The data was released with a state Government Resolution (GR) proclaiming that by the year 2019 the problem of sanitation in Maharashtra would be solved.
Barely weeks before World Environment Day was celebrated, data released by the Maharashtra government shows that its record in providing sanitation services to its citizens is nothing to cheer about. The GoM's data released on May 15 says that almost 1 in 3 households (29%) in the state does not have access to toilets.
The data was released with a state Government Resolution (GR) proclaiming that by the year 2019 the problem of sanitation in Maharashtra would be solved.
The GR goes on to say that 73% households in the state use common toilets and 27% households defecate in the open. 29% of the total population does not have access to toilets. The GR makes assurances about stopping open defecation, increasing personal hygiene, using technology to avail better waste management and increasing awareness about sanitation.
The GR also makes promises about cleaning all insanitary toilets and converting pit latrines into sanitary toilets. Completion of this project, which is part of the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, is slated for Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary on October 2, 2019.
The project will be funded by both the state and the Union government, with the Union contributing Rs4,000 and the state funding Rs8,000 per toilet.
But sanitation experts call these goals rather ambitious and perhaps unrealistic considering the government's past record in this regard. In the past two decades, 8,417 public toilets have been constructed in Mumbai city. Of these there are many that are in such insanitary condition that people would rather not use them.
Ramesh Haralkar, founder and president of Safai Kamgar Parivartan Sanstha said, "In Mumbai, the slum areas are promised toilets only to secure the vote bank. It is not possible to make fully functional toilets in slum areas. Many times the government simply constructs the toilet, but does not make any arrangements for its maintenance."
Haralkar highlights flaws with the government's latest proclamation as well. "Today, with water crises, even staff members of the BMC don't have water, how do they propose to ensure water connectivity at all of these new public and individual toilets that they will be building? Do they expect slum residents to go out in the night to the distant toilet when they could just do their business at the drains running near their houses?"
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