Toilet is part of history of human hygiene which is a critical chapter in the history of human civilization and which cannot be isolated to be accorded unimportant position in history. Toilet is a critical link between order and disorder and between good and bad environment.

In our own country i.e. India, how can any one ignore the subject of toilet when the society is faced with human excretions of the order of 900 million litres of urine and 135 million kilograms of faucal matter per day with totally inadequate system of its collection and disposal. The society, thus, has a constant threat of health hazards and epidemics. As many as 600 out of 900 million people do open defecation. Sewerage facilities are available to no more than 30 per cent of population in urban areas and only 3 per cent of rural population has access to pour flush latrines.

Seeing this challenge, we think the subject of toilet is as important if not more than other social challenges like literacy, poverty, education and employment. Rather subject of toilet is more important because lack of excremental hygiene is a national health hazard while in other problems the implications are relatively closer to only those who suffer from unemployment, illiteracy and poverty. Thus the study of the history of toilet is an important subject matter.

As long as man did not have an established abode, he did not have a toilet. He excreted wherever he felt like doing so . When he learnt to have a fixed house, he moved toilet to courtyard and then within his home. Once this was done, it became a challenge to deal with smell and the need was felt to have a toilet which can intake human wastes and dispose these out of the house instantly and, thus , help maintain cleanliness. Man tried various ways to do so i.e. chamber pots, which were cleaned manually by the servants or slaves, toilets protruding out of the top floor of the house or the castle and disposal of wastes in the river below, or common toilets with holes on the top and flowing river or stream underneath or just enter the river or stream and dispose of the waste of the human body. While the rich used luxurious toilet chairs or cross stools, the poor defecated on the roads, in the jungle or straight into the river.

It was only in the 16th century that a technology breakthrough came about and which helped the human beings to have clean toilets in houses. This breakthrough did not come about easily and human race had to live in sanitary conditions for thousands of years.

Historical Evolution:

The perusal of literature brings home the fact that we have only fragmentary information on the subject of toilet as a private secluded place to help the body relieve its waste. Sitting type toilets in human history appeared quite early. In the remains of Harappa civilization in India, at a place called Lothar ( 62 Kilometers from the city of Ahmedabad in Western India ) and in the year 2500 BC, the people had water borne toilets in each house and which were linked with drains covered with burnt clay bricks. To facilitate operations and maintenance, it had man-hole covers, chambers etc. It was the finest form of sanitary engineering. But with the decline of Indus valley civilization, the science of sanitary engineering disappeared from India. From then on , the toilets in India remained primitive and open defection became rampant.

The archaeological excavations confirm existence of sitting type toilets in Egypt (2100 BC) also. Though we have been able to mechanize the working of these toilets, the form and basic format of the toilet system remains the same. In Rome, public bath-cum-toilets were also well developed. There were holes in the floor and beneath was a flowing water. When the Romans travelled they constructed the toilets for their use. The stools were key-hole type so that these could be used for defecation as well as urination. Excavations in Sri Lanka and Thailand too have brought out a contraption in which urine was separated and allowed to flow while the other portion was used at the same time for defecation.

Historical evidence exists that Greeks relieved themselves out of the houses. There was no shyness in use of toilet. It was frequent to see at dinner parties in Rome, slaves bringing in urine pots made of silver; while members of the royalty used it but continued to play at the same time. Whatever little information is available about history of toilets in India, it was quite primitive. This practice of covering waste with earth continued till the Mughal era , where in the forts of Delhi and Agra one can see remnants of such methodologies to dispose of human waste.

Between the period 500 to 1500 AD was a dark age from the point of view of human hygiene. It was an era of cess pools and human excreta all around. Rich man's housing and forts in India had protrusions in which defecation was done and the excrements fell into the open ground or the river below. The forts of Jaiselmer in India and big houses on the banks of rivers bear testimony to this fact. In Europe, it was an era of chamber pots, cess pools and cross stools. So were the toilets protruding out of the castles and the excrements from which fell into the river.

It was also an era of "liberty to pee" French poet Claude le Petit described Paris as 'Ridiculous Paris' and in the following words :

"My shoes my stockings, my overcoat
My collar, my glove, my hat
Have all been soiled by the same substance
I would mistake myself rubbish"

There was lot of jest and humour relating to toilet habits and toilet appurtenances. Ballets were performed with basket of night soil in the form of hood, on the head or a tin plate commode moving around with toilet sounds. The clothes were spotted with accessories from the toilet. The actors were etronice (night soil) Sultan Prime of Foirince (i.e. diarrhoea) etc. There are stories given by Guerrand VI, which depict the mood of Europe at that time. A lady of noble birth requested a young man to hold his hand. The young man suddenly feels the urge to urinate. Forgetting that he is holding the hand of a lady of noble birth he relieves himself. At the end he says " excuse me Madam, there was lot of urine in my body and was causing great inconvenience ". Similarly, Maid of Honour Anne of Austria owing to excessive laughter urinated in the bed of the queen . Joseph Pujol (hero extraordinary of French scatology) in his shows demonstrated many types of farts i.e. young girl, mother-in-law , bride. He could even extinguish a candle 30 centimeters away through his farting.

Public Toilets and People:

In each society from time to time the government felt the need to provide public toilet facilities to those who could not afford to have individual toilets. The public toilets have a long history in number of countries and most of which were constructed and managed by municipalities. But there was alround disgust with their poor maintenance, vandalism and lack of basic facilities . The Mughal King Jehangir built a public toilet at Alwar, 120 kms away from Delhi for use of 100 families at a time in 1556 AD. Not much documentary evidence exists on the quality of its maintenance but one can well visualize that with rudimentary technology and with government to manage the O&M functions, it like others must be in very unsatisfactory condition. As hygienic conditions in public toilets were bad, people preferred to do open defecation. This was true in most of the countries. It was in 1872 that the municipalities in France asked the private companies to manage public toilets for a lease period of 20 years. The private companies were also offering even amounts to government as they felt confident to recover the same through user charges. Ground floor owners were also being requested to construct latrines for use of the passersby. Previously known as Palais Royal Hotel in Paris, the owners started charging monthly fee from diners. Incidentally condoms were also sold as part of the facilities.

Law and Citizens:

In order to improve sanitary conditions, Governments in various countries also resorted to legal measures. Dirt by definition was considered as disorder, because it disrupts order of maintaining the environment.

In 1519 the provincial government of Normandy in France made provision of toilets compulsory in each house. The French government also passed a parliamentary decree to make cesspools in each house compulsory. Again a similar attempt was made in 1539. In Bordeaux in France, the government made construction of cesspools compulsory. It was tried again in 1668 when the Lieutenant of Police made construction of toilets compulsory. In England the first sanitation law was passed in 1848. In India the first sanitation bill was introduced in 1878. It tried to make construction of toilets compulsory even in huts of Calcutta - the capital of India at that time. The Bill even proposed construction of public toilets at the cost of neighbouring houses. The government of India enacted another Sanitation Act in 1993. Under this Act construction of dry latrine and its manual cleaning was made an offence. But despite these enactments open defecation is rampant. Proving that unless adequate social awareness is created in a developing country where instruments of state are weak and low family income, it is hard task to make significant progress in this area.

Toilet Technologies:

Eighteenth century was a century of toilets. Despite invention of water closet by John Harrington in 1596 which was costing only 6 shillings and 8 pence this was not adopted on a large scale for almost 182 years. The delays in actual use of invention is common in human history which Toffler calls as "Cultural Gap". It was true for railway train, ballpoint pen and innumerable other inventions. During this period people used earth closet. In these toilets instead of water earth was used. So the problem of cleaning remained. The world also saw development of Pan closets- which like cigarette ash tray threw the material at the bottom. This too required manual cleaning. At the same time, chamber pots , cross stools, open defecation remained. In comparison to this , Harrington toilet under the name Angrez was being used in France, though not introduced on a long scale in England. In 1738 JF Brondel introduced the valve type flush toilet. Alexander Cunnings further improved the technology and gave use a better device in 1775. In Cunnings's design water was perennially there in the toilet so it suppressed odours. Still the working of the valve and fool-proof inlet of water needed further improvements. In 1777 , Joseph Preiser provided the required improvement. Then John Blummer in 1778, substituted the slide valve with crank valve. It seemed then that the technology of pour flush was now perfected. No the world was yet to witness further technological developments. In 1870 , SS Helior invented the flush type toilet, called optims- an improvement over Blummer's design.

From 1880 onwards, however, the emphasis has been more on aesthetics to make cisterns and bowls decorative. The bowls were so colourful that some suggested to use these as soup bowls. It was in 1880 that the toilet curtains made their appearance. The trend was called the age of "Belleepoque" in France and Edwardian (opulence) in England. During 1890 we had the first cantilever type of toilet. Since then the world has not witnessed any significant technical change except some change in shape of toilets and reduction in quantity of water per use.

It was around 1900 that the institution of bathroom came in vogue in Europe. In India the institution of Gushalkhana (bathroom) was established by the Mughal Kings in 1665. Oppressed by the heat and dust the Kings constructed luxurious bathing and massage facilities. But this was only for the rich. The ordinary citizens however lived in insanitary conditions.

Unlike in the past, when latrines were tucked away in attics to keep it away from nose and eye of the family and the society, In contrast the twentieth century, has given a pride of place to toilet in home-rather these are more opulent, more spacious than anytime in the past. While the provision of toilet in the house solved household problem of cleanliness but the challenge remained as to how to dispose of human waste at city level. This was also solved when the sewerage system was introduced. Houseman in 1858 , describes beautifully the sewerage system. He said that " the underground galleries which are the organs of the big city will work in the same way as organs of the body, without being reveled.

In 1991, approximately 64% of urban households had some kind of toilet facility compared with 9% of the rural areas. There is a widening difference in income between different regions, the rich and the poor.

The sanitaryware industry in India is divided in two sectors. The organized sector consisting of 5 companies (M/s. Hindustan Sanitary Industries Limited, M/s. E.I.D. Parry, M/s. Swastik Sanitarywares Limited, M/s. Madhusudan Ceramics, M/s. Neycer India Limited), manufacturing sanitaryware for the last 15-20 years and have established their Brand image. The organized sectors produce fully vitrified sanitarywares, using latest technology and best of Ceramic Raw Materials available in India. The unorganized sectors have adopted local Indian technology to manufacture the basic sanitaryware products. Since the availability of raw material is in abundance and also very cheap in the state of Gujarat & Rajasthan, various companies have established their factory in these areas. They are producing the basic sanitaryware in various brands. Unorganized sector's percentage of production capacity and also their sales in the local domestic market are higher than that of the organized sectors' sales. Unorganized sanitaryware manufacturer comes under small sectors and hence enjoy the benefit of Nil Excise Duty and Sales Tax and hence they sell their products in the domestic market approximately 70% cheaper than the organized sector products.

Government of India Policy on Housing Sector is very encouraging. The Government has announced Income Tax rebate on housing loan to boost the housing sector. All financial institutions are lending money for construction of house at a very low rate of interest. Government figure shows that Housing Sector is growing by approximately 25% every year. The need of Housing in India with 100 crores population looks to be very potential. As per DGTD Survey Report there is a shortage of about 20 million houses in the country by the end of 8th Five Year Plan. The housing has become a basic necessity, as people in India are looking forward for improved sanitary condition. The concept of making toilet is fast growing even in village areas, where toilet till last two years did not exist.

The large foreign players like American Standard, Toto, Villeroy and Boch have also set up distribution channels in India.

In addition to the branded products made by the above companies, there are a large number of small-scale units mainly in Thangad and Morbi districts of Gujarat.

The comparative penetration levels in neighboring countries are as follows: Pakistan: 50%, Sri Lanka: 65%, Malaysia: 94% and Thailand: 96%.

The government impetus to improve hygiene and sanitation is likely to increase the demand for sanitaryware in India. Moreover the increasing urbanization of India and the consequent requirement for residential and commercial buildings will be a major driver for growth of sanitaryware. Along with this the focus of the central and state governments to provide housing facilities to the poor, is also expected to generate demand.

The National Housing Policy formulation that envisages "Housing for all" by the end of Ninth Plan period is a big step towards this. Indira Awaas Yojana, Samgra Awaas Yojana are programs for providing housing to the rural poor is a key step taken by the government in this area. The housing development organizations like HUDCO, State Housing Development Boards and Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Ltd. are also playing a large role in this initiative.

It is estimated that there is currently a demand for 20 million housing units in India. Further, a significant number of the 115 million housing units across the country will need reconstruction for improvement. Therefore a replacement market will emerge, though currently original equipment sanitaryware market accounts for nearly 90% of the market.