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It is very fashionable and proper 
to speak about food


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in all its forms, all its colors, 
aromas and tastes.

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But after the food goes through 
the digestive system,

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when it is thrown out as crap,

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it is no longer fashionable
to speak about it.

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It is rather revolting.

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I'm a guy who has graduated 
from bullshit to full-shit.

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(Laughter)

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My organization, Gram Vikas, which means
"village development organization,"

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was working in the area 
of renewable energy.

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On the most part, we were 
producing biogas,

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biogas for rural kitchens.

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We produce biogas in India 
by using animal manure,

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which usually, in India, 
is called cow dung.

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But as the gender-sensitive 
person that I am,

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I would like to call it bullshit.

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But realizing later on

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how important were sanitation
and the disposal of crap in a proper way,

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we went into the arena of sanitation.

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Eighty percent of all diseases 
in India and most developing countries

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are because of poor quality water.

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And when we look at the reason 
for poor quality water,

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you find that it is our abysmal attitude 
to the disposal of human waste.

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Human waste, in its rawest form,

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finds its way back to drinking water,
bathing water, washing water,

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irrigation water, whatever water you see.

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And this is the cause for 80 percent 
of the diseases in rural areas.

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In India, it is unfortunately only the
women who carry water.

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So for all domestic needs,
women have to carry water.

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So that is a pitiable state of affairs.

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Open defecation is rampant.

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Seventy percent of India
defecates in the open.

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They sit there out in the open,

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with the wind on their sails,

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hiding their faces, exposing their bases,

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and sitting there in pristine glory --

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70 percent of India.

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And if you look at the world total,

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60 percent of all the crap that is thrown
into the open is by Indians.

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A fantastic distinction.

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I don't know if we Indians can be proud
of such a distinction.

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(Laughter)

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So we, together with a lot of villages,

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we began to talk about how to really 
address this situation of sanitation.

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And we came together and formed 
a project called MANTRA.

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MANTRA stands for Movement and Action
Network for Transformation of Rural Areas.

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So we are speaking about transformation,
transformation in rural areas.

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Villages that agree 
to implement this project,

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they organize a legal society

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where the general body 
consists of all members

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who elect a group of men and women
who implement the project

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and, later on, who look after
the operation and maintenance.

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They decide to build a toilet 
and a shower room.

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And from a protected water source,

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water will be brought to an elevated water
reservoir and piped to all households

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through three taps:

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one in the toilet, one in the shower, 
one in the kitchen, 24 hours a day.

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The pity is that our cities,
like New Delhi and Bombay,

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do not have a 24-hour water supply.

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But in these villages, we want to have it.

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There is a distinct difference 
in the quality.

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Well in India, we have a theory,
which is very much accepted

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by the government bureaucracy
and all those who matter,

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that poor people deserve poor solutions

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and absolutely poor people deserve
pathetic solutions.

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This, combined with 
a Nobel Prize-worthy theory that

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the cheapest is the most economic,

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is the heady cocktail that the poor
are forced to drink.

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We are fighting against this.

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We feel that the poor have been
humiliated for centuries.

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And even in sanitation,

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they should not be humiliated.

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Sanitation is more about dignity

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than about human disposal of waste.

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And so you build these toilets 
and very often,

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we have to hear that the toilets are
better than their houses.

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And you can see that in front are 
the attached houses

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and the others are the toilets.

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So these people, without a single
exception of a family in a village,

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decide to build a toilet, a bathing room.

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And for that, they come together,
collect all the local materials --

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local materials like rubble, 
sand, aggregates,

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usually a government subsidy is available

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to meet at least part of the cost 
of external materials

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like cement, steel, toilet commode.

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And they build a toilet 
and a bathing room.

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Also, all the unskilled laborers, that is 
daily wage earners, mostly landless,

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are given an opportunity to be 
trained as masons and plumbers.

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So while these people are being trained, 
others are collecting the materials.

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And when both are ready,
they build a toilet, a shower room,

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and of course also a water tower, 
an elevated water reservoir.

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We use a system of two leach pits 
to treat the waste.

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From the toilet, the muck comes
into the first leach pit.

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And when it is full, it is blocked 
and it can go to the next.

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But we discovered that if you plant
banana trees, papaya trees

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on the periphery of these leach pits,

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they grow very well
because they suck up all the nutrients

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and you get very tasty bananas, papayas.

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If any of you come to my place,

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I would be happy to share
these bananas and papayas with you.

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So there you can see 
the completed toilets, the water towers.

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This is in a village where 
most of the people are even illiterate.

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It is always a 24-hour water supply

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because water gets polluted
very often when you store it --

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a child dips his or her hand into it,
something falls into it.

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So no water is stored. It's always on tap.

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This is how an elevated 
water reservoir is constructed.

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And that is the end product.

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Because it has to go high,
and there is some space available,

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two or three rooms are made
under the water tower,

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which are used by the village for 
different committee meetings.

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We have had clear evidence
of the great impact of this program.

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Before we started, there were, as usual,

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more than 80 percent of people suffering
from waterborne diseases.

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But after this, we have empirical evidence
that 82 percent, on average,

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among all these villages --
1,200 villages have completed it --

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waterborne diseases 
have come down 82 percent.

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(Applause)

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Women usually used to spend, 
especially in the summer months,

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about six to seven hours 
a day carrying water.

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And when they went to carry water,

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because, as I said earlier,
it's only women who carry water,

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they used to take their little children,
girl children, also to carry water,

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or else to be back at home
to look after the siblings.

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So there were less than nine percent
of girl children attending school,

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even if there was a school.

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And boys, about 30 percent.

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But girls, it has gone to about 90 percent
and boys, almost to 100 percent.

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(Applause)

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The most vulnerable section in a village

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are the landless laborers who are
the daily wage-earners.

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Because they have gone 
through this training

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to be masons and plumbers and bar benders,

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now their ability to earn has 
increased 300 to 400 percent.

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So this is a democracy in action

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because there is a general body, 
a governing board, the committee.

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People are questioning, 
people are governing themselves,

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people are learning to manage
their own affairs,

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they are taking their own futures
into their hands.

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And that is democracy at
the grassroots level in action.

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More than 1,200 villages 
have so far done this.

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It benefits over 400,000 people
and it's still going on.

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And I hope it continues to move ahead.

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For India and such developing countries,

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armies and armaments,

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software companies and spaceships

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may not be as important
as taps and toilets.

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Thank you. Thank you very much.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.