How three women in Bihar got tired of defecating in the open and built themselves a toilet
She didn't think it was an act of theft when she carried the bricks home. A bridge on the nearby Adri River had fallen and Kusum Devi thought she could use the brick to build a toilet. For years, she had been telling her husband to make one because it was shameful to defecate in the open, and unsafe because some men would follow them, and stare at them. They would have to cover their faces to hide the shame of poverty.
While touring rural Bihar for a project to look at the schemes to build toilets, we met these three women. Some stories leave you with a smile. This was one such encounter.
The incident in Katra in 2014 where two young girls were raped when they had gone out to relieve themselves had prompted the media to take up the cause of open defecation and now, even a film starring Akshay Kumar on the issue has been released to promote the cause of building toilets and create awareness.
While sanitation schemes in India date back to the British Raj, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is the most ambitious scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. The project outlay is Rs 9,000 crore and its aim is to achieve an open defecation-free (ODF) India by constructing 12 million rural household toilets across the country before October 2, 2019.
Each panchayat is to train an "army of foot soldiers" under the command of a "motivator" to move towards an open defecation-free village.
As with most schemes launched by this government, everything looks perfect on paper.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) has been in the news since 2014 when the prime minister invoked the dignity of "mothers and sisters" and promised to free the nation of open defecation.
As per data, 51.6 per cent of households across the country did not use sanitation facilities between January 2015 and December 2016.
"Whether dignity of women is not our collective responsibility?" Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in his first Independence Day address in 2014.
Household toilet availability has increased from 41.93 per cent in 2014 to 63.98 per cent in 2017 but the country still has a long way to go.
While Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Kerala have achieved 100 per cent ODF status, data from the ministry of drinking water and sanitation is not very promising.
Now, the World Bank is holding off a $1.5 billion loan because of lack of third-party verification of the progress report.
Women take the lead
In villages, the task of building toilets is a complex one. But it is beautiful to see women taking up the cause and fighting for it, becoming whistle-blowers and relentlessly pushing for what they feel is their right to dignity.
Kusum Devi had attended a meeting that discussed open defecation and the issues of health and dignity in rural India, and she was convinced that if she could build a toilet, life would get better.
This was two years ago when I had travelled through rural Bihar with UNICEF and tried to understand the implementation of schemes and came across these strong women who spoke about the shame and fear of defecating in the open. From where we stood, there was open landscape with no tree to break the monotony of space.
"Not even a bush to hide behind. Where do we go then?" women said.
In the distance, a train rattled past.
Monetary constraints
But money was a problem. For the community in a hamlet called Ratwar at Aurangabad district in Bihar, that largely consists of subsistence farmers and daily wage labourers in this part of Bihar, a toilet is a luxury. Under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, the government has a scheme under which certain categories of population such as BPL families, and SC/ST can claim around Rs 12,000 for building a functional toilet. But the money is sanctioned after the officials have ascertained the toilets have been built and are being used. The initial capital is an issue.
There had been schemes before but the logistics and failures of the implementation of those schemes hadn't led to much change. Bihar remains a concern, and around 77 per cent of the population defecates in the open. In 2014, union minister of state for rural development, panchayati raj, drinking water and sanitation Upendra Kushwaha had lamented the fact that Bihar is one of the worst states in terms of using toilets?
Kusum and two other women from the village - Shobha Devi, and Sridevi - would walk in the afternoon, their saris hitched up and carry the unclaimed bricks. They would make a few rounds every day, and then started to build a toilet and sought help from the volunteers who were part of the state and UNICEF's technical support group in the state that aims to create awareness about the health hazards that come with open defecation.
The men were shamed by the three women who started to take matters in their hands, and they came forward, and helped them with whatever they could.
Raising awareness
"You know they showed us we are literally eating our excreta. A volunteer had taken us to the open fields, and showed us a bottle of water which was clean, and then broke one strand of hair, and dipped it in the shit lying around, and dipped it back in water, and asked us to drink, and we ran away. He explained that the hair was like the feet of the flies, and this is how diseases spread but unless everyone builds a toilet, we are not completely safe," Shobha Devi said.
The women were determined. They said even without the government scheme they should build toilets because ultimately they will suffer the consequences of poor hygiene.
The larger aim of the government is to make Bihar open defecation free by 2019 but it is a long way ahead, and money is hard to come by for people who are daily wage labourers, and are often struggling to make ends meet.
A fight for dignity?
Kusum, 30, is a defiant woman. Dressed in a pink sari, and her hands firmly placed on her hips, she takes the lead to talk about the issues that go beyond just the health hazards. A girl was raped and dumped in a well as she was on her way to relieve herself in a nearby village about one-and-a-half-years ago, she said.
They would discuss the case of dignity, too. For years, they have gone to the open fields to relieve themselves, and it meant waking up at around 3 am because darkness was essential to their honour. Men should not see them, and often they would have to stand up in the middle of the act if they heard or saw someone coming their way. ?
"We do ghoonghat," she said. "And then to be seen in the way is so shameful."
She got married when she 10 years old. Once when she was in a nearby town, she saw houses with toilets, and she was impressed. It gave her a sense of freedom, and she always wanted a toilet of her own, and now that she has one that stands like a monument of pride and dignity in the little space at the back of her mud house, she is happy. She scrubs it clean every morning, and makes sure the children use it. The aluminium sheet makes the door shine in the sunlight, and the walls inside have been painted in white.
Her house itself is a crumbling structure of mud, and thatch, and tiles, but the toilet is several notches up. They built these a few months ago, and now they try to tell those who haven't yet built a toilet in their homes to construct one. Not because they will reap the benefits, but because it is important for them. The risks remain because unless the whole village becomes ODF, infections will not be curtailed, she said.
"We started to dig holes in the ground, and we turned masons," Shobha Devi, 35, said. "It was too embarrassing and there were days when I would just not eat or drink because I feared it would make me want to relieve myself, and it would mean going to the fields during daylight hours. For years, I lived in fear of wanting to relieve myself. It is so painful."
Shobha built her toilet a little way down the narrow alley where the fields start on her little piece of land. The toilet bears her name, and she said she now feels liberated. It had seemed impossible carrying all those bricks for days, but it worked, and now these women are inspiring figures in the village, and when they talk about the benefits of building toilets, men and women listen to them.
At first, they had been the target of jokes. Men said they had gone mad for becoming a vigilante force in the village and whistling, and shooing away anyone who tried to defecate near the village. The aim was to discourage open defecation by shaming people until they built toilets. The village streets are now clean, and they say it wasn't always like this, but things are improving, and they have understood that sanitation goes a long way in improving the general quality of life.
"Now everybody sees our toilets, and nobody sees our homes," Kusum Devi said. "It was like building a nest with straws picked up one by one."?
And as Sridevi walked the dirt tracks to take us to her house to show her newly built toilet, a man sitting on a chapel said "Bharat nirman hona chahiye (Development must happen in India)."
"We did not fight with anger, but with patience," Sridevi, 35, says.
"First, develop your mind, and build a toilet," she said.
The government is highly active on Twitter and accounts are curated well like the government's @swachhbharat Twitter account. But the challenges are many and the ground implementation has always been a problem in this country because of a lack of proper channels of monitoring.
Facing the dangers
In Katra in Uttar Pradesh, in May 2014, two girls, 14 and 15, were allegedly found gang-raped and hanged after they went to relieve themselves in the dark.
That brought to the front the fear and dread of women who wait until evening to relieve themselves and face the fear of wild animals, snakes and men.
About 636 million Indians lack toilets, according to the latest census data.
Beyond the fear of rape and death, there is also the danger of diseases because of open defecation. Toilets are expensive to build for the rural community constituted by many are poor daily wage labourers. But many NGOs are trying to help build toilets in rural areas. For instance, Sulabh International, had announced it would provide over 400 toilets in Katra. And then, there are NGOs and international agencies partnering with the government to build toilets in rural areas.
But if these women could do it, there's hope for such initiatives. Some travels make you believe that anything is possible. Even building a toilet of one's own.