The battle for toilets and minds
Article talks about the one of the major shortcomings of Total Sanitation Campaign.
One of the major problems is that villages build toilets and get the Nirmal Gram Puraskar but the problem of sanitation is not solved as they don't use the built toilets. Some of the reasons given are:
- “It is much healthier to go in the open,”
- “For the new daughter-in-law or for emergencies, you need a toilet. Otherwise, taking a walk in the fresh air is much better for health.”
Sangita Vyas and Ashish Gupta of the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (r.i.c.e.), led a Sanitation Quality Use Access and Trends (SQUAT) survey in 13 districts of the five States of Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.They found that
- a full 40 per cent of households in the sample that had a latrine had at least one person who was still defecating in the open.
- Of those who had a toilet but defecated in the open, 74 per cent gave “pleasure, comfort, and convenience” as the reason for this, and another 14 per cent said it was because of “habit, tradition, and because they have always done so.”
- Undoubtedly, the majority of people who defecate in the open are not doing it for pleasure; in the survey, of the persons defecating the open, 86 per cent did not have toilets.
- The findings also show that just building toilets without focussing on behaviour change is not going to be enough, the researchers say.
Since India’s sanitation problem has been diagnosed as a lack of access to toilets, the official sanitation policy has been uniquely focussed on building toilets. However, the survey findings also show that the lack of money to build a toilet is not the only thing that is holding rural households back from building toilets; large parts of the population do not seem to have as yet made the association between good health and using toilets.
There has been research showing that stunting in children is related to open defecation. But less than half of all households in the survey which did not have a toilet believed that children would be a lot healthier in a village where no one defecated in the open. As a result, families are unlikely to build a basic toilet that they can afford at their stage of development.
Eliminating open defecation requires a focus on behaviour change — not construction — and commit to learning and tinkering with new behavioural solutions.
Question for mains:
Total Sanitation Campaign seems to be achieving its goal if we consider the number of toilets constructed but open defecation still remains a problem. Comment.
The new urban agenda
The new BJP government has outlined an urban agenda to make cities “symbols of efficiency, speed and scale.” To achieve this, it plans to
- prioritise housing and public transport,
- build 100 new cities,
- use technology to improve urban services, and
- make development sustainable.
About 95 per cent of the 18.78 million-unit housing shortage still affects the lower income groups. The question is: will this government succeed where the previous one failed? The proposal to reduce interest rates on home loans, and rope in private companies to invest in housing as part of corporate social responsibility requirements, are good initiatives. However, these will not deliver unless the incentives are strictly tied to the actual creation and delivery of affordable housing.
Instead of building new cities in distant places around a single industrial activity, the present proposal is to build them either as a satellite city or a twin city near existing metros in order to ease urban pressure. Would this simple extension of cities fare well when compared with alternatives such as the city-cluster approach followed by China.
Building a new city on the periphery of an existing one is a plausible solution but without a regional approach, better distribution of the urban population and the efficient integration of the hinterland will not become possible. A standardised urban growth template also will not work for all situations. The plans have to go beyond a city-centred approach, and comprehensively include larger areas around them. It will help
- integrate greenfield development with an existing city,
- enable the networking of small urban centres in the vicinity using rapid transit systems,
- use land optimally, and
- protect ecological assets.
Urban governance is another major area of concern. The success of the government’s policies will depend on how well they bridge the distance between intention and implementation.
The monsoon arrives
Two important points in the article:
- date of onset is not quite an indicator of how the rainy season will shape up.
- While most of the severe droughts over India have occurred when there was an El Niño, only about 43 per cent of the El Niño events that occurred over 126 years (from 1880 to 2005) resulted in deficient monsoon rains.
The recent attacks and killings in Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya by armed non-State groups represent a challenge and test for the Narendra Modi government and the need to understand the frustrating complexities of the North-eastern region.
Things are not being made easy after strident demands by the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from Assam to rid the State of “Bangladeshis,” a phrase that many from the minority community say is aimed at targeting them, irrespective of nationality, and one that can swiftly turn into a security nightmare not just for governments in Delhi and Dispur, but also for ordinary people caught up in a storm. For a moment, the “Bangladeshi” issue has moved away from the headlines because of other events that have captured public attention.
Some of the complexities are:
While the principal militant factions have been sitting at the negotiating table with New Delhi or in “designated camps” for years, be it the Nagas, Assamese, Karbis, Bodos and Garos, they are being sharply challenged by smaller, more violent, breakaway factions. Armed with new weapons which are easily available in the illegal small arms markets in the region, combined with new technology and better connectivity, these groups are demonstrating the seamless manner in which they can move across State borders.
There is another process that the Modi government will be aware of — that of manufactured consent. In a region like the North-east, where few groups actually constitute a numerical majority the State has been involved in unending and fatiguing efforts to deal with a cycle of demands, counter-demands, agitations and resolutions. This has dominated the political discourse in the region. Thus, almost every State experiencing conflict is witness to a non-violent process by a group demanding greater powers — such as for a community or group of communities, putting forth an overall set of political demands such as greater autonomy or a separate State. Yet, this runs almost in parallel with violent movements for, ironically, either similar demands or, going a step further, for “independence.”
In almost every movement, “outsiders” have been targeted — whether it is those from another State, of a different linguistic or ethnic group or the so-called “Bangladeshis.” Yet, today, in almost every State, major armed organisations which have thrown challenges to Delhi over the past six decades have abandoned the gun and are either negotiating with the Centre or engaging in ceasefire.
Yet, agreements and semi-agreements have been the pattern in the region. These have a history of spawning breakaway groups which claim to be “anti-talks,” yet want to be at the table with the big boys; they hit hard at easy targets, showing the difficulties that police and other forces face in moving through difficult terrain. The smaller groups too want a share of the funds flowing into the region and the power that goes with it.
Political will is critical to dealing with this. Small States like Meghalaya have been adversely hit by the disinclination of both government and Opposition leaders in taking a tough line on the “boys” in the Garo Hills. Earlier Chief Ministers had demonstrated political courage, authorising crackdowns that forced Khasi and Garo groups to the negotiating table. It is also not a mere coincidence that the armed groups concentrate on the coal-rich areas of the Garo Hills where extraction is highly profitable and where prominent political figures are said to have business interests.
Thus, a pattern has emerged over the past decades — New Delhi, to use a BJP catchphrase, has always tried to appease the largest group agitating or fighting for a cause or one which is prepared to talk. It has not tried to resolve the core issue or issues which involve a broader and deeper dialogue with other groups, and with non-government and civil society figures, scholars and organisations. Without that kind of work, through mediators and counsellors, no agreement can work or last.
The Centre should not be diverted by recent events and instead concentrate on speeding up the prolonged Naga negotiations (now on for nearly 18 years). Other negotiations also need to be pursued with vigour and vision.
The Modi government must send a clear and unambiguous message to its members and followers that they cannot take law into their hands over the issue of “Bangladeshis.” This could spread fear, tension, mistrust and worse in Assam. Due process must be followed — otherwise there is acute danger of violence, tragedy and abuse of human rights just because of a person’s religion.
The media must play a sober role in this because definitions of “Bangladeshis” are often blurred and arbitrary. We need to abide by the recent judgment in the Meghalaya High Court which, while stating the obvious, defined a Bangladeshi as someone who came to India after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Many tend to look at much earlier cut off dates in their search for “illegal migrants.”
New Delhi needs to inform all State governments in the region — whichever the party — that the murder of innocents, of whichever ethnicity, religion or language group, and the abuse of rights by armed groups (or security forces) and local thugs is unacceptable. Such violations need to be met with a cabrated robust response aimed at showing results in a specific time frame.
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