It’s the toilet police! India to track WC usage with tablets in real time
An Indian team of "sanitary inspectors" will be checking the use of toilets "online." Armed with mobile devices, experts will be going door-to-door to make sure locals, many of whom prefer streets, use civilized toilets as required.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is spearheading program,
will see it swing into action next month, with
electronic-device-wielding officials uploading the results of the
inspection as it happens.
“Earlier, the monitoring was done only about the construction
of toilets, but now the actual use of toilets will be
ascertained,” the government said in a statement on
Wednesday.
Since October, the government has supplied more than 500,000
toilets to the general population.
However, many people have decided to use them as storerooms
rather than bathrooms because they believe it is more sanitary to
go to the toilet far away from the house, in the open, rather
than in it. UNICEF estimates that nearly 594 million people
(about half the Indian population) do this.
This has created public health problems and poor sanitation, both
of which Modi has pledged to tackle. In August he stated an aim
for every household to have a toilet by 2019.
“Sanitation is a mindset issue. (The aim is to) create demand by
triggering behavior change,” the government statement said.
Lack of proper toilets costs India some $54 billion every year
because of the health impact of poor sanitation.
