It works in Rome, Barcelona, and in Dharavi….why not in the slums of the world-class city, Delhi? While for many Indian families a personal bathroom and toilet is considered a step-up in social status, Europeans families have been sharing bathrooms and toilets for generations. Even today in many hotels across Europe, often an entire floor shares bathrooms. In India, in some forums there is still an argument to make personal bathrooms and toilet mandatory features for EWS and LIG housing. Anyways, that’s a debate for a later time.
We visited a few sites in Delhi and were appalled to see the use and abuse of the infrastructure that were poor maintained and managed.
At first, we were convinced it was a capacity issue- the bathrooms were made for 1100 families in 1980s, which is now tripled to 3000 families as the units have vertically expanded. It partially can be attributed to that, but that didn’t explain the visibly poor conditions.
Then we looked to blame it on the poor management by the contractor; not doing their duty well enough. But when you have people from community coming-in to steal the fixtures and hardware- you wonder whose fault is it. Possibly but there is only so much that can be managed and only that much security provided. We left the community bathing and toilet of Ekta Vihar and Mangolpuri without many answers and a sense of hopelessness seeing the dire situation of water, sanitation and basic hygiene.
It’s possible- come see it in Dharavi. Visiting the slums of Dharavi can be amazing for all the right or wrong reasons. However, seeing this rather beautifully managed community toilet centre was area eye-opener and once again bought to light the power of a community managed model.
The Mahila Milan Committee of the area manages the Dharavi toilet and bathing centre. Those living in the area are ‘member’s contributing a monthly membership fee, and get free usage. Outsiders are permitted to use on a per usage fee. I spoke to one lady, Uma, who travels 30 minutes from her locality to use the bathroom here- ‘‘is much cleaner, hygienic, she says and worth the distance’’- today she’s bought a newcomer to see the place. The bathrooms are kept extremely clean, separate section for members, separate for daily users- but its not till I go to the terrace that I’m truly in for a surprise.
The roof top terrace is one of the nicest spaces I’ve seen in Mumbai- it’s used for community meetings, theatre, workshops- the mosaic tiles and plants making it a perfect spot for a bar-b-que overlooking the sunset. At some point, looking around Dharavi from the this terrace, I forget I’m standing on a community toilet in a slum – synonymous with stink, filthiness, unhygienic conditions.
So what makes this community toilet work and why is it so hard to replicate:
Community ownership- In other areas you have problems such as all the fittings etc are broken of, no lights and all hardware is stolen. It’s the attitude when you’re being provided something virtually free; you take it as your birthright. There is no real ownership and involvement. Somehow there is no incentive/punishment/accountability and it’s the age-old problem in economics of ‘tragedy of the commons’.
User-friendly- the centre is kept open for hours decided by the community and workable for the caretaker. Management- A caretaker family is appointed to manage the shelter and given a large airy room on the terrace to stay with her family. Not a dingy quarter and shoebox to sleep in.
Operations & B-model- The committee gets over 500 people using the bathroom everyday. At an average spend of Rs 2/- that’s a minimum earnings of 30,000 per month. They can easily employ 4 sweepers, put aside the profit for maintenance and up-gradation of the equiment. They close the bathroom periodically for cleaning. Sulabh International made the concept of pay for toilet use possible and hence widely accessible to the people.
Now if we go one set further in case of a community/cluster areas and let people manage it- the entire approach will be sustainable.
Planning Commission, Member Mihir Shah wrote in the Economic Times (24th May 2010); that constructing a toilet and showing 100% use of funds is hardly an outcome we should be measuring. While he was talking of the rural context, it’s similar in urban areas. As we speak of the JNNURM and Urban Renewal of 62 towns and cities- it is the use, adoption and longer-term sustenance that is more critical than hardware. Otherwise it money down the drain, and we’ll be constructing and destroying to reach target numbers. So the next time government approves a state budget for infrastructure- lets also make sure to evaluate the extent of community involvement and the strength of the business plan.
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