WEBVTT 00:00:00.954 --> 00:00:08.319 It is very fashionable and proper to speak about food 00:00:08.319 --> 00:00:15.529 in all its forms, all its colors, aromas and tastes. 00:00:15.529 --> 00:00:21.183 But after the food goes through the digestive system, 00:00:21.183 --> 00:00:24.429 when it is thrown out as crap, 00:00:24.429 --> 00:00:28.026 it is no longer fashionable to speak about it. 00:00:28.026 --> 00:00:32.685 It is rather revolting. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:33.192 --> 00:00:40.362 I'm a guy who has graduated from bullshit to full-shit. 00:00:40.732 --> 00:00:43.801 (Laughter) 00:00:43.801 --> 00:00:50.466 My organization, Gram Vikas, which means "village development organization," 00:00:50.466 --> 00:00:53.572 was working in the area of renewable energy. 00:00:53.572 --> 00:00:57.322 On the most part, we were producing biogas, 00:00:57.322 --> 00:01:01.140 biogas for rural kitchens. 00:01:02.257 --> 00:01:08.050 We produce biogas in India by using animal manure, 00:01:08.147 --> 00:01:10.551 which usually, in India, is called cow dung. 00:01:10.551 --> 00:01:14.605 But as the gender-sensitive person that I am, 00:01:14.605 --> 00:01:17.533 I would like to call it bullshit. 00:01:17.533 --> 00:01:19.916 But realizing later on 00:01:19.916 --> 00:01:27.493 how important were sanitation and the disposal of crap in a proper way, 00:01:27.493 --> 00:01:32.051 we went into the arena of sanitation. 00:01:33.071 --> 00:01:41.870 Eighty percent of all diseases in India and most developing countries 00:01:41.870 --> 00:01:45.917 are because of poor quality water. 00:01:45.917 --> 00:01:49.511 And when we look at the reason for poor quality water, 00:01:49.511 --> 00:01:55.309 you find that it is our abysmal attitude to the disposal of human waste. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:56.305 --> 00:02:00.344 Human waste, in its rawest form, 00:02:00.344 --> 00:02:06.400 finds its way back to drinking water, bathing water, washing water, 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:08.828 irrigation water, whatever water you see. 00:02:10.293 --> 00:02:15.874 And this is the cause for 80 percent of the diseases in rural areas. 00:02:17.474 --> 00:02:23.695 In India, it is unfortunately only the women who carry water. 00:02:23.695 --> 00:02:27.303 So for all domestic needs, women have to carry water. 00:02:28.824 --> 00:02:33.098 So that is a pitiable state of affairs. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:34.178 --> 00:02:36.761 Open defecation is rampant. 00:02:36.761 --> 00:02:40.866 Seventy percent of India defecates in the open. 00:02:41.713 --> 00:02:44.150 They sit there out in the open, 00:02:44.150 --> 00:02:46.178 with the wind on their sails, 00:02:46.178 --> 00:02:50.021 hiding their faces, exposing their bases, 00:02:50.021 --> 00:02:54.889 and sitting there in pristine glory -- 00:02:54.889 --> 00:02:57.195 70 percent of India. 00:02:57.195 --> 00:03:00.428 And if you look at the world total, 00:03:00.428 --> 00:03:06.963 60 percent of all the crap that is thrown into the open is by Indians. 00:03:09.153 --> 00:03:11.929 A fantastic distinction. 00:03:11.929 --> 00:03:16.081 I don't know if we Indians can be proud of such a distinction. 00:03:16.081 --> 00:03:17.991 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:18.096 --> 00:03:20.278 So we, together with a lot of villages, 00:03:20.278 --> 00:03:25.022 we began to talk about how to really address this situation of sanitation. 00:03:25.022 --> 00:03:30.979 And we came together and formed a project called MANTRA. 00:03:30.979 --> 00:03:37.836 MANTRA stands for Movement and Action Network for Transformation of Rural Areas. 00:03:38.256 --> 00:03:44.412 So we are speaking about transformation, transformation in rural areas. 00:03:45.612 --> 00:03:49.224 Villages that agree to implement this project, 00:03:49.224 --> 00:03:52.087 they organize a legal society 00:03:52.087 --> 00:03:56.453 where the general body consists of all members 00:03:56.453 --> 00:04:02.336 who elect a group of men and women who implement the project 00:04:02.336 --> 00:04:07.101 and, later on, who look after the operation and maintenance. 00:04:07.101 --> 00:04:12.862 They decide to build a toilet and a shower room. 00:04:12.862 --> 00:04:15.943 And from a protected water source, 00:04:15.943 --> 00:04:22.862 water will be brought to an elevated water reservoir and piped to all households 00:04:22.862 --> 00:04:25.327 through three taps: 00:04:25.327 --> 00:04:31.629 one in the toilet, one in the shower, one in the kitchen, 24 hours a day. 00:04:32.769 --> 00:04:36.940 The pity is that our cities, like New Delhi and Bombay, 00:04:36.940 --> 00:04:40.371 do not have a 24-hour water supply. 00:04:40.371 --> 00:04:44.174 But in these villages, we want to have it. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:45.084 --> 00:04:48.568 There is a distinct difference in the quality. 00:04:49.459 --> 00:04:55.328 Well in India, we have a theory, which is very much accepted 00:04:55.328 --> 00:04:58.910 by the government bureaucracy and all those who matter, 00:04:58.910 --> 00:05:03.823 that poor people deserve poor solutions 00:05:03.823 --> 00:05:10.058 and absolutely poor people deserve pathetic solutions. 00:05:10.058 --> 00:05:16.503 This, combined with a Nobel Prize-worthy theory that 00:05:16.503 --> 00:05:18.872 the cheapest is the most economic, 00:05:18.872 --> 00:05:23.560 is the heady cocktail that the poor are forced to drink. 00:05:26.091 --> 00:05:28.450 We are fighting against this. 00:05:28.450 --> 00:05:34.941 We feel that the poor have been humiliated for centuries. 00:05:34.941 --> 00:05:37.359 And even in sanitation, 00:05:37.359 --> 00:05:39.545 they should not be humiliated. 00:05:39.545 --> 00:05:42.239 Sanitation is more about dignity 00:05:42.239 --> 00:05:44.907 than about human disposal of waste. 00:05:44.907 --> 00:05:49.236 And so you build these toilets and very often, 00:05:49.236 --> 00:05:55.442 we have to hear that the toilets are better than their houses. 00:05:55.442 --> 00:05:59.323 And you can see that in front are the attached houses 00:05:59.323 --> 00:06:02.151 and the others are the toilets. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:02.151 --> 00:06:08.799 So these people, without a single exception of a family in a village, 00:06:08.799 --> 00:06:11.455 decide to build a toilet, a bathing room. 00:06:12.598 --> 00:06:18.256 And for that, they come together, collect all the local materials -- 00:06:18.256 --> 00:06:23.611 local materials like rubble, sand, aggregates, 00:06:23.611 --> 00:06:26.139 usually a government subsidy is available 00:06:26.139 --> 00:06:29.417 to meet at least part of the cost of external materials 00:06:29.417 --> 00:06:32.926 like cement, steel, toilet commode. 00:06:34.211 --> 00:06:36.598 And they build a toilet and a bathing room. 00:06:38.317 --> 00:06:44.695 Also, all the unskilled laborers, that is daily wage earners, mostly landless, 00:06:44.695 --> 00:06:51.499 are given an opportunity to be trained as masons and plumbers. 00:06:52.098 --> 00:06:57.175 So while these people are being trained, others are collecting the materials. 00:06:57.175 --> 00:07:02.841 And when both are ready, they build a toilet, a shower room, 00:07:02.841 --> 00:07:09.840 and of course also a water tower, an elevated water reservoir. 00:07:09.840 --> 00:07:15.171 We use a system of two leach pits to treat the waste. 00:07:15.171 --> 00:07:19.469 From the toilet, the muck comes into the first leach pit. 00:07:19.469 --> 00:07:24.494 And when it is full, it is blocked and it can go to the next. 00:07:24.494 --> 00:07:29.343 But we discovered that if you plant banana trees, papaya trees 00:07:29.343 --> 00:07:32.726 on the periphery of these leach pits, 00:07:32.726 --> 00:07:35.987 they grow very well because they suck up all the nutrients 00:07:35.987 --> 00:07:41.478 and you get very tasty bananas, papayas. 00:07:41.478 --> 00:07:44.180 If any of you come to my place, 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:48.293 I would be happy to share these bananas and papayas with you. 00:07:49.478 --> 00:07:55.288 So there you can see the completed toilets, the water towers. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:55.288 --> 00:07:59.378 This is in a village where most of the people are even illiterate. 00:08:01.098 --> 00:08:03.508 It is always a 24-hour water supply 00:08:03.508 --> 00:08:09.114 because water gets polluted very often when you store it -- 00:08:09.114 --> 00:08:14.936 a child dips his or her hand into it, something falls into it. 00:08:14.936 --> 00:08:19.225 So no water is stored. It's always on tap. 00:08:21.288 --> 00:08:25.416 This is how an elevated water reservoir is constructed. 00:08:25.416 --> 00:08:27.596 And that is the end product. 00:08:27.596 --> 00:08:32.283 Because it has to go high, and there is some space available, 00:08:32.283 --> 00:08:35.159 two or three rooms are made under the water tower, 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:39.801 which are used by the village for different committee meetings. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:39.801 --> 00:08:45.802 We have had clear evidence of the great impact of this program. 00:08:46.675 --> 00:08:50.428 Before we started, there were, as usual, 00:08:50.428 --> 00:08:55.713 more than 80 percent of people suffering from waterborne diseases. 00:08:55.858 --> 00:09:02.231 But after this, we have empirical evidence that 82 percent, on average, 00:09:02.231 --> 00:09:06.686 among all these villages -- 1,200 villages have completed it -- 00:09:06.686 --> 00:09:11.823 waterborne diseases have come down 82 percent. 00:09:11.823 --> 00:09:18.073 (Applause) 00:09:18.073 --> 00:09:23.411 Women usually used to spend, especially in the summer months, 00:09:23.544 --> 00:09:30.295 about six to seven hours a day carrying water. 00:09:31.206 --> 00:09:34.890 And when they went to carry water, 00:09:34.890 --> 00:09:40.259 because, as I said earlier, it's only women who carry water, 00:09:40.259 --> 00:09:46.834 they used to take their little children, girl children, also to carry water, 00:09:46.834 --> 00:09:51.615 or else to be back at home to look after the siblings. 00:09:51.615 --> 00:09:55.856 So there were less than nine percent of girl children attending school, 00:09:55.856 --> 00:09:58.207 even if there was a school. 00:09:58.207 --> 00:10:01.179 And boys, about 30 percent. 00:10:01.179 --> 00:10:08.148 But girls, it has gone to about 90 percent and boys, almost to 100 percent. 00:10:08.148 --> 00:10:12.795 (Applause) 00:10:12.795 --> 00:10:16.027 The most vulnerable section in a village 00:10:16.027 --> 00:10:20.086 are the landless laborers who are the daily wage-earners. 00:10:20.086 --> 00:10:22.696 Because they have gone through this training 00:10:22.696 --> 00:10:26.296 to be masons and plumbers and bar benders, 00:10:26.296 --> 00:10:32.559 now their ability to earn has increased 300 to 400 percent. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:34.325 --> 00:10:37.765 So this is a democracy in action 00:10:37.765 --> 00:10:41.591 because there is a general body, a governing board, the committee. 00:10:41.591 --> 00:10:44.461 People are questioning, people are governing themselves, 00:10:44.461 --> 00:10:47.110 people are learning to manage their own affairs, 00:10:47.110 --> 00:10:50.167 they are taking their own futures into their hands. 00:10:50.882 --> 00:10:56.731 And that is democracy at the grassroots level in action. 00:10:58.831 --> 00:11:04.005 More than 1,200 villages have so far done this. 00:11:05.035 --> 00:11:10.614 It benefits over 400,000 people and it's still going on. 00:11:10.614 --> 00:11:15.625 And I hope it continues to move ahead. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:17.245 --> 00:11:22.052 For India and such developing countries, 00:11:22.052 --> 00:11:27.684 armies and armaments, 00:11:27.684 --> 00:11:33.232 software companies and spaceships 00:11:36.486 --> 00:11:42.944 may not be as important as taps and toilets. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:42.944 --> 00:11:45.366 Thank you. Thank you very much. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:45.375 --> 00:11:49.897 (Applause) 00:11:49.897 --> 00:11:53.803 Thank you.