Why India’s sanitation workers are nobody’s priority

One big obstacle before evolving policies for the welfare of sewage and septic tank workers is lack of data. There are no numbers available on those employed in sewer and septic tank cleaning as opposed to those engaged in the relatively less hazardous occupation of cleaning dry latrines, open drains, and single pit toilets

Over the past seven days, six people lost their lives in the national capital region while cleaning sewers after inhaling toxic gases, says the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), a statutory body set up by an Act of Parliament for the welfare of sanitation workers. Clearly, the law banning employment of human labour to clean sewage tanks is toothless. In theory, no person, local authority or agency can hire people for hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. The Employment of Manual Scavenging and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, was amended in 2013 to include a ban on employing or engaging people to clean sewer and septic tanks. But according to a reply by the central Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Lok Sabha in December last year, more than 300 people died due to asphyxiation while working in septic tanks in 2017 alone.

NCSK founder and Magsaysay award winner, Bezwada Wilson, says one big obstacle before evolving policies for the welfare of sewage and septic tank workers is the lack of credible data. There are no official numbers available on those employed in sewer and septic tank cleaning as opposed to those engaged in the relatively less hazardous cleaning of dry latrines, open drains and single pit toilets. Also, since most of those employed to do the cleaning of septic tanks are hired on a casual basis, contractors seldom bother to follow safety norms or provide gas masks, safety harness belts and helmets to them. The law enjoins upon the government to provide Rs 10 lakh to the families of those who die inside sewers. However, data presented by the Central Monitoring Committee in 2017 said only seven states had paid compensation for such deaths in the past 25 years.

Experts say the biggest reason why the mechanised cleaning of septic tanks, the prescribed norm, remains only on paper, is lax implementation by enforcement agencies, whether it is the inspectors of civic bodies in the cities or magistrates and district collectors in rural India. If the law on manual cleaning of sewers is to be effective, the penalties — less than 10 arrests have been made across the country according to Mr Wilson and the first information report rarely reaches the charge-sheet stage — have to be stricter and even-handed. Casual workers who endanger their lives for as little as Rs 300 to clean septic tanks don’t seem to be a priority either with the law enforcement agencies or politicians. This is a blot on the record of a country that boasts the largest public cleanliness programme in the world.

Source: Hindustan Times, 18/09/2018

India needs to have a multipronged approach towards sanitation

Initiated by the prime minister in 2014, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) aims at making India clean by 2019. This year, Rs 9,000 crore was allocated for the mission. Additionally, the government is charging 0.5% as Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC) on all taxable services from November 15. The mission has a rural and an urban sub-mission, with different objectives and approaches for tackling the issue.

As per government reports, 115 cities have achieved the ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF) status and another 739 cities (out of the 4,041 statutory cities and towns) will achieve it this financial year. According to reports on the rural areas, the top five states are Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, and Uttarakhand, and the bottom five are Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Bihar, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, and Jharkhand. This year 39,309 villages out of targeted 612,157 have been declared ODF.

Since the start of the mission, 21 million toilets have been constructed in rural areas, covering only 53.6% of the total rural population of India. There is a considerable gap between the target and what has been achieved so far, which means there is a critical need to accelerate the efforts to achieve 100% coverage.

The target set for rural areas is 12 crore toilets and till date only 2.5 crore toilets have been built. At this pace the deadline is likely to be missed.

Besides toilet construction, its usage is an important factor. For promoting usage, raising awareness is important and information, education and communication (IEC) activities are vital. About 97% of the total expenditure from April 2015 to February was on the construction of household latrines, clearly indicating the neglect on IEC activities, for which merely 1% was spent in the last fiscal.

The sanitation programme of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan also ignored the importance of IEC activities and raising awareness It was reported that many villages were awarded the Nirmal Gram Puraskar, as all the households had toilets — but in reality people were still defecating in the open.

One of the focuses of the mission has been on behaviour change regarding healthy sanitation practices and usage of toilets. This change of mindset is a challenging task. Another important reason for toilets not being used is the lack of access to running water — this is a major problem in drought-affected states.In addition to being ODF, waste management is crucial because if this is not strictly monitored, water sources could be contaminated with faecal coliform leading to grave health risks..

There is a need for integrating the mission with other water policies like the Namami Gange and Mgnrega. There is also a need for thoughtfulness and attention for developing innovative ideas for solid waste management. For the success of the mission, access to water, capacity building, implementation of IEC activities, management of waste and involving users is of as much importance as constructing toilets.

Sonia Grover is associate fellow and Fayaz Ahmad Malla is research associate at TERI

Source: Hindustan Times, 10-09-2016

Take corrective steps on toilet data, states told





A serious gap between the actual number of toilets constructed and the number on the sanitation ministry's website in states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Rajasthan has been revealed by a field survey report of select districts commissioned by the rural development ministry .National level monitors (NLMs) reported that in Arunachal and Manipur, the gap between official data and the monitors is over 41%. The situation is also worrisome in Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan with a mismatch of 19%, 23%, 27% and 28% respectively . Barring Andhra, J&K, MP, Meghalaya, Mizo ram and Nagaland where a higher number of la where a higher number of latrines have been constructed, it is the reverse in other states. Only in Sikkim, which is the first state to become open defecation free (ODF), both the NLMs report and the Swachh Bharat mission-ministry of sanitation data match. The findings provide planners a reason to seek course corrections, revamp programme design and improve follow up on the Modi government's ambitious Swachh Bharat mission.
Rural development ministry empanels retired civil and defence service officers and reputed non-government institutions with experience in rural development programmes as individual and institutional National level monitors (NLMs). The NLMs covered 24.22 lakh households randomly across select districts in each state and they found 51.46% of them having individual latrines.
Some of the findings of this report are quite surprising. For example, it mentions that Khagaria district in Bihar has the highest percentage of household toilets at 98% and Lakhisarai only 2%. Khagaria is one of the most backward districts in the state.
The report also mentions that 48% of the households surveyed by them are not using latrines despite having one. This strongly contradicts National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data that shows nearly 96%of the population in villages and nearly 99% in urban areas who have access to sanitary toilets do use them.
Meanwhile, taking note of the difference between the MIS data and NLMs report, the sanitation ministry has written to two dozen states to go through the NLMs report and “take corrective measures“.
On the status of solid and liquid management in rural areas, the NLMs report finds that such a system is non-existent in more than 76% of the villages surveyed by them.

Source: Times of India, 19-08-2016

World Toilet Day: India needs one toilet every two seconds to achieve target by 2019

India still has a long way to go to achieve the open defecation-free status. Since the promise made by the Centre headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to build toilets in rural areas in 2014, nothing much has changed on the ground.

The target of constructing a toilet every two seconds to reach the figure of 113 million toilets in four years still persists. On the occasion of World Toilet Day, Down To Earth has analysed the current dismal situation.

According to calculation, (see table 1) till 2014 the country needed to construct 35 toilets in one minute whereas now the figure has increased to 41 toilets per minute. If the pace remains like this, the final target would be met in 2035 instead of 2019 (see table 2).

Number of rural households without toilets (according to the 2011 census)-113 million Toilets constructed from 2011-12 to 2014-15 (till October)-19.4 million Toilets constructed from 2011-12 to 2015-16 (till October)-28.3 million Number of toilets to be constructed in the next four years-84.7 million Number of toilets to be constructed in one year–21.2 million Number of toilets to be constructed in a day–58,082 Number of toilets to be constructed in an hour-2,420 Number of toilets to be constructed in a second-0.68

This year, the government claimed to have constructed around 8.9 million toilets. The number is more than when compared to previous years, but it is still way behind the target of constructing 18.8 million toilets by 2019. The Modi government has already missed the 100-day target of constructing one toilet per second.

In comparison to last year, the pace of construction has increased, but it is not encouraging. Last year, the target was to construct 18.8 million toilets by 2019. This year, the target has increased to 21.2 million per year. 

See infographic on the state of toilets

The UPA government had targeted to make India open defecation-free by 2022. After coming to power, the Modi government renamed the scheme (to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan from Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan), reduced the target time by 2019 and cut the budget by 40 per cent.

In the 2015-16 budget, the total allocation announced was Rs 2,850 crore. The budget was reduced from last year's allocation of Rs 4,620 crore.

Earlier, funds were shared between the Centre and the states on a 75:25 ratio, but now stated have to bear more cost (around 50:50). Experts feel that this may lead to states not doing their part citing funds crisis.

Moreover, the government has decided to impose sanitation cess on public which has invited a lot of criticism. 

In last 2011-12 to 2015-16 (till october) -28.3 million In last five  years, the number of toilets constructed -28.3 million The rate of construction of toilets in one year stood at-5.66 million 5.66 million toilets were constructed in a year 113 millions toilets would be constructed in 19.96 years to 20 years The target to make India open defecation-free will be by 2035

India has little to celebrate on World Toilet Day

For Sita, a 10-year-old girl from one of New Delhi’s slums, going to a toilet every morning is an ordeal. Without a toilet at home, her only resort is the community toilet. Since there is always a long queue, Sita prefers to use the school toilet instead — on a daily basis. The government school, till recently, had only two for 400 children. Facing a lack of water and cleaning staff, the school restricted the students from using the toilets.

India has little to celebrate on World Toilet Day, with the country accounting for more than half of the 1.1 billion people who defecate in the open globally. According to the 2011 Census, 18.6% households in cities do not have toilets. For the girls living in slums in our cities, the only toilet that they have access to without fear of sexual harassment is in their schools. The number of schools having separate toilet facilities for girls has increased from 0.4 million (37%) in 2005-06 to almost 1 million in 2013-14 (91%). However, only 31.5% of girls’ toilets and 27.4% of boys’ toilets have running water. Though there is an increase in coverage of toilets in schools, many are dysfunctional and unusable.

According to the WHO, India spent 0.2% of GDP on sanitation, paling in comparison to Pakistan’s 0.4% and Nepal’s 0.8% — a notably lower spend compared to our poorer and geographically smaller neighbours. This needs to be read against the backdrop of the World Bank’s recent assessment that the economic loss to India due to inadequate sanitation facilities is Rs 2,40,000 crore — around 6.4% of GDP.

The allocation for the ministry of drinking water and sanitation for 2015-16 (BE) was Rs 6,243.87 crore, with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Urban) being allotted Rs 1,000 crore. However, the recent move on the decentralisation of funding and operations to the states is one that could potentially dilute the focus of the initiative. It is now up to the states to increase the spending on the programme and the implementation of this depends on the respective state’s capacity to spend, which could vary for the worse.

The government launched the Swachh Vidyalaya initiative in 2014 for constructing toilets and repairing dysfunctional ones in schools. The Swachh Bharat Kosh was set up to attract funding for this initiative from PSUs and the corporate sector. But the commitment to support building toilets in schools has not yet been met. Unless this is achieved and the system awakens, the school toilet scenario will continue to suffer.

Reni Jacob is director-advocacy, World Vision India, Chennai

Source: Hindustan Times, 20-11-2015

Sanitation is a right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution





Right to shelter, therefore, includes adequate living space, safe and decent structure, clean and decent surroundings, sufficient light, pure air and water, electricity, sanitation and other civil amenities like roads etc. so as to have easy access to his daily avocation,“ so said the Supreme Court in a famous verdict delivered way back in 1995 while discussing the issue of Right to Life ­ guaranteed under Article 21 of our Constitution.In legal circles, the verdict is known as Chameli Singh and Others versus State of UP and the judgement was delivered by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court in December 1995. Sanitation in the above mentioned observation would include toilets.
It was this judgement which was relied upon by the Bombay High Court in December last year while asking the Mumbai's civic body to supply water to “illegal slums“ ­ slums which have come up after the State's cut­off date of January 1, 2000.
The HC, however, did attach a rider saying: “Even if the water is provided to a person occupying an illegal hut, the same does not create any equity in such person or the same does not make lawful the structure occupied by such person which is otherwise illegal. It is obvious that the water supply to an occupant of such an illegal hut does not affect the illegal nature of the hut.“
The division bench led by Justice Abhay Oka was hearing a public interest petition filed by a non-governmental organisation Pani Haq Samiti challenging a circular issued by the State government saying that local authorities should not supply water to unauthorised constructions.
The State had argued before the HC that not supplying water to illegal shanties was justified “as the State does not want to encourage the construction of such illegal slums and people occupying such illegal slums.“ The court, however, observed that there could be various reasons for the slums to come up, one of which could be neglect on the part of the authorities responsible to stop such shanties from coming up.
“There is a failure of all the concerned to prevent erection of slums in the city.There is a failure to take action against the illegal slums,“ the court observed against the concerned authorities. It then assailed the State, “The past conduct of the State gives a hope to those who occupy illegal slums that the same will be regularised by the State Government in future. Perhaps that may be the reason why people are occupying illegal slums with a hope that the State Government will come up with a new policy decision for their protection.“
While asking the authorities to provide water to slums erected after January 2000 the court observed, “We fail to understand as to how the authorities can commit violation of the fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution of India on the ground that providing water supply to the occupants of the slums erected after January 1, 2000, will amount to encouraging to people to construct the slums or to occupy illegal slums.“
Source: Mumbai Mirror, 22-09-2015





THINK POST-MILLENNIUM - Ground Realities of Water & Sanitation

Bjorn Lomborg





What targets should the world set for water and sanitation? 2.5 billion people ­ almost half the developing world ­ lack a basic latrine and 1 billion have to resort to what is politely known as open defecation. In India, almost 600 million have to defecate in the open. This large problem was also addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, in his last Independence Day speech, stated the government was targeting sanitation for all in 10 years.Similarly , 750 million people have no access to any type of basic source of drinking water. Each day 136 million town dwellers spend more than 40 minutes each day to fetch water and more than 600 million in rural areas spend more than an hour to fetch their water. In rural India, almost 88 million people still lack basic water access.
The good news is that we can do something. Over the past 25 years, more than 2 billion have gained access to better water and almost 2 billion to sanitation. At the turn of the century , the global community committed to a set of targets under the umbrella of the Millennium Development Goals, aimed at improving the world as much as possible over the next 15 years. Their water and sanitation goal helped 2 billion people get better access.
Now, with the deadline fast approaching, 193 national governments are aiming to build on the successes already achieved and agree to a new set of targets to improve people's lives even more by 2030.
But resources and capabilities are not infinite, so we have to get this right. That's why the Copenhagen Consensus Center, my think tank, has asked more than 60 teams of expert economists to analyse some of the more promising proposals put forward and make their own recommendations for which should make the final cut.
So, what is the case for prioritising clean water and sanitation?
The most obvious benefit comes in the form of better health.Providing even basic latrines and hand-washing facilities can make a big impact on the spread of disease. There are a number of waterborne infectious diseases that could be curtailed. The biggest and deadliest are those that cause diarrhea, including cholera and a range of viral infections. These are a significant cause of death, particularly among young children, but infected adults may be too ill to work and older children unfit to go to school.
The other big benefit is time-saving. The analysis of the basic water supply and sanitation targets assumes that people in rural villages no longer have to spend an hour a day on average fetching water, but can collect the same amount in 20 minutes. In urban areas ­ which will continue to grow fast over the coming decades ­ it is expected that people will halve the time needed to collect water from 40 to 20 minutes.
Because we will add an extra billion people to the global population over the next 15 years, getting water and sanitation to everyone will require a substantial effort.However, a team of economists from the World Bank has estimated that providing sanitation for 3 billion more people will cost about $31 billion annually . This is the cost of providing such low-cost solutions as pour-flush and dry pit latrines in rural areas and flush toilets to a septic tank in urban areas, shared by less than 30 people. Yet, the benefits will amount to $92 billion annually , about three-quarters of which are time benefits, and the remaining one-quarter is health benefits (it omits environmental benefits). This means that every dollar spent on sanitation will help the world's most vulnerable about $3, measured in better health and less time wasted.
Providing improved water to an extra 2.3 billion people, e.g.through a well, spring and borehole, or collected rainwater that can be reached within 30 minutes or less, will cost $14 billion annually. Yet, again it will create much larger benefits, with less disease and death and with less wasted time. In all, the benefits are estimated at $52 billion annually , so that each dollar spent will generate $4 of benefits.
One stop on the way to better sanitation is simply avoiding open defecation in rural areas with shared latrine or communal toilets.Because this is even cheaper at $13 billion annually , each dollar can deliver a substantial benefit of $6.
In short, there is a strong case for investing in improved water supplies and sanitation. This would help half this world's population and benefit the poorest the most.The economic case is as strong as the moral one.
The author is Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center NEXT WEEK: Science & Tech

Jun 27 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Q & A - `Women suffer sanitation absence most ­ also impacts economy'





One month after the horrific Badaun gang rape exposed how gravely at risk women and minors lacking domestic toilets are, India's sanitation scenario remains dire. Social worker and Padma Bhushan awardee Bindeshwar Pathak is founder of Sulabh Sanitation Movement, an organisation that helps build low-cost toilets across the country. Speaking with Fozia Yasin, Pathak discussed the socio-economic costs of lacking proper sanitation, practical ways to correct this ­ and the best and worst performing states in providing basic facilities: Recent crimes highlight a lack of basic facilities ­ how do you evaluate the situation?
Well, women really suffer the most because of an absence of toilets in rural areas. They have to go to open locations only before sunrise and after sunset. Unlike men, they simply cannot do so during the day. Apart from a vulnerabi c lity to rape, they are also prone to animal attacks and snakebites.
s What's more, many girls aren't even going to school because of s the lack of toilets there.There are also around 50 dis eases caused due to poor sanitary practices. This directly impacts the larger economic situation t with a number of workdays rou tinely lost and with growing healthcare costs.
Why isn't providing basic sanitation a prio basic sanitation a priority for a country aiming to be a superpower?
The provision of toilets and the abolition of manual scavenging was a priority for the previous government ­ but it could not implement the programme satisfactorily. Many promises made were never achieved.
Today, funds allocated for the cause aren't enough. Billionaires should chip in for a new sanitation movement in India.
With the help of 690 rich people, we could cover all the 690 districts of India.
Until then, a World Bank report says over 600 million people are forced to use openair locations. How to deal with this situation?
It's a shame. The country needs about 120 million more latrines now. We need large-scale construction of public toilets and urinals across towns and cities. In urban slums, inhabitants have no right on the land, so they can't even construct toilets inside their premises ­ for them, public toi lets with urinals, bathing facilities, laundry spots and a small health centre should be construct ed. Such toilets should be main should be main tained by municipal corporations free of charge.
India has a strong demo graphic dividend ­ how can its young people help?
Well, in rural areas, to begin with, five boys and girls in each block should be trained in the construction and maintenance of toilets. There are 5,924 blocks or talukas in India. Therefore, 30,000 boys and girls should be trained in this procedure. In urban areas, such young people should also be allowed to charge some mon ey for their live lihood, so that they can sustain themselves and work as group motivators. They should go house to house and educate people about the health hazards of open defecation, helping make facilities.
Which are three best and worst states in providing basic facilities to people?
Goa, Maharash tra and Uttarakhand are the top three states with good sanitation coverage.
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pra desh and Bihar are the worst.

May 19 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Experts raise red flag on waste disposal

Jayashree Nandi

New Delhi TNN





Say It Does Not Address Pollution Concerns, Propose Model To Reduce Load On Landfills

The Planning Commission's taskforce on waste to energy (W2E) has recently recommended a public-private partnership(PPP) model for a combination of waste management technologies, including W2E plants, bio-methanation and composting, that can be integrated to reduce the load on landfills. For larger cities like Delhi, it mainly recommends W2E plants that generate power through gasification, incineration and other methods. Civil society groups, especially waste pickers, are up in arms as pushing PPP in W2E plants would mean loss of livelihood for informal waste pickers, they say. Environmentalists are also disappointed because the taskforce report fails to address air pollution concerns from W2E plants. The Okhla W2E plant is already mired in controversy over dioxin and furan emissions, and more such plants may deteriorate Delhi’s air quality further, they claim.The taskforce headed by K Kasturirangan is pushing for W2E plants in large cities across the country. It suggests tax incentives to make them financially viable and a “target of setting up 215 W2E plants by 2031 to generate 1075MW power”. The taskforce recommends that W2E plants be exempted from corporate income tax for the first five years of operation and be eligible for immediate refund of value-added tax.
The report recommends segregation at source and separation of waste into several streams, like construction and demolition, street sweepings and silt from drains, wet, biodegradable and recyclables, singlesource bulk waste collected
from market yards, restaurants etc. It advises minimizing of waste by implementing the `5R' concept: reduce, reuse, recover, recycle and remanufacture, and suggests recognizing the role of kabadiwalas in sorting recyclable materials. But this, environmentalists say , is too little to rehabilitate close to 3.2 million waste pickers across the country .“We are greatly disappointed that the informal sector workers, like junk dealers, scrap dealers and itinerant buyers, have been excluded,“ said Chitra Mukherjee of Chintan. Waste pickers are concerned about their future. “The Aseem Burman committee in 1998 had said that waste pickers are the backbone of waste management. After 14 years, waste pickers have been completely excluded. If corporates are being involved on a large scale, obviously waste pickers will lose livelihood. I think they don't want to see ragpickers on the roads so that cities don't look poor,“ said Shashi Bhushan Pandit of All India Kabadi Mazdoor Mahasangh.
The taskforce suggests separate collec tion and transportation of domestic, C and D waste, silt from surface drains etc and that “efforts should be made to collect waste from the doorstep and delivered directly to processing plants”.
It also suggests that municipal authorities consider inviting private companies to operationalize defunct plants and a funding support of capital subsidy can be extended to them.
The report states very little on how W2E plants will be monitored and what emission standards they will have to meet. “Who is going to monitor the technology? What are the standards? I am absolutely amazed that the report has nothing on monitoring mechanisms or its fallout on the environment and health. One lab report on dioxin or furans costs Rs 75,000. Who is going to pay for it? We have just one agency, CPCB, to monitor such emissions. Who will monitor smaller towns?” said Satish Sinha, associate director of Toxics Link, a group that takes up environmental issues.