Better toilets, better life

In rural India, the lack of toilets creates a big, stinking problem. It leads to poor quality water, one of the leading causes of disease in India, and has a disproportionately negative effect on women. Joe Madiath introduces a program to help villagers help themselves, by building clean, protected water and sanitation systems and requiring everyone in the village to collaborate — with significant benefits that ripple across health, education and even government.

It is very fashionable and proper
to speak about food

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

But after the food goes through
the digestive system,

when it is thrown out as crap,

it is no longer fashionable
to speak about it.

It is rather revolting.

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

(Laughter)

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

was working in the area
of renewable energy.

On the most part, we were
producing biogas,

biogas for rural kitchens.

We produce biogas in India
by using animal manure,

which usually, in India,
is called cow dung.

But as the gender-sensitive
person that I am,

I would like to call it bullshit.

But realizing later on

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

we went into the arena of sanitation.

Eighty percent of all diseases
in India and most developing countries

are because of poor quality water.

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

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

Human waste, in its rawest form,

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

irrigation water, whatever water you see.

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

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

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

So that is a pitiable state of affairs.

Open defecation is rampant.

Seventy percent of India
defecates in the open.

They sit there out in the open,

with the wind on their sails,

hiding their faces, exposing their bases,

and sitting there in pristine glory --

70 percent of India.

And if you look at the world total,

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

A fantastic distinction.

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

(Laughter)

So we, together with a lot of villages,

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

And we came together and formed
a project called MANTRA.

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

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

Villages that agree
to implement this project,

they organize a legal society

where the general body
consists of all members

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

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

They decide to build a toilet
and a shower room.

And from a protected water source,

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

through three taps:

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

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

do not have a 24-hour water supply.

But in these villages, we want to have it.

There is a distinct difference
in the quality.

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

by the government bureaucracy
and all those who matter,

that poor people deserve poor solutions

and absolutely poor people deserve
pathetic solutions.

This, combined with
a Nobel Prize-worthy theory that

the cheapest is the most economic,

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

We are fighting against this.

We feel that the poor have been
humiliated for centuries.

And even in sanitation,

they should not be humiliated.

Sanitation is more about dignity

than about human disposal of waste.

And so you build these toilets
and very often,

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

And you can see that in front are
the attached houses

and the others are the toilets.

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

decide to build a toilet, a bathing room.

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

local materials like rubble,
sand, aggregates,

usually a government subsidy is available

to meet at least part of the cost
of external materials

like cement, steel, toilet commode.

And they build a toilet
and a bathing room.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

on the periphery of these leach pits,

they grow very well
because they suck up all the nutrients

and you get very tasty bananas, papayas.

If any of you come to my place,

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

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

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

It is always a 24-hour water supply

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

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

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

This is how an elevated
water reservoir is constructed.

And that is the end product.

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

two or three rooms are made
under the water tower,

which are used by the village for
different committee meetings.

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

Before we started, there were, as usual,

more than 80 percent of people suffering
from waterborne diseases.

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

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

waterborne diseases
have come down 82 percent.

(Applause)

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

about six to seven hours
a day carrying water.

And when they went to carry water,

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

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

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

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

even if there was a school.

And boys, about 30 percent.

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

(Applause)

The most vulnerable section in a village

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

Because they have gone
through this training

to be masons and plumbers and bar benders,

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

So this is a democracy in action

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

People are questioning,
people are governing themselves,

people are learning to manage
their own affairs,

they are taking their own futures
into their hands.

And that is democracy at
the grassroots level in action.

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

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

And I hope it continues to move ahead.

For India and such developing countries,

armies and armaments,

software companies and spaceships

may not be as important
as taps and toilets.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Thank you.