World Toilet Day: Why don’t you give a shit?
Indian campaigners Priyanka Bharti (L) along with Priyanka Kumari (R) hold hands with school children as they take part in a function to mark World Toilet Day in New Delhi.Sulabh International, a non-proft group, organised the function to reward two Indian brides who had protested against their husband’s families because there was no toilet in their matrimonial household. – Photo by AFP
The problem with ‘human waste’ is that it has become a much sanitised term and does not do justice to this story that follows. Even faeces, when used in connection with the digestive tract, somehow give the impression that a reference is being made about animals; or it may give a more scientific cover of putting the ugly issue well under wraps of medicine. On the other hand, the use of the more unsavoury four-letter word makes one look uncivilised.
So how does one talk about poop and pee without the glowers, grimaces, frowns and still make it a serious issue worth including in a conversation concerning sustainable development?
Singaporean businessman Jack Sim who founded the World Toilet Organization in 2001, to bring attention to the lack of sanitation in developing countries, said in TED Talk held in Taipei, in September, this year : “What we don’t discuss, we can’t improve”. Twelve years since, there has been a groundswell of global movement around the issue.
This year, on November 19, events will be taking place to break toilet taboos and highlight the struggle for dignified sanitation for a staggering 2.6 billion people without access to a clean, private toilet and 1.2 billion people (17 per cent of the global population) who practice open defecation. The theme of the campaign put together by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the World Toilet Organization (WTO) this year is: “I give a shit, do you?”
Did you know?
- The average person spends three whole years of their life sitting on the toilet, producing 55 kilograms of excrement and 545 litres of urine a year.
- In America, the toilet is flushed more times during the super bowl halftime than at any time during the year.
- The first toilet cubicle in a row is the least used (and consequently cleanest).
- The bowl and the seat are not the parts that have the most bacteria – it is in fact the flush, the tap, the light switch and the door knob which are the dirtiest. The toilet handle in a public restroom can have up to 40,000 germs per square inch.
So how do we talk about this issue and break the silence? If we can get past our sense of disgrace, a dialogue can begin, say many.
Perhaps it would be best to tell the story as it is. People may begin to look at it differently, even seriously, if they are told that globally nearly 5,400 children die every day due to diarrhea, (second to pneumonia) preventable if they had soap, water and a clean place to perform their bodily functions, most basic of human rights.
In 2006, it was estimated that 2.5 billion people did not have access to proper sanitation; in 2008 there was an increase of 100 million people to that figure. That is one in every three people worldwide or nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population without a clean toilet.
In South Asia of the over a billion people who do not have access to improved sanitation, nearly 700 million defecate in the open according to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation 2012. There is often an omission of mention of the plight of a vast majority of women, who also defecate in the open, but have to wait until it is dark or before sunrise to relieve themselves.
But really, who gives a shit (pardon the language)?
In television chat shows, so popular in Pakistan, where the politicians banter and cry themselves hoarse to be heard, not once has any one of them had the courage to talk about the yucky issue of latrines. But then it’s a topic not even on the minds of hosts of these shows.
In Pakistan – according to the WHO – of the 173.59 million people, 39.93 per cent defecate in the open. If this trend continues, Pakistan will be able to meet its target of reducing to half the number of people lacking sanitation by 2025, missing the MDG target of 2015 by a decade.
In addition, given other areas that the present government is fire-fighting on a daily basis, it seems highly unlikely that they could be persuaded to spend on latrines. Militancy, violence, lawlessness, power outages and rising food prices seem to have consumed everyone.
“It is not a politically attractive area for investment,” conceded Mustafa Talpur, regional advocacy manager (South Asia) of UK-based non-governmental organisation, WaterAid.
However, even in times of considerable peace, sanitation was never on the radar of politicians.
But to be fair, there is less demand for sanitation than water from those who have neither. Thus politicians always prefer to have water schemes than sanitation. “Politicians want visible things and sanitation pipes are laid underground, and not easily demonstrable,” Talpur told Dawn.com.
Even for those media pundits, who may give some space or air time to development issues, toilets remain an even less sexy topic.
When the Code Pink decided to support Imran Khan and travel to South Waziristan, in October, little did they know all what the journey would entail.
The Guardian was the only newspaper that saw it fit to mention that the gruelling journey by these “hardened campaigners” was made all the more nightmarish because they had only “one toilet break in nine hours”. It was perhaps one important reason why the 35-strong team of Americans opted to discontinue into a “chaotic” situation.
What the writer failed to mention was that for millions of women in rural Pakistan, and in South Asia, nine hours curfew is a daily ordeal.
According to the World Health Organization, of the 692 million people defecating in the open in South Asia, India accounts for 90 per cent with 626 million defecating in the open. Compare that to 40 million Pakistanis relieving themselves in the open.
Indian men relieve themselves at a public urinal in Mumbai on November 18, 2009. In slum areas, where more than half of Mumbai lives, an average 81 people share a single toilet. In some places it rises to an 273. Even the lowest average is still 58, according to local municipal authority figures. – File photo by AFP
But this year India has decided to actually walk the talk and carried out a series of events to address its poop problem unabashedly. They have even involved Vidya Balan, the Bollywood star of “Dirty Picture” to talk dirty in real life and make sanitation fashionable.
The central government is carrying out the Nirmal Bharat Yatra, and talks about toilets, taps and yes, the unspoken sanitary pads. It even tackles the shame and suffering of the 300 million Indian women because of their menses.
Indian school children hold hands as they make a human chain during a function to mark World Toilet Day in New Delhi – Photo by AFP
It started from New Delhi, travelled 2,000 kilometres across five states between from October 2 on Gandhi’s birthday and will culminate on Nov 19 in Bettiah, in Bihar with the “World’s Longest Squat.” The participants will squat, like those 1.2 billion people around the world who defecate in the open every day, and see who can squat the longest with observers cheering on.
But it’s still not too late for Pakistan to join in.
For starters, it would be good to have people pledge to the case. It would be a great opportunity for many advocates like Talpur to clamour for governments to start thinking about how to interject the development discourse with sanitation.
There’s more
- The 2000 the Nobel Prize in Public Health was awarded to three physicians from the Glasgow Western Infirmary for a 1993 case report on wounds sustained to the buttocks by collapsing toilets.
- Over $100,000 US dollars were spent on a study to determine whether most people put their toilet paper on the holder with the flap in front or behind; the answer: three out of four people have the flap in the front. Supposedly which way you hang your toilet paper means something – to the front means that you are open and social and to the back means that you are shy and introverted.
Without proper sanitation, the country will not be able to achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, empower women, or reduce child mortality.
And while there are many good policies and programmes and no dearth of political commitments at global and regional level, Talpur lamented these “promises are seldom kept.”
If nothing else, maybe hitting where it hurts most – the purse strings. In 2006, it was estimated that in Pakistan, the total economic impact of inadequate sanitation amounted to a loss of Rs 343.7 billion or about 3.9 per cent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report by World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme.
For the moment, said Talpur, there are no clear and separate investment plans or budget for sanitation. “Sanitation budget is lumped with water when there is need for not just clear institutional responsibility but a clear sanitation budget line and increased allocation.”
What’s even more unfortunate, the civil society is far too weak to make decision makers accountable. Despite strong link of sanitation to other development areas including education, gender equality, nutrition, it is never considered a cross-cutting theme.
The missing link between sanitation and education, too, needs to be addressed. Despite enough evidence that inadequate sanitation brings major disease burden and child mortality, the health sector hardly talks about toilets. “They will talk about the curative while completely disregarding the preventive part of health care system,” said Talpur.
He said the education sector that should build the foundations of behaviour, designs schools with complete disregard for school toilets and where there are toilets, they are in a state of disrepair or not functioning.
The author is a freelance journalist.
Although it is horrific that so many people suffer from poor sanitation, it is also a fact of life that all services must be paid for. Countries with good sewerage services pay high taxes.
Sanitation in South Asia is an architectural and hence class warfare issue. The middle and upper class dwellings have drainage pipes that are visible to outsiders whereas such is not the case in Europe and the US where the waging of class warfare has been far more consciously undertaken than what it has in South Asia where instead the state has been more relied upon as compared to the concepts of self-help, self education & mutual aid.
Incredibly written, and commendable for Dawn to publish it.
A very very serious issue. All those who are still entangled in their ‘so called self proclaimed sophistication’ commenting that how could a national newspaper allow use of such a language,
are actually the ones who cant come out of their own taboos, and who can never understand the pain of those who dont even have a clean toilet at use, or who defecate in the open every single day.
TALK and dont hide. Its even commendable that atleast Indians have raised a voice on national level. They live in terrible conditions.
Wasn’t sure that DAWN has turned into a trashy tabloid. please remove the Quaid’s endorsement if this is the standard you would like to maintain. This is in such bad taste.
How is this in bad taste? This article raises some serious concerns of issues facing a large number of our population. The fact that people won’t even talk about it is a big part of the problem!
Why do you need to use a curse word? Please respect your readers by not using foul language. Thank you
Stop being so prudish! The title got your attention, didn’t it? And if people cannot talk about these issues openly, they will never be solved.
I really like the title. Why can’t people take a joke ? Ah, our culture is so sanitised.
Compare to the rest of the world, India has the worse situation when it come to deal with human waste. According to some Australian tourists who traveled India wrote that the whole country smell like human waste is every where and then there is animal waste like cow dung which is on every street, road, town, villages and even in the posh areas of India. Yet they (the Indian believe or start believing that India is a super power).
How can you use this S word. In US and other countried, they do not like to use this word. if you really wanted to, you could say S@@@. Not nice, at all
it is a very comnonly used and widely accepted word.The fact you cannot accept the word, suggests you cannot accept the concept
That’s a very crass title to have for an article in a respectable national newspaper. I am not a prude, but I was struck by how improper it is to have “shit” in the banner above the article. I suggest you replace it with sh** or something like that.
Why use the S word? Why?
I am surprise to see a mainstream newspaper use the word sh**. We are going down hill fast. Can you show me any national newspaper using this kind of language?
The title of this article has been chosen in a provocative way which is necessary in this matter.
The hygenic standard of former times (for example Mohenjo Daro) seem to have been more efficient than what i saw in Pakistan sometimes. I love Pakistan and I also have been there many times- but if you for example need to go to the bathroom in an open facility- it’s nothing else than a nightmare!
People have to learn to keep hygenic standards and improve their water system.
Many people talk bad about Europeans and that they are “not clean”- as living in Europe I am sad that these comments have been made. In fact these people over here try to catch up a hygenic standard and wherever you go it is at least possible to get along, even in open facilities.
If we are muslims it is our duty as well to be clean and to keep the places clean where clean ourselves.
Sometimes i feel like many people think that only people of “lower casts” should clean- this thought is a shame!
Really nice job….but the writer should think before writing the title..
I think the title is great. Smart and catchy.
Maybe next time. I am more upset about children being used as suicide bombers. Let’s all focus, shall we?
“half of Mumbai lives, an average 81 people share a single toilet. In some places it rises to an 273. Even the lowest average is still 58, “…. look at their dramas and films and you feel that there are more toilets in India than people..
At least Mumbai knows her xxxx, can People of Karachi say the same about their xxxx? I am little disappointed about DAWN worrying about other countries xxxx while ignoring the stench of their own.
Also, someone need to do research on how many times a piece of rock is used after urination in Pakistan?
so what do u want us to show…………??? no toilets?? everytime we make a film we show no toilets…take a look at pakistan despite being a smaller nation it has 40% people defecating in open…lol………..there are many other issues in pakistan too…..i wont like to point it out here though………….
It is often said justly that the social awareness of a society in its dailyness is judged by the quality of its toilets.
It is still a four letter word. My elders, told me not to use 4 letter word, anywhere.
P.S. What is a dailyness. I couldn’t find it in a dictionary.
Yet another aspect of this equality / inequality is the gender aspect of toilets. Given that men can easily urinate standing up, and in many societies are not as concerned with privacy, the relative number of male /female toilets is not always equitable
“DAWN NEWSPAPER” You are to be commended for bringing this sensitive issue forward for public debate.
Staggering statistics, truly a human tragedy on a massive scale. 5,400 children die DAILY, from problems largely brought on by poor sanitation.
what a waste of space and time ..
Actually, this is an excellent use of space.
“5,400 children die DAILY, from problems largely brought on by poor sanitation.”
A few more than are killed in Gaza daily.
Please change the title .. How can u write that word
I am very disappointed with Dawn’s selection of the title.
Yes, unbelievable for a national newspaper to use that language in reporting.
The title is clearly taking on the theme of the WORLD Toilet Organization (which is a MULTINATIONAL body) to give the campaign some awareness. I believe if a multinational organization can use this as their slogan for their campaign, a national newspaper might have it be an article title in the interest of spreading awareness for said campaign. Maybe if people can “get their heads out of the toilet”, pardon my crude language, and take the article for what it is (a conversation starter and an awareness creator), unproductive comments may be avoided.
In case you skipped over that bit in the article, please see the third paragraph: “The theme of the campaign put together by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the World Toilet Organization (WTO) this year is: “I give a shit, do you?”
On another note, i also feel that the title will catch the attention of people who wouldn’t have normally read this, and if that is the case, i fully support the title selection.
That is the name of the campaign…dont dig into words…it has nothing to do with what the newspaper wants to write. The title certainly catches attention and that is what the purpose of the campaign is…..awareness
World history proves but one thing. People do not want to be aware.
I commend Dawn for bringing the sanitation problem to light. If this language is not acceptable to you Mr. Jawed, please tell us and the national news papers – what is the better way or alternative to communicate this sanitation problem?
How rude right? sigh …does it every occur to you that harsh words are used to draw attention towards matters, which are important but you chose to ignore? anyone? yes?
But wouldn’t you agree that ‘this’ word did have the desired impact.
I would say that Dawn did an excellent job, even if it is unconventional.
We are going down hill fast. There is no reputable newspaper in the world let alone one claims to be founded by Jinnah and from a Muslim country to use such a word.
Agreed…cheap title…could have just wrote CRAP instead!
I thought I had made a mistake once.
It was the only time I was ever wrong.
Yes, it is really substandard. didn’t expect it from Dawn.
What is wrong with the sensitivities of people in the sub-continent. They are offended by the word shit, but would merrily walk along the street without batting an eyelid when they see a malnourished child walking by
Yes, it’s a vulgarism, just below the line for public media. It might have been better to suggest it in the text, but not to broadcast it in the title. It’s a fine line and proponents will stand on either side of it.
Journalism can discuss the toilet without depositing itself into it into the bold-text title. Just an opinion. Flush it away if you disagree.
Otherwise it was an excellent article on a serious subject.
some one needed to talk on this topic too
There are plenty more, where this came from – stay tuned.
Health and Education had never been among our priorities. The rich caters for their needs by spending more and the poor is busy making ends meet and has other ‘bigger’ questions and worries to care about.
Thanks Dawn for publishing an eye-opening piece on World Toilet Day.
I am surprised by the comments made….and critique on title…I think it is a bold title…and speak the truth…If we keep on hiding our faces on this issue we will never be able to correct it…and that is what we are doing for every issue in Pakistan…I hope the sense prevails and we start discussing the important issue….this is because 800,000 children are dying every year…and million suffer from diarrhea and other ailments…we have to discuss it more..