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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.
-
(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,
-
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.
-
(Applause)
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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,
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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
-
because there is a general body,
a governing board, the committee.
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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.
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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
-
may not be as important
as taps and toilets.
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Thank you. Thank you very much.
-
(Applause)
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Thank you.