Experts say millions still lack access to a toilet, and that because of old habits many of the tens of millions of new facilities that have been built are not even being used (AFP Photo/Prakash SINGH) |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared the country of 1.3 billion people free of open defecation, and turned his sights towards eradicating single-use plastic next.
Modi --
whose claim has been challenged by experts -- made his ambitious "latrines
for all" pledge when he first took office in 2014 and his announcement
late Wednesday coincided with the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, an icon not
just for Indian independence but also sanitation.
"In 60
months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets, more than 110
million toilets have been built," Modi said in a speech to 20,000 village
chiefs in western Ahmedabad city in his and Gandhi's home state of Gujarat.
"The
women of our country no longer have to wait for darkness to descend. Innocent
lives of young children are being saved... the expense on healthcare has come
down," Modi added, calling the achievement a significant milestone for the
vast developing country.
However,
despite huge progress, experts have expressed scepticism about his bold claim,
saying millions still lack access to a toilet, and that because of old habits
many of the new facilities that have been built are not being used.
Modi acknowledged
that challenges remained, saying "we have to continue the journey to make
India clean. We have to make this change in behaviour permanent".
"We
have to make sure that the toilets are used for the purpose for which they have
been built. People who are still left out must be connected to (them)."
Plastic-free ambitions
Modi, who
stormed to a second term in office in May, also pledged to embark on another
major project -- to eradicate the country of single-use plastic.
"Plastic
is a big danger to health, environment and cleanliness. We must achieve the
target of making India plastic free by 2022," he said, reiterating a
recent promise.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's claim that India is "open-defecation free"
has been
questioned by experts, who cite data from rural as well as urban areas
(AFP Photo/
Prakash SINGH)
|
While some
states have already banned the use of such plastics, enforcement of the rules
has been lax.
"I know
that the use of plastic bags has already come down. Millions of households have
taken a decision not to use single-use plastics," he said.
"This
will benefit the environment. Roads and sewers won't get blocked. Cattle and
marine life would be saved."
Toilet
claim doubts
Modi's
claim that India is "open-defecation free" has been questioned by
experts, who cite data from rural as well as urban areas.
"Latrine
ownership increased from about 35 percent to about 70 percent... That did
accelerate the reduction of open defecation," said Sangita Vyas from the
Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE).
"But
in December 2018 we estimated about half of people in the states of Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan still defecated in the open,"
she told AFP.
She doubts
the shortfall has been made up since. Those four states are home to more than
450 million people.
For
instance across from Modi's office, on the other side of New Delhi, Vijaya
relieved herself next to the tracks near Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station
early in the morning.
"There
is no toilet (where we live). We all go out in the open," she told AFP.
"We
have been here for years and nobody has constructed a toilet, despite our
repeated pleas," Kaveri, a domestic helper, said in her nearby home in the
poor neighbourhood of Barapullah.
"We go
out in the public and it's not safe, but what do we do?" said the
mother-of-three.
Many of the
toilets that have been constructed are often locked, used for storage, or some
other purpose.
Cultural
barriers, engrained habits or a lack of knowledge about sanitation also create
barriers to more widespread usage.
"If
you're going to change the behaviour of rural folk on a sustainable, long term,
permanent basis, the only way you're going to be able to do it would be by
first focusing on behaviour change," Santosh Mehrotra, a development
economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told AFP.
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