BBA-MBA Integrated

Semester V

Individual Assignment
Indias Priority: Temple or Toilet

Submitted To: Prof. Dhyani Mehta

On
(09/08/17)

Submitted By:

Roll No.
Name
157159 Sunesh Sharma

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 Undertaking

Under the guidance of Prof. Dhyani Mehta, I hereby declare that I have drafted the
assignment by myself and in my own capacity, and nowhere have I accepted the
efforts of any individual other than me. I have executed the project with own
initiative and I am satisfied with the quality and standard of information used for
the assignment. The data I have used has been cited in my assignment.

I understand that I myself could be held responsible and accountable for using any
unfair means, if detected later on.

Sunesh Sharma

TY-BBA (A)

157159

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 Table of Contents

Introduction ..4
Benefits of Toilets over Temples..5
Poor Sanitation leads to stunted growth...6
History of Open Defecation and Stereotypes..7
Limitation of Toilet System in rural areas....7
Toilet and Women ....... 8
Is Toilet part of our Dharmic Civilization? ..8
Facts and figures9
Government Initiatives ... 11
Toilets and Temples.11
Solutions....12
Conclusion13
References.14

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 Introduction

At a youth gathering, Manthan, in Delhi, Narendra Modi stated that we have to build toilets first
and then temples later. As reported in the media, he said, "I am known to be a Hindutva leader.
My image does not permit me to say so, but I dare to say. My real thought is - pehle
shauchalaya, phir devalaya (toilet first, temple later).

Narendra Modi could have rather declared with just pride that he made the statement because he
is a Hindutva leader. Hindutva is not about building temples. It is about building a healthy and
vibrant democratic Hindu society to promote the Hindu values for global harmony.

There are two types of cleanliness. One is physical cleanliness and another is internal cleanliness.
Physical cleanliness keeps us clean from outside whereas; internal cleanliness means a mind free
of negative thinking. Keeping the heart, body and mind clean and peaceful is the complete
cleanliness.

According to me, we are not going to get any salvation, no matter how many temples we go to.
We, as a country needs to give priority to and should focus on toilets and cleanliness. And just
building toilets is not enough. Just as a toilet is a necessity for every household, it is equally
important to ensure that the supporting infrastructure like water supply, sewerage and waste
management and cleaning is managed in a planned manner. Also, the habit of sustained use of
toilets needs to be created.

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 Benefits of Toilets over Temples

From an economys perspective, some of the benefits of constructing toilets over temples are as
follows:

1) Decrease in Infant Mortality Rate: Every year, 200,000 infants die in India alone because
of open defecation, according to a study by Brian Arbogast. (Scroll.in) Open defecation
causes contamination of food and water and thus, spread diarrohea-related diseases. It also
causes mental and physical stunting to young children. Skin and respiratory diseases, eye
problems, intestinal parasites resulting in kidney damage, anthrax and tuberculosis. Whereas,
just praying before the gods in temples will not reduce the infant mortality rate. And in my
opinion, a man will not be able to pray and go to temple unless he/she is physically and
mentally fit.

2) Improvement in women's safety and literacy: Clean and functioning toilets need to be
available for girls in government schools. According to data provided by Ministry of Human
Resource Development, about10% of the eleven lakh schools (101,443 schools) in India does
not even have toilet facilities for female students. (Scroll.in) This is the reason why many
girl students leave schools. The safety of women is another major area of concern as open
defecation exposes a third of the nations women to the risk of rape and sexual assault.

3) Provide boost to the economy: There are around 11.3 crore households in India that do not
have access to toilets, according to the Census 2011 data. Activity of constructing toilets is
also expected to boost job creation and employment. The Swachh Bharat scheme could boost
the business of ceramic tile makers and sanitary-ware manufacturers by 15%. (Scroll.in)

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 Poor Sanitation leads to stunted growth
It is not about the controversy on prioritizing toilets over temples by the Indian political leaders.
India is the world leader when it comes to being unsanitary - 64% of all the open defecation in
the world takes place right here in India. Unsanitary practices come at a high economic cost
(starting from the fact that six out of ten people dont have access to clean working toilet).

Nothing much has changed in the prevailing half century. Even now nearly 626 million people in
this country dont have access to a toilet. (Economic Times. India Times)

The idea of the toilet as a medium of economic growth may perhaps look odd in the beginning,
but inappropriate sanitation results in loss of life and loss of productivity because of ill health.
Dean Spears of Princeton University has shown that poor sanitation is an important cause of
stunted growth and lower cognitive abilities in children.

The resulting higher spending on healthcare along with absenteeism at workplace is something
which leads to the hindrance in front of growth process. It pushes the poor families into further
debt and poverty. The high level of open defecation and a tenth of the population
using toilets without piped water presents a real hurdle to sustained and inclusive growth.

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 History of Open Defecation and Stereotypes
People have various stereotypes regarding defecating far away from home and it has a long
history. In our Indian dharmic civilization, personal hygiene, cleanliness, mental purity, and kula
acharams are the limitations within which a person must function. So in rural areas, the need to
maintain personal hygiene is more important than personal comfort. Hence, conventionally,
people chose to perform their bathing activities in places far away from home, even if it
involved discomfort. The toilet system has long been unknown to rural India because people
used to dislike defecating in limited spaces as they have to bear the bad smell.

The shastras prescribed strict rules on how to defecate. Manu Smriti says one has to roll out his
sacred threads and put them on the right ear, and look at the sky while defecating. Manu Smriti
Vishnu Purana gives guidelines regarding the distance to be maintained from a water source, a
river, a temple, while urinating or defecating. There are several rules regarding the direction to
look, and how to clean oneself after defecation. While rules may be different in different
shastras, the idea remains the same- defecation has to be done in the open and far away from
home, temple and water source.

These old thoughts and stereotypes have ruined and degraded the living standards of people and
sanitation facilities in India.

Limitation of Toilet System in Rural Areas

The western toilet system is water intensive and thus according to me, totally unsustainable in
the Indian reality. Each flushing of the toilet takes at least 10 litres of water. And Indian villages
are already facing water scarcity. In my own village, people buy water for drinking and cooking
in summer, when the bore wells go dry. Thus, an appropriate toilet system should be developed
in rural areas which require less efforts and money in maintenance.

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 Toilet and Women
Every single day, women in rural India risk their dignity and even their lives for the most basic
right which is getting a place to defecate. During the pioneering campaign, Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan, around ten lakhs toilets were constructed to get rid of this problem. Still, more than
three hundred million women and girls in India have no other option than to openly defecate as
their homes are devoid of proper and clean toilets. An emotional point raised by Narendra Modi
in support of the toilet system is that it is embarrassing for women to defecate in public.
The concern here is about privacy and self-respect of women. According to UNICEF, 50% of the
rape cases happen when women defecate in the open (topyaps). Thus, appropriate measures need
to be taken.

Is Toilet part of our Dharmic Civilization?

The answer to this question is no because otherwise every house by now in India would
definitely have a toilet.

We Indians have this habit of associating spirituality with the sanitation and this is visible
from the long history of India.

Manusmriti says, One should defecate far away from home.

Vishnupurana says that one should urinate 10 cubits from water sources. In case of temples,
one should urinate 40 cubits away and defecate 400 cubits away.

There is no mention of toilets in our Ithihasas, Puranas and pre-Islamic Nagaras of our
country. (Sulabh Toilet Museum)

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 Facts and Figures
Concern over poor sanitation in India is not new. Mahatma Gandhi once said that sanitation is
more important than Independence. But more than sixty five years after Independence, only 31 per
cent of rural Indian households have toilets. Census 2011 data shows that nearly 70 per cent of
rural households defecate in the open because of absence of toilet facility.
Table no. 1: Past National Sample Surveys on households with no latrines

Years NSS surveyed Rural Urban

2009 65.2% 11.3%
2002 76.3% 17.9%
1993 85.8% 30.6%

The 2008-09 NSS (National Sample Survey) data shows that nearly 49 per cent households had
no latrine facility. Nearly 65 per cent of rural households had no latrine facility whereas only 11
per cent of urban households did not have any latrine. So, we can conclude that there are poor
sanitation facilities in rural India. (mospi.nic swatchhta status report, 2016)
Table no. 2: Social group-wise break up on Sanitation

Social Groups % households with no toilet

ST 75%
SC 76%
OBC 69%
Others 43%
All 65%

Surveys also show that acceptability of toilets is lower in the traditionally deprived social groups
with low monthly expenditure, like Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward
Classes. (mospi.nic swatchhta status report, 2016)

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 What numbers tell us?
As per the most recent Swachhta Status Report in 2015, more than half of the rural
population (52.1 per cent) of the country still defecates in open.
Eliminating Open Defecation in India by 2nd October 2019 the 150th birth anniversary of
Mahatma Gandhi is one of the key aims of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan movement
launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi two years ago on Gandhi Jayanti. (The Hindu)
Image no. 1: Economic burden on different countries due to poor sanitation

Source: (http://downtoearth.org.in)

According to Census, top five states having highest number of toilets are Kerala, Goa, Punjab,
Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, whereas, worst five states having lowest number of sanitation
facilities are Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

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 Government Initiatives
The Indian Government has taken various initiatives in order to improve the sanitation facilities.
In 1986, the first national effort to improve sanitation coverage was launched in the form of
Central Rural Sanitation Programme. But it failed to achieve its objective.
In 1999, MoRD (Ministry of Rural Development) initiated the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)
that aimed to eradicate open defecation by 2017.
In 2003, the Nirmal Gram Puraskar was introduced under TSC to reward local village, block, and
district level governments that achieved full sanitation coverage for households and schools.
In 2012, TSC was renamed Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA) with aim to accelerate rural sanitation
coverage so that 50 per cent of gram panchayats attain Nirmal Gram status by 2017 and Nirmal
Bharat (Clean India) by 2022. (http://downtoearth.org.in)

Toilets or Temples
Now, move toward the core question. Which is important for us - toilet, as urban Indians
demand, or temples that traditional society gives priority to?

Over again, it is a matter of point of view. Urban Indians see temples as a place of worship at par
with a church or mosque. But Indian tradition views the temple as the place where the Deva or
Devi resides and thus they dont want to defecate near the holy places. But, the thinking and
mindsets need to be changed and a habit of using toilets should be inculcated in people.

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 Solutions
There are some points which talks about how to move towards sustainable solutions of poor sanitation
without hurting the sentiments of people in rural areas. These are:

Innovative solutions: Sanitation systems in the developed world require vast amount of land,
energy, and water. They are expensive to build, maintain and operate. Innovation is a key to
solving the sanitation crisis. It is not limited to designing new sanitation hardware. The report says
that there should be planning in place so that sanitation products reach consumers

Political prioritization: The social and economic impacts of improving sanitation are
unquestionable. Politicians at the international, national and local levels must put sanitation at the
top of their agenda and reflect this in national planning and budgeting. Such prioritization has
helped states like Sikkim and Kerala to move towards cleanliness.

Collaboration and coordination: The sanitation crisis can be solved if there is collaboration
among different stakeholders. The govt., NGOs, researchers, corporate and the private sector
should come together to solve the complex sanitation issues.

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 Conclusion
The solution for the sanitary problems arising in India is to prioritize Outhouse over Gods
House.
In India, the number of temples is a puzzle as nobody ever bothered to count them, because
they are countless. The. According to the 2001 census, there are about 2.40 million Census
houses which are classed as places of worship in the country. (India facts)
The number of temples in India is greater than the number of toilets which is a core issue.
Some people relate it to the concept of hygiene and cleanliness but it is not. Defecating in the
open just adds to the poor sanitation facilities and nothing else. We as a society need to know
the importance of toilets and also create a continual habit of using them.
There is a very old saying that "cleanliness is next to godliness". It is well said by the John
Wesley. Cleanliness should be given a priority in all the homes from the childhood so that
everyone can practice it as a habit. But according to me, this practice can be inculcated in
people by saying that Godliness is next to Cleanliness.
It is noted that each family in a village spends more than Rs. 10,000 for festivals annually,
but is not ready to spend Rs. 3000 for building a toilet. They justify it by saying that a toilet
cannot be built in the house where the gods are prayed. (Times of India)
According to my understanding of the concept, just building toilets is not going to fetch
anyone the swatch (clean) tag. Rather it must be a broader attempt to make a village clean
with toilets and also the fundamental solid waste management mechanism (Downtoearth).
Sanitation problem in the country needs to be solved to reduce the economic burden. This
needs not only construction of toilets, but usage and building of a habit. Innovative technologies
with low-water usage can be of great help in this regard.

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 References
Retrieved from http://downtoearth.org.in: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/india-does-
need-toilets-more-than-temples-42373

Retrieved from http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/dirty-truth-56363

Retrieved from The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/data/What-numbers-tell-us-about-

Open-Defecation-in-India/article15422326.ece

Retrieved from India facts: http://indiafacts.org/temples-and-the-state-in-india-a-historical-

overview/

Retrieved from Sulabh Toilet Museum: http://www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org/old/fact.htm

Retrieved from topyaps: http://topyaps.com/akshay-kumar-points-out-toilet-truths

Retrieved from Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-Inc-fails-to-

touch-50-mark-on-PMs-toilet-target/articleshow/48152940.cms

Retrieved from Scroll.in: https://scroll.in/article/846378/a-vegetarian-guest-is-offered-meat-

at-a-friends-home-what-should-they-do

Retrieved from Economic Times. India Times:

http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/GreyMatters/of-toilets-and-temples/

Retrieved from Downtoearth: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/dirty-truth-56363

Retrieved from mospi.nic swatchhta status report, 2016:

http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/Swachhta_Status_Report%202016_
17apr17.pdf

Retrieved from Speakingtree: http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/108-000-temples-in-india

Retrieved from Times of India:

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Citycitybangbang/the-toilet-v-s-temple-question/

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