Sulabh sanitation and social reform movement

Abstract

The sanitation situation in India has been dismal both in urban and rural areas and only few towns have provision of sewage system. A small number of people use septic tanks and only two systems are prevalent on large scale, that is, defecation in the open and manual cleaning of human excreta by the class of people called ‘human scavengers’. The technology of two-pit, pour-flush toilet (popularly known as Sulabh toilet) that is scientifically appropriate, economically affordable, and culturally acceptable is developed by the researcher for the safe disposal of human waste from households. For the safe reuse of human waste from public toilets, housing colonies, high rise buildings, hostels, hospitals etc, the researcher also developed the technology for complete recycling and reuse of excreta through biogas generation and on-site treatment of effluent through a simple and convenient technology for its safe reuse without health or environmental risk. Earlier, there was a social stigma and psychological taboo for handling of 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 competing to do the job without any psychological taboo. The initiatives taken by the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation and the technology of low-cost sanitation advanced by it have been hailed as an outstanding innovation in combating the menace of environmental pollution in developing countries.