SANITATION AS A WICKED PROBLEM IN INDIA

ABSTRACT

India has suffered from the problem of Sanitation from years. Poor and dull methods of sanitation has showed many drastic changes to the country in many fields. There have been implementation of various regulations by the government for the improved and developed practices of Sanitation but majorly every such regulation has failed in achieving their respective goals. There have been depletion in social and economical aspect due to this sanitation crisis. When the first of one such regulation was implemented (Total Sanitation Campaign), the government reported that sanitation coverage will increase to 68% but the 2011 Census report showed otherwise and a 31% of sanitation coverage in the Country. The reason behind this chapter is to list some of the major tools propounded by the Indian government to help curb the problem of sanitation in the country. The drawbacks of these regulations are included with a view so that beneficial amendments can be called along and the future goals can be achieved as they are desired. This chapter will also showcase the struggles for Open Defecation (ODF) status and how the old age practice of open defecation was curbed in many states of the nation.

Keywords : Sanitary Regulations, Total Sanitation Campaign, Sarai, Nirmal Grams, Implementation, Solid and Liquid Waste Management, Sustainable Sanitation.

SANITATION AS A WICKED PROBLEM IN INDIA

Sanitation talks about facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces. Sanitation states the means for people to be hygienic. It concerns itself with environment laws, as, the more efficient sanitation in a state, the more well is the environment and health of the people in society. In India, open defecation and communicable waterborne disease are more concerning issues as held by environment concerning bodies. An order was passed by National Green Tribunal, in case of Mahesh Chandra Saxena vs South Delhi Municipal Corporation and ors.[1], on 10^th May 2019 regarding how the treated waste water can be utilized from Sewage treatment plants (STPs). As per World Health Organization (WHO), “Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces. Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease world-wide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health both in households and across communities. The word ‘sanitation’ also refers to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal”. The resources and equipments of better sanitation is important for the prevention of many illnesses; be it for an individual or society as a whole, like, livelihoods, education, dignity and security. India, which is home to one-third of the world’s 2.5 billion population with no access to improved sanitation, 525,000 children (under the age of 5) die every year due to one of the many sanitation-related illnesses: Diarrhoea.[2]

Courts in several cases has interpreted that right to sanitation is included in Article 21 which provides a right to live a dignified life. The Higher Judiciaries in India has recognized right to sanitation is covered under “Right to Life” as provided by section 21 of Constitution of India. In matter of Virendra gaur vs State of Haryana (1995)[3], Court for the first time incorporated right to sanitation under Article 21 by stating that enjoyment of life and right to live with dignity includes sanitation without which life can not be enjoyed and without improved sanitation facilities, the right to live with dignity can not be achieved. 

In the matter of LK Koolwal vs State of Rajasthan (1998)[4], the court stated that Article 21 of the Indian Constitution includes maintenance of “Health preservation of sanitation & environment”, as it affects the life of citizen.

In case of Environment & Consumer Protection Foundation vs Delhi Administration & Ors.[5], Supreme Court stated that the “Right to Water and Sanitation” has to be paraphrased and read as a fundamental component of the “Right to Education”. Further, the court ordered to all the States and Union Territories that all the schools must be provided with the healthy drinking water and proper sanitation facilities vis-a-vis realizing the right to education as provided by Article 21(a).

Whereas, in case of AIDQUA Holdings (Mauritius) Inc. Vs Tamil Nadu Water Investment Co. Ltd.[6], the Madras High Court stated on Human Rights and Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation (2010), by referring to The United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution . The court further interpreted that as mentioned in several international human rights treaties, the right to water and sanitation is included in the right to an adequate standard of living.

Some of the Major Tools by the Indian Government for Healthy Sanitation in the Country

Government through time has introduced several regulations to make the public aware of the rising issue of unhygienic sanitation and provide them with the idea of a healthy environment, these regulations are called Sanitary Regulations. These regulations restricts and prevents the import, export and marketing of certain animal species or products to prohibit the introduction or spread of pests or diseases that such animals may be suffering from. There have been some known regulations in India regarding improving the sanitation.

The Sarais Act, 1867, “Sarai”, is mentioned under section 2 of the Act, is any building used for shelter and accomodation of travellers, and includes, in any case in which only part of a building is used as a sarai, the part so used of such building. This Act allows an individual “free excess” to use clean washrooms and consume healthy drinking water at any hotel all around the nation. This privilege of “free excess” is provided under section 7(2) of the Sarais Act, 1867. The provision further states that if any Magistrate[7] or any other person authorised by the Magistrate of the District[8] in this behalf, to give him free access to the sarai and allow him to inspect the same or any part thereof[9]. This act doesn’t applies to certain sarais which are under the direct management of State Government or of any Municipal Committee as mentioned under section 16 of the act. There have been instances where the question is raised that if a building, wholely used for the purpose of shelter and accomodation would fall in the definition of “sarai” or not. In the case of Punjab State v Chaman Lal[10], the court stated that the various duties mentioned under section 7 of this Act indicates that the protection and privilege the legislature intended to provide to the travelers is of safe sanitation, and stated that there is no difference if the travelers are staying in the building on payment of the charges or are allowed to stay there without any such payment.

Section 4 of the act authorises the Magistrate of the District to keep all of the sarais registered within his/her jurisdiction. It is mandated by this provision that names and the residences of such keepers must be mentioned in the Register. Even after such guidelines by the government, many institutions fails to register their sarais. Lack of awareness is one of the main reason that many institutions doesn’t follow the regulations provided by this act and thus, many people are not able to exercise the benefit out of the Act. During a survey conducted by Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) in Varanasi in the localities of Lanka, Chetganj, Sigra and Bhelupur, the ADM city was reported with a list of unregistered private hostels. The survey was actually conducted to keep the terrorist activities in-check due to the terrorist activities in these districts in 2005.

Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), It was previously known as Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) and was a “demand driven” campaign, this project was launched considering the sanitation crisis in the rural households of India. During its run, it covered 607 districts all over India. Government of India promulgated Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in 1986, with the aim to improve the standard of living of rural people and provide dignity and privacy to women. Afterwards in 1999, CRSP adopted TSC in order to aware the rural people on Information, Education and Communication (IEC), Human Resource Development and capacity development activities regarding safe sanitation, personal hygiene and waste water disposal. With a view to achieve the status of Nirmal Bharat by 2022, it was then renamed as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2012.

The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was introduced with an aim to create Nirmal Gram Panchayats with following priorities:

• Providing Sanitation facilities in Anganwadis in government buildings and Government Schools within the Gram Panchayats.
• Provisions for Individual Household Latrine (IHHL) for both above poverty line and below poverty line households within these gram panchayats and access to water and a functional piped water supply.
• Provisions for Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) for existing grams.
• For the proper functioning of sustainable sanitations, the capacity building of field functionaries, Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) and the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI).

The Main Objectives of this campaign was to:

• Promote Cost-effective and suitable technologies for environmentally safe and sustainable sanitation.
• Encourage community managed ecological sanitary systems which focuses on solid and waste managements.
• Provide proper sanitation facilities as per Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and anganwadi centres in village areas and promote education on maintaining hygiene and healthy sanitation practices among students.
• Speed up sanitation coverage in village areas, so that the vision of Nirmal Bharat can be achieved by 2022 with all gram Panchayats in the country attaining Nirmal gram status.
• Promote communities and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) for awareness of sustainable sanitation facilities by encouraging health education.

The Government of India launched Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) in the year 2005, to honor and recognize the efforts and achievements made by Panchayati Raj Institutions by becoming open defecation free and covering their extent of area. It motivated the gram panchayats to achieve the status of nirmal grams and attain healthy sanitation policies. Therefore, to call it a mass movement, the then Atal Vihari Vajpayee government renamed it from Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. Sikkim was noted the first Nirmal State by achieving full sanitation coverage. As per 2011 census, the report stated that there were 32.70 % of rural households having access to toilets, before the disestablishment of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2014, National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) provided a report in 2013 which showed that only 40.60 % of the rural households have such access. In 2019, when the Swachh Bharat Mission completed its phase 1, NSSO showed the data that only 71.20 % rural households have access to toilets. It debunked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of India being open defecation free[11]. Certain limitations of this scheme were:

1. Funding : Only a single source of funding, i.e., Budgetry Allocation.
2. Lack of focus on Urban Areas : This scheme considered to develop only the rural households despite the fact that open defecation is a National phenomena and not just in rural areas. The Urban areas in India contributed  46 % of global open defecation.
3. Lack of focus on behavioural changes : Many people even after the construction of toilets in their areas didn’t preferred to use it due to lack of learning and sustainable sanitation awareness and practices.
4. Lack of Efficient and effective monitoring agency : Even after the awareness to the field functionaries for the proper usage and maintenance of toilets, there was no proper outcome and output of such usage.
5. No proper piped water supply, which dragged the usage of such toilets due to unavailability of water in rural areas.

A report by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in 2014 resulted in the disestablishment of this campaign, it considered the timeline 2009-14 of both Total Sanitation Campaign and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. The report stated that the objective was to construct 426.32 lakh and 469.76 lakh IHHLs (Individual Household Latrines) for both above poverty line and below poverty line families but the districts were able to construct only 222.32 lakh (52.15%) and 207.55 lakh (44.18%) IHHLs, respectively, during 2009-10 to 2013-14. The report pointed at the failure of management of funds, wherein, only 48 per cent of the funds were released by the states and that 16 States didn’t released data of no such funds. It further stated that despite the suitable amount for the implementation of scheme, their was some unspent amount and that it varied from 40 % to 56 % between 2009-14. The report also further pointed that there was no convergence with other schemes between 2009-12 and between 2012-14, there was only approx 6 % construction of IHHLs in convergence with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Indira Awas Yojna (IAY)[12].

The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission, is a national campaign promulgated by the Indian Government and was officially launched on 2^nd October 2014 by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, its main focus was to eliminate and improving management of solid waste in the society. The mission is in its phase 2 now, in phase 1 (2014-2019) it aimed to establish Open defecation free India through construction of toilets (the government intented to build around 90 million toilets by providing subsidies of 12,000 INR to citizens), generating awareness, eradicating manual scavenging and bringing behavioural changes concerning sanitation practices and expansion of capacity at local level. The phase 2 (2020-2025) of the mission intents to sustain the idea of open defecation free country alongside managing the solid and liquid waste and improving the life of sanitation workers. The mission was classified for both Rural and Urban areas with different ministries governing them. For rural areas, “SBM – Gramin” was introduced and it was governed and financed by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (before it was changed to Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Ministry of Jal Shakti); whereas, “SBM – urban” was governed and financed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The Volunteers of the campaign are known as “Swachhagrahis” or “Ambassadors of Cleanliness”, they encouraged the construction of latrines and toilets using an approved method called “Community-Led Total Sanitation” at the rural level and other activities inclusive of National real-time monitoring and updates from non-governmental organizations such as SWACH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling)(introduced in Pune), Waste Warriors and The Ugly Indian[13]. Although, approx 89.9 million of toilets were successfully built around this time but phase 1 of the mission wasn’t that effective, the objectives SBM phase 2 moved to management of bio-degradable waste arising from cattles and agriculture, safe disposal of solid and liquid waste, plastic waste management, and management of open defecation free status as planned. After 2020, SBM-Urban also moved its focus to disposing garbage, wastewater management and disposal of feces sludge. Few reasons why this mission was not that effective as it was aimed to be[14] :

• Poverty affected the development of toilets, despite the reduction in poverty[15] in India and government provided subsidies the construction and maintenance was dragged as many citizens were not able to afford the time, money and effort required in the work.
• Low demand of sanitation policies, nations with gender inequality are more prone to such low demands as women are barred from decision making in the society, they play a major role in developing safe and private sanitation practices.
• The practices and beliefs surrounding caste system are a major hurdle towards safe and hygienic sanitation practices. Because, the Indian government is promoting two-pit latrine system, wherein the pits are to be emptied in every 4 to 5 years (and as per the strength of family) but in rural areas, the upper caste individuals doesn’t believe emptying the pits by themselves instead they think it to be the job of low caste individuals of the society[16].
• One of the many problems preventing construction of toilets and sanitation to be effective are the tenancy and housing ownership systems. It is one of the major issue as more than 55% of Indians do not have their own land, being tenants, the landlords doesn’t entertain their concern for a more better and healthy sanitation facilities due to their brief stay and lack of mutual voice. People who own land but have a low-income household suffers from either money or space for a better room for toilets.
• Problem of Water supply in rural areas due to poor city planning and rural development. Nearly 80% of Indian Households doesn’t have piped water connection, after which they suffer to fulfil their water necessities. The government recommend need of at most 4 litres of water for pour flush for twin pit latrines system.[17]

Grounds on which India failed at Sanitation front

The Indian Society has always given its utmost concern to sanitation. When the Indus Valley and Harappan Civilizations were excavated it was revealed that there were ingenious solutions for the transfer of waste water through underground drainage systems. It showed that sanitary engineering was at a developed stage 5000 years ago. This inspiration on improved sanitary practices continued along the rule of various dynasties, like, the Guptas, Mauryas and the southern kingdom of Vijayanagara (which ruled the Indian subcontinent). Also from ideological perception, various social reformers of India spreaded the awareness for healthy sanitation. From Philosophies of Patanjali to Swami Vivekananda’s writings and the abstraction of  Mahatma Gandhi on Sanitation, the prominence to safe and healthy sanitation was fundamental for cultural foundation of India.

Despite various regulations by the government through time,  only 71%[18] of households in India have access to basic sanitation as per a report in 2020[19] and 90% of the total population have access to basic drinking water source as per a report in 2019. Due to pure sanitation in many areas children suffers from slow bodily growth and an estimate of 4 lakh children die every year. The two main reasons that comes out for the predominance nature for the practice of open defecation are“Lack of awareness”and “established age old practice”. Another reason is the gap between adequacy and availability of toilets.

A World Bank report estimates that this inadequacy in sanitation practices in India accounts for a loss of $53.8 billion, which includes economic drop as well, recorded from water use, tourism, access time and health related economic impacts. This implies an annual per capita loss of $48. Also, India signed for Millennium Development Goals (MDG), but is dragging behind in meeting its sanitation goals i.e. “decreasing the proportion of population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015”. Few of the major grounds of India’s failure are –

a) Funding : Not enough funds sources for proper functioning and maintenance of sanitation programs.

b) Lack of focus on Urban areas : There are different types of problems vis-a-vis urban and rural areas. Despite knowing that open defecation is not only a rural phenomena, majority of the schemes introduced by government focused especially on rural areas at sanitation front, considering the very fact that India accounts around 46 % of global open defecation from urban households only.

c) No awareness for attitude and behavioral changes : Inthe country despite the construction of toilets many individuals and families tends to not use them. The government didn’t put much efforts on awareness campaigns, which would have helped in educating people of the harms caused by open defecation.

d) Absence of efficient and effective monitoring agency : The monitoring of outcomes (usage) and output (construction) were not done effectively. Their was no focus on monitoring and maintenance of toilets even when there were sufficient construction of toilets.

e) Inadequacy of scientific knowledge and expertise about ecosystems and biology.

f) Unavailability of piped water supply : The unavailability of adequate water was also a problem, as there was no such provision for availability of water. As per a report, only 3.61% of households had access to tap water in latrines and around 46 % of households were reported to have water supply for flushing.

g) Lack of decisive decision making and political will.

Present Scenario of Sanitation in India

The 2020 pandemic of COVID-19, revealed India’s dull system of sanitation. The new-built “dry latrines”[20] and “hanging toilets”[21] in village areas in India were the result of lock downs of 2020-21. Even after the introduction of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013[22] and a strict ban on dry latrines, approx Forty Six thousand more new dry latrines were built during this time of pandemic.

The main reason for the construction of these illicit toilets is that sanitary toilets have become breeding ground of various diseases. In India, the struggle for better sanitation multiplied after consecutive waves of COVID-19 hit the nation, this brought a sense of fear in people’s minds to even use the public toilets or not and daily (people who rely on public toilets for safe sanitation) or not.

Survey Findings in Indian Society

Ministry of Jal Shakti takes a survey concerning the sanitation system in India. The following report was published by National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS), Round 3 (2019-20). It provides an insight of Indian sanitation concerning aspects like, Accessibility, Functionality, Hygiene Situation, Solid and Liquid Waste Management, etc., nationally, in Open Defecation Free (ODF) Villages and Non-ODF Villages in percentage.

In Households

All the household toilets were connected to a tank/pit or to a sewer system all around the nation. Around 89.9 % people, who had access to toilets, were reported to be using the toilets.

	National Level	ODF Villages	Non-ODF Villages
Accessibility	94.4	98	77
Functionality	96.4	98.7	82.1
Hygienic Situation	96.3	98.7	82
Disposal Mechanism of Excreta	99.9	99.9	99.8
Disposal Methods of Excreta	87.8	95.3	54.9
Solid and Liquid Waste Management Practices	86.2 and 87.2, respectively	87.4 and 88.3, respectively	80 and 81.7, respectively

In Schools

Out of all the Schools surveyed, 52.9 % were primary schools, 28.6 were lower secondary, 9.3 were higher secondary and 9.2 were secondary schools.

	National Level	ODF Villages	Non-ODF Villages
Accessibility	97.5	97.9	95.5
Functionality	99.3	99.9	96.7
Separate Toilets for Boys and Girls in Co-education Schools	86.7	88.1	80.4
Hand Washing Practice	98.7	99.5	94.3
Hygiene	99.1	99.7	__
Usage	98.7	99.5	94.5
Safe Disposal of Human Excreta	99.5	99.9	97.7

In Anganwadi Centres

	National Level	ODF Villages	Non-ODF Villages
Accessibility	94.5	97.9	77.6
Functionality	97.8	99.1	88.1
Hygiene	98.6	99.4	92.5
Usage	96.9	98.7	83.6
Safe disposal of Human Excreta	99	99.6	94.8
Hand Washing Practice	98	99.4	88.3

In Public Toilets

	National Level	ODF Villages	Non-ODF Villages
Presence of Public Toilets	16.6	18.8	5.9
Separate toilets for men and women	__	58.8	44.6
Availability of water	__	99.6	100
Functionality	98.6	99.6	82.1
Safe disposal of Human excreta	99.9	__	__
Hand Washing Practice	99.6	99.6	100
Free Use	91	91.7	79

As per the report published by NARSS[23], it can be found that sanitation and safe water facilities are made available to households, schools and several Anganwadis but India lacks in the construction of Public toilets, be it for men or women. It shows that small amount of constructions are done and out of them as well some of the toilets are not free, which is further an evidence of poor facilities of toilets in India.

CONCLUSION

This Chapter concludes that India needs a very aggressive Information, Education and Communication (IEC) programme to push individual’s actions, behaviours, choices and preferences to help the country become open defecation free. India needs to embark upon a journey to totally get rid of the problem of sanitation by scaling up administering institutions, effective and efficient monitoring and evaluation of innovations and improved accountability in designs and implementations of such tools and schemes. No policy is too specific or too broad in its scope of functionality so, it can’t be called beneficial or non-beneficial based on that paradigm only. The success of any government policy lies on implementation. Sanitation Programs and policies should encourage participation of society (including women) in the model, monitoring and implementation of local priorities in both urban and rural areas. One mistake of these government designs and models adopted so far has been the lack of localization. It has leaded to variety of obstacles like lagging imposition of policies, mislaid priorities of local government and thus, the disappointment of the societies.

And government policies can not solely be held responsible for such crisis, people of a nation builds or destroy it, they themselves can either promote it to a better placve for living or retard it for future generations. So, it is a unified process, government implements a law or policy and we as a citizen of a respected nation conforms with it and further helps in constructing a better demography, as popular participation is the essence of Democracy.

Author:

Mr. Shubham Goswami

A. LL.B. (Hons.) 3^rd Year

GLA UNIVERSITY, MATHURA

shubhamgoswami1101@gmail.com

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[1] Application No. 148/2016 (M.A. No. 686/2017) and Application No. 70/2018

[2] World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/health-topics/diarrhoea#tab=tab_1 , (last visited 29^th December 2022)

[3] Appeal (Civil) 9151 of 1954

[4] AIR 1988 Raj 2, 1987 (1) WLN 134

[5] Writ Petition (Civil) No. 631 of 2004

[6] Company Appeal No. 7 of 2012

[7] Police officers of rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and above.

[8] Chief officer charged with the executive administration of a district in criminal matters of any designation.

[9] Indian Kanoon, The Sarais Act, 1867. https://indiankanoon.org/doc/73871485/#:~:text=%E2%80%94Whoever%2C%20being%20the%20keeper%20of,shall%20have%20been%20convicted%20of , (last visited 25^th December, 2022)

[10] SCC OnLine P&H 231 : ILR (1960) 1 P&H 672

[11] Rashmi Verma, Rural Water and Sanitation, DownToEarth, published on 25^th November 2019, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/rural-water-and-sanitation/only-71-3-rural-households-have-access-to-toilets-shows-nsso-data-67929 , (Last visited 28^th December 2022)

[12] Pretika Khanna, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan failed to achieve its desired targets: CAG, Live Mint, published on 16^th December 2015, https://www.livemint.com/Politics/ghYnnKN03hSqre4cwSrwqN/Nirmal-Bharat-Abhiyan-failed-to-achieve-its-desired-targets.html , (last visited 27^th December 2022)

[13] Wikipedia, Swachh Bharat Mission , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Mission , (last visited 25^th December 2022)

[14] Mohnish Kedia, “Sanitation Policy in India – designed to fail?”, Taylor and Francis Online, published on 14 May 2022, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25741292.2022.2069650 , (last visited 26^th December, 2022)

[15] World Bank, Poverty and Equity Brief, More than 50% population of India is poor as per the bar of poverty line set by World Bank in 2020, (April 2020) https://databankfiles.worldbank.org/data/download/poverty/33EF03BB-9722-4AE2-ABC7-AA2972D68AFE/Global_POVEQ_IND.pdf

[16] Although the Muslim Community had no such barrier of caste system and they demanded simple pit latrine system.

[17] Shagun, “Water”, DownToEarth, published on 25 November 2019, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/water/nearly-80-per-cent-indian-households-without-piped-water-connection-67928 (last visited 26^th December 2022)

[18] Out of the remaing 29% ; 14% have limited sanitation and 15% have no access to sanitation at all and have to openly defecate. Water Supply and Sanitation in India, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_India (last visited on 28^th December 2022)

[19] Rashmi Verma, What’s holding back India’s complete ODF status, DownToEarth, published on 14 March 2019, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/waste/what-s-holding-back-india-s-complete-odf-status–63574 ,(last visited on 28^th December 2022)

[20]  They operate without flushwater in regions where water is not accessible.

[21]  They are built at height from the ground near a pond or lake

[22] The Bill prohibitsthe employment of Manual Scavengers, the manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment and the construction of insanitary latrines.

[23]  National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey, Round 3 (2019-20), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, (Chapter- 8, 9, 10 and 11)