‘Mr Toilet’ — the Gandhian broom that dared to clean evil and environ

Even today, in the twenty-first century, in the globalised world, in the era of high technology, when 2.6 billion people in the world, which means nearly four in every ten people, do not have access to a toilet, when every day diarrhoeal disease kills 5,000 children, the mission that 'Mr Toilet' - late Ishwarbhai Patel, embarked upon has been as relevant as sixty five years ago when he joined Sewadal and endeavoured on Gandhi-led path of ending the uncivilised practices of manual scavenging.

At the roots of untouchability lie the practice of carrying human excreta over head to dump it far distances. Gandhiji called this the worst evil of our society and pledged to end such an inhuman and barbaric practice by researching and promoting scientific methods of sanitation.

That is precisely what Ishwarbhai did, earning him the nick names like Mr Toilet, Mr Clean, India's latrine Guru, Safai Farishta and awards such as Philips award, Goenka award, Jamanalal Bajaj award, Padma Shri, Anarta, National press India award, Dalit mitra, Mahatma Gandhi award, PV Narsimharao memorial award, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar award, Servant of the poor and so on...  But he preferred to be called the "Shuchitakarmi".

He preached as well as practiced. He advocated and acted for internal as well as external cleanliness, physical as well as social cleanliness, spiritual as well as environmental cleanliness. In the times of social ostracism for marrying outside of the limited caste circle, he rebelled to get himself married to Lohana girl despite being Patel.

Ishwarbhai was a teacher, social worker, social reformer, technical consultant, advisor and of course the family man. He joined Sewadal at a tender age of 12. He was associated with Safai Vidyalaya since 1962 and went on to found Environmental Sanitation Institute in 1985.

During this journey he not only moulded young minds, but formally trained people at the grassroots along with decision-makers.

He even trained the masons and engineers to build human capacities for actual implementation.

And implemented he did. Over twenty five years, thanks to his consistent research and innovations, he built over two and a quarter lakh of most affordable yet scientific toilets in rural as well as urban India.

Affordable, at rupees four thousand for entire toilet with waste treatment and just a litre of water to flush. The Ganges River in India has 1.1 million litres of raw sewage dumped into it every minute.

Malaysia and Thailand achieved almost universal coverage of full sanitation through concerted programmes delivered over thirty years - well ahead of the Southeast Asian economic boom. We, the citizens of India need to pledge to take this mission up as a tribute to our national hero -Padma Shri Ishwarbhai Patel- who championed the cause of total sanitation, led from the front but has left for the heavenly abode on December 26, 2010.

(The author is a Ahmedabad-based architect and historian)