In a country of over 1 billion people, as with Nigeria, the importance of fair and just leadership cannot be overemphasized. Three billion people, it is still a concern that people lack proper sanitation and hygiene in India. Akin to seeing a ‘typical’ Indian roadside public toilet, which tends to reflect images of squalor and unhygienic conditions along with neglect. It has been suggested that these are places where people ought to go in the interest of public health, but these are the sad reality of the problem. Further, a staggering 732 million Indians do not have adequate sanitation, including proper toilets, which denotes the severity of the situation. This article aims to present the latest information on the development of public toilets in India, focusing on the problems and opportunities that have appeared over the past few years.
Key Public Toilets in India Statistics
- 732 million Indians lack access to toilets.
- 355 million women and girls have no toilet access.
- 60,700 children under five die annually from diarrheal diseases.
- 38% of Indian children under five are stunted.
- 23% of rural girls cite menstruation as the main reason for dropping out of school.
The Sanitation Crisis: Numbers Tell the Tale
The extent of sanitation in India is alarming. In its report on the state of the world’s toilets, WaterAid highlighted that India has the largest number of people without access to toilets. Currently, 732 million Indians do not have proper sanitation facilities; the highest number, 355 million, are women and girls. The scale of this problem means that all these women if they lined up, would encompass the globe more than four times.
Health Impact
Therefore, This sanitation crisis is serious since it has several ramifications for users’ health. Every year, Sanitation and Hygiene-related diarrheal diseases are responsible for killing 60,700 children below the age of five in India. The issue, as mentioned earlier, is not confined to health but also influences the country’s future development. India has maternal and child malnutrition rates – 38% of children under age five are stunted, a situation partly associated with poor sanitation and relapsing diarrheal diseases.
The effectiveness of poor sanitation facilities is not the same across the country. Countries with weak sanitation facilities record high cases of diarrheal diseases among their population. For instance, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Chhattisgarh have the highest mortality rates among children under five, higher stunting rates, and a higher prevalence of diarrhea due to poor sanitation. On the other hand, some states, like Kerala, have a literacy rate of 98. Households with access to improved sanitation reported much lower diarrhea prevalence 3. 4% and anemia among women 22. 6% 1%.
Education and Gender Equality:
The lack of proper sanitation infrastructure affects women and girls more as they are denied their right to education and security. As many as 23% of girl children in rural India have dropped out of school because of menstruation. Moreover, 28% of girls miss school during their periods because of inadequate and affordable protection. Bluntly, the lack of toilet facilities in schools hugely influences high dropout and lack of school-going girls in rural areas.
Government Initiatives and Their Impact
The Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission initiated by the Indian government in 2014 has been a great attempt to mitigate sanitation issues. Based on the information in the tables below, sanitation provision in the country was 39% in 2010 and reached 65% by November 2017. This remarkable progress, therefore, resulted in achieving the target of constructing 52 million household toilets in rural India. Due to these IMC interventions, the states that practice open defecation have reduced by 40%, and over 100 million people benefited.
Innovative Solutions: Reimagining Public Toilets
Despite the grim statistics, several innovative projects are redefining public sanitation in India: Despite the grim statistics, several innovative projects are redefining public sanitation in India:
Loo Café in Hyderabad: A 170 sq. ft. complex with a free toilet, Internet, and charging point.
Marine Drive Sanitation Complex in Mumbai: This comes with solar power and a special water-saving Norwegian Vacuum-based system.
TI Toilets in Pune: Transforming old buses to clean toilets for females
The Light Box in Thane: In this case, a retired shipping container has been turned into a public facility for women.
PAUSE facility on Mumbai-Goa highway: Additional services made available to inspect the truck drivers.
These projects show that it is possible to design these places and develop ways of improving washrooms that are more hygienic and friendly to users and persons with disability.
Conclusion
The presence and the condition of the public toilets observed in India cannot be explained by a single factor but rather by social, economic, and structural factors. Though the numbers are discouraging, recent governmental developments and new concepts in the last several years herald a healthier living environment in urban spaces. As India struggles to manage its sanitation crisis simultaneously, it is imperative to understand that addressing it implies the construction of new toilets and the creation of more inclusive, technologically advanced concepts and ideas regarding sanitation. The change towards a “Swachh Bharat” will be a gradual process, but with sustainable hard work and improvisation, the nation needs to look forward to a future free of sanitation troubles.
