INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD ISSN: 2455-0620 Volume - 6, Issue - 5, May – 2020 Monthly, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed, Indexed Journal with IC Value: 86.87 Impact Factor: 6.497 Received Date: 17/05/2020 Acceptance Date: 30/05/2020 Publication Date: 31/05/2020 Available online on – WWW.IJIRMF.COM Page 380 A Review of Understanding Sustainable Sanitation B. Suresh Lal, (Ph.D) Professor of Economics Department of Economics, Kakatiya University, Warangal-TS-India Email: lalbsuresh@gmail.com 1. INTRODUCTION: Health is now higher on the international agenda than ever before, and concern for the health of poor people is becoming a central issue in development. Long over before 1947 the statement of Mahatma Gandhi "Sanitation is more essential than independence" that is backed by the Prime Minister of India in 2014 by reiterating “Toilet first-Temple next" indicates the pressing need towards the improvement of sanitation standard in India. The term sanitation defines "sanitation as the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces”. Open defecation (OD) is the single biggest indignity for billions of people worldwide. It also endangers the safety, expected growth, health, and well-being of all communities within which it continues to be practised. Eliminate this forever, all people must be able to have access to convenient, affordable, and comfortable sanitation and hygiene inside and outside the home, from childhood to old age, through good, including permanent or temporary impairments, these are all called sustainable sanitation. 2. WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE/ SUSTAINABILITY: Sustainability refers to whole communities and their achievement and maintenance of open defecation free (ODF) status. Definitions for assessing ODF communities vary, but often include the following: 1. Eradication of open defecation in the community, 2. Hygienic household toilets provide the safe containment of faces, offer privacy, with a lid on the defecation hole and a roof to protect, 3. Use of sanitation by all household members and all in the community and 4. A handwashing facility nearby with water, soap or ash, and evidence of regular use. Some countries include additional elements or a second stage (sometimes defined as ODF Plus), which may include: 1. Hand washing, 2. Safe and protected drinking water storage and handling, 3.Food hygiene (elevated dish drying racks, covering of food), 4. Greywater disposal, 5. Solid waste management, and 6. Provision of institutional latrines in schools markets and for passers-by, Cavill(2015). Three dimensions of sustainability have been identified, enabling conditions: referring to institutions and processes, and including political priority and campaigns; programme quality, inclusiveness and intensity; and post-ODF follow- up. Physical and technical sustainability: referring to physical conditions, structures, the sanitation ladder, the market and sanitation services. Social, behavioural sustainability: referring to sustainable change in social and behavioural norms, motivations and preferences for OD, and dynamics within communities and cultures, including equity and inclusion, and meeting the varied needs of people, Bongartz (2016). Sustainability and equity/equal access and use are two sides of the same coin: Ensuring that WASH services, their use, and maintenance are guaranteed for generations to come impossible without recognition of the diversity and needs of the clientele who will use and maintain these services. Human beings change across their life course. Services that ignore this will not be sustainable Archana( 2016). The taboos and perceptions may vary by geography, from menstruating blood spoiling pickles in South Asia, to curdling milk in West Africa. However, the fact remains that decades of taps and toilets have neglected this most basic biological phenomenon affecting half of humanity. This is a violation of women’s rights on multiple fronts, Winkler and Roaf, (2015). As a girl progresses from puberty to womanhood, reproductive tract infections potentially triggered by poor Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) could affect her reproductive health. Women and girls must be able to demand with confidence what services and support they need to manage menstruation, post-partum bleeding, fibroids, or another Abstract: Sustainable sanitation has got a very significant role in day-to-day life in the present day scenario, especially for women and girls. Good dignity practices for gross domestic products are an order of the day. What is Sustainable sanitation and its components focused on this paper? What are the problems faced by women and girls like snake, scorpion and insects bites during the open defecation in the agricultural fields or bank of canals and roadsides were emphases? Multi-dimensional benefits like economic, health, education, increase school attendance and retention and tourism development. Every $1 spent on water and sanitation will generate a $4.3 return in the form of reduced health care costs. To making open defecation free- society for health, dignity and well-being of the people and freedom from violence. Keywords: Sustainable sanitation, diseases, dignity, well-being.