Literature Review

Sanitation refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe management of human
excreta from the toilet to containment and storage and treatment onsite or conveyance, treatment
and eventual safe end use or disposal. More broadly sanitation also included the safe management
of solid waste and animal waste. Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of infectious diseases such as
cholera, typhoid and dysentery world-wide. It also contributes to stunting and impaired cognitive function
and impacts on well-being through school attendance, anxiety and safety with lifelong consequences,
especially for women and girls. Improving sanitation in households, health facilities and schools
underpins progress on a wide range of health and economic development issues including universal health
coverage and combatting antimicrobial resistance .- By WHO
In accordance with the objectives of the study, a brief review of literature is presented here under the
following headings.

 Managing the earth‟s biggest mass gathering event and wash condition.
 Proper sanitation facility provided or not.
 Hygiene condition of Akharas.
 Facilities for boarding, lodging, toilet.

In order to ensure clean surroundings, hygiene and sanitation, the government has made arrangements for
portable toilets, taps for drinking water, sweeping of roads etc. Further, the organisers have put up
billboards encouraging people to keep the venue clean.

Journal PubMed (2015), According to this journal, on an average, the amount of faecal matter produced
per day per person is 128 gramme (gm).

Based on this, we can estimate that the faecal matter to be produced by around 10 crore tourists and
pilgrims will be around 14,000 tonnes per day (assuming the maximum load on auspicious days). If we
add the current population of Prayagraj to the estimated number of pilgrims, the amount of faecal matter
produced in a day will increase to 15,000 tonnes.

To manage such huge amounts of waste is a herculean task. The existing sewage treatment capacity of the
district—around 254 million litres per day (MLD)—is not enough to tackle half of the sewage generated
during the Mela.
This poses a great challenge for the state government as it will impact the groundwater quality,
environment as well as human health. Hence, questions arise on whether we can afford to leave such huge
quantities of liquid waste on the banks of river Ganga—untreated and unaddressed.

Dr. Richard Cash, (May22, 2014), Global Health Education and Learning : The Kumbh Mela (2013)
bathing festival took place on straw-reinforced sand that was located literally in the Ganges riverbed
(Allahabad), and used by millions of pilgrims during what is India‟s dry, or winter, season. Toilets had
been constructed as soon as the ground dried out enough for workers to begin. February 10, 2013,
traditionally the most auspicious day of the Kumbh Mela for bathing. Each pilgrim was likely to use the
festival grounds for toileting purposes. The pilgrims were usually likely to pack up and leave, and
workers would take everything apart, collect remaining garbage. Waste from the city of Allahabad would
resume emptying into the river. The waters of the Kumbh Mela are rivers, not lakes; they flow, with fast
and heavy currents in some places. Various questions arise: - What would be the effect of large quantities
of human waste on the water quality as it reclaimed the area and carried the flow on across 500 miles of
rural India toward the sea? What would be the effect of the accumulated chemicals and toxins used to
sanitize and deodorize the area for the fair, on those who worshipped and washed with the water during
the rest of the year? Were the toilets at the Kumbh Mela in 2013 contributing to a health or sanitation
problem-or did they offer a positive lesson for other settings around the world.
India Sanitation Coalition (2015), (Project Report of Kumbh Mela), Nashik Trimbakeshwar:
In terms of sanitation provision, three types of toilet facilities were provided by the Nashik Municipal
Corporation or Sulabh for the devotees and pilgrims – temporary toilets, permanent toilets and portable
toilets. Temporary toilets were built mostly in the Sadhu Gram area where religious leaders had camps for
themselves and their followers. The structure of these toilets was made of tin with pans cemented. The
temporary toilets were demolished after the Kumbh Mela. Portable toilets are made of Fibre Reinforced
Plastic (FRP) and easy to move/resemble. They were placed in the ghat areas and parking (inner and
outer). The number of toilets available was estimated at 26,455 toilets at two main sites: 24,975 in Nashik
and 1,480 in Trimbakeshwar.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak(Ph.D., D.Litt), Sociologist & Social Reformer, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation
Movement, New Delhi(May 12-14,2016), (Simhastha Kumbh-mela): The main objective of this great
event is to acquire religiosity and salvation, which are among the four great purusharthas of life. In our
religious life, internal and external purity or shuchita has been given a pride of place. The root word of
shuchita is shuch which means purified, clean or flawless. Thus, shauch or defecation carries the
connotation of cleanliness or purity. The state or condition after the act of defecation is one of purity.
After the acts of defecation and bathing, etc., we purify ourselves, externally and internally, with a
sprinkling of water in the sites of pilgrimage. We become worthy of offering prayers to God only after
such cleanliness. There is an English maxim: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. Perhaps it is with this
intent that our beloved Prime Minister Hon‟ble Shri Narendra Modi has announced the necessity of „First
Toilets, Then Temples‟.

Annu Baranwal, Ankit Anand, Ravikant Singh, Mridul Deka (2015), (School of Habitat Studies,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.): Issues on water sanitation and
hygiene condition(Toilets). : To find out the status on water sanitation and hygiene conditions, a study
was done in the Akharas/Santhas of KumbhMela. Akhara/Santhas is a Sanskrit word which denotes a
place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging, toilets, etc. The water, sanitation and hygiene
conditions of these Akharas are particularly important. Total of five Akharas/Santhas were randomly
selected from each of the sectors. There were 11 sectors included in the study, which resulted in the
sample size of 55 Akharas/Santhas. A close-ended questionnaire was used to interview each of the
Akharas/Santhas. The questionnaire was completed either by interacting with sadhus and people living
there during the study or by observation of the researcher. The information regarding number of person
and toilets in each of the Akharas/Santhas was obtained from those who were in charge of these
Akharas/Santhas.
M. Vortmann, S. Balsari , S.R. Holman , P.G. Greenough (2015) in their study on Water, Sanitation
and Hygiene at the World’s Mass Gathering noted that The administration constructed 35,000 toilets
estimated to provide one toilet for every eight to ten people during average attendance. Four types of
sanitation facilities were provided and ranged in complexity from open defecation fields to roadside
urinals, pit latrines, and bio-digester toilets. All were located at least 15 m away from the rivers. The
majority were simple open-air pit latrines and urinals, roofless, semicontained units bounded by 1.5
meter-high corrugated metal, segregated by cloth partitions, and labeled with gender-specific logos. Earth
mounds or bricks allowed the user to squat off the ground; gravity-fed, non-flushing system of pipes led
directly to unlined pits dug into the sand or into hollow drums which were left in place after the event.
The human waste was left to decompose naturally or be washed away by the eventual rise of the rivers
during the monsoon season.

Finally, acknowledging the favored habit of open defecation by many attending the Mela, scattered
throughout the Nagri were small gender-specific defecation fields cordoned off by corrugated walls.

Gayatri Vinayak(Yahoo India Finance, Feb 8, 2019): With so many pilgrims around, sanitation is
bound to be an issue – something that brands are cashing on. Hence, while the marketing team from
Colgate-Palmolive are distributing Colgate Vedshakti toothpaste to pilgrims for free, Dabur has set up the
Dabur Red toothpaste dispensers which work on the lines of hand wash dispensers.
Welspun India, the home textile maker, has been handing out towels to women to use in the changing
rooms. The company is offering 3,000 free trials of Welspun Quik Dry towels every day, through its
campaign ‘Jaldi Sukhe, Jaldi Sukhaye’, which is expected to reach at least 5 lakh people.
And these brands are not just selling their goods, they are offering services as well. While Dabur Vatika
has come up with ‘Vatika Lajja Kawach’ or changing rooms for people near the bathing ghats, Welspun
has also branded 20 changing rooms at the bathing ghat. Dabur Amla oil has deployed volunteers on the
ground who will try to unite lost children with their guardians.
Reckitt Benckiser, who has been active in most of the Kumbhs, has launched the Dettol Harpic Banega
Swachh India campaign which aims to spread awareness on the need to keep the environment and
surroundings clean and to adopt hygienic practices such as washing hands and flushing the toilet. Dettol
has also deployed hand mascots who will walk around distributing Dettol soaps to pilgrims.
Bathroom brand Parryware has been promoting Swachh Kumbh by posting messages on the importance
of maintaining hygiene and sanitation across key locations such as bus stops, railway stations and
eateries. Parryware has also deployed boats for cleaning up the garbage on the river banks and the in the
river.
(Ogilvy takes proactive approach to Kumbh Mela Sourced from Mumbrella; additional content by
WARC staff News, 06 March 2019): For Patanjali, the presence of Baba Ramdev, himself, at the
Kumbh Mela will be the biggest draw. Collecting chillum from sadhus, the Yoga guru has asked them to
take a pledge to give up tobacco. According to him, the chillums that he collects will be housed in a
museum that he plans to build.
To address this problem, Ogilvy and Hindustan Unilever provided 5,000 waterproof sarees, and handed
them out for free throughout the festival.

For Red Label tea, Unilever and Ogilvy launched ‘Tea for Trash’, a vending machine that doubled as a
rubbish collection point. Pilgrims who disposed of rubbish by using the machine were rewarded with a
free cup of tea.

Lifebuoy printed messages about the importance of handwashing on plates used to serve food, and invited
pilgrims to have dye put on their hands, telling them not to stop washing until the dye was gone.

Economics Times (7th march 2019) : Sanitation workers in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday set a Guinness
World Record when 10,000 of them got together for a three-minute cleaning drive at Kumbh 2019. hailed
the sanitation workers as the real heroes at the Kumbh, as the cleanliness drive was the highlight at the
biggest religious congregation in the world. "Millions of people from India and abroad assembled at
Kumbh over the past two months and everyone was impressed by the cleanliness and hygiene that you all
ensured,"