For last two weeks I am on a look out for a viable Toilet design for the Rural India. It all started with my Village statistics report , which shows nearly 70% of the House hold are using Open air for the Nature Call. The Amazing Fact comes out of it is that near about 98% of the Household have One Mobile Phone , 67% of the Household have Two Wheeler, 94% have Color Television but on account of Sanitary Solutions like Toilet and Waste Water.. its nearly Non Exist. While in the Course of my study I started with a Designed Prototype which required some 6-7 months to make it feasible. Here is what The Problems I have collected in a brief from the Village Study.
The Problem :
Mentality : The Simple Will to have a Toilet is not in the mindset at first. While they can go for extensive shopping on Electronic Gadgets like Feature rich Mobile Phone (costing Above 3000/-) with , LCD TV, Pulsar and Apache Range of Bikes and Gold Ornaments.
Cost of Toilet : The Cost of Toilet is a deciding factor , as the Material and Labour Cost Sky roketted in recent times and to invest on a Toilet which they have other options l(ike Open air) it seems not worthy one.
When I tried some of the Experimenting Talks with the Fellows in and around some of the Villages I was confirmed on One Problem (A Change of Mindset) that if the Cost of Toilet Construction gets to a viable and affordable range they can Go for it.
On this I researched many of the options available online but to my surprise there are rarely any Cost effective Toilets (Complete Toilet, with Flush, Water Tank, Waste Management) for Indian Rural Scenario. While there are some of the good Examples of affordable Toilets in African Countries, where the American , British and German Investors did there best to Cash on them and even to be a part of UNICEF Sanitation Agenda.
One of the Promising Future I see in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative to have a Redesigned Toilets Projects Last year and Also Awarding Funds to 8 Research Universities.
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