Two states in particular of India, Uttar Pradesh (U.P) & Bihar are the worst affected by this phenomenon. Both have very large populations and deeply entrenched caste systems that are at the root of a lot of this non-sense.
The long term solution unfortunately is only time - as the older, slower to change people die off, the newer kids start to assert them selves. Now the society needs to pour in resources for two things and two things mainly -
Education - Teach people about Germ theory, Viruses, etc (among other things) every five year old should be screaming about this stuff.
Women's empowerment - Get more women to participate in decision making (via tax incentives etc) and get them to drive the sanitation effort.
Oh, there is some thousands of years of historical perspective behind that.
Historically lower castes in India were supposed to be the people responsible for cleaning, janitorial work etc. That's more like putting it mildly, they were sort of forced generations after generations to do absolutely despicable stuff like scavenging human waste. Cleaning streets, gutters etc. What's more you are forbidden to marry outside your caste, and there was a another social disease called untouchability- which was basically you can't share the same space with the lower castes. Like religious places etc. There are some extreme instances where people weren't even allowed to walk on the same roads.
They were barred from education, or any other work of dignity.
In short the worst kind of jobs were left for the lower caste. And people expect the same to continue, now as well!
The article also mentions how a common employment of women of the lowest caste is carrying leaky buckets of feces away from the toilet area, often on their heads.
>Only dalits, the lowest Hindu caste, should be exposed to excrement in a closed space, “or city-dwellers who don’t have space to go in the open,” said Sunita, who uses one name, as she washed clothes next to the concrete latrine. “Feces don’t belong under the same roof as where we eat and sleep.”
The long term solution unfortunately is only time - as the older, slower to change people die off, the newer kids start to assert them selves. Now the society needs to pour in resources for two things and two things mainly -
Education - Teach people about Germ theory, Viruses, etc (among other things) every five year old should be screaming about this stuff.
Women's empowerment - Get more women to participate in decision making (via tax incentives etc) and get them to drive the sanitation effort.