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India

A Sitting Mission, Meet India's Toilet Man

An estimated 2.3 billion people worldwide live without toilets. Nearly two-thirds of them are in India. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, a sociologist and NGO founder, is determined to do something about it.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak is commonly known as Toilet Man
Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak is commonly known as Toilet Man
Jasvinder Sehgal

NEW DELHI — There's a celebration taking place in the small town of Marora, in the northern state of Haryana. Dozens of school girls sing. Boys shout out slogans. And at the center of it all is a huge squat toilet brought here by India's Toilet Man himself, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak.

Measuring six-by-three meters, the massive toilet is far too big for use by any human. But it does have a purpose: It's an educational tool, a difficult-to-ignore reminder of how important it is to use toilets. That's the message that Dr. Pathak, a sociologist and founder of the NGO Sulabh International, is working hard to spread in India, where according to a recent national census, one in every two people defecates in the open.

"We have constructed 1.5 million toilets in households, in both urban and rural areas," he says. "And in public spaces we have built about 9,000 toilets."

Simply put, toilets save lives, because without them, human waste is left in the open, spreading killer diseases like diarrhea and cholera, Dr. Pathak explains. They're also a priority for Indian women, offering them safety and dignity, which they lack when forced to defecate in the open, he adds.

Dr. Pathak, or Toilet Man, as he's commonly known, says decades of hard work is now making an impact, especially now that the national government, as of 2014, has committed to a "Clean India" campaign. "We have cleaned up this country," he says. "We have helped. Now the prime minister of India has this program to stop defecation in the open by 2019. Using our technology, the government has built about 70 million toilets."

Dr. Pathak's technology is what's called a "two pit pour-flush" toilet. They are ecologically sustainable, composting devices that don't even need to be cleaned. "One pit is used at a time and the other is kept stand by," he explains. "If the first one is full, we switch over to another one."

After time, the material collected in the first pit can be used for manure or fertilizer, or even used to generate energy. "The human excreta goes to a biogas digester and that is used for burning lamps or cooking food," Dr. Pathak explains. "That way it's fully recycled. We don't allow methane to go to the atmosphere, we burn it. So it helps to reduce global warming and thus prevent climate change."

Dr. Pathak is determined to share his knowledge of toilets far and wide. And he's set up a very unique place to do just that: a toilet museum, in the capital New Delhi. The museum traces the 4,500-year history of the toilet, and features exhibits from 50 countries.

"In 2014, Time magazine carried out a global survey to list the world's 10 weirdest museums. And this museum came in third," Dr. Bagheshwar Jha, the toilet museum's head curator, tells me.

The giant squat toilet in the village of Marora will eventually be displayed here, along with all kinds of replicas. Assistant curator Shikha Sharma points out her favorite one: the throne toilet, once the property of the French emperor Louis XIV. "The king had a constipation problem," Sharma explains. "He used to sit right here."

The toilet museum draws thousands of visitors every year. One of the museum goers, Raju Singh, 28, shows me his personal highlight. "It's a hilarious letter written in broken English to the colonial railway authorities," he explains. "The writer was traveling by a train, and had a strong urge to defecate but there was no toilet. His letter compelled the British authorities to put toilets on Indian trains."

India's Toilet Man has picked up where the colonial-era train passenger left off. Except rather than furnish trains, he wants to put a toilet in every single Indian home.

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

Why The U.S. Lost Its Leverage In The Middle East — And May Never Get It Back

In the Israel-Hamas war, Qatar now plays the key role in negotiations, while the United States appears increasingly disengaged. Shifts in the region and beyond require that Washington move quickly or risk ceding influence to China and others for the long term.

Photograph of U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken  shaking hands with sraeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

November 30, 2023, Tel Aviv, Israel: U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Chuck Kennedy/U.S State/ZUMA
Sébastien Boussois

-Analysis-

PARIS — Upon assuming office in 2008, then-President Barack Obama declared that United States would gradually begin withdrawing from various conflict zones across the globe, initiating a complex process that has had a major impact on the international landscape ever since.

This started with the American departure from Iraq in 2010, and was followed by Donald Trump's presidency, during which the "Make America Great Again" policy redirected attention to America's domestic interests.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

The withdrawal trend resumed under Joe Biden, who ordered the exit of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021. To maintain a foothold in all intricate regions to the east, America requires secure and stable partnerships. The recent struggle in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict demonstrates that Washington increasingly relies on the allied Gulf states for any enduring influence.

Since the collapse of the Camp David Accords in 1999 during Bill Clinton's tenure, Washington has consistently supported Israel without pursuing renewed peace talks that could have led to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

While President Joe Biden's recent challenges in pushing for a Gaza ceasefire met with resistance from an unyielding Benjamin Netanyahu, they also stem from the United States' overall disengagement from the issue over the past two decades. Biden now is seeking to re-engage in the Israel-Palestine matter, yet it is Qatar that is the primary broker for significant negotiations such as the release of hostages in exchange for a ceasefire —a situation the United States lacks the leverage to enforce.

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