SagarWatch@ Opinion: -Sachin Jyotishi -
Let's ask all the girls/woman reading this, how many nice female-friendly toilets you have in your city? Is this really an issue on a pedestal? (Restroom rights ) Boys and girls are not equal here, because many of the women are facing worst of it
In today's modern feminist era, if any question arises about, girl's dress, job rights, inter-caste marriage, father's property rights, there will be hour-long debates on all the news channels and 16 feet long articles sophisticatedly published by the stalwarts of FEMINISM.
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But when it comes to the real and intrinsic issues of woman/girl, they find themselves tongue-tied. The issue (of the toilet) which I would like to bring your attention to, has never been in the manifesto of any political party.
No stand has ever been taken by any of the celebrity(as far as my knowledge goes). Most importantly girls/woman don’t feel comfortable to talk about this very issue. I want to borrow your sight until the final word of this column.
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However India has made remarkable progress in increasing access to toilets through the provision of individual household latrines, public toilets and community toilets to make urban local bodies open defecation free, "sanitation is more than just building toilets."
The sanitation crisis is recognized as a critical global challenge of the 21st century, and sustainable development goals (SDGs) amplify the provision of safe sanitation as an international priority.
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The lack of sanitation has a negative impact on health, education and livelihoods. The Water Aid, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and Unilever (2013) report entitled, We Can't-Wait: A Report on Sanitation and Hygiene for Women and Girls, reiterates the importance of sanitation for women and girls and highlights the following important aspects:
One in three women worldwide (1.2 billion) risk shame, disease, harassment and even attack because they have no safe toilets. Women spend approximately 97 billion hours per annum looking for a safe place to relieve themselves.
When they do find a secluded and private place to relieve themselves, they expose themselves to the dangers of rape and violation. Of the 1.2 billion, 526 million women have no choice but to use open spaces.
Every day, around 2,000 mothers lose a child due to diarrhoea caused by a lack of access to safe toilets and clean water. Adequate and appropriate sanitation and hygienic facilities can provide a restful space for Ladies to manage their menstrual cycles with privacy and dignity.
One school study in Ethiopia reported that over 50 per cent of girls missed between day 1 and day 4 of school per month during their menstruation. Where toilets exist, they are unclean and unhygienic, without facilities to manage menstruation needs.
The UNICEF estimates indicate that 1 in 10 girl child in Africa drops out of school for this reason.1 This number increases to 30 per cent in Nepal and Afghanistan and to 20 per cent in India.2 This is the case in most developing countries.
A factory case study in Bangladesh showed that 60 per cent of female workers used rags from the factory floor as menstrual cloths. This resulted in infections that caused 73 per cent of absenteeism among the female workforce at an average rate of 6 days a month.
An intervention to change this resulted in absenteeism dropping to 3 per cent, leading to significant economic gains for workers and the factory owner.
Girls got habituated to it, to holding back for hours. It’s just how they grew up. But for girls in rural areas and urban ghettos, lack of access to clean toilets and sanitation is a big ground of giving up school, or not going to school at all.
It’s the contrast between education and independence and being locked into poverty and subjugation. Men seem to feel no such constraints. In India, men pee every corner, even in urban areas. Middle class, educated men — if they need to relieve themselves, they’ll just stop their car and pee against a wall.
But without a deeper and broader cultural change in India, the toilet making drive will only result in huge funds wasted in building toilets that nobody uses.
