Ramkaran Sharma built a new house three years back. From one room and kitchen on a terrace, his family graduated to three rooms, a bigger kitchen and a separate toilet and bathroom. Still, Ramkaran prefers to go out in the fields to relieve himself. “I like to take a long walk. Many people of older generation still go out while youngsters and women prefer to use toilets. Almost everybody has toilets at home now,” Sharma says. This scene from Salwan village in Karnal district plays out across Haryana, which stands among the top four states in toilet coverage, outperforming even its more affluent neighbour, Punjab.

A 2014 study done in five north Indian states found that 35 percent of the households having a functional toilet in Haryana had at least one member defecating in the open. Many respondents said that defecating in the open offers an opportunity to take a morning walk, see their fields, and take in the fresh air. 

Behaviour change route to sanitation 

Sanitation issue is a tough nut to crack. Through trial and error, Haryana has realised the bitter truth that more toilets do not mean better sanitation. So now, the state has brought in a new strategy—no more subsidy to build toilets; only incentives to the villages performing well on the sanitation front.  

This approach, known as community-led total sanitation (CLTS), is famous the world over for focusing on behaviour change of the community by instilling fear or disgust for faecal contamination. This behaviour change then ensures that people build toilets with their own money and, more importantly, use them. Promoters of CLTS believe that toilet subsidies don’t help people understand why toilets are essential. Instead they suggest awards for communities doing well on the sanitation front. Communities can also help those members who can’t help themselves. 

“Every month, a village from 126 blocks of the state will be given a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh for maintaining cleanliness. The gram panchayat can use this money to build toilets for those who can’t afford toilets. Individual grants won’t be given now,” says R.K. Mehta, the project coordinator of Swachh Haryana Mission (Rural). The CLTS approach, however, has also garnered criticism as surveillance teams, formed at village level, started using coercive methods like whistle blowing and public shaming of those defecating in the open. These tactics take away the participatory approach CLTS claims to embrace.

It’s not the first time that Haryana is trying CLTS. In 2006, various districts of the state tried the concept with some success. “In fact, the phenomenal rise in number of toilets we see since 2001 is partly due to CLTS. Panipat was a frontrunner in this campaign. The enthusiasm, however petered out as the officials who initiated these campaigns got transferred. Those who replaced them were not adept with CLTS and the subsidies took over again,” says Deepak Sanan, additional chief secretary in the Himachal Pradesh government, who also conducted a few workshops on CLTS in Haryana. 

The race to toilets

Haryana boasts of over 87 percent toilet coverage today. It has been pushing toilets through policy decisions like last year’s law amendment which made a functional toilet at home one of the eligibility criteria for the candidates contesting panchayat elections. 

From 55.5 percent households without toilets in 2001, the number reduced to 31.4 percent in 2011. The number of households with water closet toilets rose by five times, from 10.9 percent to 50.4 percent during the same period. Considering the current toilet coverage status of over 87 percent, the share of households with no toilets has further reduced to 13 percent.

But more toilets also mean greater sewage generation, an issue the entire country is grappling with. According to the Census 2011 data, half of Haryana’s households either had piped sewer system or septic tanks to dispose of the waste. Around 17 percent had pit toilets while only 0.8 percent had dry toilets. 

In most villages, the water from septic tanks leads through open drains to the central village ponds contaminating the surface as well as the groundwater. Pit toilets also need to be constructed keeping in view the contamination of nearby water sources. “The preference to twin pit or septic tank in the government programme is good, but many people in our village just dig a 35- to 40-feet-deep pit and install a toilet seat on it. The groundwater table is at 50-to 60-feet deep which means it must be getting contaminated with the toilet waste,” says Manbir Rehdu of Igrah village in Jind district.

Ramkaran Sharma also cites similar fact to justify open defecation. “We have large open area, including common land and privately-owned farms where people go for defecation. There's no contamination as these places are away from habitation and dispersed. Compare this to all the sewage which flows out to a central village pond. Which is more dangerous? Toilet is good for women and children, but why force everyone to use it?” asks Ramkaran Sharma. This underscores the fact that waste management has to go alongside, not subsequent, to toilets. And Haryana may be the first state to take a lead on this one.

On waste management

The state seems to be doing well on the sewage management front as compared to other states. The expenditure on waste management has been consistently rising for the last three years. From Rs 192.43 lakh in 2013-14, the money spent on waste management rose to Rs 1309.2 lakh in the last financial year. 

As compared to the Census 2001 data, the share of open drainage remained consistent at around 65 per cent in 2011 while share of households with no drainage declined from 23.2 percent to 13.7 percent and closed drainage rose from 12.8 percent to 21.1 percent. 

Stabliisation ponds have been established in some villages to deal with sewage. Wastewater flows through three ponds, one after another. Most of the heavy solids sink to the bottom of the first pond while the remaining water flows to the secondary ponds. Here, healthy growth of algae produces oxygen to be used by bacteria to break down organic matter and the sunlight kills off most of the faecal bacteria and other pathogens. The water can then be used for irrigation in nearby fields thus completing the cycle of consumption and reuse. Sullage can also be removed from the ponds after a few years and used in the fields as manure.

“Currently, work related to stablisation ponds is on in 1,200 villages but this task will take some time because we are more focused on open defecation free Haryana first. Two districts, Panchkula and Sirsa, will be open defecation free soon,” says Mehta.

Haryana is also planning to renovate sewage treatment plants of towns which are directly or indirectly discharging their effluents into Yamuna. Though it’s still early days, the state can use the high toilet coverage to its advantage and arrive on the best practices to manage sewage, especially in rural areas.