Issue 54 Vol III, December 31, 2007

F E A T U R E S

Year 2007: Rise of Asia and the End of Western Domination
Sawraj Singh

THE year 2007 made it clear that the rise of Asia and the end of western domination are the two major trends of our time. The western countries, particularly America, faced a deepening economic, social, and cultural crisis. Many people who were not convinced that the 21st century is going to be Asia’s century are now beginning to believe in this prediction. The year saw unprecedented growth of the Asian economies, increasing cooperation among the Asian countries, and growing unity of Asia.

The American dollar lost its value, and after thirty-five years, the Canadian dollar became equal to the American dollar. The dollar lost to the Euro in a big way. The Euro now is worth about $1.44 American dollars. The dollar also lost against the Asian currencies. From about 45 rupees to a dollar, now it is about 35 rupees to a dollar. The housing market fell tremendously. For the last several years, the housing market was growing rapidly. In some cities, prices of the homes were rising almost 30% a year. Many people were buying homes so that they can sell at a higher price and make a decent profit. All that has changed now. It has become very difficult to sell a house. There are a record number of foreclosures.

Things are not going well in Afghanistan or Iraq. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are getting stronger and there is escalation of violence. In Iraq, the situation is becoming more complicated and there seems to be no solution to the problem. America’s alliance with the Shia is falling apart. America is now trying to align with some Sunni tribes. The Kurds are not happy because the Turkish forces are attacking the North. In the South, the British troops just pulled out of Basra.

Compared to America, Europe seems to be doing better. However, the reality is that compared to the East, the whole West is facing decline. The European and Canadian economies also grew less than the predictions. The election of Nicolas Sarkozy, an extreme rightist, as President of France shows that Europe is going through a period of uncertainty and crisis of identity. Vladimir Putin was nominated as the “Person of the Year” by Time magazine. This clearly shows the rise of the East. President Putin has shifted Russia to the East and his recent landslide victory in the Russian parliamentary election was the result of his strong anti-West stand.

As opposed to the West, Asia showed a strong feeling of cooperation and unity. The 13th summit of the ASEAN countries was a great success. The seventh summit of the Shanghai Cooperation further strengthened relations between Russia and China as well as among the Central Asian countries. Relations are improving between Japan and China, the two largest economies in Asia. China has become Japan’s largest trade partner. Relations between the two Koreas are also improving. There has been a revival of the railway link between the two countries.

India and China, the two most populated countries of the world, are moving closer to each other. Sonia Gandhi’s visit to China was a great success. The two countries are even holding joint military exercises. The trade between the two countries is growing very fast and China is bound to become India’s largest trading partner. A trilateral alliance of Russia, China, and India seems like a distinct possibility.

[Sawraj Singh M.D. F.I.C.S. Chairman, Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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Sanitation and the caste
Gobind Thukral

IN 1972 when Giani Zail Singh became chief minister of Punjab, a journalist asked him what change at personal level he finds after heading the government. His simple reply was, “There are of good size, well furnished bathrooms. Clean toilets. I love a good bath”. He was indeed honest. This facility in his birth place, village Sandhwa near Kotkapura, did not exist. But how many Indians really have that facility even of much lower standards.

City dwellers who have had neither a past nor a present link with the rural India would wonder that majority of the 70 per cent people who live in over 5.5 lakh villages have no toilets to answer the call of nature. Roughly 55 crore Indian citizens have no access even to most primitive kind of toilets. While defecating in the open leads to host of diseases, for women and children it is particularly distressing and irksome to go the fields to ease themselves. But it may not be good culture to talk about such subjects like toilets.  It is, however, as experts tell and we know from our own experience, this is the foremost way to improve our health.

In rural Punjab, we all know lack of proper toilets make life miserable. Situation was worst some years back, but the improvement is small.  Not everyone has the comfort of this facility, very basic to our existence. It is difficult for children and women to ease themselves in the open at odd hours. For the poor and the Dalits, when spaces in the rural areas like shamlat and barren lands are scarce, it becomes impossible to go out for them. Similarly, the slum dwellers defalcate near railways tracks and roadsides to turn the whole areas into spread out latrines. Recently Punjab officers were rebuked by Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Union Rural Development Minister for boasting to be number developed state yet lag behind in basic facilities like toilets and potable water. How many homes in rural Punjab and slum dwellers have this basic facility?

The slums proliferating in all Indian cities are in themselves huge garbage dumps, with people packed together in unhygienic and claustrophobically small spaces. India is just above Afghanistan and Pakistan in sanitation indices among developing countries in the world. Even Bangladesh is above India in this crucial social index. The child malnutrition rate of 50 per cent in India is much higher than Eritrea, a small African nation, where it is only 35 per cent. Human waste overwhelms India's War on Disease. It was estimated in 2006 by the World Health Organisation [WHO] that more than 700,000 Indians die each year from diarrhoea. It is directly related to clean toilets and potable drinking water.

A jaundice epidemic strikes regularly as the annual monsoon. Those deadly diseases that afflict India can be traced to the same source: drinking water contaminated by human waste. Infected water causes an estimated 80 percent of disease in India. Poor sanitation and inadequate sewage disposal are our biggest public health problems. Imagine how many billions of working days are wasted due to sickness and how much money goes down the drain.

Now panchayat candidates in India are being asked not to stand for election if they do not have a toilet at home.  The Rural Development Minister in a letter to all chief ministers has suggested this toilet rule should be set out in law. He found too many elected members "do not have toilet facilities in their own houses and defecate in the open". This was the main cause of the high incidence of diarrhoea in areas. The minister said,” It is unfortunate that a large number of elected village council members and rural government officers do not have toilet facilities in their own houses and defecate in the open. It is essential to obtain their commitment to the sanitation agenda in view of the influence they exercise in the rural areas."

The minister admitted that more than 65% of India's rural population defecated in the open, along roadsides, railway tracks and fields, generating huge amounts of excrement every day.  It contaminates water. The minister wants the people to change their behaviour and adopt better sanitation and hygiene practices. But how? Does he have an answer? The people have little choice when their daily run is for two square meals.

Same way only 300 of the country's 4,000 cities and towns have sewer systems and many of those systems do not have treatment plants. The bulk of municipal sewage, even in major cities as Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta flows untreated into rivers, lakes or the sea. Look around Ludhiana, Amritsar and even the modern city of Chandigarh, witness the same scene stares you. We have seen close to the IT Park and just a kilometer away from the Punjab Raj Bhawan. Punjab governor gen. Rodriguez should walk to village Kishangarh and find out. It is close to two sprawling beautiful golf courses. No doubt water borne diseases are too common.

It is not that the government is not conscious. Huge funds are marked .The government  has joined private organizations in adding bathrooms to rural homes, but at the current rate of construction and population growth, it would take 200 years for every Indian to have access to a toilet. Only ten per cent houses have this facility.

 Over population and our habits have compounded India's sanitation problems. The cities of an early civilization in the Indus River valley had sophisticated sewer systems and among the oldest known toilets -- brick models that date back 4,500 years. Our caste system in later centuries changed attitudes and practices concerning the disposal of human waste. Around 1.3 million people, mostly members of the predominantly low-caste Dalit community, are involved in clearing human waste in areas where there is no modern sewage system. They are shunned by the rest of the society and are forced to work for low wages. Caste prejudice came in the way of millions of poor people finding different work. Manual scavenging is prevalent in most of the Indian states despite being banned by law.

Mahatma Gandhi was so acutely aware of this depressing condition and feeling frustrated with these religious beliefs, he launched a crusade a century ago. Gandhi defied tradition by cleaning his own toilet and urging other members of upper castes to do the same. He also criticized Indians for casually relieving themselves in the open.

Gandhi wrote in his autobiography of a 1915 visit to the Ganges. "It filled me with agony to see people performing natural functions on the thoroughfares and river banks." Little has changed in the intervening decades.

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