A few years back, we went for a rural India project and, needless to say, on long highways with nothing but wild foliage and occasional eateries, toilets posed a huge issue. When we stopped at one eatery, we realized that the toilet was merely a hole dug up in the ground with a wild fence covered by an old sari. Also, it was really filthy. The boys somehow managed but we girls had come face to face with a nightmare. We found it shameful and offensive to make a circle covering the bare asses of the one whose turn was, waiting for ours. Anyways, with much embarrassment to everyone around, we too managed. At that point, many of us, I clearly remember, had discussed about the lives of thousands of women who have to face this humiliation every day till the end of their lives. Well, bowels, unlike a computer, can’t be programmed and nature’s call can come anytime; worse, when you are having loose motions or such an issue, the matters can take a shameful turn for sure. Even at railway platforms in the wee hours, one can easily spot women of all ages, sitting because they are forced to do the same, as if a penalty of not having a toilet in their houses.
We Indians are such hypocrites that at one hand we force our women to stay veiled or wrapped in a ‘chunni’ all the time and on the other, do not give a damn about the embarrassment they face every day while defecating in the open. There are still, a whopping 597 million people who do not have a toilet at home. According to BBC, ‘Some 11,000 women would have escaped rape last year if they had toilets in their homes in India’.It is hard even to imagine that 30 women per day were raped only because of open defecation and lack of proper sanitation. A similar data by ‘Sulabh international’ sanitation NGO also accentuates the same finding that in rural India, open defecation is the major culprit behind most rapes.
Another disturbing fact is that lack of sanitation affects women education very adversely. According to a report, more than 30% of rural teenage girls (12-18 years) leave school forever only due to lack of toilets there. The news and sights of open defecation, rapes and lack of sanitation effects tourism too and India, if we have to make a brand out of it, needs a tourism boost and hence sanitation has rather become an emergency for economic development.
Thank fully, there are many such organizations that are working towards making Indian open-defecation free and one of them is ‘Domex’ that aims to build 24,000 toilets by 2015 in rural India. This flagship sanitation brand from ‘Hindustan Unilever Limited’ has started a unique initiative called ‘Toilet for Babli’ where ‘Babli’ represents all the young rural girls forced to defecate in the open due to lack of toilets at home. You too can support and change many lives simply by supporting ‘You Click Domex Contributes’ by clicking ‘contribute’ tab on their website www.domex.inand supporting the online campaign ‘Toilet for Babli’. For every click, Domex will contribute Rs 5 towards making our Indian villages open-defecation free.
So, like clean water, food and sleep, we require sanitation too in order to stay clean, hence stay healthy and contribute towards making India stronger and cleaner.
You can bring about the change in the lives of millions of kids, thereby showing your support for the Domex Initiative. All you need to do is “click” on the “Contribute Tab” on www.domex.in and Domex will contribute Rs.5 on your behalf to eradicate open defecation, thereby helping kids like Babli live a dignified life.
I agree that this blog post will remain accessible in an un-altered state for a minimum of one year.
Image From: http://www.dasra.org/Dasra-in-the-news