The Curse of Open Defecation

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.