WORLD TOILET DAY IN AGRA IGNORED

Agra November 19 (IANS)

Even on the World Toilet Day Agraites continued to defacate by the roadside, in the parks, in the river Yamuna, along the boundary walls of monuments in full public glare.

While  social activists, health workers and media persons debated what could be done to solve this problem, government agencies raised their hands in utter frustration suggesting it was beyond their capacity to bring about attitudinal changes.

Environmentalist Shravan Kumar Singh said clean toilet facilities were  virtually non-existent outside monuments where people have to wait for long hours to get entrance tickets. So people relieve themselves behind  bushes or on heaps of garbage. Outside Agra Fort, there is only one use and pay toilet. Instead of waiting people generally choose to ease themselves outside against the wall.

With so many historical monuments in the city, Agra needs at least one clean public toilet  every kilometre. Tourists need better civic amenities, says Rakesh Chauhan, president of the Hotels and Restaurants Association.

One of the chief causes of river pollution in Agra is defecation on the river bed or along drains that open directly into the Yamuna. "Without water and regular cleanliness efforts, people have no choice but to look for alternatives,” says Yamuna activist Shishir Bhagat.

The Agra Nagar Nigam has undertaken a project to convert all dry latrines into modern flush toilets, for which Rs.2,000 is paid to each family. But despite construction of thousands of flush latrines, people haven't changed their habits. "Why should we pay to use the community toilet  when this ritual can be done free," said a local Surendra Singh.

"Where's the water to flush the toilets," asks home maker Padmini Iyer of Belanganj area. "When there's no water to drink or cook meals, how do you think people would clean up their toilets on the second or the third floor," she wondered.

School teacher and activist Naresh Paras laments the lack of facilities for women. "Every one knows that bad habits and unclean ones breed common ailments. Times have changed. From predominantly rural we are now becoming an urban society. People should adjust to new conditions and change their mindsets," he said. So many toilets have been constructed but the locals for reasons best known to authorities the locals love to do it in the open. “A stranger would run for his life if he heard noises from invisible sources coming from behind the green cover in the dark of people easing themselves,” says activist Pramod Yadav.

Tourists who come to Agra for the first time find the city's environment peculiar, emitting a nauseating stink that often does not suit many nostrils, he said. The source of this typical Agra flavour or stink is ubiquitously present all over the city. If a foreign visitor took a morning stroll for some fresh Oxygen, he'd be amazed to see penguin- like creatures comfortably perched in neat rows all along the national highway or the railway tracks.

The locals perhaps have a two -in- one purpose in mind when they move out of their houses with a water filled bottle or a lota in hand: morning walk plus fresh air and some fertility to the soil. "These nature lovers have been criminally assaulting the parks and the Yamuna river. Had it not been for the stray animals, pigs, and dogs, the whole city would have been sitting on a huge mound of human excreta," says Jeetu gheewala, a social worker of the city.
Once upon a time, during the Mughal rule, Agra was been described as a lush green, fragrant, bigger than London and Paris, but unfortunately today it has degenerated into a civilisational sink," lamented KC Jain, president of the Agra Development Foundation. 

At a seminar organised by the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, speakers  urged government agencies to address the problem of ill-equipped, dirty and choked toilets in the city and launch a  sustained campaign to dissuade people from defecating in the open. They wanted people violating civic hygiene norms to be punished.

In a resolution adopted at the seminar the participants demanded properly maintained community toilets in all the commercial complexes and bazars. "Women particularly are put to a lot of inconvenience because men can piss around just anywhere, a trait they share with their canine fraternity, but women suffer a lot and often develop whole lot of health problems," president Surendra Sharma said.

In its memorandum to the Agra Municipal Corporation, the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society has drawn attention to the sorry state of toilets  which are neither cleaned on a regular basis nor maintained. "Half a dozen toilets built  on the M.G. Road remain locked. Their value is only for advertisement hoardings," said activist Sudershan Dua. The Raja ki Mandi railway station needs more and better managed toilets for domestic and foreign tourists, Dua said.

Speakers berated the authorities for approving multi-storeyed structures without checking if they had adequate toilets or sewer treatment plants. 

Volunteers of India Rising, have been engaged in cleaning up public places and teaching some civic manners to the locals for the past six months. "But despite our best efforts, we see no discernible change in attitudes or habits," lamented Dr Anand Rai, a spokesman of the group. 

"There have been cases of women being sexually harassed, even raped, when they went to ease themselves in the open," he said. "The women are the worst sufferers." It is estimated that there are 1.01 lakh government schools without girls’ toilets; 1.52 lakh schools without boys’ toilets and a total of 1,80,261 schools with dysfunctional toilets.

According to recent UN statistics, half of India’s population does not have access to toilets, with the condition even more dismal in rural areas where around 60% of the population still defecates in the open. Poor and inadequate sanitation accounts for various health-related issues causing economic and social losses.  Poor sanitation facilities lead to drop out from schools, especially among girls in the 5-14 age bracket. Retention of the girl child in schools has increased by 30% in schools with access to proper sanitation facilities.