Everyone Poops – But Why on the Side of the Road?

Since I have arrived around two months ago, I have had a couple observations that have caught me by surprise and that I would like to share.

The World’s Largest Public Bathroom: Everyone poops everywhere. Waking up at 5:00am before the sun rises to walk along the street to a nearby lake is like entering into an open public bathroom stall. Men, women and children are squatted down on the gravel off the road freeing themselves of the previous day’s consumption. We make sure to walk in the middle of the street, simply looking ahead as the bathroom-goers watch us as we pass. The walk back after the sun has risen is the more treacherous time, as traffic forces you onto the side of the road and making you watch every single step.
The odd thing is that many of the villages and even some private homes have bathrooms. In fact, CRHP is actively working with a water and sanitation NGO in India to provide all project villages affordable toilets for at least 70% of the population. Getting the toilets into the villages is not the hard part, though, but rather getting people to use them is the major barrier. Villagers are accustomed to using the area behind their home, on the side of the road, or next to a tree and are not comfortable entering a small room to perform the same act. In most of the villages I have seen the bathrooms are being used as storage areas and filled with boxes.

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick: Every Tuesday to Wednesday, the Village Health Workers come from their many different villages for ongoing training at CRHP. Many VHWs who have worked for over 25 years still come every week. And yet during morning service every Wednesday morning as I sit on the floor, I am humbled by their humility and awed by their confidence. Almost all these women have gone through incredibly difficult relationships and experiences, either physically, socially or mentally, but their transformed spirit and their ever-positive view of the world puts me to shame. There’s no real way to describe it and I don’t even fully understand it, but these women come together as best friends every week and sit so tall, always say hello to me, and continue to share stories of the past week and methods to further improve their community.

Two Dogs For Every Cow: For all the cows that I see, there are many more dogs. Almost all are wild and live on whatever scraps people will feed them or whatever meat they can find that isn’t feeding the equally-hungry humans. Thus, many dogs are emaciated, turn aggressive and spread rabies through bites and licks. Thereby, if a dog bites a person, then the dog has to be killed. Unfortunately, a veterinarian or the Municipal Dog Squad is often not at hand, so either the village is forced to kill the dog or a caste group is called who specialize in trapping the dog and killing it.
A couple days ago I had the pleasure of witnessing the stoning of a dog that had just bit a woman’s arm. It was probably one of the more barbaric things I have ever seen. The fact that the dog had to be killed was understandable but the trapping of the dog in a corner, then slamming it into the wall with bricks and raining down on it with stones until it was dead caught me by surprise to say the least, considering the drastic difference in dog care in America. Efforts to limit the population of stray dogs in major Indian cities have been taken up by local governments but many animal rights activists have protested the methods used to kill the dogs. I would imagine that this was one of those methods.

“Primary Health Care: Now More Than Ever”: The World Health Organization recently released their 2008 annual report, this one focusing on the need for primary health care in developing countries. And while a similar message was delivered thirty years ago at the Alma Ata Conference, this time the report represents a renewed commitment with the same necessity for equity, integration and empowerment. Jamkhed has been a leader and model for community-based primary health care since the early 1970’s and the village efforts are still self-sustaining. It’s amazing how such complex vertical programs organized by very well-intentioned and well-funded NGOs can have such a little effect on the overall health of the community while a simple, low-cost solution and idea like primary health care can continue to work after thirty years. To view more info on the WHO Report, click here.