Ensuring proper sanitation as careers

Ranjan K Baruah *

We may not like to talk about toilets more often publicly but the fact is toilets transform lives. It also delivers dignity and boosts school attendance — particularly for girls, and enhances health and nutrition by preventing the spread of disease. We have seen that the world has made progress around the world when it comes to toilets.

Globally, there are 3.5 billion people living without safe toilets and 2.2 billion persons living without safe drinking water. 419 million people still go to the toilet in the open (`open defecation'). 2 billion people - a quarter of the world's population - lack basic hand washing facilities at home to wash their hands with soap and water.

Unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene are responsible for the deaths of around 1,000 children under five every day. (UNICEF 2023). At the current rate, 3 billion people will still be living without safe toilets, 2 billion will be without safe drinking water and 1.4 billion will lack basic hygiene facilities by 2030.

Without safely managed, sustainable sanitation, people often have no choice but to use unreliable, inadequate toilets or practice open defecation. Even where toilets exist, overflows and leaks from pipes and septic systems, and dumping or improper treatment, can mean untreated human waste gets out into the environment and spreads deadly and chronic diseases such as cholera and intestinal worms.

In a bid to help break taboos around toilets and make sanitation for all a global development priority, the United Nations designated 19 No-vember as World Toilet Day. In March 2023 the world came together during the UN 2023 Water Conference convened by the United Nations General Assembly.

A main outcome of the Conference was the Water Action Agenda, a collection of new and existing voluntary commitments to take accelerated action on sanitation and water. The subsequent Blueprint for Acceleration: Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2023, produced by UN-Water and launched at the 2023 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), offers actionable policy recommendations directed towards senior decision-makers in Member States, other stakeholders, and the United Nations System to get the world on track to achieve SDG 6 — water and sanitation for all — by 2030.

Right now, we are seriously off track to meet SDG 6: safe toilets and water for all by 2030. We must be aware that toilets are a foundation stone of public health and play a critical role in protecting the environment. This brings more people to work in the area to achieve the goals and ensure sanitation for all including the poorest one in the society.

One may choose a career in the field of sanitation to ensure rights and toilets for all. There are government departments like Public Health Engineering which is associated with sanitation and water. When we talk about toilets and India and if we look from career perspectives then one may take the example of `Sulabh'.

Founded in 1970 by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Sulabh's con-tribution in the field of sanitation is both monumental in scale and historical in its application of human rights framing to sanitation. Dr. Pathak's foray into sanitation was in response to tackle the deep rooted discrimination, abuse and stigma faced by a community of people — known as manual scaven-gers — who cleaned dry latrines manually and were labelled as untouchables.

The objective was to bring an end to this inhuman practice of cleaning night soil manually — this was the beginning of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. The other career options include working with communi-ties to train them and sensitize them related to sanitation and use of the toilets.

In India, there are many villages which are free from open defecation but there are many villages and communities and people where more activities are needed. Ensuring proper sanitation means our contribution towards achieving the SDGs.

(With inputs from UN publication)