Assignment on Ecological Framework
Topic: Open Defecation
Village: Mangrul
Subject: Integrated social work practices
Submitted to: Mr. Manoj joseph
Submitted by: Apoorva Balakrishnan
Roll no.: T2015BASW04
Date of submission: 09/03/17
OPEN DEFECATION
Whilst open defecation causes little harm when done in sparsely populated areas, forests, or
camping type situations, it becomes a significant public health issue—and an issue of human
dignity—when it occurs in more densely populated areas.
Open defecation perpetuates the vicious cycle of disease and poverty and is widely regarded
as an affront to personal dignity. The countries where open defecation is most widely
practised have the highest numbers of deaths of children under the age of five, as well as high
levels of undernutrition, high levels of poverty, and large disparities between the rich and
poor.
Actual situation in Mangrul: Mangrul is a small village about 14-15 kms from Tuljapur.
Although the village has gained its reputation as the trade and business hub under the rule of
Nizam the village still faces a huge issue of sanitation and hygiene as there has been a
persistent water scarcity in the marathwada area and also because of many other factors. The
village has a lane particularly for open defecation where majority of the population goes for
excretion even after having toilets built in their homes when asked why the response was
because now they are habitual of going out in the open and can’t change their habits now.
I have used the medium of framing this issue in the ecological framework with various
system to classify and hierarchies the relation of various other factors impacting the villagers
and its environment.
Ecological framework
MICRO SYSTEM
New-borns: new born babies are very fragile and are more prone to get sick. They are meant
to be cared and kept safe from various diseases as they have their immunity system being
developed. They need clean environment around them so that they can play around and not
get sick.
Young children: Young children are particularly vulnerable to ingesting faeces of other
people that are lying around after open defecation, because young children crawl on the
ground, walk barefoot, and put things in their mouths without washing their hands. Faeces of
farmed animals are equally a cause of concern when children are playing in the yard.
Adolescent: As the age of adolescence nears the teens have to take proper care and
precaution of their health and be careful about themselves. As they reach puberty they need to
take proper care their health and maintain hygiene.
Families: Men tend to see open defecation as an acceptable practice that is entrenched in
their habits from early childhood. This group often choose open defecation even if there is
easy access to toilets.
Women face a great deal of inconvenience due to lack of privacy and therefore they have to
travel long distances to defecate in secluded areas, which makes them vulnerable to violence,
assault and rape.
Elderly: They are comfortable with OD and they are more difficult in terms of changing
behaviour. In exceptional circumstances such as illness, physical disability or lack of safety
they become occasional users of toilets, but they soon go back to open defecation when
circumstances change.
MESOSYSTEM
Neighbourhood: neighbourhood plays an important role when it comes to the point of
maintaining cleanliness. Here, the villagers try their best to maintain cleanliness and to make
at least their neighbourhood free from OD (open defecation), by watching one neighbourhood
other neighbourhoods also started to build toilets or go for OD in some place where it does
not contaminate the area where they live.
Neighbouring villages: neighbouring villages have a huge impact on other villages near
them. If one village starts to have better conditions and facilities which keep them safe from
getting ill/sick and is a better way the nearby villages start adapting the same techniques for
themselves.
Community: The involvement and participation of all community members through
discussion and observation to set the issue as priority and build a platform to resolve the issue
and working towards ODF villages.
EXOSYSTEM
PHC: The village had a PHC and a sub centre as well. The PHC was well established with all
the necessary facilities that can be provided in the closest proximity and if further medical
attention is needed, an ambulance has been provided for the commute.
ASHA worker/NGO’S/SHG’S: enable service providers to hold IPC sessions in the
community and persuade in favour of regular usage. Construction and maintenance of
latrines/toilets. (Includes ASHAs,NGOs, SHGs, Swachhata Doots, Panchayati Raj
Institutions , Cooperatives, Civil Society,CBOs/NSS, Sanitary Mart.)
The SHG in the village offered the members the provision to join and as time passes by
construct toilets in their household with additional facilities which included a gas subsidy, a
reduced fee payment in the school for their wards in primary school.
Hospitals and medical facilities: In the need of a hospital, the village have to commute a lot
to travel to place to get any specific medical attention. The best option they can avail is
rushing to the PHC of their village or the PHC sub-centre for immediate action in case the
problem has blown out of proportion.
Schools: Teachers guide the children’s behaviour development and educate them on
sanitation practices and proper hygiene. Also orient them on how to conduct activities that
would enable children to become channels of change and lead the sanitation cause in their
households and community.
MACROSYSTEM
Government schemes and policies: Despite considerable efforts, the approach failed to
motivate and sustain sanitation efforts as it was based on the assumption that providing
sanitary facilities would lead to coverage and usage.
A successor programme was launched, the “Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan” (NBA) in 2012. Its
objective was to accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas through renewed strategies.
Despite the efforts there were implementation difficulties as funding from different resources
caused delays.
Economical conditions of the villagers: The average per capita income is around INR
1,400. Hence the villagers are not so economically stable to construct a toilet but those who
are capable have installed a toilet but there is no water supply to sustain and practice the toilet
facility.
Gram panchayat: The GP develop and approve the possible village action plans for further
commencement of the work. The GP promotes and oversees the implementation of the
program at the village level. They receive and manage the project funds and ask for
contribution from the communities in the village as well to develop a feeling of ownership
among the people for the program in order for the program to work properly with the help of
the villagers.
Socio-cultural: The village had two Dalit basti’s one was inside the village and in the
interiors and the other one was on the outskirts of the village, the latter one consisted of
Muslim population but had proper toilet facility in most of the houses and the interior Dalit
basti didn’t have proper drainage facility and most of the residents of the village who had
enough to construct a toilet still chose to go out for OD because they considered it impure
practice to construct a toilet in household premises.
PLAN OF ACTION
As the village has some funding issues we should start with that, we should start with joining
Swachh Bharat mission which will provide basic amount that is needed to get started with the
building of the toilets.
As there is a problem of water supply in the village, we can instil upon the construction of
ECO-SAN toilets which requires less water and the excreta can be later used as manure for
plants and trees by the villagers.
Eco-san is based on an overall concept of material flows as part of an ecologically and
economically sustainable wastewater management system tailored to the needs of the users
and to the respective local conditions. It does not favour a specific sanitation technology, but
is rather a certain philosophy in handling substances that have so far been seen simply as
wastewater and water-carried waste for disposal.
The construction of these toilets is easy and does not require much time and funds to be
constructed. The excreta can be used as manure after 8-9 months of it being inside the pit.
The urine can also be used after diluting it with double the amount of water in the ratio of
1:2.This way there is no more problem of water shortage and they waste can be used.
Although we will be needing to change the people’s mentality for using the toilet properly so
that there is no wrong use of the toilet and people also need to understand that this is the safer
yet better way of defecation than open defecation.
