Kabita’s Mission-Sanitation for all

Open defecation is a reality even in present-day Odisha, although much has changed for the better over the years. Kabita Nayak, a homemaker, toiled hard over the past 30 years to help build toilets as well as educate others on the need for them in every house

Anytime I hear of a woman raising her voice, be it against domestic violence, dowry, livelihood or sanitation, it makes me really happy. But I am particularly close to the cause of sanitation because I have felt the shame of having to go out to relieve myself in the open fields. It is one of the most degrading realities of an Indian woman’s life,” says Kabita Nayak, 47, a homemaker who has fought against open defecation for the better part of her married life.

Around 30 years ago, when Nayak was 16, she was married off to Ganesh of Sagada village in Nimpada block of Puri district, Odisha. For this daughter of a government servant, who had always lived in towns, the idea of starting her new life in a small rural hamlet was not quite appealing though she made up her mind to give it her best shot.

But when the morning after her wedding a few local women came to her doorstep to ask her to come with them for open defecation, she was completely taken aback. She couldn’t believe that her in-laws did not have a toilet at home. “Even though I came from a traditional home, I never had to face the indignity of relieving myself in the open. So imagine my horror,” she recalls.

Bitterly disappointed with her fate, for the next four days Nayak refused to eat a morsel and decided to go back to her parents’ home if her husband did not agree to get a toilet constructed right away. But her new family didn’t understand her demand and her neighbours mocked her by calling her a “foreign daughter-in-law”.

So, she left her marital home for a few weeks. “While my parents had no problem with my being there – my father was, in fact, quite taken aback when he heard there was no toilet in my husband’s home. So instead of running away from the situation, I thought I would go back and try to talk to everyone about the problems that arise from open defecation,” she narrates.

Initially, after she got back to Sagada, she tried to reason with her in-laws and husband, who were simply unable to understand her seemingly “unnecessary demand” because “it was not our culture to make a toilet within the living quarters”. Her request was completely sidelined even as she faced numerous difficulties. “I decided to tackle the problem from the outside and then maybe it would have a positive impact in my household, too,” she elaborates.

This was in the early 1990s and there was a non-government organisation working in Sagada on securing agricultural rights of the locals. So Nayak decided to approach them for assistance, but that attempt did not work out. For the next few years, the determined woman brought up this matter at every public meeting in the village. Yet, all her concerted efforts bore no fruit.

Then quite suddenly things changed for the better - and it all started with her father giving her some money to buy a small piece of agricultural land. “I told my husband and father-in-law that I wanted to use the cash to construct a toilet and they did not raise any objection. I still remember the year was 1996,” she says.

When Nayak started work on building the toilet there was a lot of curiosity in the village. People would drop in to see what was being done. “Once the toilet was complete, other women came over as they had never seen one in their life,” she says.

Even today, there are thousands of girls and women in rural Odisha who do not have access to a toilet. Open defecation makes them vulnerable to not just several infections but they are also at risk of getting snake bites. “Of course, the one fall out that no one talks about but everyone fears and faces is the threat of sexual assault and violence. Young girls in particular complain of this but it was not discussed openly,” reveals Nayak.

From 2007 onwards she showed women how her life was better thanks to a toilet. Going into Sagada’s dalit basti to persuade them to change their ways proved difficult. “When I thought of speaking to the dalit community, the upper caste women became very upset. But I follow my instincts and never back down if I know I am doing the right thing,” she shares.

Today, every one of the 800 households in Sagada has at least one toilet each for women and men! In addition, they are also recycling the waste water as advised by Nayak. “Every week, there is a meeting held in the ‘kothaghara’ (hall) where all the women sit together to talk about health issues. I have told them about creating kitchen gardens and planting banana and papaya trees near the septic tanks in the home and they aid in extracting the water out of the waste,” she informs.

Ultimately, for Nayak, toilets signify dignity for women. “I tell everyone that if you respect women and want to show them you care then get a toilet constructed,” she concludes.