The Hindu Business Line : Rs 600 cr for toilets in Maharashtra villages, but open fields are more inviting

MAHARASHTRA spent Rs 450 crore as subsidy in some three years since 1997 to help build 17 lakh toilets in individual homes in the rural areas and shockingly, at least 40 per cent of them are not being put to use for a variety of reasons.

According to officials, they are being used as storage space or "even a pooja room" because in most cases, "it happened to be the best part of the house."

The households put a cover on the Indian style seat and lo and behold, it is a "room." The fields, after all, continue to be quite inviting.

Senior World Bank officials, including its Vice-President, Mr Praful Patel, were quite surprised when this was conveyed to them at a briefing here recently but were curious to know why.

Apparently, they were told, these toilets do not meet the, people's cultural norms or practices.

"Even now, women tend to go out in groups in the morning to the fields" because it is "the only time they get to socialise. They are otherwise tied up with the tedium of the household chores."

Forty per cent of 17 lakh toilets is quite a large number and the total expenditure was Rs 600 crore, the officials conceded.

The programme was initiated during the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party regime because Mr Manohar Joshi, the then Chief Minister, wanted to provide the most basic facility.

Now, from the previous mere 6 per cent coverage in terms of toilet facilities in the rural areas, it has gone up to 25.5 per cent households, the officials claim. The target was 20-lakh units but only 17 lakh units were built.

But this has helped the Maharashtra Government's Drinking Water and Sewage wing to change the approach so that toilets are really put to use. Instead of merely convincing the individuals to opt for toilets in their premises, the thrust is on convincing the entire village community to go for toilets as part of the drinking water and waste management programme being implemented with a World Bank aid.

This approach, the officials told the visiting World Bank team, is paying dividends. Creating community awareness was the key, they found.

For instance, as part of the Ghadge Maharaj Village Cleanliness Programme where prizes are awarded for the way an entire village changes its ways on over 60 counts - sanitation to personal habits of individuals - now "100 villages are fully sanitised. It is because the community was enthused."

In the earlier programme, by persuading individuals, not all households could be covered; some opted for it, some did not and revealingly, quite a few took the subsidy of Rs 4,000 and chose not to build them at all.

Thus, the purpose of universal coverage was not achieved. And villages that have got to this benchmark are now being used as nodal points to talk to others in their neighbourhood and convince them to opt for cleaner habits.

Perhaps, an official wondered, if the costs are to be cut and yet make sure that people use such toilets, it would make sense if instead of a wall and roof, poles were erected and a plastic sheet used to cover the sides.

"That would ensue both its use for the intended purpose and also provide privacy."

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