[dropcap]P[/dropcap]rime Minister Modi had said “toilets first and temples later “bringing him into conflict with the BJP hardliner Praveen Tagodia eight months ago. Speaking at a function organized in Delhi for the youth, in October Modi said he dared to say to ‘ build toilets first instead of temples’ so even though his image as a Hindutva leader did not allow him.
“My real thought is — Pehle shauchalaya, phir devalaya’ (temple first, toilet later),” he said.
And the sentiment expressed is turning out to be a moment when ‘never a truer word’ was spoken.
In the context of Nagaland we can say “ toilet first, churches later”!The brutal gang-rape and murder of two young teenage girls in a village in Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh on May 27, and that of another teenager allegedly gang-raped by four people in Azamgarh’s Saraimeer area just a day before is stemming out of three major issues lack of sanitation, casteism and absence of good policing.
The family of the two girls found hanging alleged that they spent the previous night attempting to rescue them from their abductors, but found no help from the local police.
The father of one of the girls also told a private news channel that the family has little faith that it will get justice from the state government because the men accused belong to the same community as the Chief Minister and his father and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. So is one of the policemen accused of inaction and negligence of duty.
A similar comment on toilets from Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh that the country needs more toilets than temples had stirred a row with a large number of women organizations and NGOs protesting against the remark.
Touting the slogan of development that could take the country on the path of speedy progress, Modi said lakhs of rupees were spent on temples in villages, but there were no toilets there. He said that for good governance and speedy progress, it was necessary for planners to focus on outlay, outcome and social audit.Studies reveal that more people in India have mobile phones than they have access to toilets.
India has a population of almost 1.2 billion people. 55% of this population (nearly 600 million people) has no access to toilets. Most of these numbers are made up by people who live in urban slums and rural areas. A large populace in the rural areas still defecates in the open.
Poor sanitation is something that not only affects the health of the people of the country, but also affects the development of the nation. In fact, women are most affected by the hazards of lack of proper sanitation. For instance, in India majority of the girls drop out of school because of lack of toilets. Only 22% of them manage to even complete class 10. On economic grounds, according to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, more than 12 billion rupees is spent every year on poor sanitation and its resultant illnesses.
In a study ‘Economic Impact of Inadequate Sanitation in India’, conducted by its South Asia Water and Sanitation unit, the multilateral body said premature deaths, treatment for the sick and loss of productivity and revenue from tourism were the main factors behind the significant economic loss. It is estimated that India is losing upto Rs 24,000 crores due to lack of toilet hygiene.
“For decades, we have been aware of the significant impacts of inadequate sanitation in India,” said Christopher Juan Costain, the World Bank’s head for South Asia’s water and sanitation programme, The cost of treatment for diseases due to poor hygiene only was estimated at $38.5 billion (over Rs 17,000 crore).
The small population of Nagaland will comprise this staggering number of almost 600 million people in India estimated to be living without access to proper toilets.
Any visit to our rural villages will vouch for the hardship that people face due to lack of proper sanitation. Most homes lack facilities of having running water to their kitchens leave alone the toilet. This brings undue misery for the women who have to spend hours fetching water for their homes and also the lack of proper bathing spaces impacts personal hygiene in turn affecting health.
This is a situation hardly acceptable and needs to be tackled at the earliest especially as the state is planning to opening up to tourism.
An interesting observation was narrated last week by a traveler and tour organizer after assessing the potential for tourism in one of the rural areas in Nagaland. The man had some revolutionary ideas on how he would like to project Nagaland as a tourist destination. He said he would use the power of the internet , technology and the strength of the social networking site.
He actually did. He put some amazing pictures of the countryside, described the people and the facilities that travelers would have access and the things they could. He put out this information on his site.
It took only half an hour for enquiries to flood in but the game-changer in all this was a question from a seasoned traveler who had been to Nagaland and it rural villages. The question was “show us the toilet”.
And that was the end of the quest to promote tourism in this rural corner of Nagaland.
So yes, while Modi can assert his idea of ‘toilets first then temples’, likewise in Nagaland we can in the same breath call for enlightenment for “toilets first, before the humungous church buildings” which we love so much.
Unlike the Dalits who more often not alos face the question of landlessness and live as laborers in the farmstead of the richer and higher caste landlords …out backyard is our own … surely we deserve a cleaner and more civilized environment.
