When former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh complained, with characteristic pithiness, that there were "more temples than toilets" in India, he sparked a political storm with Hindu nationalists. But he also put his finger on one of the country's most stubborn problems. Decent sanitation is far from a given: only 14% of the rural population have access to a latrine, and diarrhoea kills 1,600 people a day, mainly children. "This is not just a public health problem", says Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, Distinguished Fellow at TERI. "It's a human rights issue." Public education programmes can help, but they stand more of a chance of making a difference if there are public toilets too.
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