Behavioural Change holds the key

The role of media especially cinema has been instrumental in bringing about a change in people’s attitude towards sanitation and hygiene. Many celebrities in India are promoting Swachh Bharat Mission through advertisements, promotional videos, public events and even through commercial films

Some time back a film titled, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, was released. It was a commercial venture in support of government campaign to ameliorate the sanitation situation in the country. Keshav is the lead character in the film and his wife leaves him when he fails to construct a toilet in their home. And he says “Lovers built the Taj Mahal for their love. But I couldn’t build a loo”. This is a film but we keep coming across stories like girl refusing to marry in a family which does not have a toilet or women walking out of wedding because of lack of similar facility at home. Toilet ‘revolution’ is here to stay and a kind of consciousness is emerging across the country that it is indeed required for sanitation and health.

Flagship Scheme SBM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lately claimed that sanitation coverage has gone up to eighty per cent from 34 per cent and that ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ is playing a critical role in creating a healthy India. He said that cleanliness is considered to be first necessity for a healthy life. We initiated the campaign to construct toilets at home. This campaign for cleanliness is being taken forward successfully by 125 crore people of the country. He said
“look at its results. Sanitation coverage has gone up from 38 per cent to around 80 per cent. So if it was 40 per cent it has (it means) doubled. More than 3.5 lakh villages have declared themselves open defecation free in India.” He also referred to UNICEF study and
said that villages which have become open defecation free, on an average per family Rs 50,000 is being saved which would have been otherwise used for other works.

Warning from WHO

On October 1, World Health Organisation (WHO) launched the first global guidelines on sanitation and health. It warned that “the world will not reach the goal of universal sanitation coverage – where every person in the world has access to toilets that safely contain excreta – by 2030, unless countries make comprehensive policy shifts and invest more funds in sanitation”. The new guidelines set out four principal recommendations
which are: Sanitation interventions should ensure that entire community has access to toilets that safely contain excreta, the full sanitation system should undergo local health risk assessments to protect individuals and communities from exposure to excreta – whether from unsafe toilets, leaking storage or inadequate treatment of waste, sanitation should be integrated into regular local government-led planning and service provision to
avert the higher costs associated with retrofitting sanitation and to ensure sustainability, the health sector should invest more and play a coordinating role in sanitation planning to protect public health. Undoubtedly, India has elevated the challenge to end open efecation to the highest level. ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ is coordinating action across many
sectors to ensure that basic sanitation rapidly reaches and improves the lives of millions. If we look at the data available on the portal of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin),Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, it says that 871.87 lakh household toilets have been constructed since October 2, 2014. As on date 4,465 villages along Ganga River, 25 states/union territories and 530 districts have become open defecations free (ODF). At the same time ‘Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban)’ Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs,
portal says that the construction of 50,71,725 Individual toilets and 3,95,200 Community and Public Toilets have been completed in cities.

Making villages ODF

In 1937, Gandhiji, while replying to a letter received from Birbhum, Bengal, wrote, “An ideal village will be so constructed as to lend itself to perfect sanitation.” India just completed seventy years of its independence; we need to look back and take stock of the situation so far as sanitation is concerned. The flagship program of PM Modi Swachh Bharat Mission is
making strides and inching towards declaring all villages ODF. SBM has completed three years and will culminate in October 2019. According to government statistics rural sanitation coverage has gone up from 39 per cent to 67 per cent in three years and over
230 million people in rural India have stopped defecating in the open. Five states, 186 districts and over 2,31,000 villages have been declared as ODF.

Behavioural change and awareness

The spurt in construction of toilets is important but more important is behavioural change. There comes the issue of raising awareness of the need of sanitation and usage of toilets. There has been a significant policy shift that if from output to outcome i.e., from
number of toilets built to the number of villages declared ODF. ODF signifies the entire village unit making this commitment. Specially in rural India, there is increasing realisation that in addition to the violation of dignity, especially that of women and girls,
open defecation significantly adds to the disease burden, especially of children below the age of five. The task is ominous. You can build physical infrastructure like roads, bridges and power plants but it is quite a different ball game altogether to engage millions to fight against the centurie sold practice of open defecation. That is the biggest challenge SBM faces while carrying out one of the largest behaviour change campaigns in recent history,
mainly through effective information, education and communication (IEC). Once a village declares itself as ODF, verification of the status becomes key. SBM guidelines provide a ninety day window from the date of ODF declaration. It also allows processing of any gaps
or errors in ODF status to be rectified. At the moment, 56 per cent villages have been verified. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has recently issued policy guidelines to accelerate the verification process, stating that state governments will be eligible for release of the second instalment of central funds only if they have fully verified all their ODF villages. SBM has put in place a strong mechanism of verification at district and state levels. At the national level too, the Ministry carries out separate checks as
well as third party sample surveys by independent organisations. A national survey of 1,40,000household done in May-June 2017 by the Quality Council of India found that national usage of toilets was 91 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lately claimed that sanitation coverage has gone up to eighty per cent from thirty four per cent and that ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ is playing a critical role in creating a healthy India. He said that cleanliness is considered to be first necessity for a healthy life

Slip-back has to be stopped

Sustainability is crucial for SBM. That is what will separate SBM from earlier programs. It is quite possible that villages may slip back to open defecation because of old habits.
Already media reports have appeared showing that even in the villages which have been declared ODF, people are not using toilets and still venturing into open fields to relieve themselves. We have miles to go before the targeted goal of making the country ODF could be achieved. Only hope is that citizens will engage with the programs to make
it a success. The acceleration over the next one year to achieve the desired result is going to be the key. One hopes that momentum is maintained and we are able to stop the ‘slip-back’ both in rural and urban areas.