)
Toilets have occupied an essential central space in India's public discourse in the last one year. More so after Prime Minister Narendra Modi instigated a national debate on the significance of sanitation while launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary in October. As we mark the 2nd Annual World Toilet Day, this in itself can be seen as reason for cheer in a country, where the scourge of open defecation has been spoken about only in hushed tones despite 818 million Indians or 65% of the population not using a toilet to empty their bowels. Now that a discussion has been sparked, the idea needs to be taken to its logical conclusion.
We live in a world that's infatuated with measuring progress and development exclusively from the prism of fiscal gain. Sanitation can, in such a scenario, be at risk of being relegated to the periphery as a social problem, not pressing enough to be addressed with as much urgency as, say, the plight of industry. It would be a massive blunder to do that because apart from facilitating sweeping social change (from improved health to reduced instances of sexual violence and better female enrollment ratios in schools), a national focus on sanitation has compelling economic imperatives that could have a direct impact on our GDP.
The World Bank estimates fiscal benefits from sanitation intervention to the order of $63 billion annually, the greatest proportion of which it says, will accrue to the poorest regions of the world. $1 spent on improved sanitation and access to a private toilet at home can typically yield about $9 in developing countries by way of foregone medical costs, time savings, increased return on investments in education, a boost in tourism revenue among others, according to the United Nations.
The BJP's pledge of toilets for all in 5 years must thus be looked at as an economic opportunity. The Hindustan Times conducted an independent study on the impact of the Swachh Bharat campaign and concluded that it has the potential to provide a 1.65-2.2 lakh crore stimulus to India's economy over 5 years, not to mention the jobs such an initiative would create. At a time when private sector investment is not picking up and industrial output is still weak, turning to toilet building to salvage our economic fortunes will be both resourceful and practical.
Where would the money for such a massive program come from? Arvind Panagariya, Professor at Columbia University in an Op-Ed in the Times of India says all roads to Swacch Bharat will have to pass through the 'thicket of reforms'.
"Financially, the government will easily need 2-3% of GDP annually till the target date. There are only four avenues to mobilizing such vast resources: increases in revenues made possible by accelerated growth; cuts in middle-class subsidies such as for cooking gas; elimination of enormous leakages in the myriad social schemes by replacing them with cash transfers; and accelerated disinvestment including outright privatization."
Merely throwing money at building more infrastructure will not do the trick however. Without adequate monitoring mechanisms in place, an effective education campaign and a concerted effort to change social attitudes to open defecation, implementation of such programs may well lead to a build up of more toilets, but only for them to remain unused As NDTV's Sreenivasan Jain recently found out during an investigation he led into UP's Sitapur District. Here toilets built using money from the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan were being utilized to store fodder. Swachh Bharat, as Jain said, cannot afford to repeat NBA's mistakes.
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
