Re: In Bharat 800 million defecate out in the open
The problems, and some working towards solutions.
***Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak tells the story of a young woman in an Indian village who wrote a letter to her husband, who had gone to the city for a job. “When you come home,” the woman wrote, “do not bring ornaments for me. I would be more pleased if you bring money so we can build a toilet in the house.” Bindeshwar recounts the story to illustrate both a huge public health crisis - the lack of proper sanitations facilities in India - and the growing willingness of people throughout the country to confront a problem traditionally taboo. This story is of special significance to the doctor, who has invented an ingenious and affordable toilet system that addresses both elements of India’s sanitation crisis: the health risk and the costly social effects. “People for the first time saw hope with the alternative that I devised,” Bindeshwar says. “It gave to them, especially women, a sense of privacy and dignity as opposed to the embarrassment involved in open-air defecation.”
More than 700 million people in India have no toilets in their households and defecate in the open or in buckets. It’s estimated that nearly 500,000 people die in India every year from diarrhea-related diseases. Large numbers of Indians - especially children - suffer from other gastro-intestinal disease and worm infestation as a direct result of inadequate sanitation facilities. This deprivation has profound social consequences. In rural villages where the population still defecates in the open, women can relieve themselves only before sunrise or after sunset. Such unnatural restrictions cause physical distress and strip women of their privacy and their dignity, Bindeshwar says***