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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Toilet Day: Women economists urge action by Alka Pande
-IBNS
 
A group of about 35 women economists from different countries of Europe, UK, US, Australia and India, have written an open letter to Prime Ministers and Presidents of South Asian nations, including India, which are facing acute sanitation crisis.

From India, Jayati Ghosh, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Bina Agarwal, Director, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University and Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson Board of Governors, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations have signed the letter.

The letter states: “On the day you are reading this letter 4,000 more children below five will die from diseases caused due to unsafe water and poor sanitation. The number of mortality is much higher than what is caused by diseases like AIDS, Malaria and Measles combined.”

India accounts for 58 per cent of world’s population of open defecators. Though the government records claim that 88 percent of Indian population has access to safe drinking water only 31 per cent are covered under sanitation facilities. According to statistics, the nation has achieved MDG target in water sector but with current rate of progress the nation is feared to miss the sanitation target by 32 years.

Indian minister for Rural Development and Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Jairam Ramesh too says, “Sanitation is the biggest blot on the human development portfolio in India as the sanitation situation is disastrous.”

The situation is so because the states have been unable to use the available funds. For an example, under Total Sanitation Campaign for rural areas, 27 billion rupees remained unutilised whereas 19 billion rupees were not used in the Rural Water Programme in the last fiscal.

Consequently, the nation is paying the cost for not spending on drinking water and sanitation in the form of loss of working days, expenditure on healthcare, school drop outs, malnutrition, anaemia, infant and child mortality. 

The letter has been released on the eve of World Toilet Day along with the latest report ‘Off-track Off-target’ on water and sanitation situation in India, published by the international charity WaterAid. According to the report, there are more people in the world today lacking adequate sanitation services than in 1990.

The report also claims that unless an immediate action is taken India would fail to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing the number of people living without sanitation facilities to half by 2015.

India’s MDG target is to ensure that 86 per cent of the population gets safe drinking water by 2015 and 59 per cent of the population is covered with adequate sanitation by that time.

The Wateraid report also points out that many of the neighbouring nations too are heading towards failure in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As per the present progress rate Pakistan will achieve the MDG goals in 2028, Bangladesh in 2029 and Nepal will meet the target not before 2030.

“To get the sanitation and water MDGs back on track, South Asian countries, which are off track, need to spend at least 1 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on improving sanitation services,” suggests the report. It also calls on countries, which are providing funds to developing nations, to prioritise and double their financial assistance in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector by allocating an annual additional grant of USD10 billion.

“Every year thousands of children die in India due to a lack of adequate sanitation and clean water. While progress has been made, yet we continue to bear the true cost from the failure to ensure basic water and sanitation services. The Government must increase the level of spending on water and sanitation, and donor governments increase the share of aid they spend on water and sanitation, so that all stake holders can work together to turn around the situation,” Indira Khurana, WaterAid’s India’s Director, Policy and Programmes says.

Even the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Government of India data of 2008-09 indicates that the poorest section of the society, especially in the rural areas, is four times less likely to have access to improved sanitation facilities i.e. having a toilet at home, in comparison to rich population.

According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, India has provided sanitation cover to over 200 million people between 1995 and 2008 however the progress has been rated as highly inequitable as it displays exclusion of certain caste and communities.

A research by WaterAid illustrates that the Scheduled Castes (SC) in particular are denied access to water facilities. Even the children from scheduled castes communities are not allowed to drink water from common water sources in schools.

To draw attention of government towards this crisis, WaterAid has joined hands with End Water Poverty Campaign (a campaign involving 190 organisations all across the globe to end the water and sanitation crisis). Together they are organising 50 ‘Crisis Talk Events’ in 20 nations on World Toilet Day today. These talks are to focus on various dynamics of the issue. During these events the local groups are to meet the politicians to discuss the water and sanitation crisis in their respective areas.

A glance at sanitation and water status in India --

· At least 4,861 out of 5161 cities in India do not have even a partial sewerage network.

· Almost 50 per cent of households even in big cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad do not have sewerage connection.

· Only 21 per cent of waste water is treated, as compared to 57 per cent in South Africa.

· In rural areas, about 80 per cent of households the average water supply is less than 5 hours a day and over 70 per cent of the household do not have access to toilets or sewerage system.

· Out of 600,000 villages only 250,000 are free from defecation.