Native girl finds local way to fight open defecation

Nagpur-based artist Shweta Bhattad was visiting Paradsinga, her native village on the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, when a sight intrigued her. A child not more than four years old was defecating in the open — a regular sight in the village where 70 per cent of families defecated in the open and had a mound of pebbles around him. Later, she found this a common sight — every time children went out to defecate, they would first collect tiny stones to heap around where they squatted. Curiosity led 32-year-old artist to ask one of the children why they did so. It was to scare off the pigs, they answered, who came to eat the feces and in the process, pushed or bit them.

This had instilled a fear among the villagers, especially children, pregnant women and the elderly who found it difficult to move quickly, Bhattad realised. "Some of these bites became septic and there was a chance of rabies infection. In some cases, when the local doctors couldn't treat the wounds, they were sent off to bigger hospitals in nearby areas. However, in the cases of girls or young women, parents would not send them to a doctor fearing that they would be rejected at the time of their marriage," says Bhattad.

Seeing this backwardness of the village, Bhattad stayed back in Paradsingha, living with her grandfather who had a house in the village. In the past four years, she, and several activists and artists who have visited Paradsingha, have taken up projects related to farming and the environment under an initiative titled Gram Art Project. Bhattad's observations on sanitation practices, have specifically led to a project titled Eco-Sani-Irri.

Under this, she along with two other artists, her sister Aditi and Lalit Vikamshi, have designed a model for a 'gram toilet'. "We used bamboo sticks to make a four-pillared structure and covered it on three sides to ensure privacy and safety. The base is elevated and has space in the centre like a toilet seat so that when the pigs come, they can move under these toilets and eat the waste without biting or pushing anyone," explains Bhattad.

Bhattad had realised that going out into the fields to defecate was particularly hard for women who had to get up very early in the morning if they wanted some privacy, but that it was also a time for social interaction as women usually went in groups, chatting with each other. She kept these insights in mind while working on the design.

"We partially covered these toilets so that their faces were visible to each other and they could chat the way they did on the fields," she says. Which is why the toilets are also called Gappa Goshti (chit-chat), says Bhattad who was in Delhi recently where a model of the toilets was part of an exhibition at Khoj Studio.

These Gappa Goshti toilets, says Bhattad, have another benefit over the conventional toilets in Paradsingha which is located in Vidarbha, a region known for its scarcity of water. No wonder community toilets built under the central Swacch Bharat Abhiyan are lying unused.

"Traditional toilets need a lot of water and the human waste is eventually diverted into rivers, thus polluting a clean source of water. Therefore, we tried finding a solution which required less water and allowed the waste to be used. Urine can be used for urea and solid waste can be decomposed and used as a fertiliser. Thus we came up with Ecosystem Sanitation Irrigation project," says the artist.

Under this project, Bhattad wants to chanelise the water used for sanitation to the fields so that they could help with irrigation. However, the project is still being developed and has not been installed due to lack of investment and sponsors. Showing in Delhi, Bhattad hopes, the Gappa Goshti's simple design will find takers in other places as well.