Toilets are something most of us tend to take for granted, yet they remain among the most essential elements of everyday life and human dignity. In places like Ukhrul, this simple truth reveals itself through the texture of daily experience, where basic needs are often mediated by fragile infrastructure and uneven access, shaping the rhythm of ordinary life in ways that become most visible when systems fail. We speak about everything under the sun, yet we rarely pause to ask a simple question: why do we overlook the most basic sovereignty of the individual, the right to live with dignity in the smallest acts of everyday life?
My own life here moves within three pursuits, which have shaped not only my routine but also my understanding of the society around me in a deeper and more reflective manner. I teach in a college, I engage in research and writing, and I spend time among my Tangkhul friends, from ordinary labourers, bike mechanics, and farmers to shopkeepers, politicians, and community leaders, each interaction offering a different window into the realities of the region. Through these encounters, I try to listen closely to their happiness, their struggles, their fears, and their ways of seeing the world, recognising that each perspective contributes to a shared social fabric that is both dynamic and strained.
At times, my students invite me into their homes, and through these visits my unaccustomed eyes begin to absorb the textures of their lives, where hardship and dignity often coexist without display and where endurance becomes an everyday practice rather than an exception. When I sit with my old senior friends from my Dimapur days, many of whom are associated with the Naga Army and with whom my relationships have endured over time, I come to understand more deeply their concerns, their hopes for a more humane world, and the realities that shape their thinking in ways that are rarely visible from the outside. This continuous engagement brings me closer to the lived realities of society, where the absence of basic civic amenities is not an abstract policy issue but an everyday condition that shapes movement, safety, health, and dignity in subtle yet deeply consequential ways.
I carry nearly fifteen years of lived engagement with the Naga world, stretching from Dimapur in Nagaland to Lahe, Somra in Myanmar, Dima Hasao & Tinsukia in Assam, Tirap & Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh, Mao-Maram in Senapati, Manipur and now in Ukhrul in Manipur and this long continuum of experience has shaped not only the way I see myself but also i understand society, governance, and the everyday realities of our Naga people. Across these places, I have observed how communities navigate their lives within varying degrees of infrastructure, state presence, and social support, yet remain bound by shared aspirations for dignity, safety, and a more humane future. These experiences have allowed me to see that questions of sanitation, mobility, and basic civic amenities are not isolated administrative concerns but fundamental aspects of human existence that determine how individuals live, move, and preserve their sense of human worth in daily life. It is through this extended engagement that I have come to recognise that the right to sanitation is not an abstract legal principle but a lived necessity, one that reflects the deeper relationship between human dignity and the systems that sustain it.
I teach a course titled “Public Policy” to my eighth semester BA Political Science students, and over time this subject has come to represent much more than a set of theories or frameworks discussed in the classroom. In a place like Ukhrul, where everyday life is shaped by fragile infrastructure, limited civic amenities, and uneven access to basic services, public policy becomes inseparable from the lived reality around us. I often find myself wishing that my students, through this subject, begin to see their world with a wider and more attentive gaze, learning to connect what they study with what they experience each day. I hope they learn to observe more closely why roads remain unsafe, why sanitation systems struggle, and why public facilities are insufficient, while also understanding how these conditions shape the dignity and daily lives of people around them. Through this awareness, I hope they develop a deeper sense of responsibility and understanding, recognising that public policy exists within their own communities and that engaging with these realities is an essential part of growing into thoughtful and responsible individuals.
The role of teachers and academic institutions becomes especially significant within this context, as they stand at the intersection of knowledge, lived reality, and social responsibility. Teaching cannot remain confined to textbooks or theoretical frameworks when the realities outside the classroom reflect persistent gaps in dignity, infrastructure, and basic civic amenities. Institutions of higher learning therefore carry a responsibility to nurture not only intellectual understanding but also civic awareness, encouraging students to observe, question, and engage with the conditions that shape their own communities. Teachers serve as bridges between abstract ideas and lived experience, guiding students to connect concepts such as public policy, governance, and human rights with the realities they encounter every day. In doing so, education becomes a space where awareness is cultivated, responsibility is deepened, and future citizens are shaped with a clearer understanding of the society they inhabit and the changes it requires.
These realities become even more visible in the multiple challenges that define daily life across the region, where gaps in infrastructure translate directly into lived hardship and constant negotiation with the environment. There is a shortage of essential facilities, irregular distribution systems, and a lack of properly maintained street lighting, which together create conditions of uncertainty and inconvenience that affect even routine activities. Dedicated parking spaces are absent, adding to the strain on already limited urban planning and contributing to disorder in public spaces. Sanitation and sewerage systems, including toilets, drainage, and wastewater management, require serious and sustained attention, as their current state often fails to meet even basic expectations of hygiene and functionality. Solid waste management continues to struggle in areas such as garbage collection, segregation, and disposal, leading not only to environmental degradation but also to long term public health concerns.
Public toilets and hygiene facilities remain inadequate both in number and in condition, and storm water drainage systems continue to fall short, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall when the consequences become most visible. Even access to education is affected, as there is no proper all season road to reach St Joseph College; during the rains, the route turns into a wet and muddy stretch where people frequently slip and bikes skid, and many students have met with accidents due to its slippery condition. I myself have skidded twice on that road and injured my leg, an experience that reflects not only personal risk but also the broader vulnerability faced by many who depend on such infrastructure every day. These conditions underline the urgent need for a greater number of public toilets placed at strategic locations, alongside broader improvements in civic infrastructure, so that daily life may be lived with safety, dignity, and a sense of ease.
When these lived realities are placed within a broader national and global context, the scale and complexity of the sanitation challenge becomes clearer. India has made substantial progress over the past decade, particularly through large scale initiatives that have enabled hundreds of millions of people to gain access to toilets. At the same time, significant gaps remain, especially in remote and underserved regions where infrastructure, maintenance, and usage continue to present challenges that cannot be addressed through construction alone. This progression makes it clear that sanitation must be viewed not only as a development concern but also as a matter of enforceable human rights.
Globally, sanitation remains one of the most pressing development challenges, with billions of people still lacking safely managed services. Inadequate sanitation exposes populations to serious health risks, as human waste contaminates water sources and living environments, contributing to waterborne diseases, malnutrition, and preventable mortality. In this sense, sanitation stands at the intersection of dignity, health, and survival. It is within this broader context that sanitation must also be understood as a matter of legal entitlement and human rights.
The ability to go to the toilet when one feels the need is therefore not merely a question of convenience but one that lies at the heart of dignity and autonomy, shaping how individuals experience both their bodies and their place within society. In many moral traditions, the recognition of basic human needs has long been associated with compassion; as reflected in the Gospel of Matthew, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” International human rights law recognises this necessity as part of the broader right to sanitation. The recognition of sanitation as a distinct human right was firmly established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, which acknowledged access to water and sanitation as essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.
The foundations of this right lie in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognise the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health, establishing a normative framework that connects sanitation with broader human well being. Within India, the Constitution of India and interpretations by the Supreme Court of India bring sanitation within the scope of dignity and the right to life.
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights further defines sanitation through standards of availability, accessibility, safety, affordability, and dignity, emphasising that it must be reliable and usable in everyday life. In regions such as Ukhrul, this requires integrated systems that connect roads, drainage, water supply, and waste management, ensuring that dignity is upheld through functioning infrastructure.
What remains equally important is the role of local governance and community participation. Infrastructure depends not only on construction but on maintenance, accountability, and collective responsibility. In regions like Ukhrul, where community life is closely knit, there exists an opportunity to build systems that are locally responsive and sustainable. Addressing these challenges requires sustained institutional coordination, careful local planning, and long-term maintenance frameworks that respond to the realities of the region, ensuring that governance ultimately serves the dignity of individuals in their everyday lives.
Sanitation is also closely linked to questions of equality and social justice, as its absence disproportionately affects women, children, persons with disabilities, and marginalised communities, who face greater risks to safety, health, and dignity in the absence of adequate facilities. In many ethical traditions, the call to protect the vulnerable is central to justice itself; as expressed in Proverbs, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute,” reinforcing the responsibility to ensure that basic human needs are not denied to those who are most at risk.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 6, emphasise universal access to sanitation as part of a broader vision of human dignity and development. These goals recognise that sanitation is not an isolated sectoral issue but one that is deeply interconnected with health, education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. Achieving these targets therefore requires coordinated efforts across governance levels, ensuring that infrastructure, maintenance, and accessibility are addressed together rather than in isolation.
In legal terms, the right to sanitation imposes clear obligations on the state to ensure access, functionality, and accountability in a sustained and meaningful manner. This includes not only the creation of infrastructure but also its maintenance, accessibility, and equitable distribution across regions. Failures in these areas therefore represent not only developmental gaps but also shortcomings in fulfilling recognised rights, highlighting the need for stronger institutional commitment and responsive governance.
The realities observed in Ukhrul ultimately reflect a broader truth: the right to sanitation is not realised when infrastructure merely exists, but when it is accessible, functional, and dignified in everyday life. Public toilets, safe roads, effective drainage, and reliable services together form the foundation of dignity. Until these conditions are met, the promise of human rights remains incomplete. This incompleteness is not abstract or distant; it is experienced daily in the movements, choices, and limitations that shape ordinary lives, often in ways that remain unnoticed by those who do not have to confront such conditions. The question of sanitation therefore becomes a question of how seriously we are willing to take the dignity of individuals in practice, beyond policy declarations and institutional commitments. It calls for a deeper recognition that development is meaningful only when it transforms lived realities, ensuring that no individual is forced to compromise their dignity due to the absence of basic facilities. In this sense, the right to sanitation stands as a powerful measure of governance itself, revealing whether systems truly serve the people they are meant to support, and whether human rights are being realised not in principle alone, but in the everyday certainty of lived experience.
Dr. Aniruddha Babar
(Dr. Aniruddha Babar is a Senior Academician, Public Policy Expert & Social Development Specialist, Writer, and Researcher currently serving in the Department of Political Science, St. Joseph College, Ukhrul, Manipur. He is also the Co-Founder and Deputy Director of the Centre for North-East Development and Policy Research (CNEDPR), St. Joseph College, Manipur.)
