India has made rapid progress in ending open defecation across the country which is having a huge impact on improving water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Just a few years ago, in 2015, nearly half of India’s population of around 568 million people suffered the indignity of defecating in fields, forests, bodies of water, or other public spaces due to lack of access to toilets. India alone accounted for 90 percent of the people in South Asia and half of the 1.2 billion people in the world that defecated in the open.
By 2019, according to the latest estimates, the number of people without access to toilets has reduced significantly by an estimated 450 million people. A tremendous achievement, only possible because of the Swacch Bharat Mission (Clean India Campaign), led by the Prime Minister.
Going forward, it is important to ensure that there is sustained usage of toilets by, all at all time.
Whether in the cities or the countryside, open defecation has historically been most prevalent among the poorest citizens.
This practice amounted to tonnes of feces introduced daily into the environment, which regularly exposed India’s children to excrement through direct contact. The risk of spreading diarrheal and waterborne diseases is compounded by the lack of regular handwashing and microbial contamination of water in their homes and communities. The situation contributed to nearly 100,000 diarrhoeal deaths of children under five years in India.
Factory wastes dumped into rivers, mostly untreated and full of harmful chemicals is another major cause for poor drinking quality. At least the reusable kind of wastes like fabric cuttings must not be dumped into these rivers. These wastes must be recycled and salvaged for some other use to reduce such waste quantities.
Poor sanitation and drinking water can also have a ripple effect when it hinders national development because workers are suffering from illnesses and living shorter lives, thereby producing and earning less, and unable to afford education and stable futures for their children.
Inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in India’s health facilities, contribute to the high neonatal mortality rate, which is currently 24 deaths per 1000 live births. Sepsis – mostly spread in health facilities – contributes to 15 percent of the overall neonatal mortality and 11 percent of maternal deaths. And the risks do not end there when they are brought home to a community that lacks toilets.
AmrohaSay found the key to this, and they started to collect fabric cuttings from factories, the learners stitch each bit by bit to make cloth, the skilled ones design into bags, pouches, wallets, table runners, cushion covers, wall-mounted landscapes, and the like. Today, talented women take pride in working with us for our beautiful cause.
-Devanshi Rastogi
