The Government has made sincere efforts in breaking records for toilet construction. But any such move can be successful only when these facilities are actually used. India lags far behind in encouraging its citizens to use toilets

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government’s efforts to drive the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, coupled with its sanitation drive, rested on ensuring the building of more toilets in record time. It is to the credit of the Government that registered substantial improvements in the building of toilets. The Government’s toilet-building drive spurred some not-for-profit institutions and individuals to build more toilets, making the entire effort a truly national one. But did the Government misread the requirement? This uncomfortable question does make us sit up because tremendous amounts of money have been spent on the building of toilets and their publicity.

The question whether the Government got it right or not was fuelled by a recent World Bank report that concluded that mere building of toilets won’t stop Indians from defecating in the open as long as their attitude towards latrines do not change.

The research was conducted by Varun Gauri, Tasmia Rahman and Iman Sen. The researchers surveyed five villages in the Ghazipur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The State has a high burden of open defecation. The first round of the survey was conducted at the household level, across 204 households that owned latrines, between January and February 2017. The second phase was conducted in March 2017. The surveys threw up some interesting findings.

Researchers measured four key aspects of open defecation: Defecation practices, acceptability of open defecation, enforcement of toilet use and notions of purity attached to toilet construction. They found that around 40 per cent of the people, who had toilets in their house, did not use them. Many even associated toilets with gandagi (dirt).

Further, people’s beliefs were closely linked to their perception of what others believed. This means that social norms have a big say on individual attitudes and that more toilets in more homes may not necessarily mean more cleanliness in the environs outside.

The World Bank research has given the authorities and the people of this country an opportunity to understand that proper planning is the need of hour before we embark  on a nation-wide mission, like Swachh Bharat. This research should have been commissioned by the Government before it embarked on this mission that involved millions of taxpayers’ money.

Designing of facilities without creating awareness about it is akin to putting the horse before the cart.  And this is what happened to Swachh Bharat. Our policy-makers should have given it a proper thought before making efforts to build toilets. Desired change in behaviour related to toilet use should have been the first step.

Eliminating open defecation has been a herculean task for India. Since 1970, many programmes have been initiated but all failed to bring the desired result. However, the lessons learnt from the efforts undertaken till date is that reduction of open defecation needs not just access to improved sanitation facilities, but also a serious effort to change mindsets.

In 2014, India had almost 70 per cent of the rural population defecating in the open. To curtail this rampant problem, the Government claimed that around 94 per cent of the rural households have been provided with toilets till date. But the question remains: How many of these toilets are actually being used?

The Government can still turn around the project and get the population to actually use the built toilets. For change to happen, there has to be initiation of sufficient deterrents against open defecation — be it in the form of penalties or other measures of the similar kind.

Countries such as China, too, were grappled with the same problem during the early 1990s but the ambition to catapult itself to the world stage as a developed nation forced the country to adopt tough measures to keep a check on open defecation. Today, the country is almost open defecation free. China is just one of the many examples. There are other countries, too, that India can emulate.

Rural India needs to be open defecation free as quickly as possible due to other pressing problems. Apart from environmental concerns, the issue of open defecation is deeply connected with hygiene problems — diseases and infections. Thanks to open defecation, a number of diseases, that have been expelled from other countries, have raised their ugly heads once again.

Local water bodies and top-soil are the largest sufferers of open defecation while the local population only experiences the resultant health problems. This aspect needs to be brought to the notice of the local villagers in order to increase general awareness.

India can rein in open defecation by launching a nationwide awareness campaign, which is connected with the ever-growing number of new toilets. Strategy must be based on self-respect. Only this can bring instant results. The Government has set October 2, 2019, as the deadline to make India open defecation free. However, if the World Bank reports results are anything to by, it will be clear that the Government needs to give an extra push to heighten awareness among the people about the benefit of using toilets.

(The writer is an environmental journalist)