Study points to pressing need to address sanitation issues in India
Study points to pressing need to address sanitation issues in India
New Delhi: The state of sanitation in India’s cities has been neglected and requires urgent action and cooperation between governmental authorities, non-governmental?organizations?(NGOs), corporates and philanthropists, according to the preliminary research of a new study on the state of urban sanitation in India.
Of the 5,161 Indian cities surveyed, 4,861 (approximately 94%) do not have even a partial sewage network, and over 70% of the households in the cities surveyed don’t have access to toilets or a sewerage system, according to the study, Squatting Rights, conducted by Dasra, a philanthropy foundation, in association with governmental and non-governmental partners.
“Historically, a lot of attention is paid to rural sanitation—there are many NGOs working there, and it’s easier to build consensus and engage communities in villages to actually build and maintain toilets because they have communities,” said Pakzan Dastoor, a researcher at Dasra and one of the report’s writers. “The problem with urban areas is that there aren’t really communities in slums. So it becomes very important to organize and mobilize slum dwellers to take ownership of the maintenance of these toilets, because the government isn’t doing it.”
The ability to access proper sanitation disproportionately affects girls and women, the study says. Only 60% of India’s urban schools have functional toilets; 40% of those do not have separate toilets for girls, leading to high drop-out rates among adolescent girls. Lack of toilets in homes is also linked to the high rates of violence and rape against women living in urban slums, who often have to walk long distances to get to a toilet. Sixty six percent of women in Delhi slums are verbally abused, 46% are stalked and assaulted while accessing toilets, the study found. “People don’t understand the link between sanitation and health, sanitation and gender equality, or sanitation and productivity—even though it has a direct impact on a girl’s education and on people getting ill,” said Dastoor. “People still think it’s more important to buy a TV over a toilet.”
The study recommends cooperation among government actors, NGOs, philanthropists and firms. “There’s quite a lot of evidence that investing in sanitation benefits everyone; but we need to focus on the urban issue, because while there’s been a lot of emphasis on the rural side, the urban context simply hasn’t been a priority,” said Neera Nundy, co-founder of Dasra. “This should be easy to solve.”
malia.p@livemint.com
Catch all the Politics News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
MoreLess
First Published:27 Jul 2012, 11:22 PM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High