During his recent visit to India, US President Barack Obama promised to support India’s case for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. It’s a recognition, perhaps, of India’s emerging status as a great power, and it will make a lot of Indians feel good about themselves. The same UN, however, has focused on another type of seat, or the lack of it, that should make us feel ashamed about ourselves. A recent report estimates that over 55 per cent or 600 million of our citizens have to squat in the open every day because they have no access to a toilet. Anyone taking an early train out of Chennai would notice the long line of people squatting along the track in clear view of passengers. The United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (IWEH) notes that in 2008 the country had some 545 million mobile phone users but that only about 366 million people had access to toilets. In other words, you can talk all you like, but if you want to go there’s no place but the great outdoors.
At first sight, though it is not a pretty one, it seems a small matter. After all, we have so many greater priorities, why agonise about this one thing? But the point is that this should be among our major priorities, considering that more than 600 million people, nearly twice the population of the United Stares, more than the population of most countries on the planet, lack facilities. The amount of waste they generate in a day is staggering, and no part of this is treated to make it safe. The potential for infectious disease is best left to the imagination. Indeed, it is an epidemiologist’s nightmare.
The irony is striking. This is a country that manufactures its own nuclear plants and is planning a Moon shot in the near future, but basic hygiene is a subject that has most of us shrugging in helplessness. Apart from a few organisations such as Sulabh International, few take it seriously or even think about it at all. As for the government, the stink of corruption in its own backyard probably makes it impossible for its officers to smell anything else. A permanent seat is all very well, but as long as our citizens remain in a permanent squat outside, the country will continue to be a shitty mess.