Freedom at
midnight
We always complain about how dirty our towns are, but have
you ever bothered to find out why? Or done anything about it? Someone did.
Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak |
At the stroke of
the midnight hour, on August 14, 1947, India awoke to freedom. Sorry, not quite everyone.
A certain section of people were, and still are, enslaved in the sub-human task of
scavenging, that is, manually cleaning and carrying human excreta.
What if it was you? Scavenging
is hereditary and everybody born in the sub-caste of scavenger or bhangi is
destined to take up this hateful practice. Bhangis are treated as outcasts and
‘polluting’ people — whatever that is! They are the poorest of poor in
society.
Yeh mera India:
Out of 950 million people in India, 700 million either defecate
in the open, or use dangerously filthy bucket- or dry-latrines, where they can be easily
infected. Out of about 4,800 towns in India, only 300 have sewers, but not fully!
The cost of building and maintaining sewer systems is very expensive in a densely
populated country like India.
Dr Pathak to the rescue: In 1970, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, a serious follower
of Gandhiji, launched the Sulabh Sanitation Movement to destroy this cruel practice. He
wanted to give back dignity to half a million scavengers and create environmental
cleanliness.
Dr Pathak developed a low-cost system called the ‘two-pit pour flush toilet’
and named it Sulabh Shauchalaya. Excreta could now be cleaned without actually handling
human waste, and it saved precious water too by using only 2 litres of water for flushing,
instead of the 10-15 litres needed in the normal system. Sulabh became a huge success.
No more scavenging:
About 37,000 scavengers have been freed from their inhuman task.
240 towns have been made scavenging-free, and about 8,00,000 Sulabh Shauchalayas have been
constructed.
Mahatma Gandhi
|
After setting up neat and clean toilet complexes and liberating
scavengers, Sulabh has set up a number of vocational training institutes throughout the
country where freed scavengers and their children can learn new skills to earn a different
livelihood.
Sulabh has set up an English medium school in Delhi for children of the poor.
"More than half the children are from scavenger families. We provide free education
and make sure that there is no discrimination amongst them," explains Mrs Sheel
Prasad, the principal. Thanks to Sulabh, these children have a bright future ahead of
them. Kavita, a student of class VII was inspired by a visit from Ms Kiran Bedi and wants
to become a police officer. Twelve-year old Rajbir wants to become a cricketer. No more of
the shame and suffering that their ancestors had to face.
 |
| About half a million scavengers or bhangis,
the most poor and exploited people of india, still clean dry toilets with their bare
hands |
Wah Sulabh! Sulabh has persuaded a large number of important persons like judges,
politicians, ministers, journalists and social workers to adopt one scavenger family each
and help them to get jobs and other benefits, besides social recognition.
Soon, you may no longer have to screw up your nose or go green in the face every time
you go to an Indian railway station. Sulabh operates and maintains about 100 Shauchalaya
complexes at important railway stations. The Indian railways are so impressed by their
efficiency and cost-effectiveness that they are seriously considering handing over to them
the maintenance of lavatories and compartments in important trains, cleaning of platforms,
and the running and maintenance of loos in waiting-rooms.
And, hold your breath. Now you can use your very own poo as fuel. Sulabh has converted
human excreta into biogas! Sulabh biogas is being used to cook food, heat water and light
street lamps.
A museum of
toilets??!#@!We, at
Gobar Times, were amused and curious when we first heard of the Sulabh Museum of Toilets
in Delhi. We went to take a leak...er...look. Housed in two rooms in the Sulabh
International complex, this quaint museum is a treasure house of fascinating facts, and
has an assorted collection of everything to do with toilets through the ages.
Did you know that the Manusmriti Vishnupuran, an ancient Sanskrit text written around
1500 B.C. has shlokas on toilet manners — right down to how far away from
drinking water sources you should ‘do it’! Or that the largest public toilet
ever built is by Sulabh, at Shirdi Sai Baba’s complex?
As far back as 431 BC, in Athens, Greece, there were scavengers whose work it was to
dump all the waste at the outskirts. In medevial Germany, people used to throw their shit
on passers-by on the street below ‘just for fun’. Yucky Holi! And in case you
were wondering why the toilet seat is called the throne, you can take a look at the model
of Louis XIII’s toilet.. Shaped like a throne, the monarch sat on it while presiding
over his court. Talk about a hardworking king!
"Started in 1994, the museum’s aim is to get people interested in issues of
sanitation", says R K Sinha, the curator, "No better way of doing this than by
amusing them". Over the years, the museum has collected every possible trivia related
to toilets from around the world.
What better way for the French to express their hatred for the English than to make a
toilet designed as a collection of huge books, with titles by — Shakespeare,
of course! Are you always travelling? The portable potty is for you, complete with toilet
paper and soap. Or what about the ultimate high-tech microwave potty? All your gunk gets
incinerated to a spoonful of ash in an instant! No smell, no pollution. Unfortunately, its
a very expensive way of getting rid of our waste.
Do you suffer from constipation or diarrhoea? Take help from the Su-jok therapy
of Dr. Sir Park of Korea, by taking a pencil or blunt object and tracing it along the palm
of your hand — clockwise to ease the pressure, or anti-clockwise to turn it on,
depending on your condition!
As the Kobe Appeal of the Kobe International Toilet Symposium in 1993 says that its
high time we did not treat the subject as a taboo, and brought about a ‘toilet
culture’ for a healthier environment |
| WHOSE RIVER? |
 |
This is a true story, Villages around the famous tiger
reserve of Sariska in Rajasthan, had always faced droughts and water shortages. So the
villagers along with an NGO, decided to build small check dams called johads to trap
rainwater. The men and women
of all the villages gave voluntary labour and even contributed their own money to build
the johads. The water table slowly began to rise. Forests began growing again. 
One day after ten years of hard work, the efforts of the villagers was rewarded. Suddenly,
after the monsoons, a river that was dry throughout the year started to flow. There was
now enough water for people, animals and the fields. Everyone was happy, until one day...
A fat man came from Jaipur, and showed the villagers a permit from the
government babus, that allowed him to catch all the fish in the newborn river. The
villagers  were very angry.
How could they allow a stranger to come and benifit from all their hard work?
By law all surface water (rivers, ponds, lakes etc) belong to the government. The villagers think
otherwise. The case still goes on.
Fundung |
 |
|
A
Down To Earth Supplement
