Gappa sandas (a toilet for gossip) sounds funny, doesn’t it? But their innovative use at Bahadarpur opened my eyes to why many of the well-intentioned and thought out (on paper, at least!) government schemes bite the dust at the implementation stage in India’s villages.
Having visited Bahadarpur over a dozen times since my first trip in 2015, I have personally witnessed its transformation along with neighbouring villages like Shirsode and Mahalpur. While interacting with Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan (BNGVN) and the villagers, I also realised that the use of toilets has gone from being a sanitation issue to one about improving livelihoods — while keeping women empowerment at the forefront.
For example, self-help groups formed to extend micro-credit to farmers and villagers have laid down a toilet as an eligibility criterion for loans. For larger loans of up to ₹25,000, applicants need to prove that women in the family have haemoglobin levels of 12 to 14 gm per decilitre, and there is at least one tree planted in front of their house.
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Hundreds of toilets were built in recent years in Bahadarpur and nearby villages, it was found that only men in the villages were using them, while women were reluctant. Open defecation by women in the fields of the village was unhygienic, unsafe and inconvenient, but the women still preferred it.
A lot of informal discussions to glean the reasons behind women’s reluctance to use conventional toilets led to the idea of the gossip toilet or gappa sandas. Going for their daily toilet routine was more of a social occasion for the women than merely going for communing with nature! It was an occasion to catch up on local news, share family issues, and gossip about people.
This aspect was so important that many women had their own groups and timings set aside for these sessions. Single standalone toilets, although clean and secure, did not provide them with this opportunity. Now, 18 such toilets have been constructed in the villages for women.
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Over time, economic improvement in the lives of the villagers is visible in the concrete, cemented homes of villagers in the place of mud huts, and the surge in use of televisions, cell phones and motorcycles. While women are now treated more as equal partners and have a say in decisions pertaining to their families and the community, I sense that the villagers’ overall approach has changed over time — from helpless fatalism to a belief that they can deal with eventualities such as drought and ill health.
What has impressed me the most is the confidence developed by the illiterate women of the villages, who couldn’t freely venture out of their homes till a few years ago. Remarkably, in the last five years, there has not been a single suicide reported in the villages of Bahadarpur, Shirsode and Mahalpur.
So what has this experience taught me about policy making? Firstly, while educating a woman educates a family, I now also believe empowering a woman empowers the family and the community. Secondly, the government has its heart in the right place but its sheer size often prevents it from responding to the practical needs of intended beneficiaries. Lastly, NGOs that enjoy people’s support can make a huge difference by factoring in local circumstantial challenges in their solutions to uplift the masses.
(The author is a Class XII student of The Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai)