Sulabh Sanitation Movement
By François on Saturday, November 28 2009, 10:23 - The bringers of hope - Permalink
In India, they call ‘scavengers’ (dustmen) the people traditionally in
charge of taking care of human faeces and carcasses of animals. They represent
the lowest of the castes
that form the Hindu society. They are confined to this job from birth. The job
of scavenger itself is particularly degrading. It consists of picking up (by
hand) the faeces of others, carrying them in a bucket on one’s head and
throwing them out in the river. Add to that, the members of this caste,
considered as impure, are subjected to unthinkable discrimination. They are the
infamous ‘untouchables’, named this because other members of the society owe it
to themselves to avoid direct contact with them.
The Sulabh Sanitation Movement’s mission is the eradication of
‘scavenging’.
The symbol of Sulabh: a bucket of faeces crossed in
red
On 13th July, we were welcomed by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder
of Sulabh, in the headquarters of the organization in Delhi. Nothing
about his past suggested he might one day take care of the untouchables’
difficulties. But the ups and downs of life took him to lead this fight.
As a young man, Bindeshwar Pathak wanted to become a teacher but did not manage
to get a position. In 1969, when he was 27, he joined the Committee of the
Celebrations of Gandhi’s Centenary. This organization was notably in charge of
accelerating the fight against untouchability, one of the main concerns of
Gandhi. Bindeshwar Pathak went to live with scavengers in a slum for a few
months in order to immerse himself in the situation.
During this time, he was confronted by the daily drama lived by this
population. One day, a child was attacked by an enraged buffalo. Men rushed to
help him but suddenly, someone screamed ‘it’s an untouchable!’ and they all
stopped instantly, leaving the boy to be trampled. Dr Pathak and a few good
willing people picked up the wounded child and brought him to a hospital.
There, the medical staff balked at approaching the little untouchable to heal
him. The child died from his injuries.
Deeply touched by this experience, Dr Pathak decided to fight in order to stop
the inhuman behaviours led by the system of castes. He founded Sulabh
in 1970 with the will to eradicate scavenging. It was a choice with
serious consequences for a Brahman (high caste) person: his family and step
family temporarily turned their backs on him.
Dr Bindeshwar Pathak
Building a ubiquitous sewage system like in occidental countries is too expensive for India, and consumes too much water. The installations of septic tanks is not an answer either as it involves emptying that would be done by scavengers. Sulabh looked for a way to develop a technology that could be adapted to the economic and environmental situation of India, and that would allow them to solve the problem of scavenging at the same time.
In 1970, Sulabh inaugurated the first toilets built following the model of Dr Pathak. This model has two essential innovations compared to the classic installations. First of all, the evacuation system was improved in order to use only 1.5 liters of water thanks to a smaller bend (an ordinary flush uses 10 liters of water). Then, the faeces are drained towards a system of double tanks, each of which has a life of 2 or 3 years. Once the first tank is full, the evacuation is directed towards the second tank. The faeces that are in the first tank transform progressively with the natural action of fermentation. After 18 months, the tank left at rest is full of odorless and dry green manure, easily transportable and usable for agriculture.
The
toilets Sulabh: water and methane produced by the fermentation are absorbed
into the soil thanks to spaces on the surface of the tank (photo
Sulabh).
The Sulabh installations are adapted to all incomes and can be made with a large range of local material. As of today, the organization has built and sold more than 1.2 million toilets across India.
The green manure obtained after 18 months of fermentation (Photo
Sulabh).
For a lot of inhabitations, the simple and cheap technology of Sulabh
remains inaccessible, notably in slums for reasons of cost and space. The only
available toilets are often an open-air corner of pavement that scavengers have
to clean.
In 1974, Sulabh installed the first paying public toilets in Patna, in the
state of Bihar. Nobody believed it would work. However, the first day it
opened, 500 people came to use it. The towns inhabitants are ready to pay 1 or
2 rupees to use the toilets in a clean and private environment. Today,
Sulabh manages more than 7,500 public toilets across India,
which welcome more than 10 millions users every day.
Sulabh continues to innovate and, at the beginning of the 80s, Dr Pathak had the idea to recycle the methane issued from the fermentation of faeces. The organization installed biogas plants in about 190 public toilets. Instead of escaping in the atmosphere where it contributes a lot to the greenhouse effect, the methane is kept and used for cooking, street lighting, electricity production, etc.
A
Sulabh biogas plant and its different uses: electricity production, stove,
heating, lighting, etc.
At the headquarters of the organization in Delhi, an experimental laboratory
tests new simple technologies in order to improve the sanitation situation in
India. One of the recent ideas was to use duckweed to clean up lakes and
rivers. The weed can then be harvested and is used to feed livestock.
Each time, the solutions offered by Sulabh are simple and adapted to the Indian
context. Moreover, in Hindi, 'sulabh' means literally ‘simple,
easy’.
After the visit of the Sulabh installations, Dr Pathak invited us to the library of the organization. Among the numerous books, he chose a big volume of the bound editions of ‘Young India’, Gandhi’s newspaper, and opened it respectfully.
The work of Gandhi inspired the actions of Dr Pathak. During the conflict
for independence in India, the Mahatma was already fighting for the abolition
of the system of castes. What would be the use of independence if some Indians
were still oppressed? He insisted on his disciples cleaning their toilets
themselves, and taught sanitation basics in villages he visited. After they
achieved independence in 1947, and the death of Gandhi in 1948, the new Indian
government passed numerous laws to fight against the phenomenon of
untouchability. It was not particularly successful.
By founding Sulabh, Dr Pathak tried to approach the problem from a practical
angle, and it is probably the reason for his success. The organization
estimates that it has managed to free more than one million people from
scavenging. Commenting on the work of Sulabh when she visited in July 2008, the
Indian president, Prathiba Devisingh Patil, declared: ‘no program in India
would give as much happiness to Gandhi than this one’.
Today, 60,000 people work within Sulabh. The organization tries to spread its
model across the world. 2.6 billion human beings still do not have access to
proper toilets. The technology developed by Sulabh can contribute to solving
this sanitation problem. Moreover, when facing global warming and water
shortages, the Sulabh toilets are a first rate ecological solution.
Thanks to the money earned with the construction and cleaning of the public toilets, the organisation also leads important programs of rehabilitation for the scavengers. To be followed...
How to help
The organization is self-financing and does not accept donations. The
financial independence of Sulabh is the best asset for Dr Pathak in order to
think and act freely.
Dr Pathak invites people to follow his actions: the technology developed by
Sulabh is free of patents, and technical training can be given on demand. For
example, 14 African engineers were recently trained in the different systems
developed by the organization. New sessions are planned to extend the training
to other countries.
Contacts
Sulabh Sanitation Movement
Sulabh Gram - Mahavir Enclave
Palam Dabri Marg
New Delhi – 110 045
India
• Telephone : +91 11 25 03 26 17
• Website : www.sulabhinternational.org
• E-mail : sulabh1@nde.vsnl.net.in
The International Museum of Toilets of Sulabh welcomes
visitors in Delhi (same address). One can discover toilets of all ages and
shapes, of which there are some surprising models.
• Telephone : +91 11 25 03 40 14
• Website : www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org
François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)
