Download Speech - Sulabh International

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
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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!
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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
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(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
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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
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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
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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.

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