World Sanitation (Toilet) Day

By Dr Arvind Kumar

Absence of basic sanitation amenities force the people to urinate and defecate into open which exposes them to ridicule, shame, and, for women and girls, the risk of physical attack, marginalisation and stigmatisation. Furthermore, costs of treating water and sanitation related diseases drain national budgets and family finances. 

About 2.6 billion people - 40% of world's population do not have access to adequate sanitation and this will become worse with the fast growing population, particularly in rapidly expanding urban areas. The provision of proper toilets could save the lives of more than 200,000 children in the world, according to the UN. The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced are the same countries with the highest numbers of under-five child deaths, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, and large wealth disparities. Moreover, over one billion people defecate in the open due to lack of proper toilet facilities.

According to broad estimates, 638 million in India lack basic sanitation facilities. It's also a significant health hazard. Globally, about 1.5 million children die each year as a result of a lack of water, sanitation and hygiene, according to UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. The Sulabh International operates 7,500 toilets across India, nearly every Indian state, and employs 50,000 people. But founder Bindeshwar Pathak said Sulabh's effort is ‘just like a peanut,’ compared with India's needs, which he estimates at 1 million public toilets and 120 million household toilets. It is estimated that 58% of all cases of diarrhea are caused from unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene (which includes poor hand washing behaviors). This means that in 2013, more than 340,000 children under 5 died from water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) related diarrhea – i.e. nearly 1,000 child deaths a day. Providing sanitation alone has been estimated to lower the odds of children suffering diarrhoea by 7–17%, and under-five mortality by 5–20%. Ultimately, sanitation - the safe separation of feces from human contact and the environment, means that people are protected from these diseases. Providing access to basic toilets decreases disease twice as much as access to clean drinking water, however historically, toilet building receives a mere fraction as much funding.

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