India has world's longest queues for toilets - Business standard

If all the people waiting for household toilets in India were to stand in a line now, the queue would stretch from earth to moon and maybe beyond as no less than 774 million people would be part of it.

That queue would need more than 5,892 years to get cleared assuming that each Indian needs about four minutes in a toilet, an study conducted by international non-profit organisation waterAid on the occasion of World Toilet Day which falls on November 19 shows.

The study which highlights the seriousness of the sanitation problem in India and also the urgent need to end open defecation in the country said that its research showed that with cities growing at an incredible pace with unofficial, un-serviced slums, combined with cultural preferences for open defecation in fields rather than enclosed spaces, means India has the world’s longest queues for toilets.

"The resulting health crisis is a serious matter. More than 140,000 children younger than five years die each year in India from diarrhea. Nearly 40 per cent of India’s children are stunted; this will affect both their life chances and the future prosperity of India," the report said. India also has high rates of maternal and newborn mortality linked to sepsis.

The report shows that the country also had the dubious distinction of most people defecating in the open per square kilometer. With almost 173 people defecating in the open for every square kilometer in the country, the WaterAid report showed that India ranked first in the world in this category.

"That ratio would be the same as 500 people having to defecate in the open in the Square Mile of the City of London, or 15,000 people in Manhattan, New York City," the report showed.

Haiti whose geographical area is less than one percent of total size of India has the second highest number of people defecating in the open per square kilometer at 72.

The WaterAid report also commended Prime Minister's Narendra Modi pet project of 'Swatch Bharat Mission' wherein he plans to make India open defecation free by 2019 and says that the programme has managed to deliver 8 million household toilets in one-year which is no mean achievement given that more than 560 million still defecate in the open.

Infact, nations like Nepal, Togo and Benin, which are much smaller than India have lesser number of people defecating in the open per square kilometers.

The report also shows that from 1990 to 2015 that in  a span of more than 25 years, the two countries world over who have made most improvement in access to sanitation are the tiny Pacific island nation of Tokelau (population 1,400), a territory of New Zealand that now enjoys more than 90 per cent sanitation coverage, and Vietnam, which has now reached nearly 80 per cent of people with sanitation and has become one of Southeast Asia’s fastest growing economies.

Nearly matching Vietnam’s impressive progress is Nepal, which despite being mountainous and landlocked has made incredible strides in both water and sanitation in recent years. 

"But, to succeed, more funding, greater government prioritization at all levels and a focus on changing people’s behavior to ensure everyone uses these new toilets will be required. If just one person continues to defecate in the open, the environment remains polluted for everyone," the report pointed out.

If Clean India (Swatch Bharat Mission) is to succeed, sanitation must be seen as a fundamental human right along with food, education, livelihoods and health, for everyone in the country – including the poorest and most marginalised.

Article Source: Business Standard.