If the silliness of the above title caught your attention, I have accomplished my intention to get you to, at least, start to read this Blog Posting instead of taking that nap you were contemplating.
This Foolishness is not about Pooh Bear or A. A. Milne but it is about Poo. My newspaper has told me about the dilemma in India concerning Indian Poo. Are you ready for this?...
Ø Hundreds of millions of Indians don’t use Toilets and millions do not want to use them either.
Ø Since the 1980s, a whole bunch of toilets have been built by successive governments but a whole bunch of that whole bunch are simply not being used.
Ø Toilet nonuse lies at the core of India’s most-pressing health and development problems, including the spread of bacteria and viruses, diarrheal deaths and childhood stunting.
Ø It also risks the safety of women who must go outside in the dark when nature calls at night.
Ø The governmental program has added 33 million new household toilets since 2014.
Ø The toilet-building frenzy shrouds a bigger problem: many who get toilets don’t use them because they consider it impure to use indoor toilets.
Ø Others simply don’t see the need to change.
Ø One interviewee said, “I like to take a walk and do my business away from where we sleep and pray”.
Ø The government has tried to persuade families to construct toilets, promising a $180 grant for completion. Most families wanted the money first, unable or unwilling to invest in something they didn’t consider a priority.
Ø The government has threatened to stop giving toiletless residents the jobs and subsidized food guaranteed by the government.
Ø A gap in the walls of a school whose large, grass-covered grounds had become a bathroom of choice was closed by the school principal. Dozens marched to the principal’s home in protest, wielding water buckets they carry for outside duty. The protesters then demolished the wall.
Ø A local official got his police friends to stage the faux arrest of four locals he had instructed to relieve themselves outside. He said this was an attempt to strike fear into his fellow citizens. It did not work.
Ø He also rented an auto-rickshaw with a loudspeaker that went around announcing that the transgressors’ electricity supply would be cut. It did not work.
Ø In another area, teams of saree-clad women kept daily vigil around lakes and grassy fields used by goers starting at 4:30 a.m. They shouted pro-toilet slogans and blew whistles at going offenders.
An official said, “Going to the toilet has become very political. “You can’t imagine the hostility we’ve encountered.”
My dear readers, after reading this Blog Posting, I can imagine you can imagine what he said you can’t imagine.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: In preparing this posting I refrained from including this...”he understands the spirit behind such moves”. I think it shows great restraint on my part to not make a wise crack about a sentence in an article about a subject such as this that includes the words “Behind” and “Moves”.
