An NGO in Search of a Business Model (Innovations Case Discussion: Sulabh International)

Abstract

dollars invested in the world’s water supply failed to produce the anticipated reduction in the burden of disease that the international water sector began to pay serious attention to the “lack-of-toilet” crisis. The projected failure to attain the Millennium Development Goals’ sanitation target in much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia by 2015 finally brought the challenges of promoting hand-washing and the use of safe toilets much-needed attention—it even led the United Nations to declare 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. Of the nearly 1.2 billion people who practice open defecation worldwide, about 668 million live in India. Almost 74 percent of India’s rural population and 18 percent of its urban population still practice open defecation. This number is particularly shocking when one considers that the government of India has been actively trying to combat the practice for at least three decades. In development lingo, the scale-up has not been successful. According to one estimate, between 1986 and 1999, India’s Central Rural Sanitation Program installed 9.45 million latrines and gave about 85 million people new access to latrines. Over the same period, the population grew by 144 million, making the gains in improved sanitation imperceptible. Moreover, as the government and others in the sector found, increased access to latrines did not translate into their consistent and increased use, let alone tremendous health gains. While sanitation is a challenge in many parts of the world, in India it is a behemoth in a way that is particularly Indian. It is complicated by religion, tradition, caste, and social hierarchies that underpin generational poverty, gender inequality, rural-urban divides, political structures, and even economic incentives. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak’s genius lies not in his solution to the problem of open defecation—which clearly remains an overwhelming issue for India—but in his direct assault on the social hierarchies that perpetuate the problem.