The Curse of Open Defecation

Sep 19, 2017 | Civic Planning, Environment Protection | 0 comments

When you look for an apartment or paying guest room for yourself, following questions are mostly in our checklist

“Is washroom attached? “

“Do I have to share it with the fellow flat mate or roommate “.

Most of us reject the room/apartment if washroom isn’t attached or if we have to share it with someone else.

Now imagine this

You are sharing your toilet with 40 to 50 people at a time.

Imagine you are doing it in front of opposite gender in open.

To the top of it, the place where you defecate is located a kilometer away from your house.

Fecal contamination causes death of 200,000 children every year.

Sound horrible? Yes because it is horrible.

Such is the story of Jai Hind camp, a slum near the posh area of Vasant Kunj.

I assure you the people living there are made up of same DNA as yours.

I was there for baseline survey when I got chance to Interact with the community leader Fatima.

Quiet recently FORCE has constructed Community Toilet Complex over there with intervention of DUSIB. Fatima   was thankful for that but due to non provision of electricity, the toilet isn’t working yet.

Fatima is working hard to get BSES agree to provide electricity to the toilet complex in her area.

Meanwhile she revealed some heart melting details to me, like

“How their legs are full of insect bites” , “How common are there the diseases like diarrhea, intestinal worm infections, etc.”

She further added that women go for toileting under cover of darkness.

Teary eyed Fatima goes saying “open defecation is a curse”.

Being a community leader she is strong woman though, and is positive that Toilet complex soon would be working.

Toilets must be demand-driven, and the demand can come from women like Fatima. 

Open Defecation Free or Free Open Defecation?

Aug 23, 2017 | Civic Planning, Environment Protection | 0 comments

How many of you went to watch the movie”Toilet-Ek Prem Katha”? May be most of you have watched already,since the movie has already Collected above 100 Crore INR at Box Office. It must be worth a watch. I suppose it is posing threat to new releases. That is that. But how many of you read about Twinkle Khanna’s tweet the other day?

Neither movie nor its profit/threats concerned me. It was the picture shared by Twinkle Khanna which was actually of a concern.

Twinkle Khanna shared her Selfie pointing towards a man openly and freely defecating on the beach, captioning the picture as “Good morning and I guess here is the first Scene of Toilet Ek Prem Katha part 2”.

According to the follow up tweets from the actress it was further implied that the place has ODF certification and she further said “The public toilet is a 7-8 minute Walk from this particular spot…”

You might just laugh it off, or you might just roast Twinkle Khanna for her Sardonicism. But it is the sad truth thrown in our faces.

“One billion people worldwide still practice “open defecation.” India alone has an estimated 600 million people defecating openly, according to a study by the United Nations.India leads the world in open defecation,contaminating drinking water sources.(As per leading newspaper)

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the “Clean India” campaign, which aims to end open defecation by October 2, 2019 and promises to install 75 million toilets across the country.

We at FORCE have been working regarding sanitation problem since last 10 Years and we have the on ground experience regarding the sanitation problems faced by people dwelling in slums. Sometimes it is not the lack of facilities that man is compelled to defecate openly but sometimes it is just the Habit; there is no shame or guilt in people when they defecate openly, because it is Normal for them(Main Madaan Ho k Aaya hoo).

I don’t know what were the actual reasons which compelled that person to choose the beach for the byproducts of his digestion. The beach is something we imagine as our holiday destination, where we look at vast ocean and realize how tiny we are and yet so powerful, and where we go to seek peace of mind and feel Close To nature(by watching something pleasant to eyes, not something sore).Beach offers something for every taste, but that does not mean we should exploit it with our degradable or non-degradable waste.

India is a developing country, we, as citizens are equally responsible for the development of the country .Development of a nation is not the concern of government only; it should be concern for all of us. Rather than roasting Twinkle Khanna or Government, we should take right steps to ensure that India is open defecation free by 2019.