Why defecate in the open ?

As a regular reader of the Indian Express and as a critic of the rampant open defecation in India the news item published in the New Indian Express Coimbatore edition on the 22nd January 2011 did not surprise me. However I appreciate the reporter for bringing this menace to the limelight. Open defecation is a shame on the Indian public. All that one has to do is to take an early morning drive along any less-frequently used roads and you would find the stinking brown lines on both sides of the road. Talking of a solution to this problem I have always been of the strong opinion that it is NOT the Government that has to find a lasting solution to this menace. It has to come from the people themselves. This menace WILL end only if the open defecators switch on to their OWN toilets. Public toilets are not the solution for a problem where over 60% of the population poops in the open.

In this particular case IOC should take up, as their CSR project, education about sanitation in the area closer to their outlet and see that they all construct their own toilets.

THE NEWS ITEM:

Defecating in the open under IOC’s ‘watchful eye’

Yogesh Kabirdoss
Express News Service
First Published : 22 Jan 2011 01:27:26 AM IST
Last Updated : 22 Jan 2011 12:11:46 PM IST

COIMBATORE: Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras installed atop the Indian Oil Corporation terminal in Athappagoundan Pudur village on the outskirts of Coimbatore have inadvertently put the Dalit women folk in an embarrassing catch 22 situation.
The village falling under the Irugur Town Panchayat and situated close to the Palakkad Bypass National Highway, does not have public toilets forcing inhabitants to defecate in an open ground near the IOC terminal.
However, for over a year now the women folk are finding themselves in a delicate situation after they realised that their movements could be vividly captured in the high resolution revolving cameras.
While the IOC had installed the CCTVs as a security enhancing measure to prevent acts of terror or sabotage, ever since the women learnt about the existence of the candid cameras they have been overcome with a sense of shame and fear that someone could be watching them during their morning routine.
“We were not aware about the presence of the CCTVs in the vicinity until one of the employees of the IOC bragged about the security feature.”
“The moment we learnt about it, it sent jitters. We remain under fear that an invisible eye could be preying on us and are extremely uncomfortable about it. But we don’t have toilets in our village and there is no other place where we can answer nature’s call,” laments D Chinnal.
Citing the CCTVs, the locals led by Senthil Raj, a CPM functionary, have held repeated demonstrations and sent numerous petitions to various authorities including the Chief Minister’s Cell urging them to construct a public toilet.
But all those efforts have been in vain, says Raj.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express Coimbatore.