Better toilets, better life

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 to
the digestive system,

when it is thrown out as crap,

it is no more fashionable
to speak about it.

it is rather revolting.

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

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

was working in the area of renewable energy.

For the most part, we were
producing biogas,

biogas for rural kitchens.

We produce biogas in India using
animal manure.

But usually in India, it's called cow dung.

But as the gender-sensitive
person that I am,

I would like to call it bull-shit.

But realizing it later on how important
sanitation was

and the disposal of crap in a proper way,

we delved into the arena of sanitation.

80 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,

it is at dismal attitude to the
disposal of waste.

Human waste, in its rawest form,

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

irrigation water, whatever you see.

And this calls for 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
need to carry water.

It is a pitiable state of affairs.

Open defecation is rampant.

70 percent of rural india defecates
in the open.

They sit there out of the open,

with the wind in their sails,

hiding their faces, exposing their bases,

and sitting their 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 from 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 problem of sanitation.

And we came together and formed
a project called MANTRA.

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 organize this project

they organize a legal society

where the the general body consists of all memebers

who elect a group of men and women

who implement he project and later on

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 cities like bombay do not have 24

hours waters supply

but in these villages we want to have

there is a distinct difference in the quality

well 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 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 dignitity

than about human disposal of waste

and so you build these toilets and very

often we have to hear that their toilets are

better than their houses

and you can see attached houses

and the others are the tolet

so these peopel

without a single exception

of a family in a village

decided to build a toilet a bathing room

and they come together

collect all the local aterials

local materials like rubber

sand, aggregates, usually agovernemtn

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 like 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 reserve

we use a system of pitch pits

to treat the waste from the toilet

the muck comes into the first pitch pit

and when it is full

it is blocked and it ca't go to the next

but we discovered that if you plant

banana trees,

papaya trees on the prorifery of these litch pits

they grow very well because

they suck 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 banns and papayas with you

so here you can see the completed toilets

the water towers

this is in a village where most of the people

are even illeterate

it is also 24 hours water supply

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

a child dips his or her hand into it

something calls into it

so no wateris sotred

its always on tap

this is how elevated water reservoir is contructed

and that is the end product

because it has to go high

two or three rooms are made available

under the water tower

which is 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 water born diseases

but, after this,

we have imperial evidence that

82 percent on an average

among all these villages

1,200 villages have completed

82 of them their water born diseases have come down

applause

women usually used to spend, especially in sumer months

about 6-7h hours a day carrying water

and when they went for carrying water

because, as i said earlier,

its only women who carry water

they used to take their little children, girl children

also to carry water

to be back at home to look over the siblings

so there was less than 9 percent of girl children

attending school

and boys, about 30 percent

but girls, it has gone to about 90 percent

and boys, almost 200 percent

applause

the most vulnerable sections in the villages

are the landless laborers

because they have gone through this training

to be masons and plumbers

and barbenders

now, ability to earn has increased 300-400 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 own hands

and that is democracy at the grassroots level in action

mosre 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 ocuntries

armies and armaments

software companies and spaceships

may not be as important as taps and toilets

thank

thank you very much

applause

thank you