Guwahati, Nov 19: In a bid to make Assam an open defecation free (ODF) state, and provide proper sanitation facilities, the government ensured building of toilets across both urban and rural areas of the state under the much anticipated mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, with the main aim to make the rural areas of the country open defecation free by 2nd October, 2019, by providing access to toilets to all the rural households.
An official data presented by Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Prahlad Singh Patel, in a written reply in Lok Sabha on February 10 stated that Assam has built 40,05,740 individual household latrines (IHHLs) by 2022.
The report also claimed that according to the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 97.5% of the population had access to toilets, and 91.9% of villages were maintaining ODF status in the state.
However, in recent times, the rates of incidents of water-borne and sanitation related diseases, commonly diarrhoea, has seen a sharp spike in the state. Over the years, it has been found that mostly women and children are falling prey to diarrhoea which is ultimately leading to issues like malnutrition, wasting, and stunting in women and children.
So, this ponders us to think that how far are the reports claimed by the stakeholders can be considered true? Or, what is the extent to which the residents are availing the sanitation facilities provided to them?
The harsh reality is building toilets or provision of hygienic sanitary facilities are not stopping people from relying on open defecation as a result, the problem could not been eradicated yet from the state. Factors like financial constraints and cultural anxiety that building toilet in the premises of the home can make it impure are believed to be some of the reasons behind the existing issue.
According to a data published in 2019 by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Assam witnessed 439 cases of death due to diarrhoea in 2018-19 and 2,34, 578 cases were detected in the same year. Therefore, in order to bring a change to the critical situation, the government of Assam launched the Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight (IDCF) programme on May 28, 2019 with the aim to attain zero child deaths due to childhood diarrhoea.
The programme extensively targeted all under-five children along with their mothers/ care-giver children under the age of five who are suffering from diarrhoea. The strategy of the IDCF programme includes— improved availability and use of ORS and zinc in the community. Secondly, facility-level strengthening is needed to manage cases of dehydration, and lastly, to enhance advocacy and communication on prevention and control of diarrhoea through Information, Education and communication (IEC) campaign.
However, no inputs about it have been established so far from National Health Mission (NHM) Assam on the successful implementation of the programme and how the situation has improved so far.
In fact, the officials of NHM and Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) have denied to provide any data-related information about the issue after repeatedly approaching them, except a consultant from NHM, who assured that the situation has progressed so far since the implementation of the programme.
But the question remains, how far has the grim situation of the state improved?
In order to curb out the situation, the government must need to keep a check on the situation and identify the root cause of it, one of which is considered as open defecation. Besides, reports suggest that breast feeding can be one of the methods of treatment for children under the age of five or below, along with the consumption of ORS and zinc during the diarrheal episode, which is proven to help them recover faster.
Apart from the measures, it is also necessary to stop the ill habit of open defecation and adopt a hygienic approach to stop contamination of water and the spread of disease. However, the critical scenario will only change if people make a conscious effort to understand the plight and adopt necessary steps towards it.