GANDHI, AHIMSA, HARIJANS AND PIT LATRINES

By Alleyn Diesel

Published in The Witness, 12 July, 2023

Who would expect attendance at the GMK – Gandhi, Mandela, King – Conference in June would lead to pondering the significance of excrement in our world reeling with conflict, intolerance, desecration, and climate extremes?

One of the speakers at the Conference was Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, internationally-acclaimed sanitation specialist who in 1970 founded the Indian-based Sulabh International Service Organisation, working through education to promote human rights, eco-friendly sanitation, waste management, alternative sources of energy, and social reform.

Pathak’s commitment to Gandhian ethics led to his sharing and assisting in fulfilling Gandhi’s dream to uplift the most destitute and integrate them into the social mainstream.

As a devout Hindu, Gandhi extended the cardinal virtue of “ahimsa”, non-injury in thought, word and deed, to “satyagraha”; the strength engendered from truth-seeking, empathy and active non-violence –“soul-force, pure and simple.” “The eradication of the desire to injure or kill – infinite love, which also brings infinite capacity for suffering.”

Ahimsa, requiring reverence for every living creature; thus concern for the wellbeing of the entire planet.

This solicitude for all creatures great and small, from the most powerful to the weakest, motivated his passionate concern for those relegated to the lowest level of the caste system of Hindu society; so-called Untouchables – Outcastes, indicating their perceived polluting nature to all other members of the human race. These dehumanized, social rejects, he renamed Harijans, “Children of God”: saying, “Untouchablility is a soul-destroying sin, Caste is a social evil.”

This state of total exclusion, humiliation and shattered humanity is symbolized by their relegation to the status of Manual Scavenging: the manual removal, carrying in baskets or sacking, of human excrement deposited in open defecation along railway tracks, open drains, river banks, septic tanks or latrines – carried on their heads; frequently depositing it several kilometres away.

The hazardous nature of such occupation invariably causes severe health problems: respiratory infections, typhoid, cholera, skin and blood infections, skeletal disorders, and burns from contact with toxic chemicals. Even in 2018 it was estimated that there were still approximately five million “sanitation workers”; 50% of them women.

Gandhi denounced such heartless exploitation of fellow humans, Harijans, protesting against their exclusion from public wells, roads, schools, entry into temples, continually urging those of the upper castes to turn their hearts from the “sin of untouchability”. He engaged in cleaning toilets to draw attention to the plight of the sweepers – demonstrating the boundless nature of the concept of ahimsa – spreading knowledge of satyagraha, encouraging his followers to join him in non-violent action to secure a dignified life for even the most debased members of society.

He revealed his conviction of the essential union of ahimsa and satyagraha: harbouring no anger, not reacting with violence or insult to the opponent by retaliating to assaults. Consistently holding on to truth, demonstrating by direct action, and civil disobedience, the force generated by non-violence. The potency of satyagraha is linked to the inseparability of means and ends: one may not resort to unjust means to obtain justice; nor to using violence to conquer violence.

Thus Gandhi said: “It is clear that without ahimsa it is not possible to seek and find Truth. Ahimsa and Truth are so intertwined that it is practically impossible to disentangle and separate them.”

It is well-known that these Gandhian principles, were later employed by Dr Martin Luther King, American Baptist minister and civil-rights leader who used non-violent resistance and peaceful mass protest to oppose state discrimination against blacks. And Nelson Mandela, who after spending 27 years imprisoned by the apartheid regime, became the first President of a democratic state, making concerted attempts to forge reconciliation with his previous adversaries.

In addition to such internationally-recognised influences of Gandhian ethics, within India many have benefited from the wisdom of the Mahatma.

Dr Bindeshwar Pathak was born in 1943, in Bihar, north India, into a family of high-caste Brahmins, where his grandfather, as a teacher and disciple of Gandhi, joined the struggle for freedom from British colonial rule in India.

In 1964 Pathak graduated in Sociology from the Banaras Hindu University, going on to gain a masters and then a PhD degree from the University of Patna. His social activism began in 1968 when he joined the Bhangi-Mukti scavengers’ support group of the Bihar Gandhi Centenary Celebrations Committee, and began travelling throughout India to live with and learn about the suffering endured by these families. Out of sympathy evoked by their torment, believing this ongoing dehumanising practice was having a destructive effect on the development of modern India, he resolved to take action by using their experiences as part of his PhD research.

Using Gandhian concepts of ahimsa and satyagraha, he established the Sulabh International in 1970 – an organisation with about 50 000 volunteers. Like Gandhi, Pathak realised that to improve the lives of the poorest, and integrate them into a flourishing social structure, it was crucial to construct safe, hygienic, and dignified waste disposal systems to approximately 700 million people compelled to go into the open to defecate in fields, roadsides, railway tracks. Lack of toilets impacted far more radically on the wellbeing of women than men, as they were obliged to wait until after sunset or before daylight to venture out, running the risk of being physically assaulted or encountering snakes or other wildlife, as well as causing health problems.

It was obvious that until a toilet system was provided which did not require manual cleaning, the situation would not change.

So, his most innovative sanitation invention, transforming the lives of millions, is the twin-pit pour-flush compost toilet, composed of a pan with a steep slope requiring only one or two litres of water to flush, and a seal to close off the trap. Pipes lead to two separate pits, with soil at their base – only one of which is used at any time. When that pit is full, it is blocked, and the second pipe opened to receive waste. After about 18 months the contents of the first pit have converted to dry, odourless soil, safe to be used as high-quality compost, rich in phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. A truly organic bio-fertilizer, containing nothing harmful to any aspect of the environment.

In this way, human waste is managed on site in an eco-friendly, culturally acceptable and affordable fashion. Even the poorest can construct such toilets with local labour and materials. Sulabh has devised numerous options, and there is no patent on the designs.

One of the most important features of this system is that it reveals human excrement as a valuable resource, ecologically sustainable. But, excitingly, further development of this technology has produced biogas, using the gases produced by decomposing organic matter such as agricultural waste, manure – both human and animal – and plant material. This biogas can be used for cooking, heating and generating electricity – even to drive vehicles. Not only is this fuel being widely used in India, but has been adopted extensively in China, as well as in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

Pathak started building toilets adjoining many homes; then in public areas all round India – adjacent to bus and train stations, markets, schools, hospitals, near pilgrimage spots. Biogas generated from these public toilets is used to light these places at night.

Furthermore, the liquid waste from biogas is completely safe for use in farming, watering pubic greens – maidans – producing no greenhouse-gas emissions, nor polluting rivers, lakes or dams.

In 2019 Sulabh International was awarded the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year by the Government of India.

Those South Africans who keep abreast of current news will be aware that our country has many schools and rural villages where no safe, private latrines are available (The Witness 6 July). This disrupts the lives of thousands of young girls, grappling with puberty, reluctant to attend school for several days every month – particularly when obliged to share the same unhygienic facilities with boys, lacking all privacy. Recent estimates revealing that over 3300 schools still rely on open pit latrines and no running water. These appalling conditions resulting in numerous deaths annually, as small children slip and drown – toxic fumes causing dizziness and loss of consciousness.

It is, therefore, particularly auspicious that Dr Bindeshwar Pathak was able to attend this landmark conference at this time. His ideas put into practice in this country could radically improve the lives of millions; significantly contributing to alleviating the climate crisis.

At the Conference I was fortunate to be given two most informative booklets recounting the remarkable achievements of Bindeshwar Pathak, inspiring me with his tenacity, empathy and inventiveness.

So, it is most gratifying to note reports by David Gengan, Chairperson of the Pietermaritzburg Gandhi Foundation, who with the Humanities Institute at the University of Kwazulu-Natal was responsible for organizing the Conference, that talks have commenced with the University’s School of Agriculture, Earth & Environmental Sciences to implement Pathak’s systems as a solution to our toilet crisis. Gengan said, “This is a very important partnership which we want to roll out to our rural communities. We want to bring Dr Pathak here to train people, but if we can’t bring him here, the Indian government said that they will send some people across to India to be trained there.” Adding that the promotion of solar energy would be included in the training program. (Press Trust of India, June 11, 2023)

About a century before the work of Bindeshwar Pathak, in 1858, Victorian civil Engineer Joseph Bazalgette reacted to the crisis created by the “Great Stink of London” when the uncontrolled sewage polluting London streets caused several devastating cholera epidemics, ravaging the population. He designed and supervised the installation of over 1800 kms of huge sewerage tunnels, radically improving the health and general wellbeing of the inhabitants of that great city – much of the system still in use today, although presently being modernised.

From the sewers of London, to the rural villages of India and South Africa, the health of our planet depends on how we treat the essential waste products of our living creatures.

Pathak’s genius reforges the South African Gandhian connection we are privileged to share: that the Mahatma’ s moment of enlightenment on the Pietermaritzburg station in 1893 motivated his passion to uplift and empower those oppressed and excluded by unjust social structures. Inspiring followers, such as Pathak, to devote their energy and compassion to challenge the dehumanizing effects of racial, social, religious and sexual discrimination.

Following in Gandhi’s footsteps as truth-seekers, striving to assist every human to claim their right to a flourishing life in a more equitable world – and leave behind us footprints in the sands of time.