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SEMINAR on The Sociology of Sanitation organised by Department of Sociology Utkal University, Vani Vihar Bhubaneswar, Odisha SULABH INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANISATION Sulabh Gram, Mahavir Enclave, Palam-Dabri Road, New Delhi-110 045 Tel.: (011) 25031518, 25031519, Fax: (011) 25034014, 25055952 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] Website: http://www.sulabhinternational.org / www.sulabhtoiletmusem.org 1 Sociology of Sanitation: Concept, Orientation and Objective Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak* Ph.D., D.Litt. on‟ble Professor P. Das, the Vice Chancellor, Utkal University; Hon‟ble Professor Navaneeta Rath, Head of the University Department of Sociology; the renowned journalist Hon‟ble Shri Sanjiv Sahu; the distinguished social activist Hon‟le Smt. Tulasi Munda; all the Faculty members, Students, and members of the local Sulabh Sanitation Club! H First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor P. Das, the honourable Vice Chancellor of Utkal University, Professor Navaneeta Rath, Head of the University Department of Sociology, and other Faculty members associated with this seminar for giving me this wonderful opportunity to speak about a subject which is the focal point of my life and the Sulabh movement that I have been leading for almost half-a-century. The distinguished and knowledgeable audience here knows better than I do about Utkal University‟s eminence as an institution of excellence. This university is the oldest and most prestigious university of the state, and it has a glorious history, as it has played a sterling intellectual role in the all-round development of modern Odisha. Many renowned scholars have nurtured and nourished this university and its multifarious attainments in academics and research over the years have helped it carve a special place for itself in the world of academia. I am deeply grateful to this illustrious university for this invitation and honour, and I consider it my singular privilege to address this gathering of academics and students. Before I come to the seminar topic, let me first make clear that the prime purpose of Sulabh movement that I launched in the early 1970s is to fulfill the national aspiration of sanitation, health and social reconstruction. Sulabh is committed to eradication of manual cleaning of human waste and liberation of manual scavengers; elimination of the practice of open defecation and universal provision of health and hygiene; harnessing of non-conventional energy resources, treatment of waste materials, and purification of water, etc. All this is part of my overarching and deeply inter-connected vision of ensuring sanitation and social ________________________________ * Action Sociologist & Social Reformer Founder, Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement Brand Ambassador, Swachh Rail Mission, and Member, National Legal Services Authority 2 (NALSA) reform in our society, and if I have been able to make substantial progress in this direction, it is because I am a social and sanitation campaigner who has a firm grounding in Sociology. I am a sociologist by training, and in 1985, I gave a new perspective to this discipline when I proposed the concept of Action Sociology, with the idea that sociologists should not only study the structure of society, culture, religion, values, mores, social problems, etc., but they should also actively engage with finding out solutions to the burning social problems. I am of the view that scholars and students of sociology should engage with the society, work for the people and help them solve their problems, apart from studying the nature and functioning of society. Based on this thinking I also propounded in 2013 the theory of Sociology of Sanitation, which is a scientific study to solve the problems of society in relation to sanitation, social deprivation, public health and hygiene, gender equality, empowering people for sustainable development and attainment of philosophical and spiritual knowledge to lead a happy and healthy life. This move was welcomed by hundreds of sociologists in a National Conference on Sociology of Sanitation in New Delhi in the year 2013. The idea of Sociology of Sanitation enriched and enlarged the engaged intellectual dialogue that I had started in 1985 under the broader sociological canopy of Action Sociology. Today, Sociology of Sanitation is increasingly being recognized by sociologists across India, and it is also being taught in three Departments of Sociology in India, namely Maharaja Krisnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar (Gujarat); Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga (Bihar), and Mangalore University, Mangalore (Karnataka). That sanitation is a basic condition for development is now commonly accepted. A lack of proper sanitation contributes to the death of millions of children below the age of five every year; and about 50 life-threatening diseases are associated with poor sanitation. Suffice here to say that sanitation-related diseases are among the major causes of death in India and in most other low-income countries. The sanitation situation in India has been dismal both in urban and rural areas. Only few towns have provision of sewage system. A small number of people use septic tanks, and two unacceptable systems have been prevalent on large scale: defecation in the open and pit-or-bucket latrines, which have to be manually cleaned by a class of people called „human scavengers‟. As some of you may be aware, the technology of two-pit, pour-flush toilet (which is scientifically appropriate, economically affordable, and culturally acceptable) has been invented by me for the safe disposal of human waste from households. For the safe treatment of human waste from public toilets, housing colonies, high-rise buildings, hostels, hospitals, etc., I also developed the technology for complete recycling and reuse of excreta 3 through biogas generation and on-site treatment of effluent through a simple and convenient technology, which has no health or environmental risk. Earlier, there was a social stigma and psychological taboo associated with handling human excreta. It could also be due to the fact that only people of the lowest economic strata, „scavengers‟, who were treated as untouchables, were associated with this dehumanizing job. Due to the technologies and efforts of Sulabh, over a million scavengers have been brought into the mainstream of society. Also, due to financial viability, people from higher social status are now willing to take up the sanitation job. The initiatives taken by Sulabh International and our technology of low-cost sanitation have been hailed as an outstanding innovation in combating the menace of environmental pollution in India and other developing countries of Asia, Africa and South America. Sociologically speaking, a caste-based and hereditary profession, handed down as a legacy from one generation to the next, manual scavenging has been an age-old routine for the communities which remained more or less untouched by technological advancement in sanitary practices. It may be recalled that the practice of manual scavenging started in the Puranic period, and continued in the Buddhist, Mauryan, Mughal and British periods. Not only is the prevalence of this practice revolting, but what makes it even worse is the fact that those born in the community of manual scavengers are considered agents of pollution due to the birth-based social hierarchy in our country. The scavengers are the most oppressed and suppressed class of Indian society: hated, ostracized, and avoided by all other castes and classes. The appalling hardship, humiliation and exploitation they face have no parallel in human history. Apparently, the problems arising from casteism and untouchability are complicated, old and deep-rooted. Ironically, even the scavengers, considered unclean and untouchable by the rest of society, meekly accept their social degradation. It may be due to the fact that scavengers while doing their work come in direct contact with human excreta and their hands are completely soiled. It is a common sight to see scavengers, mostly women, moving with excreta on the head, stored in bamboo-baskets, or in leaking containers, with the muck trickling down to their face and body. Passers-by avoid such persons and if a scavenger comes in close proximity, he or she is showered with a hail of abuse. No human degradation could be more cruel and inhuman than the one suffered by the scavengers. But the problem of Balmikis, the community which does the work of scavenging, is as much economic as it is socio-cultural. In fact, it is woven into the fabric of India‟s traditional culture. Traditions take time to change and require the will and support from all sections of society. Besides providing the alternative of a safe and effective toilet technology and its national-wide implementation in the form of household and public toilets, our Sulabh movement has evolved the concept of bringing the scavengers in 4 the social mainstream through several cultural, educational and social initiatives. All we need to do is the willingness to shed our social prejudice and show compassion to the suffering scavengers who are our fellow humans. Coming back to the subject of sanitation, it is my firm belief that „sanitation‟ should now be included as a discipline in sociology because the core problem areas related to sanitation such as social deprivation, hygiene, ecology, water, public health, gender equality, etc., require sociological intervention, and such intervention should be grounded in spiritual and philosophical knowledge of our culture and society. My thesis statement on Sociology of Sanitation is this: “Sociology of sanitation is a scientific study to solve the problem of society in relation to sanitation, social deprivation, water, public health, hygiene, ecology, environment, poverty, gender equality, welfare of children and empowering people for sustainable development and attainment of philosophical and spiritual knowledge to lead a happy life and to make a difference in the lives of others.” As we know, sanitation includes water supply, safe disposal of human waste, waste water and solid waste management, control of vectors of diseases, domestic and personal hygiene, safe housing, etc. The US National Sanitation Foundation defines sanitation thus: “It is the quality of living expressed in clean homes, clean farms, clean neighbourhoods and clean community. Being a way of life, it must come from people, nourished as it is by knowledge and it grows as obligation and ideal in human relations.” Environmental sanitation is vital for protecting the environment, improving health, alleviating poverty, enhancing quality of life and raising productivity, all of which are essential for sustainable development. But I think we also need social sanitation, along with environmental sanitation, and we need strong collective efforts for such holistic sanitation. With this view, I have envisioned and evolved the Sociology of Sanitation, as explained earlier, which is now being accepted and recognized across the country. I must inform the scholars and students of sociology here that Bhavnagar University in the state of Gujarat, introduced teaching Sociology of Sanitation, in the Department of Sociology in July 2015. Later, in 2016, Department of Sociology, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, Bihar, also introduced this new discipline. Mangalore University, Karnataka, in 2016, also introduced teaching Sociology of Sanitation under Sociology of Health and Sanitation, which has enriched the sociological knowledge and repository. In short, I have taken the concept of Action Sociology to the extent that it is now being accepted as a subject of study in the form of Sociology of Sanitation. More importantly, I developed the vision of employing sociology for emancipating scavengers, who manually cleaned and carried human excreta on their head and bore the cruel burden of being “Untouchables”. Thus, the broader aim of 5 our Sulabh movement and Sociology of Sanitation is not only to provide sanitation, but also to abolish social injustice and discrimination. Sulabh is intensely engaged in implementing the Gandhian dream of abolishing manual scavenging from the face of the earth with an inclusive vision that is made effective by the Sulabh toilet technology, which is easily adoptable, cost-effective and eco-friendly. Thus, the Sociology of Sanitation, under the broader canopy of Action Sociology, strives to work for social and sanitation solutions, which can ensure social equity and dignity to every underprivileged and discriminated human being. With your support and solidarity, I am in this distinguished university and its Department of Sociology, for the promotion, enrichment and universalization of Sociology of Sanitation. I hope that the support and encouragement of the sociologists and scholars gathered here will pave the way for the inclusion of Sociology of Sanitation in the Sociology course of study. Its inclusion in Sociology syllabus will not only enlarge the academic scope of Sociology but will also be helpful in solving the pressing problems of our society in relation to sanitation, safe drinking water, public health and hygiene, poverty removal, gender equality, welfare of children, women and weaker sections of society. I also hope that this academic initiative will strengthen Sulabh‟s mission and vision of sanitation and inclusive social change. I would like to applaud and congratulate Professor Navaneeta Rath, a talented and committed sociologist, for her brilliant and successful initiative in envisioning and organizing this seminar, which will go a long way in broadening and deepening the understanding of sanitation beyond the physical level. It is high time to grasp that holistic sanitation encompasses, besides environmental safety and public hygiene, overall transformation of the society in a desired direction, especially for the deprived masses. The essence of the definition of Sociology of Sanitation is to reconstruct inclusiveness and progressive understanding of sanitation with contradictions as facilitators to sustainability of the well-being of individual and society. This seminar on Sociology of Sanitation, I hope, will engender and bring together an impressive array of discourses on various aspects of sociology and sanitation, and thus empower and enrich us to inquire into some of the most pressing problems of our times. I hope that this seminar will play a sparkling role in drawing more Indian scholars and social scientists to this novel discipline of Sociology of Sanitation. 6