Indian restrooms

Saw this letter to the editor in today's Financial Times:

Sir, I write in support of Chandran Nair's letter about "incredibly insanitary India" (February 21). The total lack of public toilet facilities, not only in the capital but also in all major cities, confuses one, as India is one of the leading nations with a strongly religious population that upholds cleanliness as the most important tenet.

I was shocked during my visit to Mumbai in December to find that even some renowned restaurants have poor restroom facilities. The stench emanating from the toilets at Churchgate station is appalling, yet everyone in Mumbai accepts this situation, and according to their words one must "adjust" to the conditions. Any visitor to India plans their daily itinerary so that there is time to dash back to their hotel at intervals to use the toilet facilities. I have been visiting India for the past 20 years and the conditions have not changed at all. How can India ever think of competing against China with this embarrassing problem?

India has a huge film industry and Indians must try to use this medium to instill a sense of pride and cleanliness in their country.

Nuri Maharaj,
Business Analyst,
Global Revenue Operations- IT & Analysis,
South African Airways,
Johannesburg International Airport

I think I have a solution to this -- globalization. I'm serious. As wikipedia notes in their entry about McDonald's:

When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions.

Now, there are McDonald's in India -- just not enough of them. In the city of Pune, for example, with a population of 4.5 million there are only three. More liberalization is needed to let foreign businesses into the country, especially the retail sector.

This also illustrates another point: A lot of anti-globalization protestors claim that globalization is eliminating some unique cultural aspects and making every place the same. While overstated, there is some truth to this -- and that's a good thing. Not every cultural tradition -- such as smelly toilets -- should be preserved.