Sanitation And Hygiene In India

India desires to be one of the fastest growing economy in the world. India is doing all it can to improve the GDP, and to improve the other economic factors involved in the same. Meanwhile, the sanitation and hygiene in India is dreadful. Around 450 million people relieve themselves in public places such as parks, railway tracks, playgrounds, roadside, behind trees etc. There are about 150 million urban dwellers in India and they do not have proper sanitation facilities.

The World Bank had released a statement that said that one in ten deaths in India could be related to a sanitation related issue.

Almost 44 million children have stunted growth due to the unsanitary conditions of their life. And about 3 lakh children die due to diarrheal diseases, according to the World Bank.

What has the Indian Government done to face the situation?

The Indian Government in 2014 announced that it pledges to eradicate open defecation by 2020. This was done so to mark the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi according to whom, sanitation was more important that political freedom. Authorities have also allocated 29 billion dollars to conduct a nationwide program. In which, the authorities claim to have built upto 49 million household toilets with an aim to construct 69 million more. The authorities also announced that they will give every family that constructs a toilet an amount of 12000rs.

The authorities have always been doing all that they can to not let people defecate in the open. In every highway, the traveller is allowed to use the bathrooms in the petrol bunks. A person is allowed to use the bathrooms in restaurants in case of emergencies and the management of the restaurant can not deny the person access. And yet, the people of India prefer to defecate in the open. Many walls on the streets are riddled with humiliating phrases about people who defecate in the open and yet people do it.

A survey by the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics in 2014 found that in 40% of households with a working toilet, at least one family member preferred to defecate outside.

What more can the government do? They have given cash to build toilets, they are giving cash for building toilets. People are using all of these resources, building the toilets and yet defecate in the open. The people of India, do not have enough awareness on the risks of defecating the open and they are also negligent of the fact that what they are doing is not healthy for them and the society as a whole.

A country like India, which has tremendous man power, needs healthy man power and this can be achieved only through proper sanitation and hygiene. And this is not the sole responsibility of the government but also the citizens. Everything from a little spit to open defecation needs to be eradicated to maintain a sanitary and a hygienic society.