India’s fight against open defection might meet a road block as four important States — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha — have failed to keep pace with the target.
Together, these four States account for a massive 60 per cent of the people in India who defecate in the open. Unless these States become open defecation-free, India cannot meet their ODF (open defecation-free) goals, says a new analysis by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi-based research and advocacy body.
Though Bihar had been termed as a worst but UP has been identified as lopsided logic in meeting the target.
According to an UN report of 2014, out of one billion people defecating in open in the world, 60 per cent are from India. While India has resolved to meet its goal in 2019, the world has targeted to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of being ODF by 2030.
Director General CSE Sunita Narain said, “It is one thing to build toilets, quite another to ensure they’re being used. Besides motivating people to change, concrete steps — other than those that deter them from defecating in the open — will have to be taken. These will include repairing/rebuilding unusable toilets, and incentivising behavioural change.”
She even disclosed that as per some official report only 20 per cent of toilets are in use while rest are lying idke or being used for other purpose.
Already UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath had announced to free all villages on the banks of river Ganga by October 2 next.
Sunita Narain said that the best part is that the present NDA Government led by Narendra Modi has given the ODF campaign a political colour. It has set a target to to make India ODF by October 2019. This target has made bureaucracy extra hard. But bureaucracy has to understand that focus should be on usage of toilets not building structures.
According to the report, around 54 per cent of the people in rural UP defecate in the open. Of the 6.4 crore households needing toilets in the country, 23 per cent are in UP.
In 2016-17, UP built around 17.41 lakh toilets. However, usage has not picked up due to slow disbursal of funds, rampant corruption, and lack of basic necessities like water especially during summers.
What’s more, the lion’s share of the toilets have been built in villages near the Ganga — leaving the river exposed to the threat of severe contamination from polluted groundwater as well as streams that run into it. The State has spent money on building toilets without giving a thought to managing the excreta, points out the CSE report.
Narain said in UP several villages have become ODF but lack of water during the summer people are forced to go back to field. Besides there are several villages were there are less toilets as per the demand.
Claiming that urbanisation of cities were the main reason for pollution in Ganga and other rivers in UP, she said discharge of effluent in the rivers has polluted these rivers the most.