Sanitation in India

When I was a child, we'd take road trips to visit family members who lived far away. When we'd stop for gas and a potty break, I'd take one look at a dirty bathroom and tell my mom that I "didn't have to go". If it wasn't scrupulously clean, there was no way I was going into that disgusting room, no matter what. It's amazing I didn't die of kidney failure. Since I like to travel, I've had to adjust my standards somewhat because bathrooms around the world are somewhat different.

In India, the first question is whether there is a bathroom. For a large portion of the population, no facilities are available. These people must eliminate bodily waste outside on whatever land is available, whether public or private. Cell phones are available for nominal cost, but only half of the rural homes have any toilet facilities. This isn't so much a case of misplaced priorities as it is a lack of understanding of the connection of health and hygiene. No one ever taught them this simple fact. And, of course, there is the problem of money. You can know all about health issues and if you don't have the money to build a bathroom, then there aren't any other good choices.

Why raise this issue when surely this problem applies only to the poorest of the poor, no? That's true. But who do you think the Church is trying to help? Providing the poor with safe drinking water and improvement basic conditions are two of the Diocese top priorities. I spent all day last Sunday with 60 boys, grades 5-10, who board with the Church in a rural parish. One priest oversees them all. Many are orphans, none have families that can afford to keep them and educate them. So the Church takes as many as they can. The building is just a few large rooms where they can sleep on the floor. There are no bathrooms. None.

Lack of bathroom facilities has greater implications than just health issues. It effects girls' enrollment in school. Only 40% of girls who enroll in school actually complete a full 8 years. This is directly due to the lack of separate toilets and water after they reach puberty. No bathrooms means that they risk their health, pride and dignity. Then there's the issue of harassment. In the last 12 months, the Church applied for 18 grants for improving/building facilities, most of them were for bathrooms.

The picture shows me feeding some chickens in the backyard of a home in Cuddapah. The parents and three teenage kids live there and they're the lucky ones. The father works here at the Bishop's house, the kids all go to school. In the background you'll see their bathroom facility.