Human rights violation has been prevalent for years everywhere. Women have been facing a lot of health and social issues because of the lack of toilets. Right to private latrine is as basic as right to food.
India still remains to be the number one country for open defecation, overpopulation, lack of sanitation and a lot more. According to the National Statistics Report of 2019, about 71.3% of households in rural India had access to toilets but the awareness and guidance for the people in rural India is still to be covered.
Why are there no toilets for women?
In many parts of rural India, toilets are considered to be impure and so they are never built inside their homes. People have been practising open defecation for generations and women have to leave early to open fields before sunrise all their lives to defecate.
A BBC Hindi report from Haryana in October 2018 – one of 11 states that was declared free of open defecation in February 2018 – found that in one village, more than 200 people were still going to the toilet outside. Many poor women reduce the intake of food and water to minimize the need for elimination.
Schools of rural India too do not have toilets for girls which leads to a lot of health issues from a young age. Lack of access to toilets leads to a lot of drop out from schools. The dropout rate increases when the girls attain puberty. According to a report by NDTV in 2018, 23 million girls dropped out of school after puberty.
There was also a suicide case where the daughter of the family had scored good marks and she was appreciated by her father. But when she asked for a toilet at her home, her father clearly rejected it as will be bad for the house. Taboos and lack of education are the prime reasons for the lack of toilets. Also the cost of building toilets is high and so people consider this to be a wastage of money. Usage of water increases when toilets are built and the rural people prefer using open defecation as only a little amount of water.
In the urban areas too, women involved in sales jobs are not provided with toilets at their workplaces. These women are mostly allowed only a one time break from a work time of 10 hours and also have to use paid public toilets which turn out to be costly too. Women who travel are also deprived of toilets and end up using dirty public toilets.
Issues due to lack of toilets
Women fall a prey to health issues like bacterial infections, irritation, infertility, cervical cancer and a lot of issues due to unavailability and unhygienic toilets. Also due to lack of food and sleep as women reduce food intake and the need to wake up early results in a lot more issues too.
Lack of sanitation and hygiene awareness involves the rural women being disease spreaders. A lot of women workers belong to informal or unorganised sectors where workers are often engaged in strenuous physical work.
These informal sectors lack basic sanitation facilities. According to a survey, 2,200 children die every day due to poor sanitation and hygiene. Assault of women has been increasing among the women who defecate in the open. 70% of the women in the state of Delhi get assaulted when women leave to defecate in the open.
Initiatives taken so far
The Swach Bharat Abhiyaan under the Ministry of drinking water and sanitation has increased the national sanitation coverage from 41.92% to 63.76% in October 2014. Other schemes like Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission for water sanitation facilities and to promote hygiene are also introduced. Subsidies for people to construct toilets were also provided. To support the travelling women and those working women who often use the public toilets are introduced to innovations like ‘Stand and pee‘ and toilet sanitiser spray.
In rural areas even after construction of toilets, people either use it once or never use it as they are used to open defecation and lack of water supply also stands out to be one of the reasons. They also end up using the toilets as store rooms later.
Way forward
- Maintenance of toilets is the biggest issue that both the rural and urban areas face and so awareness campaigns have to held to make the people aware of sanitation.
- Behavioural changes have to be brought in so that people neatly use the toilets and think about the next person who might use it.
- Other ministries have to engage as this is a national issue and schemes have to be bought in by them too.
- Making pipe water available is also necessary.
- People have to be made aware that they can also earn income by selling the decomposed faeces as a compost.
- The bio-toilet has to be introduced more as it involves the production of energy in the firm of biogas which can be used for household purposes.
It may not be as simple as it loos but resolving the issue of lack of toilets can really bring in a drastic change in many other areas too.
Please go through the following links for more information:
- No Benefits No Toilets : For India’s Neglected Saleswomen: https://youtu.be/t2yyijyqVso
- World Toilet Day: India’s Access to Toilets in 2020: https://youtu.be/Ze9HfrEoiqw
- India – No toilet, no bride: https://youtu.be/pyhFGNar08Y
- Toilet Tales: What do Toilets mean to a 21st Century Rural Indian Woman: https://hihindia.org/blog/health-care/toilet-tales-what-do-toilets-mean-to-a-21st-century-rural-indian-woman/
Its so relevant
Thank you Kripa
Women have been facing this problem for years now and it’s high time we bring a change…thank you Della for taking the initiative to speak about the issue with such a detailed study.
Thank you Meri
You penned awesome!! looking forward to more contents….
Thank you Villi
This was very well put and it is very enlightening.. Glad somebody is bringing the light onto this topic!
Thank you Dhrisya
Wow!! Very Nicely written . Excellent presentation dear
Thank you Kizie
A very enlightening write up on an issue which we women have been facing from years together. Well done Della, hoping that this will trigger a change in the society and the administration for the women welfare.
Thank you Mema
I really like the way this whole issue was presented.It was organised perfectly and there wasn’t much pleonasm so that kept everything very clear & concise.The statistics also helped to convince the reader how relevant and serious this is in today’s society and shines light upon how some traditions shun advancements.( Suggestion:Maybe you wanna tie in gender inequality and all 🙂
Thank you Amelia and yes the suggestion is noted.
Very nicely written and presented. Appreciate your initiative for the detailed study on this issue..
Thank you Valiappan