AMARTYA Sen kicked off the campaign for public toilets in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned it into reality. The world’s biggest sanitation programme is now on in the country. But research shows that while the programme may reduce the practice of open defecation in the country, it may not improve its health indicators. It does not protect against diarrhea in children under five. Defecating in a toilet with water does not reduce the prevalence of parasitic worms which are transmitted via soil and can cause reduced physical growth and impaired cognitive function in children. No impact can be made either on child weight or height which are measures of nutritional status.
Professor Thomas Clasen of the UK said about India, ” Many householders do not always use the latrines, Thus, combined with continued exposure from poor hygiene, contaminated water and unsafe disposal of child feces, may explain the lack of a healthy impact.” India’s Total Sanitation Campaign has already provided almost 25 thousand individuals in rural India with covered toilets. Households in 50 villages were randomly selected to receive sanitation intervention in early 2011. The average proportion of households in a village with latrines rose from 9% to 63%. Of course, the problem is not one of India alone. About 2.5 million people worldwide lack access to basic sanitation facilities such as latrines and India accounts for one third of them. Two thirds of 1.1 million people who die of diarrheal diseases are Indians. Narendra Modi’s efforts to combat the grave problem are no doubt laudable. But surely he is aware that ingestion of food is more important than its ejection.
