Voice, not an Echo.

True stories.

Holding on to a sticky jelly leaden wrapper. When you need a candy you need a candy. I can’t wait to get down and toss it where it belongs. Just when I'm about to disembark, I see a girl, all of 19 i guess. With a backpack resting on her shoulder, a phone potentially crushing vain candies, tosses out a empty bag of chips.

I Clearly am a fool to hold on to this dainty little wrapper with sugar syrup ruining my 500rs manicure. I have two options, I can join in the party and do a little tossing of my own or I can chose to oversee the whole episode and do my bit. But I, being ME, go for the third option. Give that so called "educated girl" a piece of my mind. When am angry, you cant hold me back. Am sure that day the entire compartment heard and heard it well, that how big a problem tosses’ are to the society.

How long can you put your feet up and play the blame game. Sure the government is doing its job. May be they are inefficient,  may be they are corrupt. But you are no super star yourself. The only problem with us Indians is that we lack a conscience. A conscienceless state where people have zero accountability. India is the way it is because of WE THE PEOPLE. Period! 

For instance, I was on a kids play date with a bunch of up class women from my sons school. While coming back home we were in a carpool with the little Miss Eclass. At a traffic light she asked her son to check out the airplane in the sky, the little 4yr old tied hard to spot one, while he was distracted she tossed a little snot filled tissue out the car window. Aghast. I gave her mean disapproving looks in the rear-view. “What?” she said, I can’t let him catch me littering, what sort of an example will I be setting. Sure I could roll my eyes and keep quite with a fear of being cut out from the coveted circle. But I, being ME, had to give her a piece of my mind. 

“Don’t you think is funny how people have double standards,” I told her. If you were in Europe, then am sure you would have shoved that booger tissue in your oh-so-expensive bag and would have waited till you spotted a trashcan. But since its India, your own country, why give a damn, right? She turned red and not cause of the layers of Mac she was wearing, but  because of the embarrassment I had just caused her. Post that confrontation, I never really got invited for play dates again. But it's not like I missed hanging’ out with consciously challenged people. 

Sometimes all people need is a little reminder. A little reminder "that you need to be the change you wish to see." Speak up for to ones who have forgotten. Speak up and speak up loud so that the next time they contemplate tossing, your face haunts them from doing it. Carry a small bag. A bag that is your on-the-go trashcan. Don't treat your Country like one!

Be a voice, not an echo.

This post was inspired by the #AbMontuBolega campaign endorsed by Strepsils. You can connect with thousands of people across platforms who come together to voice their opinion about a better India. if it bothers you, speak up, or for ever shut-up and don't complain. TO CONNECT: http://www.abmontubolega.com/, Strepsils on Facebook and Twitter.

Natures call #ToiletforBabli

Its 6.30 am, 
Am in the comfort of warm porcelain. The news paper has been replaced with a swanky tab that keeps me entertained while things process. A new prompt for Indiblogger arrives.  Toilet for Babli, it reads. Every day , about 600 million people defecate out in the open. To help you put that number in perspective , its equal to the number of active What's app users around the world.

The figures make me uncomfortable. Uncomfortable because I know it’s an issue , I know it’s a problem , and I know many more privileged like me I have never even given a second though. But the problem persists and ignoring it just doesn’t make it disappear.

source

Since I am no sanitation expert I referred to Google to help me gain some insight. At first I thought that health is the only hazard posed by open defecation. I came across issues like various diseases, most notably diarrhea and intestinal worm infections but also typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, polio, trachoma and others find it traces back to open defecation.

For example, infectious diarrhea resulted in about 0.7 million deaths in children under five years old in 2011. It can also lead to malnutrition and stunted growth in children. Around the world open defecation is a leading cause of diarrheal death; 2,000 children under the age of five die every day, one every 40 seconds, from diarrhea .

Young children are particularly vulnerable to ingesting feces of other people that are lying around after open defecation, because young children crawl on the ground, walk barefoot and put things in their mouths without washing their hands.

Understandably open defecation is a ticking time bomb. But it’s not just a question of health but also a question of safety. Mainly women. The situation grim and requires attention. Women need to venture out in odd hours to answer natures call  and are just sting ducks for crime. They are robed of their productivity , dignity and their safety just because they don’t have a safe place to go. Google animal attack’s and rapes related to lack of toilets and you will be in for a shock.

  

To help you put things in perspective I have summed up startling facts and figures to give you a quick understanding of the flushed out state of women is in our country.

According to statistics,

• As of today India is short of 636millin latrines.

• On a given day women around the world with poor sanitation systems spend more time looking for a safe place to ‘go’ than the whole world spends on YouTube. Only if that time was put to better use.

• The situation is more venerable for women, as over 66% rapes in India occurred in the last decade when women and little girls were out at odd hours answering natures call and were easy victims.

• Below the moonlit sky , with beetles and crickets for company they have to venture out in the open filed to relieve themselves. But never really sure of who is watching. Who is ready to make them their next target. A wild boar, a hyena or a sick pervert. Easy prey.

The situation need attention and it needs attention now. The government and independent bodies are both doing a considerable job to make the situation better. But with a mammoth problem like this one, it need all the help it can get. Realizing this urgency the Corporate sector is coming forward as a part of their social responsibility program and making India a safer place one flush at a time.

One such commendable initiative has been take over by the leading giant HUL. Domex, HUL’s flagship sanitation brand, currently runs the Domex Toilet Academy (DTA) programme. Domex Toilet Academy was launched on 19th November 2013. It aims to become a sustainable and long-term solution to provide sanitation that benefits the local community and helps stimulate the local economy. The Toilet Academy makes toilets accessible and affordable, while promoting the benefits of clean toilets & good hygiene. Our effort has resulted in bringing the change in the villages of Maharashtra and Orissa and we aim to build 24000 toilets by 2015 in rural areas faced with the problem of open defecation.

Collectively , things can get better and you can help too. You can bring about the change in the lives of millions of women and kids, thereby showing your support for the Domex Initiative. All you need to do is “click” on the “Contribute Tab” on www.domex.in and Domex will contribute Rs.5 on your behalf to eradicate open defecation, thereby helping kids like Babli live a dignified life.

Thank you.

Babli.

Facts and figures sourced from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_defecation

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/01/girls-toilet-rape-murder-anger-embarrassment

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/01/girls-toilet-rape-murder-anger-embarrassment