Can you beat it there is a Toilet Summit? And it’s a “world summit,” Really?
Does this mean US, UK, Italy, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, etc suffer from lack of lavatories syndrome like India?
I don’t wonna mock this thing but it really makes me laugh. Maaan toilet summit…
Read on to laugh a little more..
“The Rural Development minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, claimed that within five years, the government will have built sufficient facilities for everyone – many years ahead of an international deadline.
He revealed that the government would spend around £125m on rural sanitation projects this year, a increase of 43 per cent on last year. He said: "By 2012, India will be free of defecation in the open and will meet international commitments in this regard.”
Ok they have already started doing this for rural India, what about the metros. Has this so called Rural Development minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and the not so rural development ministers ever visited a “Sulabh Sauncalay” (Mumbai’s public toilets) and seen how much they meet the international commitments… If I were a guy I’d rather defecate near a tree or behind a building rather then visit these lavatories. I am sure most people would agree with me on this one.
What are these international commitments? No lights, non-working flushes, no water, infested with all sorts of insects.. etc.
OK OK enough of mockery.. only thing that I really appreciate is that they plan on rehabilitating the scavengers.
“Up to half a million people in India are engaged in "manual scavenging" – cleaning toilets that have no sewage system and carrying away waste or "night soil" on their heads or in carts. The practice has been officially outlawed but persists because in many places there are no alternatives.
One former scavenger, Sushila Chauhan from Alwar in Rajasthan, told delegates how, unlike most people in her dry, desert state, she hated the rain which spilled the waste she was carrying in a metal tray on her head all over her. She was "rehabilitated" by a training and education scheme provided by Dr Pathak's organisation. She said: "The nauseating acidic smell of human waste used to remain with me throughout the day, even hours after I would return from work. But worst of all there was a lack of appetite for food and everything good in life.”
India's minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Meira Kumar, told the conference that the government would provide more resources for the rehabilitation of women such as Ms Chauhan.
Ms Kumar said: "We have banned the practice of manual scavenging and the government will complete the rehabilitation of all scavengers by March 2009. We launched a scheme for these people in January 2007 and the focus is to train scavengers for self-employment.”
5 years ago
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