New toilet technology empowers low-caste Indian women

Tag : Indian saree
New toilet technology empowers low-caste Indian women

7 hours ago

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — Usha Chaumar was seven years old whenshe began collecting human excrement with her mother in thenorthern Indian state of Rajasthan.

By the age of 10 she had married and, with her mother-in-law,continued going from house to house performing this demeaning task.

"They used to call me 'Bhangi' (part of the lowest of Indiancastes) and treat us badly," Chaumar, now 33, told AFP in aninterview here.

She was one of the country's estimated 700,000 so-called humanscavengers on the lowest rung of India's social hierarchy, who forcenturies have had the wretched task of cleaning toilets andcollecting human excrement.

Many Indians today still treat the waste-collectors as"untouchables" and don't let them approach their villages, schoolsor temples or come into contact with their food and drinking water.

"If I was thirsty, they would give me water but would avoidtouching me," Chaumar said.

Five years ago, her scavenging days ended when she joined theSulabh International Social Service Organization, a non-profitgroup working to improve sanitation in India and the conditions forthis marginalized segment of society.

This week, with 2008 declared the International Year of Sanitationby the United Nations, the UN is honoring people like Chaumar --and groups such as Sulabh -- to draw attention to the plight of hercaste, and to explore ways to vastly improve sanitation conditionsin thousands of communities around the developing world.

Sulabh set up a project called Nai Disha, which means "newdirection," in Chaumar's hometown of Alwar. It pulled women out ofscavenging by providing vocational training and teaching them tooperate bank accounts.

For Chaumar, life took a dramatic turn for the better after shesigned up for vocational training.

"Now I make pickles, snacks, do embroidery, beauty care, makecandles and even take adult education classes," she said.

As a scavenger, she earned 300 rupees (seven dollars) per month.Now Sulabh pays her 2,000 rupees per month for her services --enough, she says, to send her three children to school.

She also earns extra cash by using her skills at home.

"People who used to hate being around me now come to my house andask me to make pickles or embroider their sari," she said.

By 2006 Sulabh had rescued about 60,000 scavengers, according tothe UN Development Program (UNDP).

Sulabh is also pioneering sustainable sanitation technologies.

Bindeshwar Pathak, who founded the organization in 1970, developedthe well-known Sulabh Sauchalya, an affordable and eco-friendlytwo-pit toilet.

Pathak said his invention helps slow global warming, saves waterand converts human waste into natural fertilizer.

"Today 2.6 billion people (in Asia, Africa, Latin America) do nothave access to safe and hygienic toilets," he told a pressconference.

Pathak sees that changing. Sulabh has already sold his toilettechnology to Afghanistan and 15 African countries. It hasinstalled 1.4 million household toilets and 6,500 public toilets inIndia alone.

It now plans to build toilets in the Dominican Republic, Haiti,Laos, Madagascar and Tajikistan.

Sulabh has also developed 26 toilet designs for varying budgets andlocations, and trained 19,000 masons to build low-cost twin-pittoilets using locally available materials.

On Wednesday Sulabh holds a special sanitation event at UNheadquarters to raise awareness and speed up progress towardsachieving one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals -- to cut byhalf the number of people lacking access to basic sanitation by2015.

The event will also feature a fashion show with clothes designed bySulabh women. One of the designers will be Chaumar.

"I have walked with Indian models in two shows before," she said,"and I am ready to walk with models in New York."