There are people there who do that and drink cow piss. It's an embarrassment, and not respected at all by people who have left. I think the number of people/villages who participate is exaggerated a bit. I never saw it (or the "shitting streets"), but I did see the poor shanty towns and open sewers and people bathing in the polluted Ganges outside of Red Fort (which is insanely beautiful piece of architecture from another era).