Thread by @sakie339

The book "Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development and the Costs of Caste" by Diane Coffey and Dean Spears, who work at the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE) reaches bizarre conclusions and tiptoes around real issues.

tinyurl.com/4jnh6439

"Caste, if probed, will be found, along with gender, as the cause for most of India's problems– sexual violence,landlessness,poor labour laws,poverty,wealth inequality, illiteracy,maternal deaths,child deaths, poor health, open defecation, stunting etc".

"In an attempt to simplify disease transmission and by projecting stunting as a direct consequence of open defecation, the authors resort to means and methods that are problematic and likely, dangerous."

"Stunting in Indian children could be due to poor protein intake because of unaffordability of eggs/criminalisation of beef; cereal heavy government schemes; poor access to milk & milk products; India's vegetarian agenda; corporatisation of government schools & pre-schools etc."

Children who are better nourished also grow up stronger, taller, with more immunity, better able to work and likely to move to better localities as adults.

"If caste was addressed, say through reservation, people would have better living circumstances, better wages, better education, more land, more food, lesser anemia, better water quality and therefore reduced stunting. "

"Does caste operate in the calculation of poverty lines, which could be the 'real' problem? It does, but the authors don't want to say that poor nutrition, often linked to caste, could be the cause of stunting."

"A study in the Lancet found that children who received nutrition were taller by yr 2 than children who didn't, even if the 2nd group received water/ sanitation/handwashing interventions highlighting the enormous importance of nutrition in addressing stunting",

"Calories need not be the only measure of food quality. Indians with better income could be investing more in superior quality proteins such as from animal foods, which may have been unaffordable in the days of poverty, with a predominantly cereal based diet."

"Swachh Bharat should be about curbing industrial waste causing heavy metal contamination,; preventing untreated sewage being discharged; giving more teeth to the pollution control boards; getting dominant caste people to clean their own toilets; and waste segregation,."

"Manual scavenging continues to be perpetrated by a devious combination of harassment, abuse, social boycott & obstruction to upward mobility – a collusion between the gram panchayat, local municipality, police, the hospital,fire services to erase all records of death. "

"Apart from the use of toilets, aren't there differences in eating practices, culture, customs, attitude to girl children etc. between Hindus and Muslims which could contribute to a difference in child growth? Are Muslims less likely to have a son preference? "

"Are Muslim families more likely to eat nutritionally superior animal source foods? There is anecdotal evidence of better personal hygiene among Muslim mothers. Does this translate to fewer infections? Is being Muslim itself a protective factor against disease?"

"It is well known that eating sufficient amounts of animal source foods contributes to improved heights and weights. No statistical analysis has been made on how beef bans in India is causally linked to stunting (and cognitive development). "

"In the entire book there is no discussion of animal foods and how systematic caste based denial of that to communities has led to generations of stunting."

The book calls for 'sanitation senas' or 'foot soldiers' or 'swachhatadoots'. Along with "love jihad" and "gauraksha", (im)moral brigades have now taken up the mantle of Swacch Bharat. Dalit children like Avinash & Roshni become the inevitable victims, stunting or no stunting.