Double Pit in place of unhealthy toilets. Sulabh NGO is trying to popularize this type of simple and cheap toilets which consume less water
Patna, the capital of Bihar. Inspite of the welcome by people, Bindeshwar gets little response: “An NGO or a government cannot realize alone the social programmes; each one on his side, they have to work together”. To arrive at this, there was a need “of a letter which can lift mountains” addressed to the government of Bihar and signed by a magical surname Gandhi and name Indira. In this missive, the lady in power at Delhi expresses surprise at nonapplication of the “fourth clause of the plan aiming at eliminating the odious practice of carrying the fecal material on head” and asks the government of the state to “pay special attention to the problem”. The voice
was now open. Bindeshwar, now with the support of the administration constructs the public toilets all over Bihar and to the individuals who received special grants for getting their latrines changed. He took up special bet on paid WC (today it costs one rupee, half of two centimes of a euro). Many people rallied against this “toll” which was incompatible to their local mentality. But they were wrong because Sulabh in exchange engaged in maintaining the place clean, the staff kept the place guarded. The day the first WC was opened at Patna, more than 500 persons used it and paid. “This was the beginning of all”. The towns and then the neighboring states get 101
interested. Now the U.N., with the World Health Organisation, recognized the validity of the system. The Sulabh NGO has today made more than 1.2 million of private toilets, more than 7500 public sanitation centres, at hundreds of places, out of which many have bath facilities and cloak facilities, and are also situated at pilgrim centres. They are in 1250 towns, in all states of the country, and more than 10 million Indians use the facilities everyday. In matter of sanitation programmes in poor countries, Sulabh is hence forward a reference. And the Bhangis? The NGO claims 640 towns “free of scavengers” and more than 120,000 untouchables came out of their condition. Alwar, in Rajasthan, with 300000 population is one of the “liberated” cities. Thanks to the installation of a training center Nai Disha – where various workshops (sewing, cutting, embroidery, body-care, making of cakes/ biscuits, pasta/ noodles) occupied 160 women during our visit. Here, everything started in 2002 when Bindeshwar Pathak while passing through Alwar with a team of B.B.C, shouted at a group of women scavengers, “Why do you do this work?” They reply, “because we don’t