‘Having a toilet changed my life’: India’s crackdown on public defecation has paid off

The multibillion-dollar campaign combines raising awareness, providing subsidies for making latrines, and communal naming and shaming of those still relieving themselves in the open

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A security guard and villagers gather around a newly built public toilet at Sarisabpahi Village in Madhubani district. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:36pm, 2 Oct 2018Updated: 12:36pm, 2 Oct 2018

Indian farmer Kokila Damor always looked forward to visiting the city hospital, but only so that she could use its toilet.

Now she is not only a proud toilet owner but a sanitation champion for other villagers in the state of Rajasthan who have been used to defecating in the open since time immemorial.

“Having a toilet has changed my life. I can sleep a bit more. Earlier I had to rush out at four in the morning,” said Damor, a 34-year-old mother of three. “I would always look for an excuse to go to the hospital as I loved using a proper toilet with a door, water and lights.”

The Sulabh International Museum of Toilets scientist R.C Jha displays a toilet that can incinerate waste in New Delhi. Photo: AFP

Before, during autumn it would be a struggle to find a secluded spot amid the bare trees, while in the rainy season her hands would hurt from holding an umbrella – to say nothing of the fear of being spotted.

But Bhuwalia, her village, is one of the success stories of a public health drive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – host of a sanitation summit in Delhi this week – on taking office in 2014.