Despite the success of the Swachh Bharat Mission, there is a need for a paradigm shift in the approach to slum sanitation in Mumbai
When India announced Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) 2.0 in October 2021, it had exceeded most mission targets. India built 62.88 lakh individual household latrines (IHHL) against the target of 58.99 Lakh, and 6.37 lakh community and public toilets were constructed against the targeted 5.08 lakh. In an exceptional success story, thousands of India's cities became open defecation-free (ODF), ODF+, ODF++, and 14 cities earned the distinction of being “Water Positive”. While these claims can be questioned when one witnesses the ground reality—as revealed by the National Family Health Survey 2019-21 (NFHS-5)—there is no denying that SBM has single-handedly enhanced sanitation access to people and cleaned up India considerably.
However, the reality brought to light by NFHS-5 gets significantly amplified when one looks at it from the lens of the situation prevalent in the slums in Mumbai. According to the latest available Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) ward-wise data, Mumbai has over 8,000 community and public toilet blocks with nearly 80,000 toilet seats—with the ratio heavily skewed in favour of men.
Only 28 percent are connected to the municipal sewerage system, 70 percent depend on the archaic septic tank/soak pit model for faecal disposal, and 78 percent have no guarantee of water supply.
These conveniences cater to the city's nearly 56 lakh slum population. Of the 8,000 blocks, 14 percent are constructed and owned by BMC under the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project, 5 percent are built by BMC and managed by community-based organisations (CBOs) under the World Bank-initiated Slum Sanitation Programme (SSP), and a voluminous 65 percent of toilet blocks are constructed by the state's housing authority Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and owned by none. Of these, only 28 percent are connected to the municipal sewerage system, 70 percent depend on the archaic septic tank/soak pit model for faecal disposal, and 78 percent have no guarantee of water supply. While all MHADA toilets are poorly built load-bearing structures with no water supply by design, 3 percent depend on tankers and another 3 percent fetch water from wells. Of the total community toilets blocks in slums, 58 percent have no electricity, a safety concern that renders them unusable at night, especially for women and children. The 750-odd SSP community toilet blocks have a toilet seat-to-user ratio of 1 toilet seat to 190 users. This overwhelming load is reduced by those who use the 30,000-odd free-to-use MHADA toilets, who can afford the private pay-and-use facilities; and those who continue to defecate in the open, though their numbers have significantly dwindled. Going by SBM’s specifications of one toilet seat for 35 males and 25 females in urban slums, Mumbai currently faces a shortfall of over 33,000 toilet seats. It is not surprising, therefore, that over 40 percent of Mumbai's slum households do not have individual toilets. But what remains a cause of concern is that 23 percent of all urban households dependent on community toilets in India are in Mumbai. The city also accounts for 40 percent of all urban households dependent on such shared sanitation facilities in Maharashtra.
The SSP, a participatory project that initially showed immense potential, is now evidently wilting under its own pressure. It has failed to deliver the promised “ownership” of the community toilets through the symbiotic participation of CBOs, users-slum residents, and civic authorities. Consequently, the increase in SSP toilet blocks has not translated into substantial gains for the communities. Existing policies and sanitation models have also created a booming toilet economy, and, in the process, their implementation has suffered from immense political meddling and corruption. But, in the context of Mumbai, it is much worse. It's not just a question of access to sanitation; it's about life and death.
Several community toilet blocks are ticking time bombs because of poor maintenance and no desludging for years, leading to explosions.
Toilet disasters in Mumbai have taken 27 innocent lives,[1] including those of six children, since 2013. The toll is much higher if one accounts for toilet-related deaths across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Most of these deaths have happened because of structural collapses, plunging toilet users to their deaths by drowning in the septic tanks. Several community toilet blocks are ticking time bombs because of poor maintenance and no desludging for years, leading to explosions. Such inhuman tragedies with predictable regularity indicate that they are no longer mishaps. They are systemic crimes against humanity that must no longer be tolerated.
While the SBM's thrust on IHHL is reduced to an irrelevant policy guideline in the context of Mumbai, a large quantum of access to IHHL in India can be resolved by just focusing on providing individual in-home toilets in the slums of Mumbai. Ironically, Maharashtra has constructed the second-highest number of IHHLs under the SBM, with over 7 lakh built by January 2020, after Uttar Pradesh, which is leading with nearly 9 lakh IHHLs. While the provision of community toilets has proven to be largely insufficient to cater to Mumbai's enormous slum population, over-dependence on the model has spelt misery for the elderly and women. Worse, the approach to slum sanitation in Mumbai has never factored in the unique needs of women and children. Almost by custom, children are made to defecate in the open, right outside their slum dwellings. This scenario has led to severe health challenges, as revealed by an ORF study on malnutrition in slums in 2015-16. Children defecating in the open showed a higher propensity of being underweight and stunting.
While the provision of community toilets has proven to be largely insufficient to cater to Mumbai's enormous slum population, over-dependence on the model has spelt misery for the elderly and women.
Clearly, the lack of sanitation is not a symptom of poverty but a major contributing factor.
Given SBM’s irrelevance to Mumbai, there is a need for a paradigm shift in the approach to slum sanitation in the city. First, the BMC and state government must encourage, incentivise, promote, and prioritise individual toilets in slums. That is the only sustainable and fool-proof remedy. Though the BMC announced its “One-Home-One-Toilet” scheme in September 2015, it has remained an unfulfilled promise. The biggest bottleneck to its implementation is technical unfeasibility because of insufficient space and congestion, which makes laying sewer lines difficult, even without site visits. Incidentally, the comprehensive study conducted by ORF, ‘Jaayein to Jaayein Kahaan: Finding answers to nature's calls in Maximum City', released in February 2017, revealed that 83 percent of slum residents in the city are willing to construct a toilet without any financial support or subsidy if the government provides sewage disposal facilities. Given the enormous demand and willingness for individual toilets, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai must explore innovative and customised sewage disposal mechanisms that can break this logjam. Besides being its obligatory duty, the country's richest municipal corporation owes this humanitarian gesture to the millions of industrious people who contribute immensely to the city's economy and growth.
Given the enormous demand and willingness for individual toilets, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai must explore innovative and customised sewage disposal mechanisms that can break this logjam.
Second, the government must immediately end MHADA's role, which contributes to 65 percent of toilets in the city, as they have been reduced to pits of squalor and decay. Additionally, political funding to build community toilets is nothing but a populist gimmick. The condition of the toilets constructed through these political funds is inferior, accident-prone and does not serve the needs of the people. The state must establish a regulatory mechanism for using local area development funds of elected representatives in the sanitation sector. The elected representative concerned must be held accountable for the upkeep of the facilities for 10 years after the construction. Last but not the least, the government must include sanitation services under the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act to prioritise the construction of IHHLs in slums across Mumbai.
Dhaval Desai is a Senior Fellow and Vice President at Observer Research Foundation
[1] Compiled by the author from news reports.
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Dhaval is Senior Fellow and Vice President at Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai. His spectrum of work covers diverse topics ranging from urban renewal to international ...
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