A trippy and hathos-filled video for UNICEF’s Poo2Loo campaign, which aims to bring awareness to the 620 million people in India who defecate publicly each day:
Scaachi Koul criticizes the campaign for missing its target:
UNICEF seems to think lack of awareness is the issue, that Indian Wii characters just need to buckle down and take their poops to the giant, bedazzled toilet in the middle of Delhi and everything will be okay. But with the exception of, say, very rude children and animals, everyone in India knows they’re not supposed to poop in the streets. The problem of public waste in India isn’t complacency or stupidity or backwards values. Poo2Loo zeros in on a gross (and therefore, rarely discussed) problem in India, but focuses on the wrong issue: not awareness, but resources. …
Usually the people defecating in public are poor. On their list of priorities is eating, finding clean water, and not dying. I’m guessing that finding a nice, clean toilet isn’t in the top five. It’s not that India’s poor don’t know how to use a toilet, or that they should be using it, it’s that they literally can’t. The Poo2Loo website even admits that there is some stigma to defecating in public, particularly if you’re female. Girls and women often have to wait until night before they can relieve themselves, in order to avoid bringing shame onto their families.
It’s embarrassing for UNICEF that they seem unable to see the difference. The Poo2Loo site is largely focused on awareness of the issue, but no specific initiatives are mentioned. You can donate to UNICEF to “overcome this problem,” but where does your money even go?
The Dish 