In the beginning, people painted walls with the legend ‘ dekho gadha peshaab kar raha hai ’(look, the donkey’s pissing) hoping this would shame offenders. This was followed by painting holy pictures. It’s in this context that the social media was, for a while, drenched by the shenanigans of a ‘Pissing Tanker’ shown patrolling the streets shooting down unwary ‘infurinators’ with jets of water. In real life, though, who usually answers nature’s call in public? Mostly ordinary folk, mostly men. What do women do? Develop infections related to the urinary tract, but who cares?
According to UN data, 594 million people in India defecate in the open, creating cesspools of disease. There must be few places in the world as filthy as Indian cities and towns. Still, even if public urination is an annoyance, do we have the right to humiliate the offender as the tanker project seems to suggest? The solution is to provide toilets that the authorities can insist we use. Located near bus stops, shopping centres, playgrounds, and maintained respectfully by the authorities and the users. Sulabh International’s been bravely doing its bit and recently, urinal booths have sprung up in Chennai — again, ‘privileging’ the men. Even if the Government, by some wonderful miracle, gets its act together, will it remember that public sanitation cannot be put in place by humiliating those employed to clean it? That ensuring the dignity of an individual is as important? And will those who use these facilities remember that we are responsible for keeping our public spaces clean. If we dirty the place, we clean it ourselves.
India’s perpetually low HDI ranking, the Census’ unflattering revelations on sanitation, and the spiel on ‘development infrastructure’ are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Yes, the Finance Minister claimed in his Budget speech that there would be sanitation for all by 2019, but will this promise go the way of all promises?
Deputy Editor