Defecating in the open-A deeper look

A response to the World Health organisation and UNICEF’s report 'Diarrhoea: Why Children Are Still Dying and What Can Be Done' (2009), which  pointed out that India has the largest number of persons that defecate in the open worldwide.

I strongly oppose this westernized view of sanitation & hygiene. Defecating in the open is not just a hygienic issue but a socio-cultural, historical, economic, political & environmental issue. The point of contention being that health is jeopardized due to open-defecation is highly ridiculous. I argue that its failure of the state which is primarily responsible for the poor health rather than the prevalent defecation practices.

·         Many cultures & society across India has age-old tradition of defecating in the open. Most parts where open defecation is practiced are parts with water scarcity & low rainfall. There are many community defecating practices which are of special significance to many, particularly women as a social-bonding exercise. For eg, in many parts of northern India, women go out in groups early at dawn to relieve themselves out in the open and socialize with other woman from the village, who otherwise can’t socialize because of restrictive customs like purdah/ghoongat.

·         Nomadic man never defecated in closed toilets! Even the forefathers of Hispanics & the Caucasians, who are the so-called ‘developed’ human race today, did defecate in the open.

·         We assume that access to toilets is economically driven. In many parts of Tamil Nadu, Bihar, UP & MP this assumption doesn’t hold true.

·         When the government & non-government run toilets charges something ranging from 1-10 INR to use toilets, whom can we blame for open toilets? A case example is Bangalore where the frequency of even paid toilets are very low (1 per 5 kms) & moreover there locations are haphazard and ad-hoc. In some locations we find 2-3 toilets whereas in a few places there are none. And the hygienic conditions of these toilets are worse than open toilets, to say the least! So if you choose to use public toilets instead of open ones, you might end up paying to get sick!

·         From environmental perspective, open toilets are way better then the plush toilets with toilet papers and other fancy stuff.  In India there are numerous coprophagous animals like dogs, pigs that eat the fecal matter. The climatic conditions also ensure that the feces decompose fast. Fecal matters also support a large microbial & insect biodiversity. Climate change experts should swear by defecation in the open as the most carbon-unfriendly way with zero carbon foot-print & zero GHG emission. Using water to clean is the second best option while using toilet paper is the most environmentally harmful way as paper manufacturing industry is highly water-intensive & has large carbon footprint.

·         Traditionally, in agriculture, in many parts of the world (if not all), human excreta, after composting has been used as a manure.  The word "humanure" has been coined for it. The native wisdom in how to process the "humanure" has given way in some places to "thermphilic composting" and commercial selling of the "humanure".

·         The initial capital as well as environmental costs of building toilets is high with large carbon-footprints. Sewers and septic tanks accumulate wastes and dump them at point locations, which might not be able to handle such high magnitudes of in-flow. Open toilets ensure that such bulk flow doesn’t take place & before the eventual drainage a substantially large amount is anyway decomposed.

·         The UN is highlighting the wrong issue. The main issue of a poor health condition is not because we defecate in the open but because health like other essential services viz. roadways, railways, water, education is primarily a state responsibility and the state, even after 60+ years of self rule, has failed to ensure the distribution of these services across social, economic & geographic strata & sections.

            There is no doubt in this that when the human excreta is not treated/re-cycled/composted, it becomes a breeding site for disease with various available means of transmission. An essential part of any competent ‘Urban Planning’ is inclusion of ‘Sewage Treatment Plants’ that recycle the water for use in Municipal and Residential Landscaping (Household and not Industrial Sewage) and compost the filtered waste into manure.

Link to the cited report:

 http://www.who.int/child_adolescent_health/documents/9789241598415/en/index.html