“Provision of toilets and water are great liberators for women”
AS HEAD OF INDIA SANITATION COALITION, NAINA LAL KIDWAI IS PASSIONATE ABOUT THE CAUSE OF SANITATION AND WATER. SHE TELLS US WHY IT IS TIME NOW TO DEAL WITH THESE CONCERNS.
T he first woman CEO of a private bank in India, she retired as chairman of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation India in 2015 but that has only spurred her onto greater things. As chair of the FICCI Sustainability Energy and Water Council as well as the India Sanitation Coalition (ISC), Naina Lal Kidwai is spearheading much-needed collaboration between corporate India and non governmental organisations to ensure that India does not merely reach its goal of becoming open defecation free by 2019 but goes beyond by treating its faecal waste, and creating wealth for an army of new entrepreneurs. She has poured a lifetime worth of learning for anyone who wants a cleaner, healthier nation into her new book,
Survive or Sink: An Action Agenda for Sanitation, Water, Pollution and Green Finance.
WHAT DREW YOU TO WORKING IN THE FIELD OF SANITATION?
At HSBC as Chairman India, I was also engaged in the Bank’s global CSR programme which gave me exposure to climate change and water programmes at global and local levels. The climate change agenda led me to the water agenda which led me to sanitation. When I went for the Stockholm Water Week in 2012 and subsequent years, I realised how pathetic India was, with 1,600 deaths from diarrhoea alone every day, so bad that I couldn’t even defend it though that was my natural impulse. That’s when I thought instead of cringing at the back of the hall, I should go and do something about it. In 2013, the government enacted Section 135 of the Indian Companies Act which prescribed a mandatory CSR spend of 2 per cent of average net profits. And that’s when I realised the value of the CSR funds which could also be directed into sanitation. At HSBC, a lot of our corporate volunteering was in helping microfinance companies scale up while lending them money. Chandrashekhar Ghosh of Bandhan Bank asked for help in HR practices, on how to put the right systems in place. Chetna Gala Sinha of Mann Deshi Bank needed support in livelihood and financial training of their borrowers. We identified climate change champions within the company, celebrating them at town halls and other platforms the organisation gave them. The ISC, which we formed in 2013, flowed from the realisation that NGOs, corporates, donors and government needed to work together, and chronicling best practices and replicating these. Through ISC, we were able to establish collaborations between NGOs, corporates as well as the government and document this.
DO YOU FEEL THE SWACCH BHARAT MISSION HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL?
Well, the provision of toilets has risen from 40 per cent to 80 per cent in the last four years and 78 per cent of audits done show that the district or city are genuinely Open Defecation Free (ODF). In many ways, ODF has now become part of the language of the country. But now the focus is on ODF plus—the treatment of faecal waste has become critical. Nearly 75 per cent of this sludge remains untreated and is dumped into fields, drains, lakes and rivers posing a serious threat to health. We look to achieving the ODF target by 2019 in most states—the gaps are in the two obvious states. But now, the focus is creating an ecosystem of treatment and also to make wealth from waste. The regulatory framework has to be watertight and there has to be a system of urban governance in place that aids citizen and corporate engagement and partnerships. The odd thing is that India had a tradition of wasteto-wealth entrepreneurs, whether it was the person who came to collect old newspapers, glass bottles or even plastic bottles . The collection mechanisms exist, we just have to go back to what we did well. We need to insist on segregated garbage— after all municipalities like Pune do this .
HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR ROLE NOW?
In sanitation and water, I see a meeting of my two worlds of sanitation and women empowerment. Women are at risk to their health and security because of poor sanitation. Provision of toilets and water are great liberators for women, but we need the men to change as well. I will also continue to work in the areas of green finance.
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS YOU SEE PERSISTING IN THE AREA OF SANITATION?
One is the inability of people to work together. There is a lack of collaboration. Then there is the total breakdown of governance in urban areas. We need strong CEOs of cities with powers to make things happen. There is the additional problem of a lack of municipal financing. We have examples where municipalities have made a difference. Take Sinnar, Nagpur and Pune, in Maharashtra, or Warangal in Telangana. It usually needs a strong administrator to galvanise action and get communities to work together—but why can’t we replicate these success stories on a larger level? We need wellqualified professionals to come and work in these spaces, with their hearts and minds in the right places. As I have highlighted in my book, only collectively through collaboration across players and the creation of a people’s movement can we achieve an India that is fit for our children to live in, or else we are doomed to sink into a cesspool of poor health, disease and filth. The good news is the solutions exist—we need to implement these on a war footing.