In rural India and Bangladesh, sanitation values are fast changing. Villages are campaigning against open defecation. Children put flags with names of people they have seen defecating in the open and women refuse to give their daughters in marriages in villages and homes that have no universal sanitation.
Unfortunately, this is not happening in urban areas. Many years ago, when the western railway line was more efficient than the central and harbor line, marriages were arrange with families along the same railway line. Families didn't want their daughters married to households which required women to walk long distances for water; likewise, families who lived on the plains didn’t want daughters married to those who lived on hills… so the story goes.
So then what about urban sanitation?
First of all, in urban areas, traditionally cities never laid sewers under slums as they always believed they would eventually evict the slum dwellers. Secondly, given the sheer volume of faecal matter in dense settlements, digging a pit and defecating is hardly the solution. Access to water and safe management of fecal matter in large volumes does not produce individual focus for solutions. Even if people wanted toilets in their homes, without water, adequate space or disposal mechanism it actually would add hazards to the existing hygiene challenge the urban poor face.
It’s because of these circumstances that the alliance of SPARC, MM, and NSDF are exploring the community toilet concept.
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