This Is A Bum Ride

The new pre-school draft timetable devised by the Tamil Nadu education board that includes a period for potty-training in playschools (ToI, July 9) is at first faintly discomfiting and then becomes increasingly disturbing. Neither the TN education department’s website nor the draft syllabus explains the need or decision for this new potty time slot. On page 26 of the draft version in the ‘Daily Schedule’ table is this information:11.30 am to 11.45 am - 15 Minutes Break - Potty Time. On page 24, the draft syllabus briefly states: “Potty time helps the children to inculcate proper toilet habits, hand wash and other hygienic practices.”

What suddenly is the purpose behind this new slot devoted to potty for children between one-and-a-half and four years? In whose brain did this idea-bulb flash? Were the stakeholders at all consulted? There are no answers to any of these questions. Now this sets one thinking: can children’s digestive systems be programmed to function according to schedule? In the highly improbable chance that they could, would playschool teachers and assistants be able to handle this en masse emptying of bowels? Because all kids that age need assistance. When potty happens in play school, even one or two at a time, the staff is a harried lot. When it comes to 20 or more little bums needing cleaning at the same time, one wonders how hygienic the cleaning would be?

Perhaps it is not the practical aspect of potty training that will be dealt with in these 15 minutes? But in a country that is terribly inhibited about the physical body and shames chi­ldren with ditties like “shame, shame, puppy shame”, what potty training are we really talking about? You may just as well add ‘shame, shame, poopy shame’ as a variation.

The questions remain: what exactly will be taught here? The distinction between private and public activities? Then potty period certainly turns the idea of potty time as private on its head. Hand-washing? Yes, hand-washing is about personal hygiene. But why a 15-minute slot to teach this? Teaching hand-washing must be organic. A child has picked her nose, picked up a worm, has spat into her palm, has played with paint/mud etc. You don’t wait for a 11.30-11.45 am slot to teach her about hand-washing. You use that instant; you encourage, teach, and allow other children to watch, learn and participate. That’s how children learn; and understand; and remember. In India, where children learn to eat with their fingers, learning about clean hands and washing them is relevant before and after meal times. Learning about personal hygiene at that age is largely contextual.

But importantly, (coming back to potty) potty in many parts of India is not such a cute idea as it sounds. Potty disguises the reality of open defecation, the cliched scatological humour, the ridicule, and the very real feeling of disgust that we as a society feel towards manual scavenging. So let’s admit it, potty for us has never been about hygiene. Let’s not pretend otherwise. With all the baggage that potty in the Indian milieu carries, one would be surprised if kids pick up the idea of hygiene. They’d probably pick up ideas of revulsion, of who will actually wash and clean bums and bathrooms as opposed to who will teach the theory of cleaning and washing. They will experience the not-so-subtle caste angle of cleaning toilets and the accompanying concepts of purity and pollution. All of which children can and often will imbibe without any overt teaching.

Parents are a relieved lot, says the title of a related article on page 2 of the city edition. The first reaction to that would then have to be ‘Then why bother having kids?’ It’s a given that if we decide to have kids, among the many things we are signing up for is imparting potty training for the first few years. It’s simply not only about proving your masculinity/femininity or perpetuating the line. The report however shows that the title is just a partial quote and that parents believe that teachers are somehow more able to convince students to listen to and follow advice. But that’s a bit of a cop out; you can’t simply foist this on the school, the teachers or the assistants.

And finally, what is surprising is that in the midst of constant reports in the media of abuse and paedophilia, no one has addressed how schools will take care that this period does not become an excuse or pave the way for the possibility of abuse. How can we be sure that this will be a safe time for chi­ldren? Who helps undress, wash the child? How do we teach children to recognise safe versus unsafe touch even or especially in the context of potty periods? What if this bec­omes part of fun/play? So many unanswered questions, just because someone had a brainwave that wasn’t thought thr­ough? And one isn’t even going to go into questions of per­sonal hygiene regarding bum washing versus toilet paper!

(Gita Jayaraj is with the Asian College of Journalism)