About the Book
A truly interdisciplinary book, covering sanitation issues across all involved disciplines, it examines the sanitation in the context of a multiplicity of socio-cultural values and law and policy framework in India. The term ‘sanitation’, used in this book refers specifically to the safe excreta disposal and thus is uncoupled from water supply or disposal of household trash/ garbage.
India, home to a billion, faces a huge challenge in the field of sanitation. The reasons are not far to look for; rampant and indiscriminate open defecation and lack of adequate toilet facilities are responsible for such dismissal scenario. The book underlines sanitation and its myriad intersections with caste, class and gender in Indian socio-cultural context and presents a critical description of the State interventions in the field of sanitation, particularly through sanitation policies and Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). It engages with the Sulabh, a non-profit voluntary social organisation founded in 1970 by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak and its role played in the provision of appropriate sanitation facilities primarily through its ‘two-pit toilet’ technology. Uniquely specific to the Indian socio-cultural milieu is the dehumanising and degrading practice of manual scavenging intricately tied to the sanitation.
The book provides a critical overview of various initiatives taken by both the State and Sulabh International with respect to abolishing manual scavenging. The book not only makes stimulating and wide-ranging reading to the emerging discipline of Sociology of Sanitation in India but is also useful for those engaged in Development Studies, Policy Studies and Social Work.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Understanding Sanitation
3 Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Initiatives
4 Participatory Sanitation Approaches
5 Toilet: Genesis, History and Typology
6 Manual Scavenging in India
7 Sanitation in India: Issues, Policies and Programmes
8 Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) 2014
9 Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform
10 Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Bindeshwar Pathak: Common Goals and Divergent Means
About the Author / Editor
Sumit Saurabh Srivastava teaches at the Centre for Development Studies, Institute of Inter Disciplinary Studies (IIDS), University of Allahabad. He is formally trained in Sociology along with Planning and Development Studies. He is the recipient of the M.N. Srinivas Memorial Award 2015 by the Indian Sociological Society. His research area pertains to Development Studies with emphasis on gender, social exclusion and violence. Along with contributing chapters in scholarly edited volumes, he has also published in journals of repute.
