Bath room is a room too, and needs your best care

Bath room is as much of a room as any other. Further, the fitness of your toilet reflects the mindset and improves productivity of the inmates.

Recall an early morning scene of a train journey: passengers in queue, at the door of toilet, some occasionally knocking the doors in anxiety cursing the inmate to come out. Ditto with toilets in public places. The dysfunctional condition of many toilets due to choked outlets, lack of water inside etc. overburdens the limited facilities. Proper toilets in place would have significantly done away with the ugly scenes of people including women, squatting for relieving themselves in row on either  side of the railway tracks or highways.

Advanced thinking, as in other sectors, has not penetrated the toilet systems and clean living to a desired extent. Conceding that “No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention of the toilet,” the American statesperson Sylvia Mathews Burwell deplored that “it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world.” Sanitation is a universally admitted determinant of public health, yet hardly taken in earnest. Proper sanitation and cleanliness can effectively keep several infections and other diseases at bay. Well maintained toilets not only promote health but also provide safety and dignity to people.

The twin issues of toiletry and cleanliness are linked to individual and social health, personal habits, mindsets, and also religious convictions. In all Hindu rituals, cleansing is an essential prerequisite. Our country has fewer working toilets at home than the cell phones, and some 1.1 billion people are cursed still to defaecate in the open despite significant dent made under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched on 2 October 2014. The mission’s focus was on construction of toilets in schools and funding for same in rural households and public places. In vengeance against open defaecation by certain populations, union minister Jairam Ramesh exhorted girls, “Don’t get married in a household where there is no toilet”.

Public Toilets: Few, and Mismanaged

Reports indicate that half the toilets commissioned by government or non-government agencies were unusable, being poorly constructed or ill-maintained. Other countries with more than half the inhabitants without access to private bathrooms and safe sewage or disposal systems are Haiti, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Papua-New Guinea.

Dearth of toilets in markets and other public places constrains one to immediately attend the call of nature. Male folks somehow manage but women often face tough ordeal when outside. Health experts recommend not to withhold any of the natural urges i.e. peeing, pooping, sneezing and passing gas when the body so warrants. Curbing these natural impulses not only causes bloating and physical discomfort but also short- and long-term health complications like constipation, impaction, weakening of muscles, and in stray cases bladder bursting that can become lethal, says a known family physician Susan A. Werner. There are evidences of heart attacks and paralysis consequent upon increased pressure in the bowels when stool is retained forcefully. Urine held for long may revert back to the kidney enhancing urea levels besides creating urinary tract infection and related problems. A positive aspect of dreaded Coronavirus has been espousal of the hygienic practices & cleanliness at home and around if only out of fear psychosis. The lingering habit of regular hand washing, sanitisation of edible and other commodities, proper disposal of domestic waste and maintaining cleanliness in living and working places has been a welcome sign.

A word about the bath room: we tend to forget, it is a room too. It must not be a dark and dingy corner but a clean, well-lit room where one feels comfortable, and at ease. It is to accord a rightful place to bathroom that this year’s theme of World Toilet Day is, Valuing the Toilets. The credit of observing toilet day goes to Singapore-based Jack Sim, also known as Mr Toilet, whose initiative to dispel worldwide taboo about toilets and sanitation was later endorsed and support by the United Nations. In India, Sulabh International with wide network is doing similar commendable job.

The day raises aims to enhance awareness about role of toilets in promoting health, safety and dignity of inhabitants. Acknowledging sanitation as a major modality of public health, this day pleads to devise ways & means to ensure that 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation are educated and trained to change for the better, and help achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 i.e. water and sanitation for all by 2030.

Clean toilet means better hygiene

Yet maintaining hygiene and cleanliness has not to be a one-time affair but a part of our routine as author Meagan Francis said, “Cleanliness and organising is a practice, not a project”. Once cleanliness becomes a mindset, positive vibes proliferate all around and dispel negativity besides increased productivity in all spheres.

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The unmodified version of the article was carried by daily Orissa Post in its edit page on 19 November 2021.

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