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How UN-hygienic can India get?
Published on Sat, Nov 11, 2006 at 08:38, Updated on Sat, Nov 11, 2006 at 10:36 in India section
Tags: UNDP, Sanitation , Lucknow
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Lucknow: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development report has ranked India 126th out of 177 countries.
The village well in Machar Khera village, only 10 km away from Lucknow is not the principal water source for the villagers, as it has now turned into a garbage-dumping site.
Sanitation is unheard of in this village as in two-thirds of the Indian countryside.
“Colony main koi suvidha nahi hai to gandagi kahan jayegi. Raat main parishani hoti hai ki udhar se kutta na kaat le (There is no facility in the colony so where should the garbage be dumped. It becomes difficult at night for there is fear of a dog may biting you),” says a villager, Anarkali.
The villagers don’t just battle with the dogs for survival, but they cohabit with the pigs, the carriers of the encephalitis disease.
The water bodies are more like cesspools. The slush that has gathered for months has become dirtier.
The UNDP report says that India spends eight times more on its military might than on water and sanitation.
However, a villager Savita says, “Na nali hai, na light hai. Hum log do saal se likh kar de rahe hain (There is no drain here neither is there electricity),”
Local authorities blame the villagers for the state of affairs The villagers have converted the open fields into lavatories, just like many in major part of the Indian hinterland have done.
For generations, there has been no change in the attitude of the villagers. The same tradition has been passed on to the children.
The slushy path cutting across the village only shows that development work in most of India is really not moving at all.
Sanitation and water supply in rural India are in a sorry state of affairs.
With inputs from Anumeha Chaturvedi.
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