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Improvements in Bhopal’s landscape are now more striking than ever as the city’s slum areas get a much needed facelift. Local communities’ and an NGO’s efforts have proven fruitful—newly built toilets and tap stands in households and schools allay the practice of open field defecation. |
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Fourteen-year-old Asha Gaur is preparing for a marriage ceremony and is colored in turmeric—the color for the occasion. But before leaving, she checks the latest addition to her home at Satnami Nagar, one of the oldest slums in Bhopal. She has a new toilet.
Change came to Asha’s locality and five other slums when Aarambh, a local nongovernment organization supported by WaterAid, began helping residents to build low-cost toilets. Households contributed 2,000 Indian rupees (approximately US$46) and Aarambh gave each family a toilet bowl and four bags of cement. “Most of the people who opted for these toilets did the construction work themselves to keep the costs down,” says Aarambh Project Coordinator Deepankshi Dighekar.
Aarambh has also supported toilet construction in schools whose facilities were unusable because of poor upkeep. So far, they have built about 54 toilets. They have also helped to improve water supply at Satnami Nagar by building more tap stands. Before, people who start fetching water at noon had to wait until evening for their water containers to be filled. Now, the area has 24-hour water supply, and all puddles around the tap stands have been covered by a concrete platform.Satnami Nagar in Bhopal was not a pretty sight. Before the arrival of low-cost toilets, Asha says, “My friends and I would wait until it was dark to go to the nearby waste land half a kilometer away. Most of the time, we would have to wade through filth and always feared snakes. It was terrible during the rainy season.”
Dighekar remembers, “It was difficult to convince people to stop open defecation. Since sewage pipes were not laid properly in some previous attempts, people didn’t know what to do with full pits and were not willing to try something else.”
Even school toilets were not much of an improvement. “We had complained that the toilets were very dirty, but nobody would listen,” adds Asha, who studies at the government girls' school at Piplani.It took Aarambh almost six months of house-to-house canvassing until one resident, Baby Nanda, decided to have a toilet in her house. “It was a problem to go out and find space in the filth and with the city growing everyday, there was no privacy anywhere.” Aarambh’s project was supported by both the locals and the municipal council, which even mobilized its workers for laying down pipes in some areas.
Now, Aarambh’s hygiene educators organize regular awareness sessions—sometimes street plays and even songs—for students and their families on the value of cleanliness. “I now know we have to wash our hands after going to the toilet,” says Afsar Ali, a student.
Prior to installation of the new connection, the 12,000 residents of Satnami Nagar relied on a lone tubewell.
“Now, our family saves much time because we have both toilet and water,” says Baby Nanda, who now spends her spare time convincing her neighbors to get their own toilets. “We wanted to have toilets but did not have the money for building them, but now help is available.” 
Aarambh’s success, however, has not reached Shahin Nagar, another slum area about 15 kilometres from Satnami. Shahin Nagar has no roads, electricity, water lines or sewers. Women have to walk up to two kilometers to fetch water.
The city council has not extended its services to Shahin Nagar, while Aarambh's work remains limited to raising awareness. “We have obtained permission from the city council to work here and while the focus is on changing practices, we are also in dialogue to begin much needed construction work,” says Anup Kishore Sahay, Aarambh's general secretary.
“The Nagar Nigam (or city council) is asking for 4,000 Indian rupees per household for road, water and electricity connections,” says Nazma Bai, a resident. “We don’t have that much money.”
Aarambh’s field workers Firdoz and Fatima say they have managed to convince many residents to change their hygiene habits, but have been unable to help them with physical solutions, like building toilets.
Instead, the organization has been helping the people to set up self-help groups to support each other. Aarambh’s staff say that once the people are organized, it will not take long for them to demand basic services from the city council. And Aarambh would like to do here what they have done at Satnami Nagar.
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