Social and economic development is not possible without basic social infrastructure for human development. Social infrastructure for human need means building a strong foundation of human development towards a dignified life for all. Quality of life, health, hygiene and social environment, largely depend on safe drinking water and proper sanitation. The status of water and sanitation rights of people in rural villages of Odisha shows that these basic human rights have not been realised by a majority of poor people.
Water and sanitation being a State subject, the State Government has not been adequately investing in the sector and also is yet to spell out a water and sanitation policy while the people continue to languish in extreme poverty, landlessness, illiteracy and social discrimination. A recent trend in the State shows that industry, mining and other commercial ventures are being given priority over common people in use of water sources. While privatisation of drinking water accompanying with increasing pollution of drinking water sources in the State is affecting the poorer section, the Government has been shifting its responsibility to market forces and encouraging public-private-partnership in
drinking water and sanitation sector.
This will further deprive the poor of access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The issue of water and sanitation has been a matter of concern and many people’s movements and organizations have been raising this along with international human rights bodies, Supreme Court of India and a number of High Courts including Odisha. The Government on different occasions has been reminded of its prime responsibility to ensure drinking water and sanitation for all as a matter of human rights and constitutional guarantee to all its citizens.
The first National Water Policy in 1987 has put emphasis on drinking water supply. Census report 2011 revealed that less than one-fourth of the total households of the State have water source within their premises and the rest still have to collect water from a distance of half a kilometer. A majority of people in rural areas still depend on open water bodies i.e. river, stream, pond, chua etc as source of drinking water. Mostly women and children are being engaged to fetch water for domestic consumption. The natural drinking water sources are getting polluted due to a number of reasons, including environmental and ecological, which affect the quality of drinking water. Very often it has been reported that water borne diseases are a major cause of poor health of women and children in rural areas. Many of the Government and private schools, Angwanwadi centers (AWC), and a majority of habitations belonging to poor and socially marginalized groups such as SCs and STs and religious minority population in remote rural and tribal areas of the State have no access to safe drinking water and sanitation facility.
In hearing of a PIl in 2011, the Odisha High court gave a direction to the State Government for drinking water provision in AWC, which the latter is yet to comply with. The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in a letter to all Chief Secretaries of States had directed to provide clean drinking water and sanitation facility in all schools across the country in 2012. It asked States to report the status of compliance by June 2014. The Supreme Court observed that inadequate infrastructure such as drinking water and sanitation in schools is a violation of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education of children guaranteed under article 21 A of the Constitution. This year sunstroke claimed 22 lives as reported by SRC but the number is much more. In rainy seasons, mostly the people in tribal and coastal areas, get affected by water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, jaundice, dengue, malaria, chikungunia and typhoid etc. The deceases take a heavy toll of lives, killing children and women in particular. The flood prone and waterlogging areas have serious drinking water problem. The areas having rocky ground, and fluoride, arsenic, iron, salinity, nitrate and other chemical contaminants in water have serious drinking water problem where the Government should put special effort to ensure safe drinking water for the local people. There are 9,000 such habitations affected by water contamination in the State but their basic problem has remained unaddressed. There are also highly polluted industrial and open cast and underground mining belt in the State, where the local people have been facing serious drinking water crisis. The people of Dalit communities face untouchability while accessing drinking water in multi-caste villages.
Even today thousands of Dalit women in rural villages have to wait at tube wells and wells to collect water in queue after the turn of caste Hindu women who wash the tube well to avoid pollution by touch of Dalit women. In spite of civil rights law which says discrimination free access to village water bodies and sources of drinking water, many people face social humiliation and indignity in their everyday life to have drinking water. Government data says out of total 85, 600 SC and ST habitations, only 56 per cent of habitations are covered under rural drinking water supply in the State. The ST and PTG habitations in scattered locations and interior pockets face serious drinking water problem. The SCs and STs are also inadequately represented in public bodies to raise the issues and the mining and industries coming up in their locality largely affecting their sources of drinking water. Though fund is earmarked under SCSP and TSP to spend on drinking water as mandatory but this has not been followed.
India tops in open defecation in the world as reported by WHO and UNICEF. Odisha has a large number of people who are used to open defecation in the absence of proper sanitation facility. Many people wait for late night or early morning to relieve them. This practice has been affecting the privacy and dignity of women in rural villages. The children, sick, elderly people and pregnant women face a lot of problems in the absence of a proper sanitary facility at home. It is unfortunate that a vast majority of people of the State use open space for defecation which is much higher than national average and highest in comparison to other developed States. Many of the schools and AWCs have no toilet facility. The status of elementary and secondary education in Odisha 2012 report says that about 25 per cent of schools in the State have no toilets. A base line survey in 2012 by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitations revealed that about 75 per cent AWCs have no toilet. Poor sanitation is a major cause of ill health, leading to unemployment and poverty in rural villages.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has implemented programmes like Total Sanitation Campaign, Nirmal Gram Puraskar, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and National Rural Drinking Water Programme for ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation. Odisha State Water and Sanitation Mission formed in 2002 has been ineffective in reaching to the rural and tribal areas. States like Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, Assam, Punjab, and West Bengal have shown much progress in the field of water and sanitation. Use of toilet is very much linked to water supply; so sanitation and drinking water programmes have to be converged along with rural housing and electricity at all level.
Private organistions like Sulabha International with support of Government are more known for urban sanitation where as rural sanitation has been neglected in the absence of organized public effort and Government support. The village water supply and sanitation committee should have a major role in ensuring drinking water and sanitation for villages through building village water visioning. 73rd Constitution amendment, 1994, makes provision for assigning the responsibility of ensuring drinking water to Panchayatraj institutions (PRIs). The PRIs should be empowered with legislation and financial support in building clean villages with water and sanitation.
The poor and marginalised communities should get protection to have discrimination-free access to drinking water and sanitation and the State support in water and sanitation sector should continue till the achievement of the mission of water and sanitation for all.
(The writer is a rights activist, who can be reached at ojaabbsr@gmail.com)