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From the ramparts of Delhi's 17th-century Red Fort, Modi vowed that his administration was on track to meet its pledge of providing power and toilets to every household across the world's second most populous nation.
Modi drew praise in his first August 15 speech in 2014 as he tackled often taboo issues such as sexual violence and a lack of toilets, promising to build one for every household within four years.
"Today I can say that in such short time, more than 20 million toilets have been built in India's villages and more than 70,000 are free of open defecation," Modi said to loud applause.
Open defecation has long been a major health and sanitation problem in India, where almost 594 million people—nearly half the population—defecate in the open, according to UNICEF.
Modi has stressed the need to clean up India since storming to power in 2014 and has repeatedly urged every household to have a toilet to end the spread of disease and illnesses such as diarrhea.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday August 16 2016, @04:41AM
We here in the West take sanitary plumbing for granted, but this is one of the most important pieces of a functioning civilization. The amount of disease caused by lack of sanitary facilities in India is staggering, to say nothing of the knock-on effects such as having entire sub-castes of people forced to literally shovel shit all day. There's a heavy social dimension to this in addition to the obvious issues of disease and sanitation.
Oddly, the early cities at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa seem to have had a very good grip on hydraulics; apparently there was a huge public bath and a system of running water and canals for the public there. I wonder what happened, and why the Dravidian people lost this knowledge...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @05:13AM
Here in the West, homeless people live under bridges and try to time their bowel movements to coincide with the hours that public toilets are available to them, but when they can't hold it in, they literally shit in the streets. Only rich people have the luxury of taking plumbing for granted. The rest of your Western society knows firsthand how dysfunctional your civilization really is.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @10:29AM
I am watching this play out not far from where I live.
Since this last financial turnaround, a growing number of homeless have been created in out city. Many have lived here since birth, but fell for the financial shenanigans of the 2008 crash. So, the city has been letting them erect their tents along the riverbed.
The homeless have been resorting to a few antics that have made them unwelcome at the local fast-food eateries. One thing they do is loiter near the counter, and take whatever comes up, and get their hands on it "by mistake" so hopefully they will simply make another for the customer who had already paid for it. ( That one happened to me, caught me by surprise. ). I have seen a lot of really blatant "soda stealing". C'mon now, the restaurant offered free ice water and cups to anyone - customer or not, and they use that hospitality to steal beverages?
Another thing is they need to use the washroom for exactly that... that's the only place around they can take a bath!
So they tie up the washroom for maybe 30 minutes at a time with their personal hygiene needs. Well, doing that takes time, and many of these people displaced by the real estate banking crowd were formerly neat, clean people. Forced by foreclosure into this lifestyle.
Others are bitter and dishonor the washroom, from simply making messes to deliberate vandalism.
To counter this one, the restaurant two days ago installed electromagnetic locks on the bathroom doors and are closely monitoring who they will admit to the washrooms.
This whole mess seems so pointless, yet I know a lot of the homeless got that way because of:
* Did not have good parents who taught them how to survive
* Misuse of Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco, Weed
* Divorce. Men seem to be really prone for this one.
* Stupidity/Greed... falling for TV Pitchmen who provide "free seminars" on how to get rich quick, and
* People who just got old and are simply not as desirable as the younger ones.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Thursday August 18 2016, @03:42AM
The real problem is that there is no support system for men in your society. As a man if you are not sacrificing everything all your life then you slowly end-up on the street. I am surprised by the hatred you show for homeless men in your comment. They are occupying washrooms, realy? Have you ever considered pooling some money and creating a washroom for them? You do realize that almost all of those men paid taxes so that public washrooms can be built and maintained and people can be paid money?
See, this is the problem with homeless people. If they were women, several thousand NGOs will be working to provide them air conditioned rehabilitation and trauma recovery center. But because they are men, cities all over the western society are purposefully making public seats slanted or with bumps so no one can sleep on it. The value of men is in how much money they can give. Poor people can just go away where ever and just die or something, but need to stay away from your sight and your money.
The most common lamest excuse. Can't be seen "victim-blaming", can't be forced to acknowledge personal responsibility. Theory of evolution to the rescue - blame the parents!
All of those are drugs. And misuse of drugs is a psychological problem. May be if people had some other support system, they wouldn't be prone to drug-abuse? "Men don't cry, men drink" mentality could be an issue here?
How does economic meltdown prompts divorce? Please say it. Please tell us why is it okay for men to become homeless but their ex-wife shouldn't take a hit to her married lifestyle. Please say it openly. Let's talk about sexism, shall we.
Huh. Data please.
Imagine if they were women. Old women being thrown to the streets, replaced by young women. Ah, the good old days, isn't it? Except that hasn't happened ever. Do you see this connected to divorce or shall I point it out?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @05:24AM
You assume the technical definition of toilet used for propaganda purposes here is similar to your definition of sanitary plumbing, That is a dangerous assumption when it comes to government numbers.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @05:50AM
I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes were dug in Gujarat
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes
To fill the Taj Mahal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @07:06AM
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday August 16 2016, @08:06AM
Because they were not Dravidian, thanks for propagating a very old propaganda (older then WW2 and in some ways a precursor to nazi fantasy of superior aryan race).
The demise of Harappan civilization is well documented. For someone who just casually drops the (lack of) knowledge of race in an article about toilet, I find your utter ignorance of basic history suspicious.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday August 16 2016, @04:43PM
Wait, what? Granted I studied the rocks and not the people living on them, but my understanding is that the "Aryan" people (roughly "pure" in ancient Persian?) were invaders from the Middle East via the Caucasus and invaded from the north of India, driving the people who lived there further and further south.
Certainly a lot of Sanscrit SOUNDS like early Latin. Dyaus-Piter = Jupiter, Varuna may or may not be cognate to Ouranos, the whole Mithra/Mitra thing, etc. Some Hindu gods remind me oddly of the Ancient Near Eastern pantheons.
Now put your pants back on and calm down. This wasn't my major and it's been years since I did any serious reading on them.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @04:58PM
Don't worry. GP is an easily offended pussy SJW weakling. They have nothing better to do than troll the internet looking for anything that can be offensive. I honestly hope the GP dies. We will be better off without their kind.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday August 16 2016, @05:53PM
Cuban Cigar there is the precise opposite of an SJW (that is, he's still a horrible person, but due to undershooting rather than overshooting social issues). Agreed with you that he's weak though, and it's the particular kind of weakness that can't see itself. Oh well, in this world or the next he'll get his...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday August 17 2016, @03:17AM
Your understanding is based on, as I mentioned before, on very old ideas about Indian history. The why and how are extensively studied after 1980s and are part of oriental-occidental relationship.
Sanskrit bears close relationship with Classical Tamil + Vedic Sanskrit.
Vedit Sanskrit bears close relationship with Proto-Indo-Iranian.
Vedas talk about fight between good and evil, good being referred to as Arya(n) and evil as Raksha.
That is the only thing we know for sure. The racists of yesteryears were prone to take this and say - foreigners have always come to India and improved it and they imagined Aryan as an invading race of white skinned brown eyed superior race coming in India and decimating native Dravidian people and setting up better system - basically exactly what British were doing. This way they justified their rule, claiming that they were only continuing the good work that has always been done by foreigners in India.
Then Nazis ran with this theory claiming Aryans were THE pure blood and people with white skin and blue eyes are the superior race. As people married to scientific approach, Nazis didn't believe that an inferior race can be improved, but in fact mixing of race is dilution of superiority and undesirable. Rest is history.
Back to the point at hand - during Independence of India in 1947, Dravidian people (which meant people from southern part of India) were having all sort of political movements. One of these movements took this theory and started asking for Independence from rest of the India, claiming that Dravidian people have been ruled by Aryans for 4 thousand years. They didn't get much support except among people who speak Tamil, plus the British, due to whatever political reasons (won't go into either of that but it is very understandable).
The migration (and not invasion) of people speaking Proto-Indo-Iranian/Aryans happened way after Indus Valley civilization was gone. I think at least 1000 years of gap is present. But because of current political environment there are plenty of people who go around spreading this mis-information that Aryans were some sort of nomadic barbarians who ended Indus Valley civilization's well planned cities. The true reason behind the demise is the drying-up of the river along which it was set-up: Saraswati, which started flowing underground.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday August 17 2016, @05:18AM
Okay, see, THIS is what you do when someone is wrong about a factual matter :) I actually learned a few things, such as what *happened* to the river and the timescale involved. Modded up!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @04:52PM
Suspicious?
-1 pretensious SJW douche bag
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday August 16 2016, @09:46AM
Wasn't it like 50°C in the shade around Mohenjo-Daro? Maybe they had to be very careful with their precious water so that they could stay alive.
Dune Fremen in Pakistan..