pandey

In a unique address to the nation on 2 October — Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary — Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his commitment to devote 100 hours every year to sweeping the floor, picking up the waste and dusting his windows. He also urged everybody to do the same so that Indian cities can compete with those in the West. Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti went to the extent of pledging to devote 300 hours annually to the ‘Swachh Bharat’ (Clean India) mission.

When the politicians were celebrating voluntarism, those who spend long hours every day cleaning our cities were conveniently forgotten. No one spoke about how they contribute to keeping the country clean despite facing untouchability and discrimination.

To meet global standards of cleanliness, India needs more than voluntary action. It needs to get rid of the ageold stigma associated with the work of cleaning. And it needs to ensure competitive wages, adequate safety gear and decent healthcare facilities for those who do that for a living.

Very few households in the metros segregate waste into recyclable, biodegradable and non-biodegradable bins. That is mostly done by grossly underpaid, low-caste migrant workers who collect the waste from every house, or by ragpickers. The contribution of ragpickers and sanitary workers to waste management is immense, but the municipal bodies employ only a few of them on a permanent basis. For instance, in New Delhi, most sanitary workers work on a daily wage without any job security. Many have worked every day for up to 15 years, earning only a third of the wages they would have got as permanent employees.

Moreover, the municipal bodies are increasingly outsourcing the job of cleaning to contractors who are likely to employ children at half the minimum wages. Ragpickers comprise the fourth largest section of child labourers in New Delhi, says a study by the National Labour Institute.

According to the World Bank, only the poorest of the poor work with waste, which is considered to be “3-D work” (dirty, dangerous and demeaning) — an American expression for work that combines high difficulty and risk with low status.

Rohit Prajapati of the NGO Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti says that more than 60 percent of the safai karmacharis in Gujarat are employed on a daily-wage basis. “For nearly a decade, the municipalities in Gujarat have not hired new sanitary workers for permanent posts. They are mostly hired through labour contractors, who pay as little as Rs 1,000 per month to women and children who work 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” he says.

Bezwada Wilson of the Safai Karmachari Andolan points out that “caste hierarchy is deeply entrenched in this occupation; the lower the caste, the dirtier the work”. For instance, manual scavenging is done only by Dalits.

For more than a decade, sanitary workers, who constitute a large segment of unorganised labour in India, have been demanding safety gear like gloves and boots, job security and minimum wages. In 2008, sanitary workers in Karimnagar, Telangana, protested by resorting to begging on the streets after the municipality did not pay them for five months. Last year, following a nine-day strike by safai karmacharis, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation agreed to give permanent positions to those who had been slogging for 15 years as temporary workers.

According to Beer Singh, an east Delhi-based labour activist, sanitary workers have never been provided with adequate safety gear even when they are exposed to dangerous and disease-causing waste. “The municipal corporation always comes up with some excuse or the other when we demand protective gear,” he says.

Worse is the plight of domestic workers who clean houses as they get the lowest wages among all unskilled labourers.

So, while it is commendable for the prime minister to enthuse the population by cleaning the streets with a broom, the State should not ignore those who do that for a living. For Indian cities to compete in cleanliness with the cities of developed countries, the wages provided to the sanitary workers will have to be competitive too.

BMC to recover cost from agencies through property tax

By Tehelka Editorial, www.tehelka.com   October 18th, 2014

 

Occupational hazard Sanitary workers are often exposed to deadly diseases. Photo: Vijay Pandey 

In a unique address to the nation on 2 October — Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary — Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his commitment to devote 100 hours every year to sweeping the floor, picking up the waste and dusting his windows. He also urged everybody to do the same so that Indian cities can compete with those in the West. Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti went to the extent of pledging to devote 300 hours annually to the ‘Swachh Bharat’ (Clean India) mission.

When the politicians were celebrating voluntarism, those who spend long hours every day cleaning our cities were conveniently forgotten. No one spoke about how they contribute to keeping the country clean despite facing untouchability and discrimination.

To meet global standards of cleanliness, India needs more than voluntary action. It needs to get rid of the ageold stigma associated with the work of cleaning. And it needs to ensure competitive wages, adequate safety gear and decent healthcare facilities for those who do that for a living.

Very few households in the metros segregate waste into recyclable, biodegradable and -biodegradable bins. That is mostly done by grossly underpaid, low-caste migrant workers who collect the waste from every house, or by ragpickers. The contribution of ragpickers and sanitary workers to waste management is immense, but the municipal bodies employ only a few of them on a permanent basis. For instance, in New Delhi, most sanitary workers work on a daily wage without any job security. Many have worked every day for up to 15 years, earning only a third of the wages they would have got as permanent employees.

Moreover, the municipal bodies are increasingly outsourcing the job of cleaning to contractors who are likely to employ children at half the minimum wages. Ragpickers comprise the fourth largest section of child labourers in New Delhi, says a study by the National Labour Institute.

India's sanitation crisis needs innovations to work

news.oneindia.in   October 12th, 2014

New Delhi, Oct 12: A staggering 70 percent of people in rural areas and 13 percent in urban India defecate in the open: astounding figures that are a pointer to the fact that a country which is galloping ahead in all other fields is lagging in a very basic area - sanitation.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi through his Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign) has promised to build 100 million toilets across the country, experts say the money will not be well spent unless it's accompanied by a massive awareness campaign involving the government, non-profit groups and citizens.

According to Nikhil Dey, who has worked extensively in rural areas of India: "So far the toilets have been given to people who did not even have basic amenities like water or pucca (permanent) houses". "In a place like rural Rajasthan, where women have to walk at least three kilometres to fetch water, they would not want toilets in their houses as it would be their responsibility to keep them clean," the noted activist told IANS.

For Bindeshwar Pathak of Sulabh International, a pioneer in the field of sanitation, the government's strategy so far has been flawed as it addressed the issue from bottom to top instead of top to bottom.

"Till now most of the schemes have focussed on providing toilets to the poor or the below poverty line (BPL) people. It is difficult for the poor, who do not have land to build the houses. Instead the rich should have been targeted first," Pathak told IANS.

Agreeing with this school of thought, Urban Development Secretary Shankar Agrawal told IANS: "What went wrong in the earlier schemes was that we did not ensure that the toilets had necessary things for smooth operation like water."

"So, most of the toilets started being used for storage purposes. The quality of construction was also poor. Apart from this, the beneficiaries were also never consulted," Agarwal added.

Agrawal, who is in-charge of the Clean India campaign in urban India, says the government has never launched any such campaigns in urban areas earlier. "This time, we have decided to give Rs. 4,000 incentive to people for building individual toilets. All forms have to be submitted online," he told IANS.

He said that while 50 percent of the money would be given to beneficiaries after the scrutiny of forms, the rest would be given after the toilets are built and photographs sent to the ministry. Pathak said that while building toilets under schemes like the Nirmal Bharat campaign, the government had ignored the quality of construction and the technology used.

"Most of the villages had one-pit toilets built which were of no use after some years as the pits made were too small," he said.

"Even the villages which were awarded for building the maximum number of toilets have not maintained the momentum now".

According to Agrawal, this time the government is ensuring that a "standard design" is followed everywhere. "We will have a look at all the good contractors, the list of whom will be finalized by the urban local bodies."The situation in India is so bad that open defecation is more common than in poorer countries such as Bangladesh, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Burundi and Rwanda.

According to data released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) from a survey conducted in 2012, only 32 percent of rural households have their own toilets and less than half of Indian households have a toilet at home.

There were more households with a mobile phone than with a toilet, the survey revealed. In fact, the last census data reveals that the percentage of households with access to television and telephones in rural India exceeds that of households with access to toilet facilities.

According to the World Bank, India's sanitation deficit leads to losses worth roughly six percent of its gross domestic product by raising the disease burden. Unicef says poor sanitation impairs health, leading to high rates of malnutrition and productivity losses.

 

Children are more affected than adults as the rampant spread of diseases inhibits their ability to absorb nutrients, thereby stunting their growth.

Why India's sanitation needs more than toilets

www.bbc.com   October 6th, 2014

More than 500 million Indians defecate in the open

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, vowed to eliminate open defecation, India took notice. After all, it was unusual for a prime minister to use the bully pulpit in India to exhort people to end this appalling practice and build more toilets.

A staggering 70% of Indians living in villages - or some 550 million people - defecate in the open. Even 13% of urban households do so. Open defecation continues to be high despite decades of sustained economic growth - and despite the obvious and glaring health hazards.

The situation is so bad that open defecation is more common in India than in that are poorer countries such as Bangladesh, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Burundi and Rwanda.

But building toilets may not be enough to end open defecation in India,  new study has found.

A team of researchers asked people in 3,235 rural households in five north Indian states where they defecate and their attitudes to it. 

Some 40% of Indians live in these states - Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. They also account for 45% of households without a toilet. Also, a third of all people worldwide who defecate in the open live in these five states.

The study found that people in households with working toilets continue to defecate in the open, and that toilets provided by the state are especially unlikely to be used. "In short," the study says, "we find that many people have a revealed preference for open defecating such that merely providing latrine access without promoting latrine use is unlikely to importantly reduce open defecation."

The study found open defecation is very common, even in households with toilets. Toilet use did not necessarily increase with prosperity: in Haryana, one of India's richest states, most people in the villages continue to defecate in the open. Also, men living in households with toilets are more likely to defecate in the open than women. 

Why do so many Indians still prefer not to use toilets, even if they are available? The survey found a range of replies - most said they found it "pleasurable, comfortable, or convenient". Others said it "provides them an opportunity to take a morning walk, see their fields and take in the fresh air". Still others regarded open defecation as "part of a wholesome, healthy virtuous life".

India needs a massive campaign on toilet use 

"Building toilets is not enough. What you need is a widespread motivation and information campaign," says Dr Bindeshwar Pathak of Sulabh, a non-profit organisation which has built 1.3 million household toilets in villages. 

MP and writer Shashi Tharoor says Indians also have a cultural problem when it comes to sanitation: "We are a nation full of people who live in immaculate homes where we bathe twice a day, but think nothing of littering public spaces, spitting on walls, dumping garbage in the open and urinating and defecating in public, because those spaces are not 'ours'."

So how do you promote behavioural and cultural change?

India, researchers say, "needs a massive campaign to change sanitation preferences" and promote toilets by linking sanitation behaviour with health. One of the ways it can be done is by raising an army of sanitation workers and campaigners in the villages to spread the message. Punishment can also help, within reason: In a part of Haryana where Sulabh has built 100 household toilets a village council chief fines people caught defecating in the open. 

Imaginative designs could also help: Sulabh has designed an open roof toilet to incentivise men who feel claustrophobic in the confines of a toilet, although it is not clear how this will work in bitter winters or monsoons. Women could possibly be persuaded to help with education efforts - studies show that they are likely to use toilets more than the men. "I know of women in villages who stay up all night to take their daughters to defecate outside," says Dr Pathak. 

Mr Modi has announced plans to build more than 100 million toilets in the country to end a shameful practice. But many believe the money will not be well spent unless it's accompanied by a massive awareness campaign, involving the government, non-profit groups and citizens.