speech on not using toilets in India
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Daughters and daughters-in-law should not go outside: build a latrine right in your house!” So reads the government slogan painted on village walls in rural Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Whenever we encounter these wall paintings, we cringe twice. First, how can the government willingly reinforce the archaic, patriarchal belief that young women should not be allowed out of the house? Second, how could it perpetuate the misunderstanding that latrines are only for women to use?
Most people in India – both men and women – defecate in the open. To elite Indians used to seeing fellow citizens squatting by the side of the road, this sometimes seems like a fact of life in a developing country.
But it is not. Almost nobody defecates in the open in China. Only a tiny fraction of people in Bangladesh defecate in the open, despite the fact that GDP per capita in Bangladesh is about half of what it is in India. Most strikingly, open defecation rates are much, much lower even in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa than in India.
India’s high rate of open defecation has dire consequences. Open defecation takes the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in India each year. It also stunts the children who survive: children who are exposed to the diseases spread by open defecation are unable to grow to their full physical and cognitive potential. Stunted children grow up to be adults who are less economically productive.
Although many people who defecate in the open think it is harmless, or maybe even good for them, they are wrong: the negative consequences of open defecation are a very big deal. These costs are borne by everyone in India, even those who use toilets or latrines. Fecal germs are what economists call an externality: they make you sick even if you yourself use a toilet.
The terrible health and economic consequences of open defecation explain why it is such a hot topic in India these days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the profile of sanitation by announcing that eliminating open defecation by 2019 would be one of his government’s top priorities. Like many Indians, we are cautiously optimistic: we expect that he will make the effort necessary to reach this goal, but we also know that the challenge will be great.
We have spent the past several months interviewing people in over 3,000 households in rural north India about sanitation and produced statistical and economic research about the consequences of open defecation. Our research is clear: building toilets without addressing common norms, attitudes and beliefs around latrine use is unlikely to reduce open defecation in rural India. It may be surprising, but many, many people were happy to tell us that they prefer to defecate in the open. Over 40% of surveyed households with a working latrine have a household member who defecates in the open. Many, many households that could afford to build a latrine do not build one. Many people in rural India, including local leaders, do not consider latrines a priority.
In other countries where sanitation has improved, most latrines were built by families, not by the government. But this fact does not get the government off the hook in its bid to inspire change and fulfill its promise of making India an open defecation- free country. The government – and social leaders throughout the country – must lead a social movement to change people’s minds and behaviors.
Most people in India – both men and women – defecate in the open. To elite Indians used to seeing fellow citizens squatting by the side of the road, this sometimes seems like a fact of life in a developing country.
But it is not. Almost nobody defecates in the open in China. Only a tiny fraction of people in Bangladesh defecate in the open, despite the fact that GDP per capita in Bangladesh is about half of what it is in India. Most strikingly, open defecation rates are much, much lower even in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa than in India.
India’s high rate of open defecation has dire consequences. Open defecation takes the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in India each year. It also stunts the children who survive: children who are exposed to the diseases spread by open defecation are unable to grow to their full physical and cognitive potential. Stunted children grow up to be adults who are less economically productive.
Although many people who defecate in the open think it is harmless, or maybe even good for them, they are wrong: the negative consequences of open defecation are a very big deal. These costs are borne by everyone in India, even those who use toilets or latrines. Fecal germs are what economists call an externality: they make you sick even if you yourself use a toilet.
The terrible health and economic consequences of open defecation explain why it is such a hot topic in India these days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the profile of sanitation by announcing that eliminating open defecation by 2019 would be one of his government’s top priorities. Like many Indians, we are cautiously optimistic: we expect that he will make the effort necessary to reach this goal, but we also know that the challenge will be great.
We have spent the past several months interviewing people in over 3,000 households in rural north India about sanitation and produced statistical and economic research about the consequences of open defecation. Our research is clear: building toilets without addressing common norms, attitudes and beliefs around latrine use is unlikely to reduce open defecation in rural India. It may be surprising, but many, many people were happy to tell us that they prefer to defecate in the open. Over 40% of surveyed households with a working latrine have a household member who defecates in the open. Many, many households that could afford to build a latrine do not build one. Many people in rural India, including local leaders, do not consider latrines a priority.
In other countries where sanitation has improved, most latrines were built by families, not by the government. But this fact does not get the government off the hook in its bid to inspire change and fulfill its promise of making India an open defecation- free country. The government – and social leaders throughout the country – must lead a social movement to change people’s minds and behaviors.
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