Toilet technology 'saves' women

2008-07-02 19:12

Betwa Sharma

New York - Usha Chaumar was seven-years-old when she began collecting human excrement with her mother in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.

By the age of 10 she had married and, with her mother-in-law, continued going from house to house performing this demeaning task.

"They used to call me 'Bhangi' (part of the lowest of Indian castes) and treat us badly," Chaumar, now 33, told AFP in an interview here.

She was one of the country's estimated 700 000 so-called human scavengers on the lowest rung of India's social hierarchy, who for centuries have had the wretched task of cleaning toilets and collecting human excrement.

Many Indians today still treat the waste-collectors as "untouchables" and don't let them approach their villages, schools or temples or come into contact with their food and drinking water.

"If I was thirsty, they would give me water, but would avoid touching me," Chaumar said.

Eco-friendly toilet

Five years ago, her scavenging days ended when she joined the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, a non-profit group working to improve sanitation in India and the conditions for this marginalised segment of society.

This week, with 2008 declared the International Year of Sanitation by the United Nations, the UN is honouring people like Chaumar - and groups such as Sulabh - to draw attention to the plight of her caste, and to explore ways to vastly improve sanitation conditions in thousands of communities around the developing world.

Sulabh set up a project called Nai Disha, which means "new direction", in Chaumar's hometown of Alwar. It pulled women out of scavenging by providing vocational training and teaching them to operate bank accounts.

By 2006 Sulabh had rescued about 60 000 scavengers, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Bindeshwar Pathak, who founded the organisation in 1970, developed the well-known Sulabh Sauchalya, an affordable and eco-friendly two-pit toilet.

Natural fertiliser

Pathak said his invention helps slow global warming, saves water and converts human waste into natural fertiliser.

"Today 2.6 billion people (in Asia, Africa, Latin America) do not have access to safe and hygienic toilets," he told a news conference.

Sulabh has already sold his toilet technology to Afghanistan and 15 African countries. It has installed 1.4 million household toilets and 6 500 public toilets in India alone.

Sulabh has also developed 26 toilet designs for varying budgets and locations, and trained 19 000 masons to build low-cost twin-pit toilets using locally available materials.

On Wednesday Sulabh holds a special sanitation event at UN headquarters to raise awareness and speed up progress towards achieving one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals - to cut by half the number of people lacking access to basic sanitation by 2015.

- AFP