Sulabh India Magazine English - June - 2015

ISSN: 2230–7567

R.N.I. Regn. No. 49322/89

International Widows' Day International Widows' Day was introduced to address poverty and injustice faced by widows and their children in many countries. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2010 and is observed annually on June 23.

ISSN: 2230–7567

june 2015, ` 20/-

YOGA GOES GLOBAL

The Prime Minister is on the forefront of the global yoga campaign, leading a large number of men and women on the India Gate (June 21), showing them by doing how to do yoga which is both temporal and divine.

World June 5, 2015 World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on 5 June to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth. It is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

It was started by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 on the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began.

On occasion of World Environment Day Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi planted a sapling at his official residence at 7, Race Course Road, New Delhi.

Ocean Day June 8, 2015

World Oceans Day has been unofficially celebrated every 8 June since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Since then it has been coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project with greater success and global participation each year.

World Oceans Day is an annual observation to honour the world's oceans, celebrate the products the ocean provides such as seafood as well as marine life itself for aquariums, pets, and also a time to appreciate its own intrinsic value. The ocean also provides sealanes for international trade. Global pollution and overconsumption of fish have resulted in drastically dwindling population of the majority of species.

Sulabh has a dream...Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak Sulabh is not as dazzling as splitting atom nor as breath-taking as the shooting rocket, spitting fire in the sky. It is all about keeping the world clean, and people healthy and happy. And, abolish scavenging that defines the Sulabh Sanitation Movement which begins at the far-end of human miseries. Poverty is not entirely about compassion; technology, education, social awareness but sanitation also makes a difference in the life of the poor whom Sulabh seeks to serve through its pan-India network.

Besides other Gandhian initiatives, which are many, I have succeeded in bringing toilet, once a taboo, at the centre stage of global debate, persuading people to accept that hygiene is health from which flows everything – productivity, economic growth, political and social stability and happiness. To abolish scavenging and save scavengers from which damnation is our supreme objective. Once scavengers are saved and the celebrations parties are over, I will be found standing somewhere outside the carnival venue, possibly wizened and old, waiting for somebody to say: “Thank You�. And, for this small gesture, a lifetime of hard work is not a bad bargain.

C O N

SULABH INDIA ISSN: 2230-7567 dmfd

June 2015

Editor-in-Chief Bindeshwar Pathak

Managing Editor Kumar Dilip

Editor S.P.N. Sinha Joint Editor Janak Singh

Editorial Advisory Board S.P. Singh Sidheshwar Dhari Sinha Arjun Prasad Singh R.S. Srivastava Ashok Kumar Jyoti C.P. Nambiar Pramod Makkad

Art Director Debabrata Chatterjee

Design & Layout Anil Khanna Shashi Dhar

Printed & Published by Ram Chandra Jha On behalf of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation

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R.N.I. Regn. No. 49322/89 ISSN: 2230–7567

| 4 | June 2015

Editorial

Scavenging-free

India still a long walk

Cover Story

Yoga goes global

A major initiative for peace and goodwill

Focus

06 08

World Widows’ Day

12 15 16

Sulabh Gesture

18

Gandhi re-lives

in Sulabh, say visitors to Alwar and Hirmathala

Toilet is a must

to protect women’s honour, Says Dr Bindeshwar Pathak

Sulabh Proposes Bill on Widows’ Welfare to IIT Aspirants

T E N T S Sulabh

set for a Clean Varanasi

Bangkok Paper Reports;

Sulabh Toilet Museum Unique in the World Focus on evolution of humankind’s sanitation

19 20

A Profile

Hemlata Chomar

Of those bleeding From a thousand cuts

Remembrance

With Nek Chand

ended an era of barefoot artists

Faith

After Jesus crucification

31 33 35

history split into two – AD & BC

World View

Democracy comes

37

India - Sri Lanka

40

of age after Magna Carta

Bonds of Belief and Culture

Tourism Sanitation

Swachch Bharat Mission Strong challenge and a stronger will to meet them

Sanitation

is part of Sociology

Rural Sanitation in China: A Study

24 28 29

Summer in

45

From the Press

47 48 49 52

Valley of Snow

The Hindu

Mumbai Mirror Distinguished Guests

Sulabh

News from States

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 5 |

Editorial “An idea is relevant only in context of its times and age; none has survived after the context has changed.”

-John Locke

Scavenging-free India still a long walk

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar called them (scavengers) the lowest in a system of graded inequality. Every single Indian knows this. But somehow we push the awareness away – somewhere to the farthest recesses of our subconscious. So the Bhangi is still there while society changes.

T In earlier times, it was thought to be unethical to allow scavengers to suffer; now Dr. Pathak has turned it into a problem of social change which can be achieved by technology, education, training & mainstreaming of scavengers.

| 6 | June 2015

he much less appreciated fact about the Swachh Bharat Mission is that it is not only about making India clean and people productive and happy; it is a civilizational question which is rooted in human history that has been defined by each generation, the latest being the Human Rights Charter 1945. To be true, human rights concept is inherent in all ‘religious’ texts. For example, ‘the concept of human rights is also described in the Vedas.

In Rigveda there are three civil rights, that of Tena (body), Skridhi (dwelling place) and Jibhasi (life). The Mahabharata tells about the importance of freedom of individual (civil liberties) in a state. The concept of Dharma— rights and duties of individuals, classes, communities and castes—has been delineated in our scriptures. Arthasastra elaborates on civil and legal rights first formulated by Manu which also included economic rights’ (Subramaniam, 1997: 56). The Bible gives Ten Commandments which says: Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not steal etc.

In post-medieval time, human rights question began with the Magna Carta (1215), the American Declaration of Independence 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789. All countries have written the human rights into their Constitutions and almost all of them have violated, most specially India. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the founder of the Constitution, said at the concluding session of the Constituent Assembly in 1950: “This is the paradox of this Constitution that we have included in it all good things of life and good

behaviour but from tomorrow we will violate it as always before.”

The worst victims of human rights abuse, so also of other rights, have been manual scavengers who have suffered all along history.

Scavengers go about practising their profession of cleaning and carrying human excreta on the head, generation after generation, without protest. These are the defenceless people, perpetually waiting for a redeemer. To be true, scavengers need not be introduced; we know them but quietly dismiss them at the backdoors after flinging at them the day’s leftovers of the kitchen. In small towns, these mysterious figures materialise in dark shadows early in the morning, stealthily scurrying between lanes and by-lanes, cleaning dry-latrines and collecting human excreta on the head to the tankers which cart it away to disposal spots. Scavengers, as dredge and scum of society, are growing in number first, because of the general growth in population; and second, because of the rising demand for their services in fast-growing urban and semi-urban settlements, most of which are unplanned and hence unsewered.

Heartening Trend

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, founder, Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, told The Hindu that when compared to the 1961 census, in which 3.5 million manual scavenging households had been found and roughly 8 lakh persons were engaged in manual scavenging, the present census findings show the great reduction in the numbers of people engaging in this degrading practice.

He said that despite their request six months ago to increase the amount of money given to panchayats to build toilets to Rs. 15,000 (it is currently Rs. 12,000) no steps have been taken yet by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, to respond to this. As a result, toilets built under the government’s flagship Swacch Bharat Abhiyan continue to be of a poor quality. “The UPA Government built 5 crore 40 lakh toilets during its regime, but because of the poor quality of construction and inadequate amount of money disbursed for it, the issue of modernising sanitation practices in rural areas has not been achieved,� he said.

Dr. Pathak further said that the legal crackdown, using existing provisions of the law, does not offer a long-term solution to the problem and it is only through modernising sanitation facilities and sustaining a campaign to change the mindsets of people who support these practices that the practice can be eradicated.

According to the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data released recently, there are about two lakh households still engaged in this work. The actual number of people doing this work would run into many lakhs and majority of them are women. The practice is prevalent in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, UP and even Karnataka, which is considered to be socially and economically more advanced than many other states. The census found that some states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are free of manual scavenging, but this has been contested by some organisations working in the field.

A Social Problem Also

It should be recognized very clearly that manual scavenging is also a social problem.

Gandhiji treated it so when he said that a scavenger girl should be made GovernorGeneral of India. With this in view, Dr. Pathak had adopted a multi-pronged approach which includes developing the scavenging-free two-pit technology. He has set up a first-class English medium school largely for the children of scavengers and training centres in Alwar

and Tonk in Rajasthan, and taken up social upgradation programmes when distinguished people adopted scavenger families to bring them into social mainstream and many other measures such as taking them to temples and high places (access: www. sulabhinternational.org).

This has provided a new approach to abolishing scavenging. These are however, besides building toilets which is the central piece of the Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement.

While the Swachh Bharat Campaign, if succeeded, may make India clean by building toilet in every home and end open defecation, manual scavenging will continue until scavengers are resettled in other jobs and mainstreamed. Sulabh has been working to achieve the same objective during the last 45 years and has succeeded almost in doing it alone, staying out of power and without money from government or any other agency. It may be a small step towards making India scavenging-free but a small step will become a giant strike when time comes.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 7 |

Cover Story

Yoga goes global

A major initiative for

peace and goodwill Siddharth Joshi

| 8 | June 2015

The Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi launched the UN- declared World Yoga Day on June 21, which was celebrated in all the 177 countries of the world which have signed the Declaration. In New York UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, who led the mass campaign expressed his excitement at the unpreceded enthusiasm shown by the peoples around the world on the occasion.

P

rime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi stated that the celebration of the first International Yoga Day on June 21 marks the beginning of a new era of world peace and goodwill, and thanked all those who have supported and contributed to the development of the great physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. “Today the people all over the world from different cultures, colours and races are celebrating the day. Yoga has great potential for all-round human development. Yogic practice helps us to live a stress-free life and bring about peace and harmony”, he said in a statement on the occasion.

Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev said that no Prime Minister has ever talked about yoga on the global stage. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi took the initiative to celebrate International Yoga Day when he addressed the General Assembly of UNO on September 27, 2014 and said, “Yoga is a invaluable gift of the ancient tradition of India. It is a symbol of the co-ordination between man’s mind and body and the essential harmony between man and nature.

Yoga seeks to keep us healthy by changing our life style. Let us come forward and adopt International Yoga Day”. The credit, of course, goes to Mr. Modi when his proposal got the support on December 11, 2014, of 177 member states of UNO out of 193 who duly endorsed the proposal of Mr. Modi for International Yoga Day on June 21 every year.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 9 |

Cover Story

Yoga is Knowledge

“Yoga is a invaluable gift of the ancient tradition of India. It is a symbol of the co-ordination between man’s mind and body and the essential harmony between man and nature.

Yoga seeks to keep us healthy by changing our life style. Let us come forward and adopt International Yoga Day�.

UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon performing Yoga on International Yoga Day

| 10 | June 2015

Swami Krishnananda explained the significance of yoga in 1972 and said asking for yoga is something like a child asking for the moon, which is something beautiful, and it would be wonderful to have it in our hand, but how are we to get it? Likewise, we find ourselves in a situation of ardent longing and asking for what we cannot get in the world merely because we do not seem to be satisfied with what the earth has given us, or promises to give. Also, we have a vague notion of an infinitude of future.

Yoga, therefore, takes into consideration the fundamentals of human life, so that we are in a position to come in contact with forces that are, and not forces that we imagine in our mind. The forces that are, that do exist, that operate, control us as they control everything else, and so unless we have a knowledge of these powers, we will not be able to have a control or a mastery over them. We become weaklings on account of a lack of power, and we have a lack of power

because of a lack of understanding, a lack of knowledge.

Where there is knowledge, there is power because there is control. Knowledge of a mechanism is naturally a sort of control that can be exercised over the mechanism.

If we have not good knowledge over the mechanism of a motor car, for example, we will not be a good driver. Likewise, the world seems to be a good mechanism, a very beautiful organismic process placed before us of which we seem to be a part, a very, very intimately connected part, so that we cannot get on without it. We have to deal with the world in everyday life, which means to say, we have to deal with all phenomena.

While we have to know what balance or harmony is in order that yoga may be known, we also have to know where we have to bring in this harmony or balance. Naturally, harmony has to be brought into operation in our practical life. But what is life? Without going very deep into the structure of life, we may say, in quintessence, that life is an operational mood of our minds; on account of this, we have different attitudes towards things outside, and all this is based on a knowledge or an appreciation of a sort of relationship that we have with others. We have individual life, for example, a personal life that we lead. The daily routine that we observe is a sort of outline of our personal life.

Since times immemorial all sentient beings have the innate tendency to evolve and every aspect of this universe is constantly transforming.

A seed sown today becomes a tree tomorrow, and a child born today grows into an adult, matures and reaches ripe old age and eventually retires. The cosmos has a unique self-sustained way according to which all events are constantly complementing each other. Human beings are considered the most intelligent species of this

Sulabh organized a massive yoga exercise on the campus on June 21 and joined the Prime Minister in celebrating the International Yoga Day. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak said that yoga is divine and the Prime Minister by making it global has revived the old Indian tradition of people living together. Dr. Pathak added: “Get rid of anger and envy and you will live happily. Yoga reduces personal and political stress which may be a small step but it will become a global stride when you practice it together.” planet. They have the ability to think, contemplate and differentiate. This ability enabled them to evolve and contemplate the purpose of their existence.

Spirituality is considered the ladder to hasten evolution. Yoga helps achieve the spiritual insight and elevation of the human consciousness. It is not limited to the Asian region or the eastern philosophy. The system was present all over the globe with different names, forms and methods, but their aim was similar to enhance and experience the spirit and empower man to become more potent for spiritual growth. It existed all over the world but diminished gradually.

In India it was preserved systematically though the method of instruction was oral or verbal as training the memory was one of the major requirements. Many sages and seers have appeared in this part of the world.

They have dedicated their life in preserving and preaching the system of yoga.

Dr. Ravindra Kumar (Sulabh Health Centre, Palam, New Delhi) performed yogic exercises and spoke on the advantages of asanas and Pranayam. He said, Yoga keeps you healthy as well as prevents occurrence of serious ailments like diabetes, migraine, asthma etc. It also improves one’s power of resistance, Following Dr. Kumar people present on the occasion performed asanas like Bhujangasana, Dandaasana as well as breathing exercises like kapalbhati, anulom-vilom and Pranayam. The Programme concluded with Hasyasana.

Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra

Maharshi Patanjali created the Yoga Sutras which contain the system of Ashtanga Yoga. Yoga Sutras are the first documented systematic text referring only to yoga.

Maharshi Gherand, Swatmarama and Gorakhnath are some of the sages who propagated the yogic philosophy and practice. Yoga is the system of evolution.

Why evolve? Because it’s the nature of humans to grow and expand their consciousness for their betterment. Material gains and success are enjoyable and pleasant but are short-lived. Yoga on the contrary enables one to become content physically, mentally and emotionally with or without material gains. The aim of yoga is not only to achieve an attractive body and long life.

It is just a small byproduct of the yoga practice.

Let us also try to imbibe the yogic values in our lives. May the Yoga Day sow the seed of self-analysis in all of us.

Dr. Ravindra Kumar, performing Yoga on International Yoga Day on the Sulabh Campus, New Delhi

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 11 |

Focus

Gandhi re-lives in Sulabh, say visitors to

Alwar and Hirmathala Sulabh Reporter

Mr. Gouri Paswan, Mayor of the Darbhanga Municipal Corporation, Bihar, along with 24 Ward Councillors on a visit to Hirmathala

“Mahatma Gandhi is associated with many places. Sulabh is one such place.

Whenever Sulabh Sanitation is discussed Gandhiji’s thoughts just strike our mind.

Today Gandhiji is not among us but probably his soul rests in Sulabh. It can be called an organization which is based on Gandhiji’s vision. Gandhiji’s soul can perhaps be found here because along with sanitation, love, passion and sympathy are part of Sulabh.”

T

he moment we think of tourism we go into a new realm and imagination of places like Taj Mahal, Kashmir, Goa or some dilapidated historical buildings.

But can sanitation too, be of tourist interest?

Have you ever thought about it?

| 12 | June 2015

It can be, if a city, which for ages has had the bitter experience of untouchability and where early in the morning women used to move around carrying human excreta on the head, is today almost liberated from the caste system and untouchability and has attained a unique identity. And a village, where till four

years ago there was not a single house with toilet, has toilets in each and every house and not a single person now needs to go out for defecation in the open. The village is now in the category of Nirmal Gram. Yes, the cities we are talking about are Alwar and Tonk in Rajasthan and the village is Hirmathala in Haryana. To understand and see this transformation Mr. Gouri Paswan, Mayor of Darbhanga Municipal Corporation, Bihar, along with 24 Ward Councillors visited the Sulabh Campus in New Delhi.

Alwar and Tonk and Hirmathala could come under the Nirmal Gram category under the aegis of Sulabh International.

On the evening of June 5, 2015 when the ‘Sanitation tourists’ from Darbhanga landed at Anand Vihar railway station in New Delhi they were accorded a warm welcome

by Sulabh volunteers. They were taken to a guest house. After resting for a while all of them reached the Dwarka Place in Dwarka where arrangements for food and a music programme were awaiting them.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh Sanitation Movement, welcomed them. They appreciated all the arrangements made by the host. When they sang some songs merrily, Dr. Pathak remarked, “We can get love only with love. We need to give love in order to get it.”

Addressing the guests Dr. Pathak said: “In life toilet and clean water are very essential items and Sulabh is working on both. Many people are also thus getting employment. This is a new Sulabh initiative.

If we take good points from all religions

one will not find any differences at all, religion-wise or castewise. Sulabh is a place where love, compassion and sympathy all coexist in abundance.

“Mahatma Gandhi is associated with many places. Sulabh is one such place. Whenever Sulabh Sanitation is discussed Gandhiji’s thoughts just strike our mind. Today Gandhiji is not among us but probably his soul rests in Sulabh. It can be called an organization which is based on Gandhiji’s vision. Gandhiji’s soul can perhaps be found here because along with sanitation, love, passion and sympathy are part of Sulabh.” Dr. Pathak requested the guests from Darbhanga to shake hands with one another and introduce themselves.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Subodh Prasad, Councillor, said that sanitation is not a responsibility of one particular organization but every citizen of this county should contribute towards it. Councillor Mr. Kishor Kumar Prajapati said, “We have come here to learn and understand the work which Dr Pathak has been doing for the last 45 years.

He will keep rising in his mission. Today it looks as if the whole Mithila has come down to Delhi.”

The next day the Sanitation Tourists were received again at the Sulabh Assembly Hall during the morning prayer. Mayor Gouri Paswan welcomed Dr. Pathak on behalf of the members of the Municipal Corporation

Visitors from the Darbhanga Municipal Corporation at the Alwar Training Centre Visitors from Darbhanga with the Widows of Vrindavan at Meera Sahbhagni Mahila Ashram, Vrindavan

Mr. Subodh Prasad, Councillor, said that sanitation is not a responsibility of one particular organization but every citizen of this county should contribute towards it.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 13 |

Mr. Gouri Paswan, Mayor of the Darbhanga Municipal Corporation, Bihar, along with 24 Ward Councillors on their visit

Had we not developed the Sulabh technology, people would be still talking about the problem and even today the country and the people would have been going through the same ordeal. | 14 | June 2015

of Darbhanga. Mr. Subodh Prasad, Mr. Kishor Kumar Prajapati and other members presented him memento of Mithilanchal.

Dr. Pathak said: “Had we not developed the Sulabh technology, people would be still talking about the problem and even today the country and the people would have been going through the same ordeal. Mahatma Gandhi wanted that one scavenger lady should be made the President of the country.

For us, it is not possible to make one but by making Mrs. Usha Chaumar the President of Sulabh we have tried to give some shape to the dream of Mahatma Gandhi. If we keep pursuing a work we ought to get success; hurdles do come but for sure we get success.

If the country needs to be made strong and march ahead then people need to live with harmony and love.”

Mr. Paswan said what Sulabh is doing is worth appreciation. After prayer the Sanitation tourists took a round of the Sulabh Campus and attended a cultural programme organized for the visitors. Later they visited the Sulabh Vocational Training Centre. Many Councillors along with Ms. Sushila sang and danced. They persuaded Dr. Pathak and Ms. Usha Chaumar to dance with them. The programme came to an end with singing of the National Anthem.

On the third day the visitors were taken to the Skill Development Centres of Hirmathala, Nuh, Mewat in Haryana.

Women welcomed the guests by applying tilak (mark of vermilion on forehead) and by singing folk songs. Mrs. Monica Jain, Sulabh volunteer, explained to the guests how Sulabh

has adopted the village Hirmathala where people were initially motivated to build toilets in their houses and how RailTrail and Sulabh together completed the job of constructing toilet in each household in three phases. The guests from Darbhanga visited a number of households, saw their toilets and had discussions with them in detail. They also visited the Vocational Training Centre of Hirmathala where the girls and women attend classes for tailoring and beauty courses. The villagers recounted how Sulabh has helped them.

When the guests departed the Surpanch, Mr. Mamandeep, along with several villagers, walked a long distance to see them off.

On June 8 the Sanitation Tourists reached Alwar city which is now liberated from untouchability and caste system to a large extent. At the vocational training centre, ‘Nai Disha’, the Councillors were welcomed with garlands by Mrs. Usha Chaumar and other women from the Centre. During discussion the women narrated their past story and how they have now been brought into the mainstream of the society. The Councillors also visited some houses where earlier these women worked as manual scavengers. A combined feast was organized for the guests with the rehabilited scavengers and the Jajmans (the people in whose houses the ladies worked as manual scavengers) before they departed for Delhi.

The next day the Sanitation tourists visited Vrindavan in Mathura and met several widows who were rendered relief and sustenance by Sulabh. At the Pagal Baba Ashram the widows welcomed the visitors by chanting ‘Radhe Radhe’. Some of the tourists were in tears when they talked to Ms. Manu Ghosh, the eldest among them. The heartrending fact is that these women made every visitor cry. But the hope and assurance that Sulabh is always with them made everyone relax. The whole atmosphere was echoing with the sound of ‘Radhe Radhe’.

Focus

Toilet is a must to protect women’s honour,

Says Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak Sulabh Correspondent

“

How to protect women from atrocities is a burning issue today. There are many views and suggestions for implementation.

Sulabh has an important mission for the last 40 years and that is related to hygiene and toilet. Women will be quite safe if they have lavatories in their houses. The absence of toilets poses physical and health challenges to women. They need to travel a considerable distance from their houses to answer the call of nature. This exposes them to insanitary conditions as well as physical assault”, said Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement speaking at a seminar on ‘Safety and Security of Women’, held at M.R.M. College, Darbhanga (Bihar) on May 26, 2015.

Dr. Pathak said that construction of toilets in each house prevents such risks for women. He said women’s safety is not only the government’s responsibility, but the society’s as well. Nowadays women often fall prey to anti-social elements which is most shameful for all of us. Our judiciary system is so complicated that the criminals often escape punishment. There is also need for fast disposal of cases.

“Mother is the most important person in one’s life. She gives us birth and moulds our character and personality. I have learned a lot from my mother and Mahatma Gandhi,” Dr. Pathak said and added that Gandhism has nothing to do one’s dress, language, eating or drinking habits. It is very much related to certain goals, and noble principles such as truth, non-violence, peace and respect for all irrespective of caste, creed and religions.

Dr. Pathak reiterated on the occasion that Hon’ble Prime Minister’s dream of ‘Toilets for All by 2019’ can be fulfilled only if toilets are built on mass scale with Sulabh Technology.

Mr. Saket Kushwaha, Vice-Chancellor of Lalit Narayana Mithila University emphasized

women’s role and partnership in nation building and the need to protect their honour and save them from all kinds of oppression and atrocities.

Dr. Shubha Jha, Head of the Department of Sociology, said: “Dr. Pathak undertook the task of fulfilling the dream of Gandhiji. We all welcome such a great personality from the land of Mithila”.

Mrs. Usha Chaumar, President of Sulabh International, narrated her story and told the audience how she was liberated from the most demeaning job of scavenging and brought into the mainstream of society by Dr. Pathak.

She stated that women should be financially sound and independent so that they don’t have to depend upon their husbands for everything.

She also stressed on girl’s education. Mrs. Guddi Athwal from Alwar said: “Woman herself is the enemy of women. Despite my protests, my mother-in-law forcefully imposed the hellish work of carrying night soil on me.

After the arrival of the Sulabh Founder my life was totally changed. Today I am self-reliant and independent. I don’t do any discrimination between my daughter and daughter-in-law.

Even I help her financially”.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak speaking at the seminar

Mrs. Usha Chaumar, President of Sulabh International

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 15 |

Focus

World Widows’ Day

Sulabh Proposes Bill on Widows’ Welfare Madan Jha

Vrindavan is home to thousands of old widows from West Bengal and their condition used to be pitiable till the Supreme Court intervened and noted NGO Sulabh International took up the challenge to ameliorate their plight. Life of around a thousand widows has remarkably been improved with the intervention of the Supreme Court.

O

n the occasion of ‘World Widows’ Day’, widows from Vrindavan and Varanasi made a fresh appeal to the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to ensure introduction of a bill for their welfare and protection. Renewing their resolve to approach political parties afresh, they took a vow under the leadership of Sulabh Founder Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak not to rest till their aspiration is fulfilled.

| 16 | June 2015

The widows, who gathered under the aegis of NGO Sulabh International, which is looking after their all round welfare, demanded that the “Widow Protection Bill” be introduced in the Monsoon session of the Parliament.

90-year-old Manu Ghosh from West Bengal hoped that Mr. Modi will pay attention towards the widows.”We will approach Modiji and our new MP from Mathura Ms. Hema Malini to take measures

for the welfare of widows who are living in Vrindavan and Varanasi,” she said.

Vrindavan is home to thousands of old widows from West Bengal and their condition used to be pitiable till the Supreme Court intervened and noted NGO Sulabh International took up the challenge to ameliorate their plight. Life of around a thousand widows has remarkably been improved with the intervention of the Supreme Court.

Sulabh International takes care of all such widows living in six government run ashrams. Now Sulabh pays Rs 2,000 to each of the widows besides organizing series of welfare measures in the past two years. Social reformer and founder of Sulabh International Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak recently drafted a bill for the protection of widows in the country.

The Statement of Object and Reasons appended to the Bill says that in India there are millions of unfortunate women who lose their husbands untimely, and become widows.

Their number is nearly three per cent of total population. More than 50 per cent of these widows are old, infirm, disabled and have no source of income or livelihood. Their position becomes miserable if they have dependent children to support and bring up. They work as housemaids and take up other jobs for survival.

It commonly occurs that when a widow does not have any permanent source of income or livelihood, she is driven out of her in-laws’ home or even from her parental home. Sometimes condition of such widows becomes miserable and their problems increase manifold due to poverty and other compelling reasons. Many such widows can be seen begging in the streets and public places. At some places, widows are termed as witches and tortured even by their own kith and kin or other persons from the community.

They are treated as bad women by the society.

“Ours is a welfare State. It is the foremost duty of the State to initiate welfare measures and to protect and provide maintenance to the hapless widows so that they can live gracefully in the society. It is, therefore, proposed in the Bill to set up a Welfare Board to exclusively look after the welfare of neglected, abandoned and destitute widows,” the Draft says. Dr. Pathak hoped that the prime minister will certainly pay attention

towards the widows.

Along with widows from Vrindavan, Dr. Pathak plans to meet Mr. Modi to push the Draft bill for introduction in Parliament.

To highlight the inequalities involved, International Widows’ Day (June 23) was officially recognized at a New York-based conference at the UN in 2011. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, “No woman should lose her rights when she loses her husband.”

Some 40 million of the world’s widows live in India and life for these women is particularly hard. Not only have they lost their husband, but then society turns on them, stamping them out as worthless, undesirable and a burden. Their plight is often invisible, with many people unaware of the injustices taking place. In this patriarchal society, it is still believed a woman needs a man to look after her - be it father, husband or son. And traditionally, when the husband dies, the widow he leaves behind is expected to forsake all pleasures, including wearing jewellery which often has sacred and status value.

While eight per cent of women in India are widows, only 2.5 per cent of men are widowers, due to the fact that men usually remarry. Widows, who can sometimes be as young as teenagers, cannot remarry and are seen as a financial drain on their families.

Some mothers have even been cast out by their own children and forced to live on the streets in abject poverty.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak interacting with a widow on International Widows’ Day

Ours is a welfare State.

It is the foremost duty of the State to initiate welfare measures and to protect and provide maintenance to the hapless widows so that they can live gracefully in the society.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 17 |

Focus

Sulabh Gesture to IIT Aspirants Sulabh Correspondent

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

I

n a human gesture of sympathy two sons of Uttar Pradesh-based daily wager who have cracked the prestigious IIT Entrance Examination, will get full financial support from Sulabh International for admission and education at a top Institute. It was not just straitened financial circumstances but also the villagers’ casteist mindset that the brothers fought along their way to achieving their IIT dream.

After seeing the media reports that Dharamraj, father of Raju (18) and Brajesh (19) who have got under top 500 rank in IIT JEE exams, was facing acute financial crisis

| 18 | June 2015

and running from pillar to post to arrange money for their admission, Sulabh’s Founder and well-known social reformer Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, announced that he would take care of all financial liabilities for education of both the boys.

Dharamraj, who hails from Rehua-Lalganj in Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh works as a daily wager in a factory in Surat in Gujarat, hardly manages to fend for his family of seven. Despite all odds, both the brothers cleared the IIT test attaining 167 and 410 ranks. But they were not celebrating as they had no money to take admissions which begins on June 25. “We have approached banks but they refused loan at this stage. Bank gives loans only after admission,” Raju pointed out.

Dr. Pathak, while congratulating both the brothers, said these boys are inspiration for students belonging to rural areas and poor families. “Money should not be a problem for both the brothers. I will personally take care of their education and other needs,” he said in a statement.

Sulabh has been giving scholarship and financial helps to many needy children. To mention a few Dr. Pathak had awarded Rs. 5 Lakh to Lucknow’s child prodigy Sushma who cleared her High School education at the age of 7 and took admission to Post Graduation at the age of 13. The Sulabh’s Founder had earlier adopted Tathagat Tulsi, the child prodigy from Bihar, and provided full financial support for his higher studies.

Tathagat now teaches in IIT Mumbai.

Focus

Sulabh set for a Clean Varanasi Sulabh Correspondent

S

eldom has there been a day when a Sulabh toilet or urinal is not under construction in a town or habitation in India. Such has been the incessant Sulabh campaign for sanitation spread all over the country.

In continuation of such a drive Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform movement, along with some distinguished guests arrived on June 17, 2015 in Varanasi, the Parliamentary constituency of the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. The occasion was the inauguration of the Sulabh Public Toilet Complex at Machhodari Park in Bisheshwarganj. The five- seater Complex built under the JICA Ganga Action Plan in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Varanasi was inaugurated by the Mayor, Hon’ble Ramgopal Mohale in the presence of the Municipal Commissioners Mr. Uma Kant Tripathi and Mr. B.K. Dwiwedy, Advisor (Sulabh) Dr. B.N. Chaturvedi, Councillors and esteemed citizens of the area. The function was held

amidst chanting of the holy Mantras and Poojan followed by cutting of the inaugural ribbon.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak went round the locality and met the residents. He mingled with the children and the youngsters and participated, along with old ladies, in the Mothers’ Day celebration held at the Sulabh Office.

Sulabh has been entrusted with the work of cleaning and looking after the bathing ghats of Varanasi.

Dr. Pathak, along with the distinguished guests, visited the ghats and inspected the work being done there. Ganga has been a sacred river for all Indians, and ‘Clean Ganga’ is a part of the Prime Minister’s Swachha Bharat Mission to which Sulabh, too, is committed.

Hon’ble Mr. Ramgopal Mohale, Mayor Municipal Corporation of Varanasi inaugurating Sulabh Public Toilet Complex at Machhodari Park in Bisheshwarganj

Hon’ble Mr. Ramgopal Mohale, Mayor, Varanasi, cutting the inaugural ribbon, with Mr. Uma Kant Tripathi, Municipal Commissioner, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder Sulabh, Dr. B.N. Chaturvedi, Mr. B.K. Dwiwedy

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 19 |

Focus

Bangkok Paper says:

“Sulabh Toilet Museum

Unique in the World” Focus on evolution of sanitation systems Ploenpote Atthakor Sulabh International Toilet Museum, which is unique in the world, can fill the gaps. “The idea is not only to display toilets of past and present but also make people understand the importance of toilets in achieving total sanitation that leads to healthy lives all over the world.”

F

or Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, a non-profit agency advocating for sanitation in India, a toilet is not just a place where humans answer nature’s call. It is the most important, yet least discussed, component of human civilisation. Pathak has relentlessly tried to correct such misconceptions about this tiny but important piece of apparatus, which has led him to establish a museum of toilets in the sprawling campus of his central

| 20 | June 2015

office on Palam Dabri Road in New Delhi, in 1994 known as the Sulabh International Toilet Museum.

“Sulabh is a Sanskrit word that means something that is easily available,” says Pathak. A word that very well communicates the museum’s mission of making toilets easily available for all. ‘’Most of the items on display are not the original objects but replicas and pictures of various toilet designs in different countries, as different toilets evolved at different points in time.

“This is due to obvious reasons. Normally, no one likes to part with an original piece, irrespective of the price offered for it. Often it is not possible to shift or remove a piece ...

Inside view of the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets

1920s Model of Wooden Toilets used in USA. Upper unit used by Owners/ Masters, Lower unit used by workers/ subordinates

for example a site itself,” he explained. The toilet museum was a topic in a recent festival on local museums, organised by the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre.

Representing the museum at the festival was Bageshwar Jha, a senior curator.

“The toilet is one of the greatest achievements of mankind as it embodies the whole essence of civilisation. It differentiates man from other lower beings. As civilisation developed, humans understood the concept of privacy and hygiene and realised that open defecation was bestial. Thus, the transition from open defecation to enclosed, private spaces and toilets began in households. But

this essential commodity has endured gross neglect in every era and therefore the history of the toilet and its technology has never seriously been chronicled.”

All over the world, each and every culture, social and political aspect of human civilisation has been written and recorded.

However, toilets have been either treated with contempt or ridiculed, says Jha. “The neglect continues even today because of the utter lack of chronicled facts. People know very little about the sanitation and toilet technologies of past. This is unfortunate because toilet manners, design and sanitation conditions of bygone eras can help in educating people today.”

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 21 |

Focus

Ornamental Urinal Pot

“Both human and household waste, particularly in 14th and 15th centuries AD in Europe, were thrown out of the windows without any regard for cleanliness of the city, inconvenience to the passersby or health of the people,”

Model of Ornamental Toilet Commode

| 22 | June 2015

It is his hope that the Sulabh International Toilet Museum, which is unique in the world, can fill the gaps. “The idea is not only to display toilets of past and present but also make people understand the importance of toilets in achieving total sanitation that leads to healthy lives all over the world.”

Information on the history of toilets and toilet practices was not readily available at the time when the museum was under construction, hence the staff had to conduct extensive research, he recalls. “Foreign embassies in India were approached to provide information about their native toilet practices while consultations were made with some museologists in India and abroad. The museum also researched ancient toilet practices from books, newspapers and periodicals.”

When the museum eventually came into being, several knowledgeable visitors proved to be useful resources, he says. “The information revealed by them was developed by us.”

The starting point of the toilet is one of the oldest civilisations in the world the Indus Valley Civilisation of India, rechristened as the Harappan Settlement. That also means it was one of the oldest toilet technologies in the world, a fact that has been largely ignored by historians.

Another interesting piece, he says, is the ancient Indian toilet code taken from Manusmriti. This text was written by a sage called Manu and it provides codes of conduct even for routine jobs. The code for open defecation highlights the scientific approach towards life, proper distance from the source of drinking water and rehabilitation, correct method of ablution after defecation and how to carefully manage clothes on the body in course of open defecation ‘and these are not some eccentric rituals of bygone eras.

Each and every code has proper scientific reasoning, ensuring cleanliness of the source of water and habitat.

In addition, the museum touches on toilet practices prevalent in other ancient societies such as Egypt, Crete and Mesopotamia as well as Jewish practices. Since the Romans were considered pioneers of sanitation technology in European history, the museum has a section on Roman baths, toilets and their drainage.

It relives history

The emphasis is more on community toilets rather than toilet systems in individual households. Most of the community toilets in Rome were “river top toilets” constructed above running water. The waste fell into the running water and polluted it. In 200 BC, at Antoninus, Rome, there were rows of 1,600 holes serving as river-top toilets.

“We have references to Egyptian toilets dating 1370 BC, which were keyhole types where solid and liquid human waste got separated at the origin, helping quicker and better disposal.” In 1700 BC, the Cretan people of Agean Sea used water closets. Since the Mesopotamian doab had no dearth of water, they too started enjoying the WC toilet facilities since ancient times.

“The aim behind displaying ancient toilet technologies and practices is to highlight good and bad sanitary habits _ some of these can be incorporated in daily life even today.”

Jha says the fall of the Roman Empire marked the beginning of the Dark Age in the field of sanitation.

“This was not only the period of cultural and political stalemate but also an era of unhealthy sanitary practices. With the collapse of ancient civilisations began a period of regression in cleanliness. Man reverted to easing out al fresco and other unhygienic practices.”

Because of the absence of any proper waste disposal mechanism, people resorted to the simplest and most convenient method: Dumping waste onto the streets, says Jha. “Both human and household waste, particularly in 14th and 15th centuries AD in Europe, were thrown out of the windows without any regard for cleanliness of the city, inconvenience to the passers-by or health of the people,” Jha says, adding that the outbreak of Plagues from the 34th century (with massive ones in 1348 and 1350) is considered one of the biggest epidemics in the history of mankind. It is known in history as Black Death, and wiped out almost half the population of Europe.

The museum chronicles important dates depicting the development of toilet technology and sanitation policies in Europe. Landmark developments such as the introduction of sewage in Paris in 1200 AD, the first law passed in the UK in 1513 and the

second law in 1519 that made construction of toilets mandatory as well as invention of flush toilets in 1596 by John Harington in England are chronologically displayed.

“Since the flush toilet is an important landmark, we have a well-researched section on its development. John Harington invented the first flush toilet in 1596 AD, and for about 200 years it went unnoticed. In 1775, Alexander Cummings applied for the first patent to further improve Harington’s model and Joseph Bramah went a step ahead by adding a stink trap to it.” A number of inventors developed Harington’s pathbreaking invention and their works were facilitated by two major developments, namely, the introduction of ceramic as a raw material and production of toilets on a large scale by factories from the 18th century onwards, Jha notes.

“These two factors not only revolutionised the design of sanitaryware but also made them more hygienic. The factory made pieces of the same size and quality helped the users to repair and replace the parts easily if and when the unit went out of operation.”

In this backdrop, toiletry production suddenly assumed a creative trend when fanciful designs of toilet, chamberpots, bidets and bathroom accessories started appearing in the markets of London, Paris and Vienna.

This period of imaginative designs and catchy colours in Europe started in mid-19th century and had to be discontinued in 1914 when the World War I began.

“We presume that the war-ravaged economy of Europe might have forced the manufactures to say goodbye to this practice because their production costs were high and the takers had gone under economic constraints. The old pieces of this beautiful sanitaryware now can be seen in a few museums in some European countries including Gladstone Museum of Potteries, in Trent, England. In the wake of the above, the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets also dedicated a small section to the fancy toilets.”

Thai toilet practice

Besides, Sulabh Museum has a reference on Thai toilet practices. “It is our experience that almost all ancient societies ignored the documentation of toilet-related facts,

Thailand being not an exception.” The information on ancient Thai toilets was provided to the museum in 1994 by the Fine Arts Department, which obliquely mentioned about the lack of sources on the subject.

Almost 30 years later, HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn visited the museum and also gave similar written material along with two albums of royal toilets and public toilets in Thailand.

Jha mentions a wide debate in Thailand regarding a lid of a toilet from the Sukhothai era, which some scholars mistook for the base of Shiva Linga. The debate was put forward in the 1970s by the late Michael Wright.

Visiting the Sulabh Museum ensures a fun experience as it contains a wide range of photographs, cartoons, jokes, short poems and stories from various countries.

Some displayed items are of particular interest including a replica of French Emperors Louis XIII and IV’s Throne: Legend has it that Emperor Louis XIII and his son and successor Louis XIV never left their throne to attend Nature’s call. “They had a toilet attached right beneath the seat and did not hesitate relieving themselves in front of the entire court.”

Other unconventional toilet designs include bookshaped toilets from France: An example of classic French and British cultural rivalry, the books were deliberately named after famous UK classics; twinstorey wooden toilets that were predominantly used around 1920 AD in offices in small cities and rural areas of the US, office hierarchy was reinstated inside these toilets with the top floor being reserved for the management whereas lower employees used the ground floor; sofa-shaped toilets that were kept in men’s club in Victorian England; and twin toilets that facilitated lovers who did not want to be separated even for a minute.

French Emperors Louis XIII and IV’s Throne: Legend has it that Emperor Louis XIII and his son and successor Louis XIV never left their throne to attend Nature’s call.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 23 |

Sanitation

Swachch Bharat Mission Strong challenge and a stronger will to meet them

T

he Swachch Bharat Mission was launched by the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on the 2nd October, 2014 with a target to make the country clean and achieve 100% access to sanitation by 2nd October, 2019 as a fitting tribute to the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The main objectives of the Swachch Bharat Mission are: • • • • • • •

• • •

Bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural as well in the urban areas of the country.

Eliminate the practice of open defecation and make it a relic of the past.

Conversion of insanitary toilets into pour flush toilets.

Eradication of manual scavenging.

100% collection and scientific processing/disposal/reuse/recycle of Municipal Solid Waste.

To bring about a behavioral change in people regarding healthy sanitation practices.

Generate awareness and motivate communities promoting sustainable sanitation facilities through health education and its linkages with public health.

Encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.

To create enabling environment for private sector participation in capital expenditure and operation and maintenance expenditure (O&M).

Develop community managed environmental Sanitation Systems focusing on solid and liquid waste management for overall cleanliness.

Status of Sanitation in the Country as per Census 2011

Rural Areas Only 30.7% of rural households are having toilets within the premises.

Hardly 2.2% of rural households are connected to a piped sewer system.

14.7% dispose of their wastes into septic tank, and 15.7% use other type of latrines (including 12.76 lakh insanitary latrines) 69.3% do not have toilets within the premises.

1.9% use community latrines.

67.3% resort to open defecation. | 24 | June 2015

Urban Areas 81.4% of urban households are having toilets within the premises.

32.7% of urban households are connected to a piped sewer system.

38.2% dispose of their wastes into septic tank, and 16.5% use other types of latrine (including 13.30 lakhs insanitary latrines.)

18.6% do not have toilets within the premises.

6% use community latrines 12.6% are forced the indignity of open defecation.

Pollution due to sewerage It is an accepted fact that weak sanitation has significant health costs and untreated sewage from cities is the single biggest source of water pollution in India. This indicates both the scale of the challenge ahead of the cities and towns in the country and the huge costs incurred from not addressing them.

The study undertaken by the Central Pollution Control Board has revealed that the estimated sewage generation from 929 towns/ cities having sewage system (of which only 160 have Sewage Treatment Plant) is 38254*.82 MLD of which treatment capacity is 11787.30 MLD and as such only 13.5% of the sewage is actually treated. This clearly indicates dismal position of sewage treatment which is the main cause of pollution of rivers and lakes in the country. In many cases sewers are not really a reliable option. They donot function properly due inadequate water for flushing, blockages and frequent failure of pumping stations.

Disposal of sewage is frequently neglected. It is assumed that 3/4th of surface water resources in the country are Polluted and 80% of the Pollution is due to sewerage alone.

Municipal Solid Waste

The status of municipal solid waste in the country as per the CPCB Report 2012-13 is as under:Generation : 1.33 lakh Million Ton/day Total Waste collected

: 0.91 lakh MT/day

Treated : 0.26 lakh.MT/day *MLD- Million Litre per day Landfilled (crude dumping) : 0.65 lakh MT/day Waste littered

: 0.42 lakh MT/day

The current municipal solid waste generation with urban migration, urbanized lifestyles and changing patterns of consumption leads to considerable challenges in the solid waste management of the country. These challenges have reached a point beyond the ability and capacity of the local governmental institutions that are in charge of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to ensure the environmentally sound disposal of these quantities of waste. The challenge is enlarged by the behavioral pattern of parts of the local population who seem to lack knowledge and interest to handle and dispose their own waste in a responsible manner.

Progress under Swachch Bharat Mission The factual position about the progress so far made under Swachch Bharat Abhiyan is as follows:Rural Sanitation The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the scheme of ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ have shown that 72% of the households (9.04 crore) have a toilet whereas the 2011 census showed only 30.7%. There is a huge mismatch between the figures of NBA and Census. It is not clear from the NBA’S figures whether toilets are being used and whether communities are open defecation free. According to NSSO-2012 survey the number of households having toilets was 40.6% and the number of households not having toilet was 59.4%.

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has undertaken a survey of insanitary latrines in 1.95% lakh Gram Panchayats, out of a total of 2.4 lakh Gram Panchayats in the Country. Out of 1.72 lakh insanitary latrines indentified so far, 1.01 lakh households have been provided with sanitary latrines by the Government.

A provision of incentives for the construction of individual household latrine of Rs. 12000, including Central share of Rs. 9000 (Rs. 10, 800 in case of special category state) and state share of Rs. 3000 (Rs. 1200 (90% :10%) to all BPL households and to identified above Poverty Line (APL) households (all SCs, STs, small and marginal farmers, landless laboureres with homestead, physically handicapped and women heated households) has been made under the scheme.

Construction of Community Sanitary Complexes with unit cost (upto Rs. 2 lakh per community sanitary complex has been provided.

Similarly, the provision for IEC is 8% of the total project cost.

The Swachch Bharat Mission was launched by the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on the 2nd October, 2014 with a target to make the country clean and achieve 100% access to sanitation by 2nd October, 2019 as a fitting tribute to the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mission Outlay The estimated cost of implementation of SBM (urban) based on unit per capita cost for its various components is Rs. 62009 crore. The Govt of India share as per approved funding pattern amounts to Rs. 14,623 crore. In addition, a minimum additional amount equivalent to 25% of GOI funding amounting to Rs. 4874 crore shall be contributed by the States as state// ULB Share. The balance fund is proposed to be generated through various other sources of fund.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 25 |

Sanitation URBAN SANITATION Ministry of Urban Development The baseline data for the sanitation situation for different categories of towns as per Census 2011 is as under:Class of towns

No of towns

Million HHS

Piped sewer system

Septic tank

Pit Latrines/ others

Insanitary latrines

Public toilets

Open defecation

Class-I

476

46.31

21.56

15.07

2.56

0.83

3.27

2.99

Class-II

546

7.91

1.27

3.98

0.75

0.18

0.46

1.27

Class-III

1321

8.38

0.96

3.87

0.91

0.14

0.43

2.06

Class-IV

1091

3.62

0.26

1.46

0.44

0.05

0.19

1.22

Class-V

474

0.84

0.06

0.29

0.10

0.01

0.04

0.34

Class-VI

133

0.10

0.02

0.04

0.01

0.00

0.01

0.02

Total

4041

67.15

24.13

24.71

4.79

1.22

4.40

7.90

The admissible components under Swachch Bharat Abhiyan with broad funding pattern are (1) Household toilets including conversion of insanitary latrines into pour flush latrines (Rs. 4000 per toilet as an incentive) (II) Community toilets (max 40% VGF)*. (III) *Viability Gap Funding Public toilets (100% Private investment)(IV) Solid Waste Management (max 20% VGF) (v) IEC and Public awareness (15%) and (IV) Capacity building etc (5%).

The vision of ‘Swachch Bharat Mission’ which aims to achieve Swachch Bharat by 2019.

Components: Household Toilets SBM aims to ensure that a) Construction of 80% of HHs engage in the practice of open defecation ie. 104.1 lakh household toilets, unit cost being Rs. 16000-20000 (Total cost Rs. 19,189 crores including central share of Rs. 4,165 crore). b) Conversion of all insanitary toilets c) Conversion of 60% of pit latrines into sanitary latrines. d) Community toilets (Total cost Rs. 1637 crore including central share of Rs. 655 crore construction of 2.52 lakh seats @ Rs. 65,000 per seat covering the remaining 20% of households. (40% VGF) e) Public Toilets (Total cost Rs. 1918 crore) Construction of 2.56 lakh seats @ Rs. 75,000 per seat (100% private) The total cost comes to Rs. 59,572 crore of which Govt. of India share is Rs. 12, 186 crores and the remaining Rs. 47,386 to be contributed by beneficiary/ Private Sector.

IEC & Public Awareness (Total cost Rs. 1828 crore as grant from Govt of India) @15% .

Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Under the Integrated Low Cost Sanitation Scheme (ILCS) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation 28,81,862 dry latrines of EWS have been converted into

| 26 | June 2015

water-pour flush latrines/constructed new ones where none existed and thereby liberating 60,952 scavengers from manual scavenging and 911 towns declared scavenging free.

Rehabilitation of Liberated Manual Scavengers The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment on the basis of a survey undertaken in the various states and Union Territories has identified the 5,00,671 insanitary latrines and 12,753 scavengers engaged in manual scavenging in various states and Union Territories. The Ministry has so far provided financial assistance to 5,54,800 scavengers and their wards for rehabilitation from 1992-2014.

Vision of Swachch Bharat Mission The vision of ‘Swachch Bharat Mission’ which aims to achieve Swachch Bharat by 2019 has set three goals in the strategy.

• Completely eliminating the traditional habit of open defecation and making this a relic of the past by achieving 100% access to sanitation for all the 650 million people in the country by 2019.

• Conversion of all the insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets and eradication of manual scavenging.

• Construction, operation and

maintenance of community toilets and public toilets on pay and use basis in each city/town to meet the requirement of people residing in slum areas and the foating population etc.

To achieve the vision and goal a number of commitments are set.

• Motivate communities promoting sustainable sanitation facilities through creation of awareness and mass health education.

• Ensuring that providers have the capacity and resources to deliver services at scale.

• Develop community managed environmental sanitation systems focusing on solid and liquid waste management for overall cleanliness and bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the country.

Taking population growth into account, there are almost as many people without access to sanitation as there were 20 years ago. The poorest and most marginalized people have seen least progress and continue to suffer the greatest burden in terms of child deaths and diseases. According to WHO (2014) the number of children dying in India was 3.35 lakh in 2012 or in other words 851 children dying everyday from diarrhoeal diseases associated with inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene. Against this backdrop we have to see whether the goal set out for achieving the ambitious target by 2019 will be actually reached. Let the vision of Swachch Bharat Mission should not suffer on account of lack of adequate resources, paucity of time-limit and shortage of committed and dedicated technical and non-technical personnel to implement the programme. Govt machinery alone cannot deliver the goods in time. It is requires the services of experienced and dedicated NGOs like Sulabh which can smoothly cross the major barriers and identify blockages so that they can be addressed and targets are achieved on time.

Another significant aspect which is generally lost sight of is poor performance due to low investment by the Govts and donors as well as by the private sector with the funding to meet the target nowhere near what is required. For example, the initiative provided to the householders in the urban areas is only Rs. 4000 per unit from Central Govt and Rs.

1000 or more from the State Govt as against the unit cost being Rs. 16,000-20,000. It means that the beneficiary will have to arrange the balance amount of Rs. 11000 or so from some other sources for the construction of a toilet in his premises which will be very difficult for the poorest and the disadvantaged group of people across the country and ultimately they may continue to practice open defecation.

Role of Sulabh in Swachch Bharat Mission Sulabh International Social Service Organisation a pioneering non-profit making outfit founded in 1970 by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, an eminent social reformer actionoriented sociologist and a true Gandhian has in partnership with local Governments demonstrated the success of his low cost twinpit water seal toilet technology throughout the country and abroad. This organization has made significant contribution in Swachch Bharat Mission as described below: • Conversion of bucket privies into water-pour flush latrine and construction of new ones where none existed-1.3 million.

• Liberating 1,25,000 scavengers from inhuman practice of manual scavenging.

• Rehabilitation of thousands of scavengers in various trades and occupations by giving them vocational training in market-oriented trades.

• Making 640 towns scavenging free • Construction, operation and maintenance of 8500 community/ public toilet complexes at important public places like market, cinema, bus stop, railway station, hospitals etc.

• Construction of 200 biogas plants linked with public toilets for generating energy and organic manure.

• Constructed 12,500 toilet blocks in schools in various states.

• These sanitation facilities are being used by 10.5 million people everyday.

• Sulabh has also constructed public toilet at Thimphu in Bhutan and 5 toiletcum-bath complexes linked with biogas plant at Kabul in Afghanistan.

Thus Sulabh has played a major role in bringing down the practice of open defecation from 74 percent in 1990 to 44 percent in 2015 (UNICEF 2015).

The accumulated dirt of centuries cannot be cleaned up sooner than the Modi Govt. seems well-set to complete.

The most humiliating of these all is open defecation about which UNICEF says in its 2015 report: “Sulabh has played a major role in bringing down the practice of open defecation from 74 per cent in 1990 to 44 per cent in 2015.”

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 27 |

Sanitation

Sanitation is part of Sociology Sulabh Reporter

Mr. Saket Kushwaha, Vice Chancellor, Lalit Narain Mithila University eating sweets from the hand of Mrs. Usha Chaumar

Mr. Saket Kushwaha, Vice Chancellor, Lalit Narain Mithila University

| 28 | June 2015

I

n view of the importance of sanitation Bihar’s Lalit Narain Mithila University has announced that sanitation would be a subject in its curriculum for Sociology. Vice Chancellor Mr. Saket Kushwaha said at a function held at Darbhanga on May 26, 2015 that the University would take timely steps to include sanitation as a subject in its course of Sociology from the next academic session.

The Vice Chancellor’s announcement came after Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement’s emphasis at various fora on the need for the study of sociology of sanitation. The Vice Chancellor in course of his announcement said, such a course would help to open new avenues of employment.

Delivering a lecture on ‘Sociology of Sanitation’ at Lalit Narain Mithila

University, Dr. Pathak observed that there is a huge potential in the Sanitation sector.

He recalled that Bhavnagar University in Gujarat had recently introduced Sanitation as a part of the Sociology course at the graduate level and urged sociologists to incorporate it in the curriculum to attract more Students.

Later the Vice Chancellor with Dr. Pathak had common lunch with the liberated manual scavenger ladies from Alwar and Tonk (Rajasthan) who were once treated as ‘Untouchables’, thus giving a strong message of social change. The Vice Chancellor invited the ladies from Rajasthan for dining at the historic European Guest House which is now known as Gandhi Sadan where Mahatma Gandhi spent two nights in the year 1934.

Sanitation

Rural Sanitation in

China: A Study Deepak Sanan

Team Leader of Water and Sanitation Programme, South Asia of the World Bank

T

he overall sanitation scenario in rural China is deplorable. Fixed point open defecation very close to dwellings is common in most villages visited. All members of families defecate in a small enclosure generally made up of bricks or stone right in front or in the back of the houses. These small toilet enclosures have no roof or doors.

Toilets in households – This writer saw a different kind of fixed point open defecation in the villages of Puchang County in Shaanxi province. When asked, all families in villages said that they had toilets. They did have toilets attached with their dwellings.

These were small brick-walled enclosures without roof or door. Almost every house had that sort of an enclosure. But what one sees inside those enclosures, is terrible. People mostly defecate on the ground and in some houses there is a squatting plate or just two bricks used as squatting stand. Mostly the human excreta remain accumulated there for days and weeks. In some enclosures there is a hole which allows the excreta to move out of the enclosure wall. Again in some places the members of the families place a bucket which is used to collect a few days’ shit. This accumulated shit of five to seven days is then taken to vegetable fields and are applied raw.

Another bucket is replaced there. All these toilets smell awfully and are infested with flies.

Night soil used as manure in crops and vegetables - Human excreta are systematically used as manure for fertilizing the crops and vegetables. This is an old

practice in China. In many houses toilets are made in such a way that the excreta of all members of the family are collected in buckets, which are taken to field periodically and are diluted with water and applied raw in the crops. When one bucket is filled up another one is placed in its place. People knew that such handling of raw human exereta contaminates vegetables and crops. Villagers also told us that flies carry excreta to fruit plants and contaminate fruits. People often eat fruit without washing them. However people realise the danger of contamination through vegetables. Of course use of human excreta in agriculture is hundreds of years old practice in China. Excreta of millions of people are being used in vegetable and other crop production systematically. The value of that is enormous though. People do feel that they should do something about this and find better ways of using human excreta as manure to break the faecal-oral contamination route. This adds to the challenge.

IN COLD AREAS

The cold arid belt of India adjoining the western part of Tibet has an interesting tradition of dry toilets and using excreta as manure (possibly this tradition extends to Tibet and other fringe lands of the cold plateau). Households set apart a first floor corner room or area for defecation. The floor will have a hole in the centre with a pile of straw and mud heaped on the side. Each time someone visits a spadeful of straw and mud is also thrown down the hole. The ground floor room or ‘chaksa’ as it is called, is emptied

In many houses toilets are made in such a way that the excreta of all members of the family are collected in buckets, which are taken to field periodically and are diluted with water and applied raw in the crops. When one bucket is filled up another one is placed in its place. People knew that such handling of raw human exereta contaminates vegetables and crops.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 29 |

China has developed an eco-san toilet model that separates urine and faeces which could also be collected separately for use as manure. Nearly 70% of the smell could be reduced if urine and stool are separated. All these aspects collectively throw a different challenge in colder areas of China.

| 30 | June 2015

twice a year and the manure spread in the fields (once in spring and once in autumn).

Modified versions of this approach could be useful suggestions for cold regions. One could even suggest the option of a summer time toilet and a winter time chaksa as part of the eco-san alternatives. In the final analysis, of course, the technology options, as we always discuss, are only facilitation for communities that have ardently accepted the ODF cause! This is a good and location specific practice that suits local conditions.

Use of straw to cover human excreta helps in multiple ways in enhancing the composting process especially in cold areas and adds humas to the compost. Layers of straw which is a non conductor of heat and layers of trapped air control microenvironment and ambient temperature and may thus influence bacterial/microbial action to enhance the decomposition process.

Covering the excreta with straw or dry soil prevents contamination through flies and insects. It also prevents spreading of smell and most importantly prevents contacts with sunlight, thus retaining the nitrogen of the excreta. I don’t know if any in-depth study on such ITK (Indigenous Technological Knowledge) of local people is available.

School sanitation – The same is the scenario in schools. In rural schools common toilet blocks exist which look very clean and tidy from outside. Generally there is row of squatting plates in separate blocks for boys and girls. The same is used for defecation and urination. The accumulated excreta rolls down the slope and is stacked up in a ditch just behind the wall of the toilet building.

Accumulated shit of many students pollutes the environment and contaminates everything through flies in especially in summer. Toilet papers are generally used for anal cleaning.

Hand washing after defecation is almost nonexistent. Generally there was no water tap or water containers near the toilets in the school we visited. In one such school there was a water tap at a distance from the toilet block and the water was frozen solid.

Technology options - Further, technology options are also not as easy as in other tropical countries or in southern China.

When I visited Shaanxi province in central China, the temperature already dropped to -6/7 C.

Everything was frozen; soil was too hard to dig. Possibly, due to blasting cold wind people couldn’t go to distance for open defecation and needed the enclosures close to home. Water seal toilets would not work as they would freeze and would burst the pipes. Plastic pans and pipes of different quality and standard would also be needed to prevent cracking in extreme cold temperature regimes.

China has developed an eco-san toilet model that separates urine and faeces which could also be collected separately for use as manure. Nearly 70% of the smell could be reduced if urine and stool are separated. All these aspects collectively throw a different challenge in colder areas of China. In order to launce CLTS, a lot needs to be developed and innovated which are different from the experiences we have from Bangladesh, India, Cambodia or Indonesia.

Diarrhoea and other enteric diseases - Almost every household in all the villages we visited had regular bouts of diarrhoea and dysentery in the summer seasons every year.

On an average each family spends about RMB 500 – 700 or more every year on treatment and medication against diarrhoea and other stomach ailments. Some communities calculated total average annual loss of money from their respective villages and other hassles people suffer every year. In many villages such cumulative expenditure exceeds US$ 3000 every year.

Dependence on external subsidy - The culture of receiving external subsidy in sanitation is deeply ingrained in the minds of communities, especially amongst those living in and around the working areas of Plan China. It is indeed difficult to trigger CLTS easily in these villages. Community people have been receiving subsidized or free inputs under many interventions. However, in a couple of such communities, where the men didn’t show any interest of starting community initiative without external subsidy after triggering of CLTS, the women took lead and decided to begin local collective action to stop open defecation. It needs special facilitation skills to trigger CLTS in such communities where people have a higher dependence on subsidy.

A Profile

Hemlata Chomar

Of those bleeding

from a thousand cuts Sulabh Reporter

S

cavenger women get two-thirds of the blows, bleeding from a thousand cuts every hour of the day, meekly submitting to social discriminations.

Prophesy was nowhere as easy as in case of Hemlata Chomar, a liberated scavenger. Born to Gulab Mahouriya, a Balmiki, with two sisters and two brothers in absolute poverty Hemlata had neither education nor money. Her father was from a scavenging class, but got a job as a guard in Char Bagh Hospital, Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

The extended family lived in two rooms

outside the small city centre among the destitute, jobless and hungry, not too different from those in Dante’s infermo.

Balmikis are lowest among low Harijans who are among Scheduled Castes list in the Constitution. They were treated as untouchables before Independence. They invariably live in areas of concentrated poverty, the like of which was once identified by the law in Britain, the only difference being that in Britain it was only poverty; in India it is untouchability also. Hemlata was married at the age of 13 to another scavenger Jagdish Prasad Chomar in 1996 and has six children, two sons and four daughters.

The husband is a casual labour. The sons are school dropouts and the daughters are studying.

Hemlata serviced five households in Alwer, physically cleaning toilets, and carrying the stinking buckets of human excreta to throw into the open drain, or, on any other dumping heaps. There is no holiday paid or unpaid. She earned Rs.50 a month from each household to look after a family of eight persons, living in a leaking shack spread out in rows along with other scavenger families.

Hemlata says the problem was not so much of poverty as discrimination and untouchability: “We were denied medical help, even during delivery and our children were not allowed to go to schools.

People would throw the kitchen leftovers from a distance and five rotis (pieces of bread) when they did not pay. After toilet cleaning, I could not eat; for I was stinking all over, so did the kitchen. There

Hemlata says the problem was not so much of poverty as discrimination and untouchability: “We were denied medical help, even during delivery and our children were not allowed to go to schools. People would throw the kitchen leftovers from a distance and five rotis (pieces of bread) when they did not pay”.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 31 |

When a change came

Hemlata does not remember anything about her family history or the time when this social degradation began. “Everybody in my father’s family, so also in my husband’s did scavenging.

This humiliation is the family inheritance and we have learned to live with it”. was no soap or water. We often suffer from sanitation-related diseases. Without money and medical help, we suffer silently along with hungry children hugging around me for food.

Hemlata does not remember anything about her family history or the time when this social degradation began. “Everybody in my father’s family, so also in my husband’s did scavenging. This humiliation is the family inheritance and we have learned to live with it”. | 32 | June 2015

“But this ordeal ended on July 6, 2005 when I met Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, through a co-scavenger who already was taken off this profession under Sulabh’s scavengers rehabilitation programme, Nai Disha.

“However Dr. Pathak sir clearly told me that she will have to quit scavenging before she joined the Sulabh programme. And, that was the beginning of a new life for me. Now, I work as a social worker, make food stuffs and sell them even to those who know we were scavengers. Sulabh has launched the Nai Disha campaign from Alwar for the social upgradation of scavengers and bring them into the mainstream of society.

“I get Rs. 1800 per month, besides whatever we earn from selling household things that we make. The high point of my new life came in October, 2007 when I participated in the World Toilet Summit in full media glare and also walked on the ramp along with other fashion models. It was a dizzying experience, walking with modern women in the midst of glittering people”.

Hemlata said all these and a lot more through her gestures more than words because she is illiterate and has still to fully recover from her traumatic memories. But, sometimes silence speaks louder than words. She is learning to read and write now. Her husband never could believe in the dramatic unfolding of the dazzling future nor could he ever conceive it even in wild dream. And, through a process of osmosis and change, the family is trying to reconcile to the new situation.

Scavenger is a case apart in the world; we know of slavery, ghettoes, gas chambers and mass killings but, the cruelty on scavengers is worse; they are allowed to live in perpetual poverty, destitution and in never- ending social discrimination, cleaning excreta of those who do not touch them. The scavenger is forced into this profession by social tradition based on inhumanity and cruelty of the medieval times and they submit to force because they are weak, hungry and illiterate, punished for the birth in the choosing of they have no hand. Scavengers are not free to choose. This is the dark belly of growing India. The Bible says those who light fire cannot be protected from flame. No wonder, the caste system has divided India against itself.

Remembrance

With Nek Chand

ended an era of barefoot artists Nek Chand was not a professional architect like Le Corbusier who made Chandigarh a wonder city of the Third World. He was an ordinary government inspector who used to cycle to work every day. While going along he saw the gushing water of streams and scraps and thrown-away stone pieces when he conceived of a new idea. And, thus, emerged the Rock Garden of Chandigarh which is an all-time wonder piece of human skill and endurance.

W

hen Chandigarh was being designed by French architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s as new capital of Punjab, Mr. Nek Chand, a humble road inspector in the PWD Department, was put in charge of a road to the Sukhna Lake. As building began to risk the environment, so did heaps of rubble, garbage and junk, Nek Chand was unhappy, particularly over the rising ugly mountains and he decided to make good use of the junk. Thus, he set about creating his dreamland, turning junk into pieces of art.

A rock garden was carved out of a seasonal steam. The site suggested exciting possibilities. Nek Chand wandered about in the Shivalik Hills and collected stone formations of birds, animals and human beings as also of abstract forms. His collections of stones of different shapes, sizes, colours and texture are sizable. Some of them he found while scouring the bed of the Ghaggar and slopes of the Shivalik. They are now on display in the Chandigarh Museum and Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Within the city, Nek Chand’s collections include bones, old shoes, tyres and bits of household crockery, sanitary ware and every kind of scraps and junk.

The garden made out of these is now known as ‘Nek Chand Rock Garden’, a name given in 1973 by Dr. M.S. Randhawa, former

Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh. From the day of its inception to its formal opening in 1976, it took 11 years of dedicated work.

The first significant recognition of Nek Chand’s work came from the Mayor of Paris, Mr. Jaccues Chirac, who awarded him a medal on behalf of the municipality in appreciation of his exhibition, ‘Bhool Bhulayan’, at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, in 1980. Since then, honours came in plenty.

Nek Chand’s collection of awards includes the ‘La Grande Hedaille de Vermeil’, the honorary citizenship of Baltimore, and a certificate of ‘exceptional craftsmanship’ by the Washington Building Congress for his contribution to the capital’s children’s museum in Washington D.C (1986) and, above all the Government of India gave him the Padma Shri award in 1987 in recognition of his creative genius.

For Le Corbusier might have built a city; but Nek Chand, the road inspector, out of rubbish, had created a magic world.

Nek Chand Saini, creator of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 33 |

The garden made out of these is now known, as ‘Nek Chand rock garden’, a name given in 1973 by Dr. M.S. Randhawa, former Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh.

For the day of its inception to its formal opening in 1976, it took 11 years of dedicated work.

broken bangles. The rag dolls conjure up the artist’s colourful impression of villages which is also represented in the creations made of discarded cups, bottles and bangles.

Some of Nek Chand’s works are also on display at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

Nek Chand was a modest man. He is remembered in Paris and Washington with affection. His only mission was to expand and improve the Rock Garden. He went to distant places to create similar beauties and returned as soon as possible to resume his work in Chandigarh and create a new world out of the old.

An original creator

Chandigarh Rock Garden : A beauty is created out of waste

| 34 | June 2015

Nek Chand said: “It’s my hobby”. He always worked directly on the raw materials, without forming an idea about what he wanted it to become. Nonetheless, there is a touch of Picasso in the fantasy world of his creation in which sculptures of animals, men, women and children exude the surreal aura of innocent, dazzling, colourful female figure made of

Padma Shri awardee, Nek Chand, creator of the internationally acclaimed Rock Garden in Chandigarh passed away on June 12 last at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in the city.

Nek Chand Saini With him ended the era (1924—2015) of the barefoot artist.

The renowned personality, who was 90, was being treated for ailments pertaining to the kidney, heart and other organs in a private hospital in the city.

The Chandigarh Administration declared a holiday as a mark of respect to Nek Chand for his unmatched contribution to the city. His mortal remains were kept at the Rock Garden. People in large numbers paid floral tribute to him.

Faith

After Jesus’ Crucifixion

history split into two – AD & BC

I

n about AD 30 , a young Jewish man began to preach in Palestine that he was the son of God, the Messiah, or anointed one, that the Jews had been expecting. Many people accepted his message and his following grew rapidly. The Jew authorities resented his work , and he was arrested and crucified by the Roman Governor of Palestine in about AD 33.

Within a century, his message had spread throughout Asia Minor and into Europe, becoming tolerated throughout the mighty Roman Empire in 313. Today , Christianity , the religion he founded , is one of the world’s great religious faiths.

Mary Magdalene

Mary was one of the most famous of Christ’s followers. Jesus cured her of “demons” (probably a physical illness). Mary witnessed Christ’s crucifixion and burial. Three days later, Christ appeared to Mary, and told her that he was ascending to heaven.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 35 |

For three years , Jesus preached his message in Palestine. He gathered 12 local men to support him; they became known as the Apostles, from a Greek word meaning a person sent or chosen. Jesus declared the need for people to repent of their sins and to believe and follow him. Within three years, his preaching, and his ability to heal the sick, brought him a considerable following throughout Palestine. His wider group of followers became known as disciples.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, many Jews, including John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, were expecting the coming of the Messiah.

John prepared the way for Jesus, prophesying his coming and baptizing him in the River

Jordan.The 12 apostles of Jesus were local men who did ordinary jobs, such as fishing and farming.

Sermon on the Mount

Jesus preached sermons to his disciples and the many people who followed him. The most famous was the Sermon on the Mount , in which Jesus summed up the main beliefs of the Christian religion and told his followers how people should lead their lives.According to the Bible, Jesus used miracles to prove that he could conquer adversity and suffering.

On one famous occasion, he is said to have provided enough food for a gathering of 5,000 people, although only a few loaves and fishes were available.

Early life

JESUS CHRIST c.4 BC Born to poor parents in Bethlehem. c.AD 30 Begins ministry, preaching and healing the sick.

33 Arrested, tried and crucified by Roman authorities in Jerusalem.

33 St Paul and other followers of Jesus begin to spread the Christian message; Christians are persecuted in the Roman Empire.

65-75 St Mark writes his Gospel, the earliest surviving record of the life of Jesus.

313 Christianity receives official tolerance in the Roman Empire. | 36 | June 2015

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He trained as a carpenter. The Bible says that his mother, Mary, was virgin when she gave birth. In his early 30s , he gave up work and devoted his time to preaching and healing.In order to get his message understood, Jesus often used parables , or stories with a meaning. One of the most famous was the parable of the sower , in which Jesus compared his words to the seeds cast by a man sowing corn . some seed falls on stony ground and withers away , some fall on good soil , where it flourishes.

After three years preaching, Jesus was arrested by the Roman authorities who governed Palestine at that time. He was tried by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, tortured, and crucified.

Last supper

Just before he was arrested , Jesus ate supper with his disciples. He broke bread and drank wine with them, asking them to remember him and to continue his work. Christians still celebrate the Last Supper in the ceremony of the Mass , or Eucharist, when they share bread and wine, believing it to represent Jesus’ body and blood.

Crucifixion

Jesus was put to death by crucifixion – being nailed to a wooden cross – a common form of punishment in the Roman Empire. His followers believe that three days later he rose from the dead.

World View

Democracy comes of age

after Magna

Carta

Sulabh Bureau

I

t is not like Newton seeing the falling apple or mathematician Archimedes crying “eureka� while running out naked from the bathtub in the century. Democracy is a slow and steady movement from slavery to freedom, spanning over centuries, in many countries, costing millions of lives. Democracy is not revolutionary though it has been achieved violently in some countries. It evolved slowly and gradually before becoming dominant.

The idea of democracy originated in ancient Greek city states such as Athens, in which all citizens (excluding women and slaves) had the right to vote. Plato, Aristotle, and other thinkers distrusted pure democracy, however, fearing that majority rule would lead to mob rule. After the decline of the Roman Republic, democratic institutions and ideas lay dormant until the late Middle Ages, when the demise of feudalism and the rise of humanism revived notions of individual potential and human rights. Although monarchy was challenged by many political thinkers of the Renaissance and Enlightenment few championed popular democracy, preferring instead some form of mixed regime of elitist republic.

The democratic idea took root with the American and French revolutions, although the latter eventually confirmed skeptics’ warnings that unbridled democracy would invite tyrannical majority rule or degenerate into dictatorship. All successful modern democracies have incorporated constitutional guarantees of individual rights and such structural safeguards as separation of powers, judicial review, and other checks

Democracy is a form of government in which the people rule, either directly or by electing representatives. Since its origin in Athens 2500 years ago, it has become the basis for political authority. But democracy came into practice in the 12th century when the King of England wanted money and manpower to fight war. Barons denied it and thereby hangs the story SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 37 |

World View

Cameron said the Magna Carta had inspired everyone from women’s suffrage campaigners to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, who cited it at his trial in 1964.

Hi and balances. Universal adult suffrage is a comparatively recent phenomenon. The first country to grant the franchise to women was New Zealand in 1893; literacy tests, aimed at excluding African-Americans and immigrants, were required by several U.S. states until the 1960s, when they were outlawed by federal civil rights Acts.

Until the end of the 18th century it was thought that democracy could only work in a small city state. In the American colonies, following the revolt against Britain after 1775, political thinkers such as James Madison began to develop an idea of representation which would enable democracy to be applied to large states. In the modern world, representation is secured by means of political parties. Almost all democracies today are party democracies. In France, the outbreak of revolution in 1789 gave rise to an explicit political theory of democracy, embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, issued on August 26, 1789. This document declared that all political power derived not from God or from kings, but from the people. Today, democracy has become the only lasting and legitimate basis for political authority.

Even dictatorships such as the communist regimes which ruled Central and Eastern Europe until 1989 called themselves ‘Peoples’ Democracies’.

The Athenians, although they invented participatory democracy, limited its scope, excluding both slaves and women. The Americans, when they introduced democratic government in the 18th century, also excluded women and slaves, and the French restricted the vote to men. It was not until 1893 that a state – New Zealand – was willing to give women the vote. In the United States, women received the vote in 1919, while in Britain women over the age of 21 were enfranchised in 1928. In France, women did not receive

Democracy can also enable the people to elect to government a party which establishes a dictatorship. This happened in Germany in 1933, when Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party was voted into power.

Hitler’s regime is a prime example of what is sometimes called a totalitarian democracy. | 38 | June 2015

the vote until 1945, while in Switzerland women had to wait until 1971 to take part in elections.

Making Democracy Work

Democracy works best in homogeneous societies, where there are no deep ethnic, religious or linguistic divisions. In divided societies, stability is achieved through forms of power-sharing, as in Switzerland, so that both majority and minority can participate.

Democracy can also enable the people to elect to government a party which establishes a dictatorship. This happened in Germany in 1933, when Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party was voted into power. Hitler’s regime is a prime example of what is sometimes called a totalitarian democracy.

To combat totalitarian democracy, most countries use constitutional checks and balances, so that no government can destroy minority rights. These can include a constitutional court to protect minorities, a second house of parliament to combat the excesses of the first, a strong system of local government, and federalism, to disperse political power away from the centre.

Democracy, the novelist E.M. Forster said, deserved only two cheers. Perhaps the third cheer should be reserved for constitutional democracy, a form of government which combines popular participation in decision-making with respect for the rule of law and the rights of minorities.

History of Magna Carta; How it began

King John (1167-1216) came to the throne on May 27, 1199 following the death of his brother, Richard I. Even during Richard’s absence at the Crusades, John had proved himself wicked and tyrannical. On ascending the throne he seemed to become worse. He lost a great part of the English lands in France, became involved in a struggle with the Pope over the appointment of Stephen Langton to the See of Canterbury and then in a series of quarrels with his barons.

Finally he was not deposed, but at in June 1215 he was forced to sign the Magna Carta (The Great Charter) which stated, amongst other important principles, that the king was

istory subject to the law. The spirit of Magna Carta, with its sixty-three sections, has influenced the law of England ever since.

The Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, is a written agreement sealed by King John, the younger brother of Richard the Lionheart, in 1215. It is still held up as the foundation of the legal and constitutional framework for the UK despite being completed 800 years ago.

It was written on parchment, which was made from dried sheepskin. The scribes who produced it wrote in medieval Latin and abbreviated words to save space on the parchment. Four copies of the original documents exist today: one in Lincoln Cathedral, one in Salisbury Cathedral, and two in the British Library. It is thought that there were more than 13 copies at the time of its creation, which were sent out across the country to lay down taxation laws, among others.

The Magna Carta was drawn up after King John faced a rebellion from a group of barons who were unhappy about high taxes levied to pay for continuous and disastrous wars in France, and John’s misuses of the justice system to collect them.

To this day, three of the clauses remain valid. One of those is a clause right at the heart of the Charter. It says no free man should be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights or outlawed or exiled except by the judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. The other two defend the liberties and rights of the English Church and confirm the liberties and customs of London and other towns.

800th Birth Anniversary

The UK is celebrating the 800th birthday of the Magna Carta document containing the idea that no one is above the law, and it still forms the foundation of many modern ideas. Most of the 63 clauses deal with the administration of justice, and the detail of feudal rights and customs.

Queen Elizabeth II led commemorations to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta but the human rights the document helped enshrining are at the centre of a modern political feud. British Prime Minister David Cameron joined the

The Magna Carta was drawn up after King John faced a rebellion from a group of barons who were unhappy about high taxes levied to pay for continuous and disastrous wars in France, and John’s misuses of the justice system to collect them.

The original script

Queen on Monday at Runnymede, a riverside meadow near London where, in 1215, King John met disgruntled barons and agreed to a list of basic rights. The Magna Carta – Latin for Great Charter – is considered the founding document of English law and civil liberties and was an inspiration for the US constitution.

The charter established the principle that the king was subject to the law, rather than above it, and stipulated that “no free man shall be seized or imprisoned ... except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” Mr. Cameron said it was modern Britons’ duty to safeguard its “momentous achievement.” But opponents accuse him of trying to undermine rights. Cameron’s Conservative government wants to replace the Human Rights Act — whose supreme arbiter is a European court — with a British Bill of Rights, a move opponents fear could weaken key protections.

Cameron said the Magna Carta had inspired everyone from women’s suffrage campaigners to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, who cited it at his trial in 1964.

No free man should be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights or outlawed or exiled except by the judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 39 |

World View

India - Sri Lanka

Bonds of Belief and Culture India and Sri Lanka are bound by a shared history and a proximate geography. But more than these, the people of the two countries are knitted together by bonds of religion and culture that go back by several millennia. The holiest places of majority Sri Lankan Buddhists are in India. Likewise, this beautiful island is where the Ramayana war was fought and won. While the Buddhist pilgrim circuit in India is well trod, Sri Lanka has lately been developing the Ramayana trail that would take Indian pilgrims to various places associated with that epic war. Here, Mohan K. Tikku presents a quick tour of the island-nation and the many places that make it so special for an Indian visitor.

Mohan K. Tikku

Dambulla Cave Temple, world’s amazing heritage in Sri Lanka

| 40 | June 2015

M

ost Indians, even those who know next to nothing about the beautiful country that Sri Lanka is, tend to think of it as the land where the Ramayana epic war was fought and won. Ravana ruled here before he was vanquished by the Prince of Ayodhya. The story of the Ramayana has numerous variants and has been culturally internalized by people in South and Southeast

Asia in a variety of ways. But, in the popular imagination, the island is inseparably linked with that epic narrative.

Sri Lanka has been in the process of discovering more sites associated with the Ramayana. In its keenness to promote religious tourism from India, Sri Lanka has in recent years identified fourteen sites associated with the epic. Among these is a place located amid the tea gardens near

Nuwara Eliya in the central hills. There is nothing by way of a physical landmark at the site today, but it is believed to be the place where Sita was kept in detention by Ravana.

‘Sita’s Garden,’ as it is now called, is already beginning to feature on the itineraries of some tour operators in the island.

The government is hopeful that if properly marketed, the fourteen sites could attract many more religious tourists from India. The number of Indian tourists visiting Sri Lanka has been going up in recent years.

The Ramayana circuit could make it even better. Doing the Buddhist pilgrim circuit in India—Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Kushi Nagar, et cetera— is a lifetime dream for most Sri Lankan Buddhists. Promoting a Ramayana circuit may attract many more people who are ‘moved’ by faith.

For most Sri Lankans, especially the Sinhalese, India is the land King Vijaya, founder of the Sinhalese ‘race’, came from.

For them, it all started with the chance landing of Prince Vijaya on the northern shore, more than 2,500 years ago. King Vijaya is seen as an Aryan and a north Indian who came from somewhere near the presentday Orissa and became the founder-ruler of the virgin territory that became Sri Lanka.

That makes the island look like a microcosm of sub-continental India with ‘Aryans’ and the ‘Dravidians’ represented among its constituents. An even bigger bond than the belief in ‘Aryan’ origins of the Sinhalese ‘race’ is Buddhism. For them, India is the sacred land of the Buddha; and Buddhism the greatest gift they received from their

neighbour to the north.

After Emperor Ashoka had found his refuge in the Sangha and the eightfold path shown by the Enlightened One, he decided to spread the message around. On conclusion of the Third Buddhist Conference held in his time, he sent his son Mahinda to Sri Lanka—who was followed a few years later by daughter Sanghamitta. The story as told in the Sinhala Buddhist chronicles is that King Devanampiya Tissa was on a deer hunt in the jungles at a place just about eight kms from Anuradhapura when he saw a monk surrounded by an aura of light standing on the hill top. It was Mahinda, (or Arahant Mahinda, as he is called in Sinhalese texts). He had come to spread the message of peace and compassion delivered by the Sakya Prince. King Devanampiya Tissa was moved by what he saw and heard, and surrendered at the feet of the Master. It was thus that Arahant Mahinda initiated the King and his subjects into the Eightfold Path.

It was on King Devnampiya Tissa’s request, a few years later that Sanghamitta carried a branch of the Bodhi tree from Gaya—the one under which Buddha had attained Enlightenment. This was a special gift for the king and his people. The sapling was planted at a place around which the sacred city of Anuradhapura has grown— making it the Mecca of Sri Lankan Buddhists.

The tree that grew from the sapling still stands, and has been rated by botanists as the oldest surviving tree in the world. For the Sri Lankan Buddhists the ancient tree confirms them in their belief that the island enjoyed the special blessings of the Buddha.

The other great gift that Sri Lanka received from India was the holy tooth relic

In side view of Dambulla Cave Temple, in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has been in the process of discovering more sites associated with the Ramayana.

In its keenness to promote religious tourism from India, Sri Lanka has in recent years identified fourteen sites associated with the epic.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 41 |

World View

of the Buddha. It is one of the three tooth relics of the Buddha—the other two being in Myanmar and China. Again, according to Sinhalese chronicles, it was carried to Sri Lanka by a Brahmin woman about the end of

Sri Lankan Buddhists remain ardent adherents of the Theravada school. The great schism in Buddhism had taken place at the Third Buddhist Council held at Patliputra during Emperor Asoka’s time.

Arahant Mahinda himself was a proponent of the Theravada system, which is seen as the more intense and austere form of Buddhism. the fourth century AD. She presented it to the King at Anuradhapura, who was overjoyed on receiving it. He had a special place consecrated for it. The King also commanded that the holy relic be taken to Abhayagiri in a formal procession on specified days every year for the lay followers to be blessed by seeing it. Thus began the tradition of taking out the holy relic in a perehera or procession with great pomp and pageantry every year.

The perehera is now performed annually in the central hill district of Kandy where it is installed in the famous Dalada Maligawa, or Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.

The Sinhalese mythology celebrates the arrival of the Buddha in the island in other ways as well. Mahavamsa, the ancient chronicle of the Sinhalese Buddhists, talks about three journeys the Buddha is believed to have made to the island. These visits, of course, do not have any basis in history. But they are significant in their description as well as symbolism. For the Sri Lankan Buddhists, the three journeys confirm the status of the island as the one place specially blessed by the Enlightened One. | 42 | June 2015

In the Sri Lankan narratives, the places the Buddha is supposed to have visited are described in some detail. These number sixteen, and are held in great reverence. On conclusion of his third and final journey, the Buddha is believed to have departed from Sri Lanka’s second highest hilltop in the central hills, leaving behind his footprint on a huge rock. That particular spot is revered as Sri Pada, or the Sacred Foot. The hilltop of course has the imprint of a giant footprint on a rock which makes it a major centre of Buddhist pilgrimage.

Sri Pada has a regular stream of pilgrims coming to pay obeisance round the year. The foot print on the rock, according to Muslim believers, is interpreted as being the one left behind by Adam as he was flung out of Heaven following the Fall. And hence, it is also known as Adam’s Peak. Christians maintain the footprint on top of the hill to be that of St. Thomas—who, again on the basis of a legend that lies outside of history or any material evidence, is supposed to have landed here from India. Not to be left behind, the Hindus hold it as the sacred footprint of Lord Siva.

But, despite such competing claims of belief and legend, Sri Pada essentially remains a site for Buddhist pilgrimage.

The Muslim, Hindu and Christian legends are latter day versions generated to claim ownership of the sacred site. More likely, it must have been created in the first few centuries after the Buddha and well before the creation of the Buddha image. The early images of the Buddha in the lotus posture were envisioned sometime around the beginning of the Christian era. Until then, his followers used to do obeisance to certain symbols, such as his footprint. That explains the existence of Buddha’s footprint in rocks in several places, including Ladakh in India.

Sri Lankan Buddhists remain ardent adherents of the Theravada school. The great schism in Buddhism had taken place at the Third Buddhist Council held at Patliputra during Emperor Asoka’s time. Arahant Mahinda himself was a proponent of the Theravada system, which is seen as the more intense and austere form of Buddhism. Its teachings, as taught by Mahinda and his disciples and carried forward by others, were reduced to writing at a convocation

of five hundred monks at the famous Alu Vihara monastery, near Polonnaruwa in the North Central Province, during the reign of Vattagamini (89-77 BC).

It was not as if the Sri Lankans were total strangers to the other sect. The interactions between monks and pilgrims who went on pilgrimages to India or Buddhist scholars who visited the island ensured that the two sects would occasionally engage in intellectual exchanges of some kind. Sigriya, for example, is supposed to have been an important centre of Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism around the time Kassapa chose it as the site for his rock palace and the new capital in the fifth century. Remains of Hindu temples are also found in the sacred city of Anuradhapura and other places venerated by the Buddhists. A few rulers during the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods did extend patronage to the Mahayana sect, and some even to Hinduism. King Mahasena of the fifth century was one of them.

The Hindu religious influences came in through other ways as well. One, there are the temples and other places of worship associated with the Ramayana. Two, the Sri Lankan Tamils who mostly are followers of Hinduism, and especially its Saivist sect, did have a considerable presence on the Tamil majority areas. The Hindu influence was particularly pronounced during times when the Chola and Pandyan kings from south India had established their rule in Anuradhapura. As a counterpoint to these influences, Sri Lankan Buddhists invited monks from Siam in 1775 to purge the practice of Theravada Buddhism of many influences of Hinduism it had imbibed over the centuries. Even so, many Hindu influences in the everyday practice of Buddhism have been assimilated to an extent that these remain part of its daily observance.

An islet off the northern tip of Jaffna has been an important landmark in the Sri Lankan pilgrims’ ages-old rite of passage through the centuries. Nagadipa is one of the smallest inhabited islands in the Gulf of Mannar, and is reachable by a causeway from Jaffna via the Kayts island. Traditionally, it has served as a transit point for pilgrims on their way into the island or the onward journey to India, where the most sacred places of Buddhism are located.

Arahant Mahinda, too, is said to have transited through this tiny island. So did Sanghamitta, a few years later, as she carried a sapling of the sacred Bodhi tree to be planted at Anuradhapura. More importantly, the Sinhalese believe that the Buddha, on one of the three visits to Sri Lanka, had stopped over at Nagadipa as well. According to this legend, the Buddha is believed to have settled a dispute between two Naga kings in conflict on this island. One of them was based in Kelaniya, the site of another famous vihara, near Colombo, that Buddha would also visit in the course of his peregrinations.

The Hindu religious influences came in through other ways as well.

One, there are the temples and other places of worship associated with the Ramayana. Two, the Sri Lankan Tamils who mostly are followers of Hinduism, and especially its Saivist sect, did have a considerable presence on the Tamil majority areas.

Nagadipa is held sacred by many Tamils as well. The Mahavamsa describes Nagas among the aboriginal peoples who inhabited the island before its Aryanisation following the arrival of Prince Vijaya. As the name signifies, it must have been an important place for the Nagas, the other group of the pre-Aryan aboriginals inhabiting the island.

These people probably were the precursors to the Tamil migration and like Nagas in parts of north India, subsequently evolved into followers of the Saivist philosophical school— Saivism being the dominant religious creed followed by the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Just across from the Rameshwaram Temple on the Mannar coast is the Thirukesan temple. Its significance derives from the fact Sri Rama prayed here to Siva before embarking to do battle with Ravana.

This is on the west coast. Right across on the east coast near the Trincomalee harbour is another Siva temple. This one stands on a rock protruding into the sea. The rock on which the temple is positioned is separated from the mainland by a deep cleavage. The legend as told is that Ravana’s mother used to come for worship at this temple. One day, Ravana, disturbed by the thought that his aging mother had to walk all the way to the SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 43 |

Sri Lankan Buddhism’s most revered sites lie within what is otherwise known as the Cultural Triangle. It is a charmed circle of places that showcases the best and the most important landmarks of Sri Lankan Buddhism.

| 44 | June 2015

temple each morning, decided to shift it closer to where his mother lived. Given as he was to a quick temper, in a moment of rage he wielded his huge axe to cleave the temple from the main rock, but did manage only to leave a deep cut in the rock.

Traditionally, many devout Hindus and Buddhists used to set out on an annual pilgrimage from Nagadipa taking the pilgrim route along the east coast to the sacred seat of Lord Katargama in the deep south. They would travel the distance practically covering the length of the island by foot all the way down to the shrine of Kataragama.

Lord Katargama, revered by the Hindus and the Buddhists, is revered seat of Skanda or Muruga or Kartikkeya of the Hindu pantheon. It is among the most ancient sacred sites in the island. Its history dates back to the pre-Vijaya period, and bears testimony to the very ancient contacts between people in south India and those in the island. The Katargama shrine must be sufficiently ancient to have become part of the custom and folk lore of the Veddas as well. The Veddas, who are the aboriginal settlers of the island, believe that Lord Katargama had married a local Vedda girl. That adds the bonds of kinship to those of divinity. That suggests the shrine and the practice of worship must date back to the pre-historic times.

With such antiquity, it is not surprising that Lord Katargama is equally worshipped by the Buddhists as well. Duttagamini, the Sinhalese war hero of second century BC, is believed to have prayed for victory at the Katargama shrine before he set out to fight

the Tamil king Elara in the north—and won.

A Buddhist vihara on the Katargama campus is yet another instance of the Hindu-Buddhist concord in the rites of worship. In subsequent centuries, a Muslim shrine too came up on Katargama’s sprawling grounds. The three places of worship virtually within the same religious campound stand out as symbols of the country’s tradition of religious tolerance and accommodation.

Katargama, however, is not the only place where Hindus and the Buddhists come together in a shared belief. Many Buddhist viharas have a Hindu temple or devalaya on its premises. The conjunction of the Buddhist and Hindu places of worship goes farther back in time than that. The famous vihara at Kelaniya, near Colombo, has a temple within its compound that is associated with Ravana’s bother Vibhishana.

However, Sri Lankan Buddhism’s most revered sites lie within what is otherwise known as the Cultural Triangle. It is a charmed circle of places that showcases the best and the most important landmarks of Sri Lankan Buddhism. These are located in Anuradhapura, Polonaruwa and Kandy besides a few lying between them. The three cities also happened to be the capitals of the three most glorious kingdoms of Sri Lanka.

(About the author: A former foreign correspondent of the Hindustan Times based in Colombo, Mohan K. Tikku is also author of ‘Sri Lanka : A Land in Search of Itself ’. His forthcoming book on the last war in Sri Lanka is due for publication later this year.)

Tourism

Summer in Valley of Snow Sanjay Tripathi

The beauty, weather, and culture of Manali is totally different and unique from other hill stations.

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he mountain peaks covered with snow, the sky touching Deodar pine gleams of sunlight on it and cold and gentle breeze all around.

This charming landscape of Kullu Manali will give you thrilling experience which you will never forget. During summer vacations we want you to visit this amazing valley where music of the river Vyas will be soothing for your ears. This small valley of Himachal Pradesh is visited by tourists throughout the year. Three-night and four-

day package tour (which includes stay, food and sightseeing) can be booked from Delhi.

In Delhi lots of Himalayan tours and travel agencies would be ready to help you out.

From Delhi luxurious deluxe bus would take around 12-14 hours to reach Manali. As you need to climb while going it takes 2-3 hours more. Generally the buses start between 7 and 8 pm for this valley. During midnight the bus starts climbing. The valley with its twinkling houses at night appears like firefly and in the morning you can see and hear the Vyas river and roughly you travel for five hours along with the river. In this exciting journey sometimes the river is too close to you and sometimes the road is just 100 feet higher than the river. The distance from Kullu to Manali is 50 kms. Manali is a city of hotels SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 45 |

The distance between Manali and Manikarnam is 80 kms. The river banks here are famous for its religious places and hot vat.

| 46 | June 2015

but the choice is yours whether you want to stay in Kullu or Manali. But if it is too cold you are advised to stay at Kullu and it is not a very expensive city. During off-season, that is from December to April you may get a good comfortable accommodation from Rs 1000 to 2000 per day.

Manali is a city where tourists don’t come just for three-four days. Some of them stay for months and years to enjoy the natural beauty of the valley. For the tourists who wants to stay for long the city provides paying guest facilities. There are many houses available in city and villages where you can stay as paying guest by paying some nominal fee. Even if we go by the tour and travel agencies sightseeing visit will require minimum 3-4 days. So let’s keep our luggage at the hotel and start our tour in this lovely valley of Himachal.

Apart from Rohtang Pass, Rahela Phanch, Manikarnam, Kaisol Valley, Hidimba and Shiv Vaishnav Temple, Hot Fountain and vat you will find that the nature throughout the year is at its freshness.

For this entire site visit the hoteliers would provide you vehicle. Manikarnam, Rohtang Pass and local tours will take three days. The distance between Manali and Manikarnam is 80 kms. The river banks here are famous for its religious places and hot vat. Here a Shiv temple and a Gurudwara are always thronged by devotees. The boiling hot water vat is a important tourist attraction. If you put rice and lentils in small bundle cloth it just takes five minutes to cook. The langar (the lunch and dinner at Gurudwara for the devotees) is cooked in this vat. It is believed that this is a place where Goddess Lakshmi

lost her earrings and Sheshnag found it for her. Covered with white sand Kaisol Valley atmosphere appears to be completely unlocked. It specially attracts foreign tourists This lovely valley has beautiful many hotels and bungalows. While travelling to Manali if you want to stay away from cold you need to eat a lot. Potatoes and cauliflower hot paratha with tea are available everywhere. You can find restaurants and Dhabas at places where you really can enjoy the beauty of nature.

On the way to Manikarn you can see the ancient Goddess Vaishno temple situated in a small den. This small Goddess Vaishno temple has strong religious faith and belief of local people attached to it. On top of the den there is a Shiv temple. Right in front of the temple the broad Vyas river flows. 10 kms from here you will find a shawl factory where you can get good quality shawls at a reasonable rate. Rohtang Pass is situated at a distance of 51 kms from Manali which is covered with snow throughout the year and is always busy with tourist. Ice skating, tracking and fight with ice balls scene has a pleasant sight here. A road takes you at the top of it.

But during winters sometimes due to snowfall roads are blocked. At the starting of the climbing a winter cloth market is situated. If you want to enjoy fully the snow fall you need to hire winter cloth. 27 kms from Manali is Rohala fall where the water falls from a height of 100meters. This place is a great picnic spot. On the way you will find a village called Kothi which is famous for film shootings.

And yes, here is a warning: Be cautions going to Manali for honeymoon. It is possible that the nature becomes rival of your wife.

From the Press

THE HINDU TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2015

Two years after Uttarakhand tragedy, scars remain KAVITA UPADHYAY

Ukhimath (Uttarakhand) Pooja Shukla, whose 15-year-old brother died in the 2013 disaster, was teary-eyed while speaking about him.

“We are five sisters. Naman, our only brother, died in Kedarnath. He was the only earning member of our family,” Pooja said.

While Uttarakhand is slowly recovering from the June16-17 disaster when flash floods triggered by heavy rains in major rivers left over 4,000 persons dead across five districts, a sense of despair still lingers.

Ukhimath Tehsil in Rudraprayag district has 247 villages and a population of 65,000.

As the tragedy unfolded, 584 people from 60 villages died.

The tehsil now has 296 widows. The dead are mostly males, having worked either as priests or shopkeepers or hoteliers or porters.

Two years later, fast-depleting compensation amounts received after the disaster is all these widows and their families can bank on.

Living on the edge Added to this is the issue of housing.

In Ukhimath Tehsil’s Simi village, displaced people started residing in tents and tin sheds set up after the disaster. Two years later, many people continue to reside on the same piece of land that is sinking and is highly prone to landslides.

Pooja, from Luani village in Ukhimath, shifted to another village – Deoli-Bhanigram -- after marriage.

While the mood is one of despair in Ukhimath, the Deoli-Bhanigram gram sabha, which is 60 km from Kedarnath, is slowly emerging as a model village.

The gram sabha with nine hamlets and a population of over 2,000 has 32 widows.

The Sulabh International Social Service Organisation adopted the gram sabha under the Sulabh Help Programme in August.

The organisation, which supports widows and abandoned women in Varanasi, offered the financial support to the gram sabha. Sulabh International gives widows and unemployed youth Rs. 2,000 each every month, children get Rs. 1,000 each. The aid will continue for five years.

At present, 190 villagers, including widows, are receiving training in sewing and computers. The aim of the non-government organisation is to impart basic skills to the villagers so that they can fend for themselves.

Bhawana Tewari, who learns sewing at the training centre in Deoli, said, “I am yet to complete the training, but what good has come about so far is that we can stitch clothes for ourselves. With little more training we will be able to earn for ourselves and our families.”

Widows and children participating in a prayer meeting to mark the second anniversary of flash floods at Deoli-Bhanigram near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand on Monday. The tragedy made the village a ‘village of widows’.– Photo: PTI

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 47 |

MumbaiMirror

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015

WRAPPED IN WHITE, WITH A PRAYER FOR THEIR RIGHT

By Shantanu Guha Ray in Vrindavan In Vrindavan and Varanasi, thousands pray for early passage of the Widow Protection Bill.

In the heat and dust of temple-crammed Vrindavan, hundreds of widows gathered in a semi-constructed home close to the Yamuna on Tuesday to push a bill that would guarantee protection and encourage a reverse journey to dignity from this holy town.

The demand coincided with World Widows Day, ratified by the UN to address poverty faced by 300 million women - half of them war widows -across the world.

The little over 25,000 widows of Vrindavan were joined in spirit by hundreds of widows in Varanasi, who signed a similar demand note for their Member of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The women, most of who live on a daily dole of Rs 10 and 150 grams of rice and 50 grams of pulses, raised slogans in Hindi and Bengali, saying they would not sing holy songs for over six hours a day to seek the dole.

They said they wanted respect, honour and above all cash to lead a life of dignity.

That will happen only if the Indian government introduces the Widow Protection Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament starting next month. The proposed bill is drafted by Bindeswari Pathak, the world’s largest toilet maker whose one-home-one-toilet program is the current toast of Modi’s Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan.

“Widows of Vrindavan and Varanasi will travel to Delhi next month to meet the PM. They must lead a new life,” said Pathak, who was asked in 2012 by the Supreme Court - in response to a PIL - if his organization, Sulabh International, would be able to feed these women in Varanasi and Vrindavan.

The bill’s clearance by Parliament will be a lifesaver for India’s estimated 40 million widows. Among them is Manu Ghosh, 92, who came to Vrindavan as a 17-yearold widow from Bengal 75 years ago. She was lucky not to be pushed onto her husband’s funeral pyre, but was virtually thrown out of her home by her in-laws. “I would not like to beg anymore,” said Ghosh, who knows she may not be able to return to her home in Bengal | 48 | June 2015

because “a world changes in the three quarters of a century I have been away from my village.”

Sulabh International spends an estimated Rs 20 lakh per month for 100 widows @Rs 2,000 per month, but Pathak calls it a “drop in the ocean”.

The Magsaysay Award winner says he is hopeful the widows will be able to start lives afresh.

Inside the crowded ISKCON temple, priests hailed the move. “This will change their lives, the face of the city. They are Vrindavan’s darker, less loving sight, their lives pitiable,” said Swami Vrishbhan. “They are pushed out of their homes by those who want to prevent them from inheriting family money or ancestral property.”

Last year, the BJP’s MP from Mathura, veteran actress Hema Malini, got hold of the wrong end of the stick when she urged the widows to return to their home states and not “crowd Vrindavan”.

Pathak said the bill will be answer to all criticism revolving around the widows.

In Varanasi too, scores of widows prayed for success of the early passage of the bill in Parliament, ruing how they were cast out of their families after their husbands died. “I travelled hundreds of miles to reach here, I was told I could live with women like me, and remain safe,” said Parulbala, 72. A mother of three, Parulbala’s sons were instrumental in pushing her out of home; she was ostracised and considered inauspicious. She still does not quite know why. In Varanasi, she was among thousands who renounced the world to follow a spiritual path, but she said she was “a reluctant one”. “There were many like me, rushing to Varanasi, and Vrindavan because they had no hope,” she said.

Parulbala, who joined others at Varanasi’s Assi Ghat for the pledge, said she was happy to hear the government could restore her dignity. In halting Bengali, she said: “I will thank the PM if this happens.”

Distinguished Guests

28 May, 2015 Dr. Vijay Kumar Jatiya, Senior General Manger, Shin Nippon Koko Co. Ltd, and Mr. Koji Matsunami Vice-President, YMP – Mundus Corporation, Japan, watching the different designs of Sulabh two-pit pour-flush compost toilets while on a visit to the Sulabh Campus.

The Sulabh toilets have been designed in such a way that even the richest and the poorest can afford them.

30 May, 2015 A group of nine students from ITI, Dheerpur, while on a visit to the Sulabh Campus being shown the various sections of the Sulabh Vocational Training Centre, including the typing section

01 JUNE, 2015 Mr. Manoj Tripathi, IFS (2000 Batch officer of Karnataka Cadre), Private Secretary to Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Ms. Abbie Brown, Ms. Angharad Evans, Ms. Harriet Capewell – Student Interns from UK attended the Sulabh Prayers in the Morning Assembly Hall at Sulabh Campus.

01 JUNE, 2015 Mr. S.K. Mahapatra, GM and Head CSR, Mr. P.K. Jain, Manager, CSR and Mr. S. Shukla, Assistant Manager, CSR, DS Group, Noida visited Sulabh accompanied with Ambassador Mr. Deepak Vohra, Special Advisor to Prime Minister Lesotho, Guinea Bissau and South Sudan to get themselves familiarized with different technologies of Sulabh International as part of their CSR project and they were quite impressed after they saw the cost effective Sulabh’s sanitation models and biogas generation system from public toilets

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 49 |

Distinguished Guests

03 JUNE, 2015 Mr. Tamichi Niania, Chairman, Mr. Hiba Tach, Member, Ms. Giogi Moriam, Member, Ms. Tamichi Yaniang, Member and Mr. Risso Suba, Member from Rural Development and Heritage Society from Arunachal Pradesh, while on a visit to Sulabh Campus.

05 JUNE, 2015 Mr. Kamlesh K Mishra, Creative Head, Saransh Television, looking at a ball made of dried human excreta recovered from Sulabh toilet pits which had no odour at all, during his visit to the Sulabh Campus.

08 JUNE, 2015 Ms. Sarah Enciso, University of Notre Dame & Ms. Candace Ward, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, United States, were amazed to know when they learnt how elephants are being trained to sit like a human on the giant white toilets, which can be flushed by pulling on a rope with a gentle tug of the trunk, at Chiang-Mai, Thailand as their droppings were dirtying the roads mainly at sea beaches, through a picture displayed inside the Sulabh Toilet Museum.

They found the Sulabh technologies quite informative while on a visit to Sulabh Campus.

10 JUNE, 2015 Mr. Sandeep Kumar, South Asia Correspondent alongwith Ms. Tanya, Reporter, Ms. Natasha, Director and Mr. Andrew, Cameraman from Russia Today Documentary in the Sulabh Museum of Toilets during their visit to the Sulabh Campus.

| 50 | June 2015

11 JUNE, 2015 Ms. Cecilia Scott, MIT graduate from United States while on a visit to Sulabh Campus, observing the Sulabh technology of generating biogas from human waste used for different purposes like lighting lamps, generating electricity, cooking etc.

16 JUNE, 2015 Mr. Rajesh Raj, an eminent poet and writer was felicitated with a bouquet and showl in Sulabh Prayer Hall during his visit to the Sulabh Campus, he delighted the audience there with his song ‘Main Abhinandan Karoon Hridaya se.’

19 JUNE, 2015 Mr. Makoto Kajiwara, Senior Editiorial Writer from `Nikkei’, a leading Economic Newspaper from Tokyo, Japan while on a visit to Sulabh Campus being shown the Sulabh technology of treating domestic waste water through Duckweed plants by a Sulabh Scientist.

26 JUNE, 2015 Mr. Mohan Das Nayar, Dy. General Manager (Vending Business) HLL Lifecare Limited, U.P. and Mr. Anil Sharma, from Vendsure Marketing while on a visit to Sulabh Campus.

SULABH INDIA June 2015 | 51 |

Sulabh News from States

JHARKHAND Dhanbad

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he newly-elected Mayor of the Municipal Corporation, Dhanbad, Hon’ble Mr. Chandrashekhar Agrawal and the Deputy Mayor. Mr. Ekalavya Singh were felicitated recently by the associate members of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Jharkhand State Branch.

Jammu-Kashmir

Udhampur Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, IAS, District Development Commissioner, inaugurating the Sulabh Toilet Complex in Udhampur with Mr. Anil Kumar Singh, Hony.

Controller, Sulabh standing by his side

| 52 | June 2015

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Sulabh Toilet Complex built at a cost of Rs. 6.40 lakh in the Municipal Corporation Campus, Udhampur, was inaugurated on June 17, 2015 by the District Development Commissioner, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, IAS, in the presence of CEO, Municipal Corporation, Mr. K.K. Chalotra, officials, citizens and workers of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, Jammu & Kashmir State Branch.

Dr. Choudhary appreciated the work of Sulabh and instructed the CEO and the

Tehsildar, Udhampur, to get more toilet complexes built in other areas of the city. Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary has been felicitated as the best officer of the year by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi.

Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal

Bhoomi Poojan being performed by Hon’ble Bhopal Mayor Mr. Alok Sharma and Hon’ble Mr. Rameshwar Sharma, M.L.A. for laying the foundation stone of the Sulabh Public Convenience Centre at Ambedkar Nagar

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he foundation stone for the construction of deluxe Sulabh Public Convenience Centre at a cost of Rs. 15 lakh in collaboration with the Bhopal Municipal Corporation was laid at Ambedkar Nagar, Kolar, on May 31, 2015 by Hon’ble Mayor Mr. Alok Sharma and Hon’ble Mr. Rameshwar Sharma, M.L.A. in the presence of Mr. Rabindra Yati, Councillor, esteemed citizens and Sulabh workers.

The centre will have separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents.

The front view of the Sulabh Public Convenience Centre at Bharat Nagar

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new Sulabh Public Convenience Centre built in collaboration with the Bhopal Municipal Corporation was inaugurated on June 3 at Bharat Nagar, Bhopal, in the presence of workers of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, M.P. State Branch. The centre has separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents and will be operated and maintained by Sulabh on pay-and-use basis for a period of 30 years.

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new Sulabh Public Convenience Centre built in collaboration with the Bhopal Municipal Corporation at Gidwani Park was inaugurated on June 7 in the presence of citizens and Sulabh workers.The centre has separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents and will be operated and maintained on pay-and-use basis by Sulabh.

The front view of the Sulabh Public Convenience Centre at Gidwani Park

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Sulabh News from States

The front view of the Sulabh Public Convenience Centre at Minal Residency

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new Sulabh Public Convenience Centre built in collaboration with the Bhopal Municipal Corporation at Minal Residency, Bhopal, was inaugurated on June 1 in the presence of citizens and workers of Sulabh. The centre with separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents, will be operated and maintained by Sulabh for a period of 30 years.

The front view of the Sulabh Public Convenience Centre at Shaitan Singh Market

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new Sulabh Public Convenience Centre built in collaboration with the Bhopal Municipal Corporation at Shaitan Singh Market was inaugurated in the presence of citizens and workers of Sulabh. The centre with separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents will be operated and maintained on pay-and-use basis for a period of 30 years.

Indore

The front view of the Sulabh Public Convenience Centre at Khajrana Ganesh Mandir

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new Sulabh Public Convenience Centre built in collaboration with the Management Committee, Indore, at a cost of Rs. 25 lakh at Khajrana Ganesh Mandir was inaugurated by Mr. Akash Tripathy,

Collector, Indore, in the presence of Mr. Rakesh Singh, Commissioner, Indore Municipal Corporation, Mr. Manish Singh, Administrator, Management Committee, Khajrana, Mr. Ashok Bhatta, Head Priest, Khajrana Ganesh Mandir, esteemed citizens and Sulabh workers.

The centre with separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents will be operated and maintained by Sulabh for a period of 30 years.

Dewas

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new Sulabh Toilet Complex built in collaboration with the Dewas Municipal Corporation at a cost of Rs. 20 lakh was inaugurated at Dewas on June 10, by Hon’ble Mayor Mr. Subhash Sharma in the presence of Mr. Suresh Vyas, Executive Engineer, Municipal

The front view of the Sulabh Toilet Complex at Dewas

Corporation, esteemed citizens and Sulabh workers.

The complex with separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents will be operated and maintained by Sulabh for a period of 30 years.

Ratlam

The Bhoomi Poojan at the foundation-laying of the Sulabh Toilet Complex at Ratlam Nehru Stadium

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he foundation-stone for construction of a twelve-seater deluxe Sulabh Toilet Complex to be built at a cost of Rs. 19 lakh at Nehru Stadium, Ratlam, in collaboration with the Ratlam Municipal corporation was laid on June 9 by Hon’ble Mayor Mrs. Sunita Yarde in the presence of Mr. Ashok Porwal, Chairman, Municipal Corporation, Mr. Arun Rao, Sabhapati, Councillors, citizens and local Sulabh workers. The complex will have separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents.

The Bhoomi Poojan at the foundation laying of the Sulabh Toilet Complex at the Ratlam Collectorate

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he foundation-stone for construction of a twelve-seater deluxe Sulabh Toilet Complex to be built at a cost of Rs. 19 lakh in collaboration with the Ratlam Municipal Corporation was laid at the Collectorate, Ratlam, on May 26 by Hon’ble Mayor Mrs. Sunita Yarde in the presence of Mr. Ashok Porwal, Chairman, Municipal Corporation, Mr. Arun Rao, Sabhapati, Councillors, citizens and Sulabh Social workers. The complex will have separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents.

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Sulabh News from States

RAJASTHAN Jaipur

Hon’ble Mr. Kalicharan Sarraf, Minister, inaugurating the Sulabh Toilet Complex at Ramniwas Bagh, Jaipur The front view of the Sulabh Toilet Complex at Ramniwas Bagh, Jaipur

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seven-seater Sulabh Toilet Complex built in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Jaipur at a cost of Rs. 26 lakh near Ramniwas Bagh, behind Albert Hall in Jaipur was inaugurated by Hon’ble Mr. Kalicharan Sarraf, Rajasthan Minister for Higher Education,

Hon’ble Mr. Arun Chaturvedi, Minister inaugurating the Sulabh Toilet Complex at Collectorate Campus, Jaipur

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he seven-seater Sulabh Public Toilet Complexes built in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Jaipur at Collectorate Campus and at Satish Chandra Circle, Malviya Nagar in Jaipur were inaugurated on June 15, 2015 by Hon’ble Mr. Arun Chaturvedi, Rajasthan Minister for Social Welfare and Empowerment, in the presence of Hon’ble

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on May 31, 2015. Present on the occasion were Hon’ble Mr. Ramcharan Bohra, M.P., Mr. Nirmal Nahata, Mayor, Mr. Sanjay Bhardwaj, Deputy Mayor, Mr. Sanjay Jain, Town Chairman, Bharatiya Janata Party, Mrs. Shweta Sharma, Councillor, officials and Sulabh workers. The complex has separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents. It will be operated and maintained by Sulabh for a period of 30 years on pay-and-use basis.

The front view of the Sulabh Toilet Complex

Mr. Ramcharan Bohra, M.P., Mr. Nirmal Nahata, Mayor, Jaipur Municipal Corporation, Mr. Manoj Bharadwaj, Deputy Mayor, Mrs. Nirmala Sharma, Councillor, officials and esteemed citizens. The complexes have separate provision of toilets, urinals and bathing facility for ladies and gents and will be maintained and operated on pay-and-use basis for a period of 30 years.

Inauguration of the Sulabh Toilet Complex by Hon’ble Mr. Arun Chaturvedi, Minister, along with Hon’ble Mr. Ramcharan Bohra, M.P, and Hon’ble Mr. Nirmal Nahata, Deputy Mayor

The front view of the Sulabh Toilet Complex at New Atish Market

five-seater Sulabh Toilet Complex built in collaboration with the Jaipur Municipal Corporation at New Atish Market, Jaipur, was inaugurated on June 23 by Hon’ble Minister Mr. Arun Chaturvedi in the presence of Hon’ble Mayor Mr. Nirmal Nahata, Hon’ble Mr. Ram Charan

Bohra, M.P., Mr. Manoj Bharadwaj, Deputy Mayor, Mr. Bhawani Singh Rajawat, Councillor, esteemed citizens and Sulabh workers. The complex with separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gents will be operated and maintained by Sulabh on pay-and-use basis for a period of 30 years.

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Sodala

Hon’ble Mr. Arun Chaturvedi, Rajasthan Minister, with Hon’ble Mr. Ramcharan Bohra, M.P. and Hon’ble Mr. Nirmal Nahata, Mayor at the inauguration of the Sulabh Complex

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n eight-seater Sulabh Toilet Complex built at Sodala, in front of Ajmer Road Sevayatan built in collaboration with the Jaipur Municipal Corporation was inaugurated on June 23 by Hon’ble Mr. Arun Chaturvedi, Rajasthan Minister for Social Welfare and Empowerment, in the presence of Hon’ble Mr. Ramcharan Bohra, M.P., Mr. Nirmal

The front view of the Sulabh Toilet Complex

Nahata, Mayor, Mr. Manoj Bharadwaj, Deputy Mayor, Mrs. Sharada Vijaivarghiya, Councillor, esteemed citizens and local Sulabh workers. The complex with separate provision of urinals, toilets and bathing facility for ladies and gent will be operated and maintained on pay-and-use basis for a period of 30 years.

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Sulabh News from States International Social Service Organisation Rajasthan state Branch. The complex will be operated and maintained for a period of 30 years by Sulabh on pay and use basis.

Inauguration of the Sulabh Toilet Complex

by Hon’ble Mr. Mohanlal Gupta MLA. The front view of the Sulabh Toilet Complex

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new Sulabh Toilet Complex built at a cost of Rs. 14.0 Lakh in Chandpol Anaaj Mandi campus, Ward No. 63 under Legislator’s Local Area Development plan was inaugurated on June 27, 2015 by Hon’ble Mr. Mohanlal Gupta in the presence of officials of the MLA. Zila Parishad, Chairman of Chandpol Anaaj Mandi Vyaapar Mandal, councillors and associate members of Sulabh

UTTAR PRADESH Sitapur

Dr. A.K. Pathak, Hony. Controller Co-ordination presenting Sulabh memento to Chief Guest Mr. Lal Bihari Pandey, District Magistrate, Sitapur

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Mr. Lal Bihari Pandey, District Magistrate, Sitapur at the foundation laying cermony of the Naimisharanya Chakrateertha Toilet Complex

he foundation stone was laid on June 29, 2015 for construction of a ten - seater Sulabh Toilet Complex at Naimisharanya Chakrateertha in District Sitapur under Tourism Sector in the auspicious presence of Chief Guest Mr. Lal Bihari Pandey IAS, District Magistrate, Sitapur, Mr. Shivendra Pratap Singh, Chief Development Officer, Sitapur, Mr. Rajesh Krishna IPS S.P. Sitapur, Mr. Ravindra Rai District Panchayati Raj Officer, Sitapur, Mr. Rajendra Prasad Yadav, Regional

Tourist Officer, Hon’ble Pujariji of the nearby temple, workers of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, U.P. State Branch, and esteemed citizens of the area.

In his short speech Mr. Lal Bihari Pandey, appreciated the achievements of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation and said, for the success of “Swachch Bharat Abhiyan” Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder, Sulabh, has created many landmarks in the field of sanitation.

World June 5, 2015 World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on 5 June to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet Earth. It is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

It was started by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 on the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began.

On occasion of World Environment Day Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi planted a sapling at his official residence at 7, Race Course Road, New Delhi.

Ocean Day June 8, 2015

World Oceans Day has been unofficially celebrated every 8 June since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Since then it has been coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project with greater success and global participation each year.

World Oceans Day is an annual observation to honour the world's oceans, celebrate the products the ocean provides such as seafood as well as marine life itself for aquariums, pets, and also a time to appreciate its own intrinsic value. The ocean also provides sealanes for international trade. Global pollution and overconsumption of fish have resulted in drastically dwindling population of the majority of species.

ISSN: 2230–7567

R.N.I. Regn. No. 49322/89

International Widows' Day International Widows' Day was introduced to address poverty and injustice faced by widows and their children in many countries. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2010 and is observed annually on June 23.

ISSN: 2230–7567

june 2015, ` 20/-

YOGA GOES GLOBAL

The Prime Minister is on the forefront of the global yoga campaign, leading a large number of men and women on the India Gate (June 21), showing them by doing how to do yoga which is both temporal and divine.