Liliben Koli-Patel flashes an enchanting smile as she playfully wraps herself with her pink dupatta, when she introduces herself. But, the smile fades and she takes her gaze away when she points toward the fields on the village’s periphery which the womenfolk of Sankod use to defecate.
For a moment, Liliben is overcome by shame and anguish but quickly gathers courage to speak up on the lack of toilets, while Sankod’s other womenfolk in their colourful ghagra-cholis tip-toe towards us to make their voices count. Sankod and its adjoining village, Vasna, between 7 and 5 kms respectively, off the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway, are among the many villages in poll-bound Gujarat that have few toilets, exposing the BJP-ruled government’s claim earlier this year that the state will soon be 100 percent “open defecation free”.
'Hopes Were Dashed’
“Barring about 5 taka (percent) of houses, Sankod has no toilets. These toilets have been privately built with no assistance from the state government,” complains Bharatbhai Arjunbhai Koli-Patel who was elected sarpanch slightly over a year ago. Bharatbhai owns a wheat-grinding machine and has a monthly income of Rs 3,000.
He also owns a couple of acres of land. “I spent my own money to build a toilet behind my house,” Bharatbhai says, adding agitatedly that officials routinely “reject our applications by finding some fault or the other in the forms”.
The desperate villagers have had to shuttle between Sankod and Bavli, where the taluqa panchayat office is located, several times. However, each time they returned empty-handed, their hopes of getting toilets constructed were dashed.
As a crowd of men and women gather inside the elegant Ram temple next to the dusty and cow dung-strewn village square, Bharatbhai says:
Each time they travel to-and-from, they incur expenses. When nothing moved at the panchayat office, we gave up hopes of getting the government incentive of Rs 10,000 for every toilet built in Sankod. Nobody listens to us.
When Bharatbhai asks the women whether they have toilets at home, each of them signals – with either the wave of a hand or the shake of the head – in the negative. At 50, Samtaben Koli-Patel – Sankod is populated by Koli-Patels – runs a small kirana store, which, besides the little produce from the farm, helps run a nine-member family. “Since there is no sundaas in my home, we go out in the open,” Samtaben says, drawing her dupatta close to her face. Nitaben Sadhu, who tends to the temple and keeps the sanctum sanctorum clean in the absence of her husband, has the same complaint.
'Siding With the Sarpanch'
With about 3,000 voters, Sankod is a backwater village with a primary school but no primary health centre. The nearest hospital is in Bavla. In the panchayat elections held slightly over a year ago, Sankod got rid of the BJP sarpanch Prahladbhai Koli-Patel, electing Bharatbhai who is a Congress worker.
The near-total absence of toilets is a big issue for the villagers since it is tied up with sanitation, health and water availability which are equally critical issues for the villagers living on the edge.
The lack of toilets or people’s access to them in Sankod and Vasna villages flies in the face of the Narendra Modi government’s claim in September this year that Gujarat would be open defecation free in the “next six months”, under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. A 2015 report published by Samerth Trust, an NGO, pointed out that over 31 lakh toilets were needed to be built by October 2019 in Gujarat as part of the open defecation-free programme.
‘Swachh’ is a term that the mostly illiterate villagers of Sankod are not familiar with, though the absence of toilets weigh heavily on their mind as election day gets closer.
Under Sanand constituency, Sankod goes to the polls on 14 December. “We will go by what the sarpanch decides,” Manjuben Koli-Patel, 40, says as the young village head beams with pride. Bharatbhai’s preference is clear when he raises his palm, signalling that his vote will go to the Congress.
‘The Govt’s Claims are False’
Bavla-based social worker Jashiben Sureshbhai Rathore, who runs the Mahila Vikas Sangathan angrily contests the government’s claim that most rural areas adjoining Ahmedabad are open defecation free.
Jhoot hai (it’s a lie). Most houses do not have toilets. Government records may show that the target has been achieved, but the reality states otherwise.
Jashiben claims that a charitable organisation that built some of the toilets in and around Bavla under the Mission Mangalam programme have not been paid for six months. “There is no permanent Taluqa Development Officer (TDO). The villagers want the toilets, but the officials do not show much interest,” says Jashiben, who heads a team of over 1,200 women who have taken up the cause of achieving gender parity and rights.
While the lack of toilets and sanitation in Sankod is jarring, the village is also marked by a general neglect to cleanliness. Toddlers wallow in ankle-deep dust, cow dung and cattle urine, and most houses have electricity. Satellite TV dish antennas have become a common sight too.
Girls drop out of schools very early and are married of at an early age.
Barely 5 kms from the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway, Vasna village’s story of lack of toilets and official apathy is similar, if not identical, to neighbouring Sankod. As a crowd picks up, Jituben Koli-Patel embraces her daughter, locking her arms around the pink frock-clad girl. Like the women of Sankod, Jituben also goes out in the open to defecate.
She feels disempowered not only because her house does not have a toilet but also because she does not possess a voter identity card.
Cradling her infant son, 20-year-old Nitaben Koli-Patel, her saree pallu part-covering her eyes, says she too does not have a voter-ID card. “I won’t be able to vote this time,” she adds. Shy and reticent, Nitaben, fiddling the gold “lokyu” (necklace), says she is unlettered but would like to send her son to school.
Vasna has about 500 houses with barely 10 percent having a toilet.
“Some of us want toilets but there are others who do not,” informs Vibhabhai Koli-Patel, who works in his farm to make a living. Like Vibhabhai, Jamabhai Koli-Patel too does not have a toilet at home, and he is yet to make up his mind which party he will vote for. “There is still some time left for me to decide,” Jamabhai says, adding that the lack of a toilet will “certainly” weigh on his mind when he steps out to vote on 14 December.
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