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M2: ecosan - an Approach to Human Dignity,
Community Health and Food Security
M 2-3: ecosan and Human Dignity
K. Conradin
J. Heeb
Navsarjan
Katharina Conradin, seecon international
Dr. Johannes Heeb, International Ecological Engineering Society
& seecon international
Prof. Dr. Petter Jenssen, Department of Mathematical Sciences and
Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Dr. Ken Gnanakan, ACTS Bangalore, India
© 2006
seecon
International gmbh
ACTS
Agriculture -Crafts Trades - Studies
Credits
Materials included in this CD-ROM comprise materials from various organisations. The
materials complied on this CD are freely available at the internet, following the
open-source concept for capacity building and non-profit use, provided proper
acknowledgement of the source is made. The publication of these materials on this CDROM does not alter any existing copyrights. Material published on this CD for the first
time follows the same open-source concept for capacity building and non-profit use, with
all rights remaining with the original authors / producing organisations.
Therefore the user should please always give credit in citations to the original
author, source and copyright holder.
We thank all individuals and institutions that have provided information for this CD,
especially the German Agency for Technical Cooperation GTZ, Ecosanres, Ecosan
Norway, the International Water and Sanitation Centre IRC, the Stockholm Environment
Institute SEI, the World Health Organisation WHO, the Hesperian Foundation, the
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SIDA, the Department of Water
and Sanitation in Developing Countries SANDEC of the Swiss Federal Institute of
Aquatic Science and Technology, Sanitation by Communities SANIMAS, the Stockholm
International Water Institute SIWI, the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council
WSSCC, the World Water Assessment Programme of the UNESCO, the Tear Fund,
Wateraid, and all others that have contributed in some way to this curriculum.
We apologize in advance if references are missing or incorrect, and welcome feedback
if errors are detected.
We encourage all feedback on the composition and content of this curriculum. Please
direct it either to johannes.heeb@seecon.ch or petter.jenssen@umb.no.
K.Conradin
Conradin
K.
seecon
Credits
ecosan Curriculum - Credits
Concept and ecosan expertise:
Compiling of Information:
Layout:
Photo Credits:
Text Credits:
Financial support:
Johannes Heeb, Petter D. Jenssen, Ken
Gnanakan
Katharina Conradin
Katharina Conradin
Mostly Johannes Heeb & Katharina Conradin,
otherwise as per credit.
As per source indication.
Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC)
How to obtain the curriculum material
Free download of PDF tutorials:
www.seecon.ch
www.ecosan.no
www.gtz.de/ecosan
Order full curriculum CD:
johannes.heeb@seecon.ch
€ 50 (€ 10 Developing Countries)
petter.jenssen@umb.no
Release:
Feedback:
Sources Copyright:
K. Conradin
1.0, March 2006, 1000 copies
Feedback regarding improvements, errors, experience
of use etc. is welcome. Please notify the above
email-addresses.
Copyright of the individual sources lies with the authors
or producing organizations. Copying is allowed as long
as references are properly acknowledged.
seecon
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Women’s Dignity
• Quotes
• Addressing key needs
3. Sanitation and Caste
• Film: Lesser Humans
4. ecosan and manual scavenging
• Effects on Caste System and Scavenging
• ecosan: Effects
Scavenging
on
Caste
5. ecosan and Human Dignity
6. ecosan implemented: Reactions
J. Heeb
System
and
Introduction
 “Access to sanitation facilities is a
fundamental human right that
safeguards health and human
dignity.”
 Every human being
protection from health
(dysentery, cholera etc.)
deserves
problems
 Convention on the Rights of the
Child
 Without immediate action, number
of
people without adequate
sanitation will climb to more than 4.5
billion in just 20 years.
Source: (2)
J. Heeb
Women’s Dignity
 Girls and women wait until after dark to
defecate
→ discomfort and sometimes serious
illness as a result.
→ Danger of harassment, assault &
rape
 Girls miss out on an education if school
sanitation facilities are inadequate.
→ Impedes their rightful development
(education)
 But also sick and elderly people face
special difficulty and a loss of dignity
Source: (2)
J. Heeb
Women’s Dignity: Quotes
“I go out in open to defecate. Due to the continuous stare of men, I have to
get up again and again in between the process of defecation.” Babita, age
27, Sanjay Amar Colony, an urban slum in Delhi, India Source: (3)
“I gave birth to my children while I was living in the same jhuggi (slum).
After giving birth to the child I do not eat food for two days and so there is
no need to go to a latrine. But after two days I go to the same place in
open to defecate. When I go out to defecate my elder children do baby
sitting for the younger ones but there are times when the babies are left
alone in the jhuggi with no one to take care of them.” Miradevi, age 35,
Sanjay Amar Colony Source: (3)
Source: (3)
Gender Approach: Addressing key needs:
Major factors for a gender approach: focus on both women and men
 “Access to water is
 a fundamental human right and
 an integral ingredient in the achievement of sustainable
development and poverty alleviation.
 gender equality,
 freeing women and girls: more time for education, income
generation
 Each year, more than 2.2 million people die diseases associated with lack
of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
 Huge social and environmental health costs
 Targeting women is critical to the sustainability of water and sanitation
initiatives
 If water management is to be democratic and transparent both men and
women must have an equal say  more sustainable
Source: (7)
Sanitation and Caste
 Human dignity and sanitation:
 Manual Scavenging: practice of manually
cleaning and removing human excreta from
dry (non-flush) toilets.
 no protective equipment
 sometimes with bare hands
 Caste system: this ‘work’ is attributed to the
lowest of the low – the so called
Untouchables, or Dalits.
 800’000 scavengers in India, mainly women
Source: (4)
Navsarjan
Sanitation and Caste
Despite governmental plans, allotted resources, and
Commission, Committees set up since 1947:
– inhuman practice continues today in India,
– government bodies themselves employing
scavengers
Available data on scavengers suggests an
increase in numbers:
1989:
600’000 scavengers in India (National
Planning Commission.
1995-96: 787.000 (Ministry of Welfare)
→ increase of 31.16% in less than a
decade!
Source: (9)
Navsarjan
Sanitation and Caste
Scavenging implies serious health hazards:
– Respiratory difficulties
– Jaundice
– Cholera, dysentery,
– mental stress,
– skin diseases
– Anaemia
– Etc.
Liberation calls for:
 abolishing of dry latrines/toilets
 educational programmes
 rehabilitation programmes into
employment.
Source: (9)
Navsarjan
diversified
Film: Lesser Humans (by: Ford Foundation)
Film Document: Lesser Humans (by Ford Foundation)
Source: K. Stalin, produced by Drishti Collectives (shortened version)
www.hrw.org
Click here to open it.
ecosan: Effects on Caste System and Scavenging
Because of these
reasons, Dalits are
considered unclean
and thus untouchable.
Physical impurity
through impure jobs
reinforces their state in
the Caste System as
Untouchables, as
Dalits.
Caste System
The practice of
carrying out „filthy“
work affirms their
physical uncleanliness/impurity.
Navsarjan
Dalits are at the lowest
position of the caste
system. They are
considered impure by
birth.
Source: K. Conradin
The unhygienic job
leads to illnesses and
is thus often
physically visible.
Dalits are hereditarily
required to do the lowest,
most inhumane and filthiest
jobs, which is e.g. manual
scavenging.
ecosan: Effects on Caste System and Scavenging
Physical impurity
through impure
jobs reinforces
their state in the
Caste System as
Untouchables, as
Dalits.
Because of these
reasons, Dalits are
considered unclean
and thus
untouchable.
The unhygienic job
leads to illnesses
and is thus often
physically visible.
ECOSAN can help to abolish the
degrading and unclean practice of
manual scavenging by making it a
hygienic and respectable (socially
viable) task.
The practice of
carrying out „filthy“
work affirms their
physical uncleanliness/impurity.
Caste System
Dalits are at the
lowest position of
the caste system.
They are considered impure by birth.
Source: K. Conradin
Dalits are hereditarily
required to do the
lowest, most inhumane
and filthiest jobs, which
is e.g. manual
scavenging.
++ Dignity and Poverty
Double burden of the poor:
– poor face the pollution of their own
defecation,
– live beside water bodies that have been
released from urban sewers.
 Access to clean water and proper sanitation is
a necessary precursor to development.
 Lack of clean water and adequate sanitation
contribute to people remaining in the poverty
trap.
Source: (1)
B. Lietzke
++ Dignity and poverty
Basic issue in poverty:
– identity and dignity.
The poor often lack identity as humans, and
therefore lose their dignity.
Water and sanitation highlight this indignity even
more:
– Poor must be content with water from any
source
– No direct water supply: Women have to line
up
– Unsheltered defecation: shame
Source: (1)
B. Lietzke
ecosan and Human Dignity
 Through the construction of toilets, people –
especially women – experience more privacy and
safety.
 Moreover, with a safe toilet nearby, women do not
refrain from drinking  better health
 Improve safety: no sexual harassment
 More toilets are built in schools: Increased girl’s
attendance
 Better health status: better leaning
 Management of toilets can become a socially
accepted and profitable task
M. Kropac
ecosan and Human Dignity
 ecosan toilets can foreclose the direct handling of
human faeces.
 No need for manual cleansing  no
need for manual scavengers,
 If waste can be turned into useful resources
(compost, fertilizer): increased value  dignity of
those dealing with it will be restored.
 health benefits: people can be free from the
vicious cycle of diseases and poverty.
Source: (8)
M. Kropac
ecosan implemented
ecosan implemented: Reactions
“Undoubtedly there is immense appreciation from the people
using these toilet-facilities since they were suffering without
toilet facilities for a long period. More specifically, the women
are very grateful for providing toilet facilities. The women in
particular are very happy and content because this toilet
provides them all facilities such as water, electricity and
reliable wardens who keep the toilet in a very hygienic state all
the time. Above all women using the toilet have the assurance
of safety and security because the project is run by a
responsible organization that pays personal attention to all
aspects of this project.“
S.S. Wilsson, local project manager of a project in Bangalore, where a community
toilet block for several hundred people was built in a densely populated slum area.
END OF MODULE M2-3
K. Conradin
J. Heeb
Navsarjan
FOR FURTHER READINGS REFER TO M2-3 TUTORIAL
Katharina Conradin, seecon international
Dr. Johannes Heeb, International Ecological Engineering Society
& seecon international
Prof. Dr. Petter Jenssen, Department of Mathematical Sciences and
Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Dr. Ken Gnanakan, ACTS Bangalore, India
© 2006
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++ References
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
Gnanakan, Ken (2004): Ecological sanitation. In: Jenssen, P.D. et al (2004): Ecological Sanitation and Reuse of Wastewater – a
thinkpiece on ecological sanitation.
UNICEF
(2000):
Sanitation
for
all.
Promoting
dignity
and
human
rights.
Available
at:
http://www.unicef.org/wes/index_documents.html (Accessed 20.11.2005)
UN Habitat 2004 in: UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation: Health, Dignity, and Development: What Will It
Take? UN Millennium Project, SIWI.
SDC (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) (2004): Ganz unten in Indien. In: Eine Welt Nr. 4 / Dezember 2004: P.
22-23.WHO, UNICEF & WSSCC (2000): Global Water Supply and Assessment 2000 Report. Geneva and New York 2000: 1-80.
Evans, B., Hutton, G. & Haller, L. (2004): Round Table on Sustainable Development. Closing the Sanitation Gap - the Case for
Better Public Funding of Sanitation and Hygiene. OECD
Interagency Task Force on Gender and Water Sub-programme of UN-Water and Interagency Network on Women and Gender
Equality (IANWGE) UN Water Policy Brief 2 (2005): Gender, Water and Sanitation. A Policy Brief. Available at:
http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/un_water_policy_brief_2_gender.pdf
Webster, J. (1999): Who is a Dalit? - In: Michael S.M. (Ed.): Dalits in Modern India. New Delhi, P. 68-82.
Brücher, J., Conradin, K., Kropac, M. & M. Willareth (2005): Ecological Sanitation - A Sustainability Approach. Wich an Indian
CaseStudy on Social Aspects and a Critical Think Piece on Economic Aspects. Seminar “Socially Acceptable Technical
Innovations” with Dr. Johannes Heeb, Programme MGU (Mensch-Gesellschaft-Umwelt), University of Basel, Switzerland.
Navsarjan
(2004):
Dalit
Themes
of
Relevance:
Manual
Scavenging.
Available
at:
http://www.navsarjan.org/DalitStatus.asp?qsFPage=DALITS&qsCategoryId=45 (Accessed 30.01.2006)
(10) Gender and Water Alliance GWA (2003): The Gender and Water Development Report 2003. Gender Perspectives on Policies in
the Water Sector. Gender and Water Alliance, Delft, Netherlands.
++ Abbreviations
ACTS
GTZ
UNICEF
OECD
Agriculture, Crafts, Trades, Studies
German Agency for Technical Cooperation
United Nations Children’s Fund
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
DALITS
++ Glossary: Dalits
The word Dalit was used by the Indian human rights activist Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar as a term
for the depressed classes in India. It means ‘oppressed’, ‘downtrodden’ or ‘broken’ people.
Since the early 1970’s, the word has come into increasingly wider usage, and it is commonly
used for describing people formally known as Untouchables (8).
GENDER APPROACH
++ Glossary: Gender Approach
A gender approach implies that attitudes, roles and responsibilities of men and women are
taken into account, that it is recognized that both sexes do not necessarily have the same
access to, or control over, resources, and that work, benefits and impacts may be different for
both groups. The gender approach requires an open mindedness and aims at the fullest
possible participation of both women and men. It highlights:
 The differences between women and men’s interests even within the same household
and how these interact and are expressed.
 The conventions and hierarchies which determine women and men’s position in the
family, community and society at large, whereby women are usually dominated by men.
 The differences among women and men based on age, wealth, ethnic background and
other factors (10).