Toronto Newspaper Focuses Attention on Lack of Latrines for 650 Million Indians



Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 07, 1999 - Last week’s OPEN LETTER by a fraternal Kashmiri organization to Indian Prime Minister Pundit Atal Bihari Vajpayee published in this column, drawing the Brahmin’s attention away from the phony "war" in Kargil to the plight of 450 million latrine – less Indians (who have to get into a scurrying rush every morning to ‘reserve’ a bush) forced us to look into a subject few Indians care to discuss despite the fact that the matter is one of the most pressing development problem facing India.

An article in the Canadian Newspaper, Toronto Globe and Mail by Jack Stackhouse, has corrected the 450 million figures of Indians without access to basic sanitation. According to the Globe and Mail, which quotes the UN Children’s Fund, 650 million Indian (not 450 million) – more than two thirds of the country’s population – lacks access to latrines. He writes; "In almost any village, town or city, the problem emerges as a crisis every dawn as Indians – women first, then men – head to open fields, ditches or roadsides." He goes on to state that; "The crush of humanity against nature is at its severest in India’s swelling cities. Of 5,000 urban areas across the country, only 300 offer public sewers. Even in the pampered capital, New Delhi, six out of ten persons have no access to sewerage."

Jack Stackhouse’s article salutes an Indian, one Bindeshwar Pathak, who has made India’s night soil, (the contents of millions of Indian privies, canals, ditches and fields that have made the country one of the most unsanitary nations anywhere) his "life". Mr. Pathak’s goal is to cover India’s cities with latrines by 2010 and the rest of the country by 2025, a cause that won him the Vatican’s International St. Francis Prize for the Environment in 1992. For more than 20 years Mr. Pathak and his 30,000 field workers have led a campaign across India to persuade slum dwellers, villagers, travelers, even middle – class office workers to conduct their "business" in private.

The article goes on to state that; "in his fight to introduce basic sanitation to millions of Indians Mr. Pathak’s weapon of choice is the humble latrine – 700,000 of them – which his organization, Sulabh International, has built in 600 towns across the country. By Mr. Pathak’s calculation as many as 10 million Indians a day visit a Sulabh toilet." Says the Canadian newspaper; "Mr. Pathak’s crusade is for the modest outhouse, its magic concealed underground. Under each Sulabh latrine, a basic pipe allows waste to flow 10 to 13 feet to brick – encased pit big enough to absorb two years worth of excreta. The most important part of the technology is the pipe’s design, which requires only about 2 quarts of water to flush waste, a fraction of what a modern domestic toilets uses." One M. P. Mathur of the New Delhi – based National Institute of Urban Affairs was quoted calling it; "A true success story in the field of low – cost sanitation" Some success stories!

If after twenty years Mr. Pathak, a dedicated individual indeed, has been able to cater to only 10 million Indians a day, how long will it take to service the remaining 40 million who are without latrines today- and the number increases by the day? Obviously an international effort at a massive scale is required. It is therefore, suggested that the Brahmin – dominated leadership in Delhi come down from the ivory tower (and the mountains of Kargil where the Indian Army is using Sikhs, Nagas and Gurkhas as cannon – fodder) and appeal to the developed world for help to get them out of this mass excreta into which they are leading themselves.

We Sikhs want no part of this Indian Castocracy where after fifty years of independence 640 million Indians have to roam around the neighborhood (urban and rural) every morning seeking solace behind a culvert, a wall or a bush! We want Khalistan west of the Jumna River.