“I have been working on this farm for over four years now and still don’t have a proper toilet. They have just dug a hole near our hut on the farm which we have to use as a toilet,” says Sarla.
“The pit for our hut has no cubicle door and fills up so quickly that I prefer my children use it. Every time I need to use the toilet, I just try to find a secluded spot in the open,” she adds.
Sarla (48), who hails from Bihar, works at a small farm near the Yamuna bank in Delhi and lives in one of the four small huts on the farmland.
According to a report by NITI Aayog titled SDG-India: Index and Dashboard 2019-2020, “nearly six million villages, 633 districts (90.7 per cent of all districts) and 35 states / Union territories were verified as open defecation free (ODF) in December 2019. 17 states and 5 UTs already have declared and verified all their districts to be ODF under Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen).”
However, a recent Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) on water, sanitation and hygiene by the World Health Organization and UNICEF that was released on July 1, 2021, said that at least 15 per cent of the total Indian population defecates in the open.
Kamla Devi (43), who works on the same farm says: “It was only two years ago that we got a borewell water system. We had to use a tubewell earlier. So whether it was raining or the area was flooded, we had to walk all the way to the tubewell, fill our pail with water, and then go to find a spot - away from people and animals - to defecate. Things are better, but we still have to use the outdoors. So are things really better?”
“We live in temporary huts so there is no electricity, which makes using any type of toilet facility difficult after dark. It is scary to defecate in the open without any light. But at the same time, it makes me feel safe because I am less ashamed,” Sarla adds.
Women have unique toilet needs. The reality of not having a toilet at home results in the poor management of menstrual hygiene and the withholding of food and water. This leads to undernourishment, reproductive and bladder infections, and mental stress. To say the least, these health issues are more serious for pregnant women.
“There is no place to dispose of sanitary napkins. Sometimes we throw it in the garbage that lies next to our homes or in the open drain that carries sewage from outside pukka localities that goes into the Yamuna river,” says Bimla Devi (29).
“We know there is a stench and the place we walk barefoot in is flooded with dirty water,” she adds. “Leave sanitary napkins. Even our excreta is not removed or cleaned.”
“We have to wake up at 4 am, or earlier, to take care of our business before others wake up when we are menstruating. Toilets are a luxury for us,” says Kamla.