[naanalla]

Indian here. Yes population is the biggest problem for us.Which naturally leads to many problems like this one.

* I agree with author this is absolutely true for slums like Mumbai. (But does not apply to whole India. Second tier urban areas scenario is not this bad ) * I agree that in most of rural area practice open defecation.

In general whey open defecation is in practiced,

* Since we have too many people even one bathroom in rural area per home is not sufficient(seriously) * Attitude of people towards cleanliness.

IS GOVT DOING SOMETHING FOR THIS?

* Yes lots of schemes have come(more than 10-20 years back and still continuing) in its slowly picking up. * The best scheme in my state(Karnataka)the govt is paying Rs 7000/- for each house to encourage them to construct toilet from 'gram panchayath'. * Thanks to media and celebs who are getting involved more these days.

Yes we have problem, we need to solve it.

[ragsagar]

Can they construct decent toilet with 7000 Indian Rupees. A truck load of sand costs more than 7000Rs.

[srisa]

Can they? I don't know. What I know is that you don't need a truck load of sand to construct a toilet.

[killerpopiller]

imho the overpopulation needs to be adressed the chinese way. I don't think that throwing tech at it will solve the problem. I remember vaguely, that one indian gov. wanted to sterilize slum inhabitants and wasn't reelected.

[userulluipeste]

The population is not a problem, the population is a resource. Of course, to be (more) valuable (than it is now) it has to receive some attention/investment. The sterilization of people that possess the potential of growing and becoming beneficial to society is, for the society as a whole, a form of self-mutilation.

[killerpopiller]

I agree to certain degree, but the indian pop.growth is just not sustainable. Closing the eyes doesn't make it go away: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:India-demography.png

[krichman]

Are you writing that they should have been pro-sterilisation? They could just round up and shoot all the slum inhabitants so they wouldn't need to wait an entire generation to be rid of them.

[killerpopiller]

china has a one-child-only policy since 79. I thought that this is known http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy

[lostlogin]

Is this for India? Or the world? I'll assume you mean world as that's somewhat less harsh and less NIMBY. Alternatively, education, good government and a decent economy and birth rates fall. And there is then the bonus of no fascist/pseudo communist population control bent.

[devdas]

Globally? It took a few decades for Europe (criminalise poverty, ship the poor to the US/Canada/Australia), and lose most poor people in a couple of wars, followed by a giant injection of foreign funds for reconstruction.

India doesn't have the luxury of colonies, and emigrating from India is far harder than emigrating from mid-nineteenth century Europe was.