“It is health that is wealth not pieces of gold and silver.”-Gandhi

I wrote this four years ago but noticed that it was not published and had “disappeared”. For those that haven’t seen it before, it was this visit that inspired us to come back and work at Manav Sadhna.

More people in India have cell phones than toilets. The Toilet Garden was listed as #61 in the guidebook “101 Things to Do in Ahmedabad “, under the heading “Flushing Diversions“. Yes, there is one, I am not joking.  During our family visit to Delhi we didn’t have time to visit the Toilet Museum so we thought we would make up for this lapse.

It is located inside the Environmental Sanitation Institute compound on the grounds of Gandhi’s former ashram. Founded in 1955 by Ishwarbai Patel, better known as “Mr. Toilet”, there are thirteen varieties of toilets displayed in a lovely garden.

Gandhi was horrified that one caste of people, the Harijans, formerly known as the “Untouchables”, were responsible for going around to the villages and collecting the waste. “Mr Toilet” distributed more than 30,000 toilets, and now 55% of the population have sanitary facilities , up from the previous low number of 8%. The garden was built in honor of this great accomplishment.

Gerald, of course posed in front of the “VIP TOILET” as well as one of the squatters.  I joked that it would be nice to have a  cafe with toilets as seats, and sure enough there was one. We sat down, had a chai, and used our toilet paper as napkins.

A figure of Gandhi was carved into a tree stump nearby and we went next door to visit his Ashram.

Manav Sadhna, an NGO that works with improving the lives of women and children in the neighboring slums has its headquarters here. Forty thousand women scrounge for garbage to sell to recyclers and these women play a vital role in the sanitation of Ahmedabad. This center is a safe haven for children to learn a skill, get basic health care and experience love and compassion. There are also various programs for the elderly,computer training , recycling and finance.  More than 9,000 people in the community are served.

What started as a lark, ended up as a fascinating and informative look at another side of India..