~Binaya Kasajoo~
Translation : Dr. S. G. Tenzin
This is not a satire on development but a true incident.
Some years back, an international organisation provided service-latrines for every locality under the aegis of Health and Hygiene program. But the latrines were left unused for many days after the construction of the latrines. When asked as to why they were not enthusiastic to use these amenities, the villagers unequivocally replied that they were not used to such latrines and moreover they felt suffocated within.
After hearing their opinion, the organisation worked out a plan. Whosoever made use of the latrines would receive a reward of one rupee per use. The villagers were jubilant and started using the latrines. The organisation too felt satisfied and happy over their success. But hardly a month had passed when the villagers once again stopped using the latrines. A fact-finding group was once again commissioned to visit the village. The villagers while admitting that the scheme did fetch them some gains in small resources, said that the loss they had to incur was relatively more than their profit. The reason being that their pigs who were growing weaker and leaner by the day, for want of sufficient supply of farcical nutrient had to be fed with fodder for which expensive grains had to be bought from the market.
Nevertheless, the organisation in a bid to save the face of their scheme from abortion and failure, charted out another scheme of distributing fodder for the pigs. The villagers started getting rewarded with free fodder for the pigs in return for their cooperation in using the latrines.
After a few days, the organisers were once again back to square one. The villagers stopped using the latrines once again. A team was constituted to investigate the matter. The fact-finding mission was met at the village by a few villagers who very politely said, “sir, we know that your organisation’s name was mentioned in the radio news for having constructed latrines in our village. We are also happy to see our pigs thriving on the fodder provided by you. All this is really nice. But can you please tell us how do we benefit by using the latrines?”
(Published in “Face to Face” magazine for development, No.16. July – Sept., 1998.)
(Source : Writer’s Blog)
