Our Big Squat: Lessons Learned

Last Thursday was World Toilet Day, an international day to recognize the need for proper sanitation around the world. Upon encouragement from our friends at the World Toilet Organization, the Beyond Profit team organized an event—a Big Squat—a public demonstration of sorts. Big Squats were held around the world in 19 countries, to raise awareness of the 2.5 billion people who don’t have access to toilets.

We thought it was a great idea, and went about telling everyone we knew to meet us at the beach in Mumbai, Chowpatty, to gather and squat. It was all going as planned until the police got wind of things. Their friends at the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) had tipped them off when they saw our announcement in the Mumbai Mirror (the New York Post of Mumbai) inviting the good citizens of Mumbai to join us.

Surrounded by 14 cops and two high ranking BMC officials, we started to question if we had gone about our public demonstration in the right way. First, we probably should have been clearer. It turns out that the BMC and the police were under the impression that we planned to rally a big group of people to collectively use the bathroom on the beach. Even after we cleared that up—that we had no intention of actually using the beach as our loo (just a demonstration folks!)—the police were still wary. They said that because of the terror attacks in Mumbai a year ago, there are no public demonstrations allowed on Chowpatty Beach at all. Big Squat foiled.

What we did do, before we were shut down, was hand out educational flyers to beachgoers. Printed in Hindi and English, the flyers told people about the need for proper sanitation, and the need for more toilets in Mumbai, both public, and in homes and slum communities. People were happy to see us, and interested in what we had to say.

Sheepishly, we must admit that we learned a lot more on Thursday than we anticipated. Next time, we’ll speak to our friends at the BMC and the Mumbai police commission first, and get their buy-in so that they realize we’re allies in this process, not enemies. Second, we’ll get a press partner in advance. At the event, we had 6 radio correspondents show up who said they would be happy to publicize a cool event like this in the future. Third, we’ll do awareness raising activities on the ground, on site leading up to our big event to generate excitement and dialogue. Lastly, we’ll also put our messages in Marathi, the state language! Hindi is always appreciated, but with some audiences, the local language is even better understood. It’s all about knowing your audience.