
Sanitation and Health Rights in India (YC W16 Nonprofit) - dang
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/24/sanitation-and-health-rights-in-india-launched-its-non-profit-for-sanitation-and-water-purification-services/
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tn13
Sanitation is the proverbial uphill battle in India. West and affluent Indians
often do not understand the full extent of issues here. Some 15 years ago we
built 5 toilets (along with flush) for a community of sheep shepherds deep
into the jungles of Maharashtra-India. 6 years later when we visited them
again it was embarrassing to see that they were using the toilets as shelter
for their sheep and still defecating in open.

Their logic was flawless. Why should we change our priorities because you
think what we are doing is wrong. We thought it was a lesson not to interfere
in their affairs any more.

Some changed land regulation laws made their land extremely valuable. 5 years
back these people sold their land for multi-million dollars. Now these people
are into Trucking and Fishing business with homes better than mine own.

This is a anecdotal evidence and must not be used for any kind of conclusion.
I visited Dharavi-Mumbai(largest slum in world) where there is literally no
space for toilets. Every morning there will be like 1000 people trying to use
like 20 toilets. There are people who then have no choice but to defecate in
side their home in a reusable utensil and throw it out in gutter. Men can
defecate in open but women sometimes even soil themselves standing in line. It
is pretty horrible given that this is the same place responsible for making
snacks for millions of Mumbai residents. [1]

[1]
[http://sanitation.indiawaterportal.org/english/node/2918](http://sanitation.indiawaterportal.org/english/node/2918)

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lostlogin
Is that link your work? Do you have more about what you do?

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tn13
No that is not the link to my work. The work I referred to was the work by a
local Temple and I was a 15 year old volunteer who laid bricks for toilets.
Never had the big picture that time.

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srean
There is some irony in here. I know of cases where people broke up the toilets
built with govt money just to sell the bricks. I am glad however, that the
discussion has been less myopic than I would have otherwise expected: oh look
at these poor Indians why don't we get some money and build them toilets.

~~~
tn13
Yes. The discussion around education in India however remains myopic. Lets
build "free schools" for poor Indians remains the objective which has achieved
very little.

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dineshp2
Great work.

From my visits to Indian villages, open defecation seems more of a choice that
the people make. Even though people _have_ toilets in their houses, they still
prefer not using it. Of course not everyone has access, but even the ones who
do prefer not using it.

Another issue with public toilets I can think of is hygiene. How do you
educate a large population to use toilets and use it reasonably, otherwise it
would be a disaster for the maintainers and the public. The point is, most
people would be first time users.

Another issue is to do with social status and the caste system. How do you
plan to get people belonging to different social strata and castes(yes, it
still exists!) to use the same toilet. Could you share your experiences
regarding this issue so far?

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sanrights
Thanks! You bring up some great points!

In the communities where we work right now, the vast majority of people don't
have toilets in their homes, and they do understand the importance of using
toilets. Right now, the government offers a reimbursement program for families
who build a toilet for their house, but most people cannot afford this upfront
cost and see corruption diminish the amount (if/when) they're paid back.
Another big issue is land ownership - if families don't own the land they live
on, this significant investment doesn't make a lot of financial sense. We see
our role standing in solidarity with Indians making these tough decisions with
incredible social, health, and economic outcomes.

You rightly pointed out maintenance as another key issue! We sell safe
drinking water from our sites and use that revenue to pay for the facility to
be cleaned 2x a day and maintained by our staff. We're tracking daily toilet
users and see that people use our facility consistently.

There is definitely still social stigma connecting handling human waste and
those at the bottom of the caste system. Our model is designed with this
understanding. Waste is disposed of directly from the toilet pan into our
biogas digester to decompose, so no humans have to handle the waste. We've
also have hired members of these communities to work with us, and have seen
them promoted and earning more money than the would in another other role.

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ZoeZoeBee
UNICEF put out a rather humurous video called "Take The Poo to the Loo" an
attempt at changing the cultural acceptance of defecating whereever they seem
fit.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_peUxE_BKcU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_peUxE_BKcU)

~~~
sanrights
If you are interested in learning more about the cultural and societal
implications of open defecation, you can also check out a video series we
helped put together last summer. The focus/perspective falls on rural Indians
(naturally, the real cultural experts on the matter of open defecation).
Videos feature folks working to increase access to toilets, a drama troupe
doing grassroots education work, and women talking about their personal
experiences.
[http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/giveashit/](http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/giveashit/)

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sanrights
Hi there! I'm Joan, one of the Directors at SHRI. Happy to talk more about
sanitation or answer questions about our work!

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vr3690
I can't get your website to open up. Shows up completely blank

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sanrights
Sorry to hear that! The issue was just brought to our attention, and we're
working on the fix. Your browser is probably set to block cookies by default.
Turning that off should allow it to load.

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DanBC
This is great.

Sometimes the problems of open defecation are more complex than just a lack of
toilets.

Here's a short article that mentions some of these:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report/102414/when-shit-
happens](http://www.irinnews.org/report/102414/when-shit-happens)

~~~
sremani
Gram Vikas Mantra is one effort for to reduce open defecation.

[http://gramvikas.org/water-sanitation-mantra](http://gramvikas.org/water-
sanitation-mantra)

here is his TED talk:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_madiath_better_toilets_better_l...](http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_madiath_better_toilets_better_life?language=en)

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known
don't count your chickens before they're hatched
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325502/Map-shows-
wo...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325502/Map-shows-worlds-
racist-countries-answers-surprise-you.html)

~~~
anpat
Correlation?

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hotcool
This is a wonderful idea, but sanitation and health rights goes hand-in-hand
with _civic duty_ to where one lives and works. It's not just the
responsibility of governments to keep an environment safe and clean. Citizens
must do their part, such as minimize their ecological footprint, pick up
litter in their communities, be a good neighbour and so on.

A sense of civic duty seems to be amiss nowadays. Just look at the streets
strewn with litter, or the runaway urban sprawl by rich land developers who
have no regard for natural habitats.

We can't just throw money at the problem. That's not sustainable. People need
to be educated to take responsibility for their surroundings.

We all have an impact on the environment. We all have a say. It is our world.

~~~
avip
This may be true on some poetic level, but helps little the Indian kid who has
to urinate somewhere.

~~~
hotcool
I'll reword my comment since you seemed to miss the point: Civic duty goes
_hand-in-hand_ with sanitation and health rights. Otherwise, it is
unsustainable, even counter-productive to provide toilets for an Indian
population that will not use them or maintain them.

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X86BSD
This is such an incredibly sad Country. My wife is Indian, from Noida, we went
there two years ago. I saw much of Delhi. The amount of pollution, poverty,
filth, homelessness including children that are begging in the streets hooked
on who knows what drugs and being molested and raped is staggering.

I remember one little girl maybe 10 that came up to my wife and I because she
saw my wife using a small travel bottle of hand sanitizer. And she really
wanted it. Didn't ask for money just that little bottle of hand sanitizer. She
thought it was lotion. We gave it to her and she tried to use it like lotion
on her arms and hands. She just wanted to be a little girl doing little girl
things. She was covered in dirt, hadn't bathed in who knows how long.

It's effing heart breaking there. I mean that. Women are constantly harassed
at best, gang raped at worse. They can't go out after dark in most of the
country. Indian male society HATES women. It's literally one step away from
the Taliban. Not all Indian men, but its a majority. Women are not safe there
at all. The police are lazy and useless. Corruption is rampant. Everyone is
out for themselves. It's dog eat dog. Rolling blackouts. Unfit water supply.
No proper sewage. Appalling infastructure. The country was in better shape
under British rule. And that PAINS me to say that being Irish in blood. The
Indian government has just failed the people. They are xenophobic when it
comes to business. State run monopolies or family owned monopolies large and
small. Very very hard for non Indian controlled capitalism to get in there.

It is just such an depressing place. Which is incredibly sad because it has so
much beauty and history and culture and food! I don't know what happened to
that place. You go from the Karma sutra, an epic depiction of the love of
women to gang raping women on a daily basis. WTF?

Ugh, it's just sad.

~~~
vr3690
So you judged a whole country after visiting a single city?

>one step away from Taliban

Really? I mean, really?

I would expect this kind of bullshit in maybe r/worldnews but not in HN.

~~~
dominotw
He might have exaggerated a bit but overall conclusions are still right on
point.

I've lived all over india (due to the fact that my father was in Indian army)
and what gp said is true everywhere in India.

We have to admit what is wrong with our country. Feeling shameful, defensive,
angry, proud, hurt ect is not going to help anyone and infact is counter
productive.

~~~
sremani
I am never an apologist for the Indian State, but to say, India would be
better under British rule, is a NO - NO for me. In spite of its failures at
many levels and mostly falling short of expectations, India is a miracle.
There is no other way to put it. The population of entire Americas, north-
south and central is lesser than population of India. So, if you are seeing
grotesque poverty and violence, well they are still there in Americas.

Xenophobia is really not a phobia if you read the history of Delhi. I mean
this city has been sacked since 10th century and regularly had its population
obliterated.

