The piece touched my heart and indeed what Esther had written is true in every respect. I am particularly drawn to the example of plumbing in India and indeed this is such a potential field where growth could be in the stratosphere as only 45% of Indians have access to toilets.



But there is much more to it than meets the general wisdom as my endeavors to make village toilets in the most backward areas of Western Odisha led to even more central issues like caste and creed. A place where tribal communities have four to five different castes, none are willing to allow the other caste to use the same toilet, which means for every village we need very separate arrangements for toilets to be used by these different sects of people.



This leaves me with another looming thought that plumbing, which could employ large numbers and attract higher pay, is already in evidence in Switzerland, where I had experienced that the plumber draws a Swiss Franc 120 for small jobs and is a respected member of the society; the respect for such jobs in India needs to grow and there should be a way of getting the local talents attracted to such expertise. Apathy for certain jobs, which are not lowly, is still an issue to contend with, perhaps stemming from socio-religuous-cultural factors.



Procyon Mukherjee

