Before the arrival of low-cost toilets, villagers used this field for open defecation.
 

 

   But before leaving, she lets you peep at the latest addition to her home at Satnami Nagar, one of the oldest slums in Bhopal. She has a new toilet. 

   “Earlier, our family members had to go half a kilometre to the nearby waste land, while my friends and I would wait until it was dark to go there,” says Asha.

   “Most of the time, we would have to wade through filth and always feared snakes. It was terrible during the rainy season,” she adds.

   Change came to her locality and five other slums a few months ago when Aarambh, a local non-governmental organisation supported by WaterAid began helping residents to build toilets.

   “It was difficult to convince people to stop open defecation,” says Deepankshi Dighekar, a project coordinator at Aarambh.

   “Since sewage pipes were not laid properly in some previous attempts, people were unable to dispose of full pits and were not willing to try something else,” she says.

   It took Aarambh almost six months of house-to-house canvassing from July 2005 until Baby Nanda, a domestic help, decided to have a toilet in her house.

   “It was a problem to go out and find space in the filth and with the city growing everyday, there was no privacy anywhere,” says Nanda.

   The project has the support of both the locals and the municipal council, which even mobilised its workers for laying down pipes in some areas.  

   Aarambh has so far helped to build about 54 toilets. The households contributed 2,000 Indian rupees (approximately 46 U.S. dollars) and Aarambh gave each family a toilet seat and four bags of cement.

   “Most of the people who opted for these toilets did the construction work themselves to keep the costs down,” Dighekar adds.

   Aarambh has also supported toilet construction in schools whose facilities were unusable because of poor upkeep.

   “We had complained that the toilets were very dirty, but nobody would listen, therefore we left school early and went home,” says Asha, who studied at the government girl’s school at Piplani. 

   Now Aarambh’s hygiene educators organise regular awareness sessions – sometimes street plays and even songs – for students and their families on the values of cleanliness.

    “I now know we have to wash our hands after going to the toilet, if I cannot get soap, I use clean soil from the fields,” says Afsar Ali, a student of Aadarsh Bal Mandir (school) at Satnami Colony.

   The project has also helped to improve water supply at the colony. “Earlier, people who came here at noon would have to wait until evening to fill their pots,” says Meera Gore, of Satnami Colony.

   Now the area has a 24-hour supply, and all puddles around the tap stands have been covered by a concrete platform.

   Prior to installation of the new connection, the 12,000 residents relied on a lone tube well.  

   However, Aarambh’s success in some of the “authorised” slums contrasts sharply with the situation at “unauthorised” settlements around the city.

   At Shahin Nagar, about 15 kilometres from Satnami Colony, there are no roads, electricity, water lines or sewers and the women there have to walk up to two kilometres to fetch water – which is highly polluted.

   The city council has not extended its services to Shahin Nagar, while the work of NGOs also remains limited to “raising awareness”.

   “We have taken permission from the city council to work here and while the focus is on changing practices, we are also in dialogue to begin much needed construction work here,” Anup Kishore Sahay, general secretary of Aarambh.

   “The Nagar Nigam (city council) is asking for 4,000 Indian rupees per household for road, water and electricity connections,” says Nazma Bai, a resident. “We don’t have that type of money.”

 

   Aarambh’s field workers Firdoz and Fatima say they have managed to convince many residents to change their hygiene habits, but have been unable to help them with physical solutions like building toilets.  

   Instead the organization has been helping the people to set up self-help groups to support each other and Aarambh staff say, once they are organized, it will not take long for them to demand and get basic services from the city council. And they would like to do here, what they have at Satnami Colony.

   “Now our family saves much time because we have both toilet and water,” says Baby Nanda.  

   Baby Nanda, who now spends her spare time in canvassing her neighbours, adds: “Earlier we wanted to have toilets but did not have the money for building it, but now help is available.”

(END/AWW/IPSAP/SM/BB/FS/290506)