Highest numbers of offenders in the world are in India: UN.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: In spite of the strides humanity has made, exploring the furthest reaches of outer space and putting entire computing systems in the palm of our hands, about one billion people in the world still find it necessary to take care of their bathroom business outdoors, according to the United Nations.
A new UN study about health and sanitation conditions around the world has revealed that roughly 14% of the world practices what can politely be called “open defecation,” and the country with the highest number of offenders is India.
In fact, about 600 million Indians defecate in public, accounting for about 60% of those around the world who do so. The problem has become so pervasive on the subcontinent, that the Indian government has had to initiate a “Take the poo to the loo” campaign, to educate its citizens that it is, in fact, better to take care of their business in the privacy of a closed-off bathroom.
The reasons for doing so are numerous, and can be attributed either to a lack of facilities or just the simple convenience of going in an open area. The number of humans defecating in public has gone down since the 1.3 billion listed in 1990, and the report specifically singles out countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh for almost completely eradicating the problem of public pooping.
But the problem persists in other parts of the world. Next to India, the nations of sub-Saharan Africa total around 39 million people who have no access to toilets or sanitary plumbing, thereby forced to conduct their business in public. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, around 14% of the population defecate in public. India and these African nations, all of which have large rural populations that are stricken with poverty and cut-off from most modern resources, account for almost all the public defecation that currently takes place on planet Earth.
And planet Earth is the one that suffers the most from this. The UN has long been trying to shine a spotlight on this problem, as the presence of fecal matter in open areas can lead to significant health problems for all in the affected area. Diseases like dysentery, cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, and even Hepatitis A can spread far rapidly via fecal particles. In fact, it was the problem of open defecation throughout human history that led to some of the worst diseases and plagues, and accounted in part for why lifespans were so low until the turn of the 20th century.
The UN stated that over 80 countries worldwide have outright banned the practice, making it all the more incredible that one billion people are still doing it. The UN also said that it hopes to eliminate the problem of open defecation completely by the year 2025, just 11 short years away.