Open defecation: A problem of mindset?

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article3524150.ece?homepage=true

According to this article in The Hindu, when it comes to the matter of open defecation in India, "increased spending alone will in no way turn out to be a magic bullet....[B]ringing about a change in mindset is the paramount need."

The question I wish to raise is, whose mindset? The article is sure it is the mindset of the people who 'choose' to defecate in the open.

I think the article presents just one part of the problem. It is important to understand and remember this because in India much of the problems with conceptualising, planning, and implementing policies arise because of the sociocultural differences between those making and supporting policies, and those seen as the 'objects' of policy-making. It is simpler to see all problems as arising from absence of adequate technological resources and absence of adequate information. In this case better water treatment and technologies for it are sought on the one hand, and greater awareness among those defecating in the open on the other.

Doubtless, the two are eminent suggestions. One, India does need to treat and recycle water, considering both increased use and depleting water resources. Nothing wrong with the idea of spreading awareness regarding hygiene either. My problem is with two assumptions which seem to have been made here: that increased allocation and technological solutions shall be adequate answers. Secondly, that people defecate in the open because they do not understand the health issues lack of sanitation contributes to.

The problem of sanitation is directly related to two other issues - that of availability of water and proper housing. All three issues require systematic long-term planning and investment of resources in developing requisite infrastructure. When it comes to urban areas, there are numerous other issues: one  of the biggest being increasing migration from rural areas, which is directly related to our very skewed economic paradigm. This paradigm has done little to develop jobs or infrastructure in rural areas, or support local, traditional and rural economic link themselves with the larger economic processes. Instead, local and traditional economic systems and occupations have been killed or at best ignored, and nothing has been planned to take their place. That has caused some of the largest internal migration in India in the last 2-2.5 decades. There can be no sustainable plan for providing water, sanitation or housing if the population is going to fluctuate so much this frequently. Not that we have tried sustainable planning. Or any kind of urban planning. Or worried about the urban poor constantly losing out on basic rights and services.

To go back to water, there has to be adequate and reliable supply of clean water everywhere, and problems of access need to be addressed too. If there are wells or hand-pumps or lakes and rivers which are not accessible to sections of local populations (local conflicts - gender/caste/community/ethnicity based), the problem of sanitation can not be addressed. Or, if there is no water available most of the time, which is true for large numbers of urban localities too. Thirdly, we need the infrastructure to purify, supply and treat water.

Housing. Another skeleton in the GoI closet. It is such a big problem and has been for so long we don't even talk about it. Or get to read about it. Again, as I said, it is also related to forced internal migration and skewed economic planning. Successive governments cannot just talk about and invest only in common toilets. Though we badly need some policy-research on the usefulness and cleanliness of common toilets, I would argue even now: why should people have to go out of their houses to access toilets? Secondly, hygiene is not simply about problems of open defecation. Particularly, for women and girls in underdeveloped and underserved regions, sanitation and hygiene are about much more - about taking care of their bodies, and reproductive health, and having their safety ensured. So, we do need to talk about housing when we talk about sanitation.

When funds are allocated for constructing toilets, there are many other issues which need to be tackled at different levels of governance and administration. Are time-frames taken seriously? Are funds actually spent on construction toilets and ensuring water availability? What dynamics of caste, class, gender, bureaucracy come into play to decide who gets contracts for constructions? How democratic and transparent are local  processes of decision-making? Who decides where and how many toilets will be constructed? Are women and lower castes really represented in decision making bodies? If people don't use toilets, has anyone tried to find out why they don't? Is water really available, say, in the early morning when people are most likely to need to use toilets? What are the mechanisms for post-construction evaluation on the ground?

What is wrong is the assumption that the poor - who are the ones without access to toilets - do not know better than to defecate in the open. Yes, there are traditional practices which are responsible, but, it is only a very small factor. Biggest factor is lack of understanding on the part of policy-makers of the multiple, complex and interlinked problems that various underprivileged sections face everyday.

Finally, I also want to problematise our tendency not to take class conflicts and class, caste, or gender-based marginalization seriously. When poor or/and illiterate people make a complaint to a company or govt office providing services do they respond with as much alacrity and sense of duty as they would were the complainant a middle/upper class person? Has decentralisation meant that local elected representatives hear people out irrespective of their gender and caste? Can the highest policy-makers ever really hear what problems a child working in a brick kiln faces, or the woman rolling beedis or sweeping municipal schools? Or, the man trying to survive on selling earthen pots or on daily wages paid to an urban construction worker? None of these people have access to sanitation. But, their problems are not one-dimensional. So, we - the middle and upper classes reading English language newspapers, the national news media, and our secular, liberal, technology-smitten, denial-stricken policy-makers need to get off our respective high horses, and accept that we do not always know what the solution should be. Or even what the problem really is. But we need to find out. From the people who actually live with those problems, and take their experiences, ideas and needs into account when planning, funding and implementing. Remember, democracy...and rights?

So, yes, bringing about a change in mindset is the paramount need.