A MIRROR TO INDIANS TO REFLECT WHAT THEY ARE!

The media, whether journalistic or electronic, invariably project India as an emerging economic power in competition with China though in the final analysis the country always comes a distand second compared to its giant neighbor. But if one of the senior Ministers in GOI is to be believed there is one area where Chinese are beaten hollow by Indians. That is practicing open defecation! Read more about the self criticism leveled by the Minister and introspect:

"Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today described India as the "dirtiest and filthiest" country in the world where people with mobile phones go out to answer the "call of nature". The comment was the latest addition to the minister's repertoire of controversial statements on a gamut of subjects ranging from education and research to sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and sanitation. Ramesh, who last month said open defecation was a "blot" and a "shame", returned to the topic as he highlighted what he called a "paradox". "In one area in which India can claim success in the social sector is education. We can't say the same thing in health, we can't say the same thing in nutrition, we certainly can't say the same thing in sanitation because we do remain the dirtiest and filthiest country," he said. He said around 65 per cent of rural houses had been provided with toilets but didn't use them. "Today, if you go to many parts of India, you have women with a mobile phone going out to answer the call of nature. I mean it is paradoxical," the minister, who also holds charge of sanitation, said at an event here. "You have a mobile phone and you don't have a toilet. When you have a toilet, you don't use the toilet... (but) use it as a godown." Last month he had said it was a "blot" on India and a "shame" on everyone that the country had the highest rate of open defecation in the world. According to a WHO survey, Indians account for 58 per cent of the world's population practising open defecation. China is a distant second, accounting for about 7 per cent".

There are two ways of looking at this startling statement from the Minister. One is his desperation that being the Minister heading the Rural Development portfolio he is not able to do much to improve the situation. The other interpretation can be that he is appealing to the collective conscience of the country with the anticipation that people will reform themselves. The million dollar question is who should be blamed for this sad situation? Government cannot shirk its responsibility for the continued practice of open defecation even after 67 years of independence because one of the prerequisites for using a toilet is plenty of water. Where is the water which poor villagers, most of them situated in drought and dry land areas, can access easily? Even drinking water is at a premium, let alone water for cleaning after defecation! The lamenting Minister must do more than talking in improving the village infrastructure and realize that use of cell phone does not need water!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
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TOILETS VS MOBILE PHONES-AN IRRELEVANT ISSUE

India is a favorite whipping boy when it comes to comparing its stature in the comity of nations, with China always scoring over it. While criticism, if based on logic and reality, must be taken in right spirit, those made with ulterior motives deserve condemnation. Similarly defending the existing situation with lame excuses for inefficiency, backwardness, poverty, corruption, malnutrition etc also cannot be condoned. Some time back there was an international report indicting India for the tremendous achievements in the field of wireless telephony while ignoring the basic need of toilet facilities to some of its impoverished population. The incongruity of such "off the cuff" remarks can be best understood when the facts are checked.

"One wonders why multilateral bodies like the UN come out with these incongruous factoids when it relates to the Third World only. This statistics must be true for the developed world also. You do not need common sense to ascertain the veracity of this since in a family unit of four there could at the most be four mobile phones while there could be only two toilets. So the question is why India should be any different. However, there are many who take such reports in our country as the ultimate truth and agonise on how backward we are or how uncivilised we are. While in actual fact we may not be. Thus in rural India people defecate in the open, mostly in their own fields, which ensures a cleaner, simpler and cheaper way to not allow pollution to build up. However, when we come to the urban areas where slums proliferated the same practice is not healthy and that is where the public toilets are being implemented as we see in cities like Mumbai. Also our hygiene habits are probably the best in world since we wash up after we defecate and not use toilet paper which may not clean well. Similarly, after we blow our nose we do not put the offending mucous polluted tissue or handkerchief in our pockets as most of the Westerners do. Thus in most things what we do and how we do is sometimes much better than what the West does. Therefore let us not look down upon ourselves or denigrate our people and their habits".

The above rebuttal should not detract from the reality that a substantial number of more than half a million villages in the country does not have protected toilets in majority of the houses with open defalcation the established practice. Hundreds of years of traditional practice cannot be expected to change in short time and universal protected toileting habit can be inculcated only through universal education. Many public and voluntary agencies are doing yeomen work in this area and when the recently enacted "Right to Education Act" implemented earnestly, some progress can be expected in this front.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com