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Indian Villagers Worshiping Newly Built Toilets Instead of Using Them

Image: Imgur

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims 100% success in eradication of open defecation under Swacch Bharat (Clean India) campaign. Against a target of about six million toilets in rural areas, he claims construction of about nine million in one year. The irony is, rural people in the country are worshiping these newly constructed toilets instead of using them.

It’s less about humor or ridiculing poor people, for whom, a toilet is a big privilege, perhaps, the only privilege. However, there is something symbolic about the inaugural toilet-worship ceremony. Such inaugural events are common as people believe a ritual ceremony will ensure the good beginning and bright future ahead whenever something new is bought or built or a job is undertaken, such as a new car, a new home, new office building, shops, agricultural machines etc.

One of such auspicious moments was captured on camera somewhere in India, which explains just why building millions of toilets in India can not eliminate the practice of open defecation.

At one of such homes in poverty-stricken rural India, residents inaugurated a newly built toilet by performing proper pooja (worship or ritual performance). The toilet seat and floor of toilet were covered with flowers, while coconut and bananas were offered to the God of toilets (if something like that exists).

A plate was placed on the ground, in front of the toilet filled with a cup of sindoor (vermilion), an essential part of most of the Indian religious ceremonies, and a glass full of milk as another offering. The toilet, that is nothing more than a latrine-seat, covered with discarded empty rice and wheat sacks, is decorated with garlands and mango leaves. A green ribbon awaited the arrival of a lucky one who was scheduled to inaugurate the toilet.

Most likely, this toilet, like millions of others which were built during the period of the last 12 months, might not be used. It’s a reality and a huge obstacle for Clean India Campaign that despite the availability of toilets, people, especially males, prefer to defecate in open.

West mocks at India’s obsession for worshiping cows, stones and pervert self-claimed godmen, such as Assaram Bapu, who serves a prison term for rape of a minor girl studying in one of his schools. So, toilet worship shouldn’t be a surprise in rural regions where people have never seen one.

In rural India a facility like a toilet is an alien privilege. People in rural India still believe it’s an unhygienic and unholy practice to have a toilet within house premises, many others don’t know how to use and why to use toilets.

 

In January 2015, the Indian government accepted that monitoring toilet use is also essential. According to a report on BBC:

Studies in the past have suggested that many people in rural India, despite having working toilets at home, continue to go out into the open believing it is more sanitary to defecate far from home.Hundreds of millions of people defecating outside leads to large numbers of hygiene-related diseases and premature deaths. Reports say some of the new toilets are being used as storerooms by people who consider toilets at home unhygienic. Campaigners say that building toilets is not enough and that motivating people to use them is equally important.

However, in August 2015, another report on the Washington Post threw light on the progress of the government in educating people about toilet use. It claimed that the Indian government’s sanitation drives failed to sway those who believe going outdoors is more wholesome.

According to Santosh Kumar Singh, who is looking after the sanitation driver in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India with the highest rate of open defecation,

We are not facing any problem in the case of construction, but the major issue of toilet usage is our challenge, and regarding this we are helpless.

A web of other cast and culture-based issues are also responsible for such attitude of people.

Sangita Vyas, from RICE, throws light on referring to India’s rigid caste system which prescribes that dealing with human waste is the responsibility only of those at the very bottom of the social hierarchy. She further adds,

Emptying a pit in any other developing country… doesn’t carry a social stigma in the same way as it does in India. Anybody who is of a higher caste would find it unthinkable do it themselves, and at the same time… people from lower castes are trying to avoid doing this type of work because it’s associated with their past and oppression.

 

Anil Prajapati, chairman of the Gujarat Sanitation Development Organisation, also agrees that the cultural and social beliefs, superstition is some cases, are creating obstacle in sanitation drive and said,

We’ve made public toilets but people still don’t use them,” said Anil Prajapati, chairman of the Gujarat Sanitation Development Organisation. Some of these people fear that there are witches inside or that their children will be kidnapped.These people have come from small villages, and so they are not used to the practice.

The government definitely needs to carry out aggressive awareness campaigns to convince them to use toilets and give up the practice of unhygienic open defecation that is responsible for the death of 600,000 people annually.

About 620 million people defecate in open in the country. A survey conducted by the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics Sanitation Quality, Use, Access and Trends shows that out of interviewed 22,000 people in five Indian states, 40 percent of households with a working latrine have at least one member who still defecates in the open.

Another study by the BMC Public Health states,

“Strongly ingrained beliefs around impurity and pollution and the required rituals for purification and cleansing post-defecation in Indian society may play a big part in the choice to continue defecating in the open”.

Government claims of 100 percent success in building separate toilets for boys and girls in every school in India seem false. The government is only focusing on haphazard construction of toilets and ignoring the need for educating or training people to use these toilets.

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Clean India CampaignIndian Toilet PoliticsNarendra ModiOpen defecationSwach BharatToiletToilet in Rural IndiaToilet InaugurationToilet use IndiaToilet Worship
Madan: Madan has been writing about eco-friendly gadgets and technologies for over 5 years now. He has an inclination for all things green and wonderful. He is a local social activist with a global vision. When not writing, Madan can be seen capturing the best of urban wildlife in his DSLR lens.

View Comments (65)

  • In polytheistic systems, yes there are shit and shitter gods, e.g., the Shinto kawaya kami or the Roman Sterculius

  • madan!! apt name sir!! it seems like you're indian! if you are, why are you acting like you're not?? you very well know that we worship everything that is new before we use it: be it car, house, laptop, etc..

    why are you pretending to get views? you'd just shit on your country for your own benefit??

    • Get it? Poo! The Poo in the Loo is telling the other Poo in the Loo to stop shitting on his country. OMG someone help me /Pol/ has destroyed me.

  • The author of this article is a hack. Writing anything as news before researching it are classic signs of a hack.

  • Dude, are you insane or something? These are poor destitute people whose biggest achievement in life could be to have their own toilet. This is a standard Hindu ceremony for inaugurating a building, period. What kind of a human being mocks people for their poverty?

  • They probably WILL use it, seems like they're just having a sort of opening ceremony... This must be a big moment in the lives of those who are too poor to have previously afforded plumbing!

    • It also says that they are stupid enough to WANT to crap in the streets.

      I totally think they are in the right to worship the new toilet, or at least give thanks in ceremony. A toilet is a blessing I'd never want to live without. What I object to is them being too stupid to use it.

    • They won't use it and it's very simple why they won't: HABIT.

      It's not that hard to figure out.

      Someone that has been relieving themselves for decades in a certain way is then told to do it another way. What do you think the chances are they will change a FUNDAMENTAL BEHAVIOR THEY'VE BEEN DOING FOR DECADES?

      Bangladesh figured it out decades ago. Back in the 1980s, the Bangladeshis concentrated on training children to use a toilet from when they are very young. As a result, now here nearly 4 decades later, "open defecation" has been nearly eliminated in Bangladesh cause those Bangla children of the 1980s/90s/etc then passed the habit of using a toilet onto their children and so forth...... meanwhile those Bangladeshis with the "ingrained habit" of open defecation have now passed on (remember the life expectancy in Bangladesh is under 70).

      India should take a lesson from what Bangladesh did.

  • Warning, Long post incoming.

    You flame baiting, self hating retard! Have you gone so low to get views that you are blatantly lying about whatever progress our country is making?

    Let me dissect your article point by point.

    "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims 100% success in eradication of open defecation under Sawach Bharat (Clean India) campaign."

    Give me a source where he says that there is 100% success, as in cleaning is done 100% and 100% toilets are built.

    I'll give you the source on the contrary that he said, the toilets are made, and they should be used, he also said that peoples should not make joke of swatch bharat if they don't want to join it. Some people are cleaning the streets and some others are spoiling it, these are the very people who say "oh god india is so dirty." well then why don't you try to fix it? Then there are people like you who will create nonsense articles.
    You should read this one.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-2pDiEqN_s

    http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/dont-make-swachh-bharat-a-joke-pm-modi-at-safaigiri-summit/1/489195.html

    Watch the video, and if you know a bit of hindi then you'll understand what he is trying to say.

    We are shifting away from open defacation. Check the UN reports if you're literate.

    " Against a target of about six million toilets in rural areas, he claims construction of about nine million in one year. The irony is, rural people in the country are worshiping these newly constructed toilets instead of using them."

    How is that an irony? We Indians worship everything new, it's a opening ceremony. Cars, home, cellphones, almost anything. Since you don't know about indian culture, maybe you should also google about why people do pooja for cars, and homes. It's a way of welcoming it, but you're so deep into your agenda that you are not going to talk about it.

    "One of such auspicious moments was captured on camera somewhere in India, which explains just why building millions of toilets in India can not eliminate practice of open defecation."

    Yea? First line i've already discussed previously, it's a ritual. Second. If building millions of toilets don't eliminate practice of defecation, then how did the open defacation decrease from by 32%?

    http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/india-reduces-open-defecation-by-31-per-cent-un-report/

    "Most likely, this toilet, like millions of others which were built during the period of last 12 months, will not be used."

    Really? Give me one proof that these aren't going to used. If the person has some sense that he is going to build a toilet don't you think they will have the sense to use it? How stupid are you?

    "West mocks at India’s obsession for worshiping cows, stones and pervert self-claimed godmen, such as Assaram Bapu, who serves a prison term for rape of a minor girl studying in one of his schools."

    And our Indian media, and Indian expats are the biggest reason the west mocks us. You should be the forefront of spreading the positive and proper message before others start spreading lies. West is ignorant about the worshipping of everything, but you as a media source should have made it clear that it is just a opening ceremony.

    "People in rural India still believe it’s an unhygienic and unholy practice to have a toilet within house premises, many others don’t know how to use and why to use toilets. "

    I'd like to know your sources on this one, and no "I talked to a guy who believe it." isn't a source.

    "The government definitely needs to carry out aggressive awareness campaigns to convince them to use toilets and give up practice of unhygienic open defecation that is responsible for death of 600,000 people annually."

    If you had some time out of your blatant hatred for the country, and actually watched the prime ministers speech you'd understand that he does talk about it, he does agressive campaings. Do you expect him to pull a magic wand and turn the country open defacation free in a day? Are you stupid?

    Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, started their journey for cleaning up the country in 1960s, and after several years the got clean country. And they are relatively very small. India is a huge country, both by land mass and by population, and yet we made remarkable progress. How dumb does anyone have to be to understand this simple fact?

    " Research Institute for Compassionate Economics Sanitation Quality, Use, Access and Trends shows that out of interviewed 22,000 people in five Indian states, 40 percent of households with a working latrine have at least one member who still defecate in the open. "

    Your link does not work. it redirects me to http://riceinstitute.org/

    Learn how to link stuff.

    Even if it was true, that means that most people have starte using the toilets, do you not see the positive side? Most likely 5 out of 6 people would have started to use the toilet, the one guy who still shits outside is stupid, and he will eventually come under pressure from the other 5 people and will start going into the toilet.

    “Strongly ingrained beliefs around impurity and pollution and the required rituals for purification and cleansing post-defecation in Indian society may play a big part in the choice to continue defecating in the open”

    "The government is only focusing on haphazard construction of toilets, and ignoring the need for educating or training people to use these toilets."

    So whose job is it to tell people about basic hygine? The government is running ads, it's running TV, Radio, newspaper campaigns aren't the citizen responsible at all?

    And there are no "rituals" post defacation. Literally hundreds of millions of people in India do it everyday and they don't need rituals but suddenly those other people do? How absurd.

    To my fellow Indians, there will be many attacks on India and it's people, this is obvious, we are progressing, and many people can't handle it. This happened to PM Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, everyone said he wasn't doing anything, but then they started to copy him, bringing investment, making progress.

    To others who are from outside the country, please read both the sides of a story, have some critical thinking, saying stuff like "poo in loo" or "shit in it you retards" will do nothing good, and it only shows hatred, there is no point in it. I know it's not your fault because the fault lies with the journalists like Mr. Madan who will write literal shit to get just a few clicks.

    Just know that the people like these, the "journalists" have nothing nice to say and want to steer up conversation.

    Mr Madan you should be ashamed of yourself, as an India, you're literally shitting on any progress the government has made.

    Learn how to link, learn how to write an article, learn to cite source. Unlike you, I've cited my sources.

    You're the kind of person who spreads negativity and if someone is doing good you'll be the first person to hold them down. Have some shame. May god bless you.

  • A pooja isn't an act of worship; it's more like a celebratory prayer ritual. Apparently, a pooja is performed whenever something worthwhile comes to a family or person, be a new house, a new vehicle, anything like that.

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