“Toilets first, temples later,” Narendra Modi said in a recent election speech, lamenting that many villages spent lakhs on temples but their womenfolk still had to ease themselves in open fields.

Unfortunately, even that realisation came too late for the two dalit teenagers who were horrifically raped and then murdered in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh. The girls paid with their lives because they were forced to step out into the fields to relieve themselves at night. After being brutally gang-raped they were hanged to death from a tree in the village.

While rising incidents of rape in cities and villages are a huge blot on the country, this ghastly crime brings to the fore the pathetic living conditions of a vast majority of people in India, especially women, who are still forced to defecate in the open because they have no access to toilets.

This not a problem restricted to the badlands of UP. “In Kalandar colony of Seelampur in East Delhi, only 40 toilets cater to a population of 30,000-40,000. Since there is acute water shortage, the worst sufferers are girls and women, especially during menstruation,” says local resident Ramzana. Most of the community toilets in these slums are poorly lit and lack water. In case of a tummy upset or menstruation, “our girls are so scared to go out at night that many families have kept small tin drums or buckets inside their homes”. The vulnerable are the worst-hit, be they tribals, dalits, minorities, the disabled or the urban poor. Women and girls face the added threat of sexual violence.

While the country is home to the fifth largest group of billionaires, it also has the largest number of people who defecate in the open. According to a UN report, they number some 597 million. Will Modi, who so clearly spotlighted the problem as prime ministerial aspirant, deliver on sanitation as a basic right now that he is in power?

Deputy Editor

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