Table of ContentsIntroductionCausesConsequencesResponsesRecommendationsIntroductionThe title of the book “Where is India Going” in itself is a witticism. When you pick up this book and read the title and then the summary at the end, the subject of the book is very clear. The authors have literally explained, using simple statistics, what the Swachh Bharat Mission slogan “Swachhata is everyone's business” means. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay The book's authors Diane Coffey and Dean Spears initially sought to understand the reasons behind the Human Development Index (HDI ) India's catastrophic infant mortality. (IMR), under-5 mortality rate and stunting of Indian children. They kept coming back to an important factor in their research: the problem of open defecation in India. They then focused their research on finding the reasons for this relevant problem. They established the Research Institute for a Compassionate Economy in India to take the research to its logical conclusion. The book begins with a foreword by eminent Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton, who explains how although the Indian economy is a star performer when it comes to GDP. Per capita, Indian adults are still among the smallest in the world. He says "it is an intellectual headache for the economy and for global health, but for Indians themselves it is an ongoing catastrophe." (page xi, paragraph 2) The book is introduced by the story of one of the inhabitants of the village where the authors began their research. It lays the foundation for the rest of the book and provides some sort of reasoning for the research. Briefly, the introduction details the subject of the book, by chapter. The book is divided into three parts: causes, consequences and responses. Causes In the second chapter, the authors expose the conundrum of the cause of open defecation in India. They list general perceptions as to why people choose to continue defecating in the open, as follows: It may be due to poverty. This may be due to lack of drinking water. This may be due to illiteracy. This may be due to poor governance. This is certainly due to lack of access to latrines. The reasons listed above have been demolished one by one by showing on a descriptive graph how countries in a similar situation were faring with open defecation . All research has highlighted the issue of caste and the idea of ​​purity as a determining factor in open defecation. The third chapter further details how the idea of ​​purity is what drives people to continue defecating in the open. The authors refer to an article by Anand Teltumbde which states that “Indians throw waste on the ground not only out of laziness but also to assert their superiority over Dalits. After all, it is Dalits who are supposed to clean public spaces.” (chapter 3, p. 59, paragraph 1) The fourth chapter covers the logistics of making a dry pit latrine and cleaning it once full. The chapter explains the difference between the latrines recommended by the World Health Organization and the latrines commissioned by the Swachh Bharat Mission, where the latter were much more expensive and much larger than the specifications of the former. The authors realized that in other countries, dry latrines were physically emptied by hand. In India, this would be like going back to the days of manual scavenging. If anyone is found engaging Dalits in such work, it will be punishableof a punishment. Most people, despite having got latrines under the Swachh Bharat Mission and its predecessor programme, refuse to use them because in the long run they do not want to worry about cleaning the toilet. the pit. However, the authors were incredibly surprised when they met this person who took the trouble to clean his own dry latrine. He uttered a very relevant sentence: “When untouchability has disappeared, the country will be free” (chapter 4, p. 90, paragraph 2). One of the authors presented the quantitative data while noting that "...indeed, villages where a higher fraction of people reported that a member of their family practiced untouchability are the same villages where a higher fraction highest number of households defecating in the open” (Chapter 4, p. 91, paragraph 2). Consequences The fifth chapter talks about the results of people who continue to defecate in the open. It is someone else's feces that causes diseases in a person. They talked about germ theory and how the world has evolved since then and people are living longer lives. In India too, people are living longer thanks to medical advances, but the children who survive do not necessarily grow optimally. Their size is stunted, their cognitive abilities are stunted. The authors again made comparisons between children in West Bengal and Bangladesh and showed how the height graph of children who are in a similar economic situation fare differently, with Bangladeshi children being taller. They also explained how the parasites present in the feces when they enter the child's body, attach themselves to the intestine and consume the nutrients that ideally should have been used by the child for physical growth and growth. mental. The sixth chapter deals with the economy. consequences of open defecation. They cited research that showed that taller people are much smarter and therefore tend to earn more. If the government invests in tackling the problem of open defecation, it will in return get more money in its coffers since the population as a whole will earn more. The seventh chapter talks about the people who actually need latrines: the disabled, the elderly, and the elderly. young women (who would otherwise only be allowed in the dark or in company). Women happily agree to defecate in the open, otherwise they find themselves confined within the confines of their homes. People hold tightly to the idea that open defecation is beneficial because they believe that the outdoors will cure all ills. Answers The eighth chapter elaborates on the viability of the Swachh Bharat Mission, since its inception. They even discussed previous plans to combat open defecation and the commitment made by the current Prime Minister. Although the plan looks very good on paper, its actual translation into action is far from reality, as there is a huge gap between what the government has planned to invest to achieve results and what is happening on the land. The authors also mentioned how the government focuses on building toilets and providing data on that and not on actual toilet usage. Most village level actors who are responsible for building such toilets are more interested in bribes than in achieving meaningful results. Additionally, there is no compelling data collection, as there is no investment to equip the people needed for digitalization..