After Swachh Bharat: ‘One of the Biggest Crises in 2021 India’ ‘80% of sanitation workers do not even reach the age of retirement’
Pragya Akhilesh is secretary of the Bhim Safai Karamchari Trade Union and national convener of the Rehabilitation Research Initiative. In this interview she discusses the health and sanitation hazard of toilets without water, and poorly constructed dry latrines contaminating the water supply, which she calls ‘one of the biggest crises’ in contemporary India.
Is it true that toilets have become hotbeds of disease spread in the pandemic?
The lockdown has had its own problems with decreasing toilet usage. In 2020 there was a massive decline in actual toilet usage in rural India. This is mainly because toilets are in poor shape, the roofs are falling, doors are breaking or soggy and there is an acute shortage of water supply. The outcome of this is that toilets have become hotbeds for disease spread.
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