Why alluvial flood plains of north Bihar need alternative sanitation system
Flood is a recurring threat to the sustainability of open defecation free status in Bihar. Unique toilets, built on elevation, can show the way ahead
Is India really open-defecation-free? Here’s what numbers say
15% of the total population in India defecates in the open in India, according to WASH report 2021
On road to sustainability?
Many nice words, some money but no direction for real change
Sanitation workers on COVID-19 front lines: How to save the warriors?
Several incidents in the last few months have shone spotlight on abysmal conditions under which sanitation workers function — without …
MGNREGS won't subsidise rural toilets, says Gadkari
New study shows the small improvement achieved in sanitation between 2001 and 2011 not enough to improve health outcomes
Kitchen strike for toilets
Women of a Maharashtra hamlet give husbands an ultimatum-build toilets or go without food
The political economy of defecation
This is a story about Delhi and the Yamuna, about the relationship between one of India's richest cities and one of her most revered rivers. The …
Centre launches bio-toilets to curb open defecation
Around 100,000 toilets to be built in next two years in 300 gram panchayats
High altitude, high pressure
Ladakh's leadership is alive to many problems. But, challenges are not easy
Panchayati Raj: A good beginning
But will there be a place for traditional institutions in modern local self-governance?
More energy, Less wastage
Solar is Ladakh's way out of the diesel trap
Re-schooling ladakh
Eight years of reforms have turned government schools around in Leh district
An attractive Place to go
Tourism's footprint is too big for Leh's infrastructure
A farewell to farms
Ladakh survives on its farms. But can agriculture survive government policies?
Letters
No sops for rural Indian
No extra funds for MGNREGA, sanitation; allocations reduced for rural roads and housing programme
New Age Approach
We need to go back to the drawing board to reinvent a green toilet. If necessary, to go back to our past and find technological innovations that …
Drowning In Human Excreta
Sanitation for urban India means building flush toilets and linking them to sewer systems. But the price of chasing this dream is leading to an …
"Subsidy culture has killed local agriculture"
Thupstan Chhewang, Chief Executive Councillor and chairperson of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) speaks to Down To Earth.
Ladakh on the move
Ladakh is the one region in India where sustainable development is the only way ahead. Dry toilets, water efficient crops, cooperative farming, a …
Ecologically mindless
The flush toilet system and the sewage system, which goes with modern day personal hygiene and cleanliness, are part of the environmental problem …
COVID-19: How distant laws, uneven measures afflict sanitation workers
The pandemic has further aggravated the dichotomy of livelihood and safety of sanitation workers
Mission possible
The Centre gives India just about eight years to free its villages of open defecation. This seems unlikely. But the states of Sikkim, Haryana and …