2008 International Year of Sanitation

Kingstonian

I caught this on Radio 4 "Woman's Hour" yesterday, and remembered how close this topic is to the hearts of many IMers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womansho...8_12_wed.shtml

The programme and book take a world-wide view, but both also focus on India/S. Asia in part.

blackbird

I can't speak for 100s of millions of people, obviously, but I doubt that the majority of Indian girls and women would consider the lack of toilet facilities to be their biggest problem.

As I understand it, the usual system in villages is that they go in the dark, before the men get up. I think most village people regard the idea of loads of people relieving themselves in one tiny room as far more disgusting than picking a patch of open field somewhere.

In towns of course, it is not so simple. Over several months in Puri I got used to the sight of a constant stream of girls and women walking to an abandoned lane with their little pots of water. Anyone could watch them, but nobody does. Well-meaning westerners have even built toilets for the fishing village folk there, but they did not use them, preferring to dismantle them to use the bricks for something useful.....

Kingstonian

I just listened to the programme once, while driving, so I may be wrong, but I didn't get the idea the sanitation problem was considered an Indian woman's "biggest" problem, particularly.

The main point seemed to be developing a method/facility that worked locally - wherever that was. So, a facility that works in one particular part of Africa, wouldn't necessarily travel to any part of India, and so on. The example Blackbird gives from the Puri fishing village illustrates the potential difficulties nicely.

Many schools (in India, and elsewhere) have no toilet facilities at all. Going early in the morning to the fields deals with one difficulty only. It seems that when schoolgirls start menstruating, they may well choose to stay home rather than face humiliation in managing their bodily functions at a school without a toilet - say, one week out of four. They therefore start to fall behind in their school work, and their education ends early, as families decide not to spend more money on something that apparently isn't going anywhere.

the opoponax

Can that be traced directly to toilet facilities, though?

I've read a lot about the same sort of thing happening in the west with young women at around the same time. Often having to do with much more complex issues than something as simple as 'nowhere to properly deal with periods'. Check out the book Reviving Ophelia for more info. The difference of course being that western parents usually aren't looking for a reason to pull their daughters out of school, and schooling tends to be compulsory (and enforced) until at least 16-18.

Not to mention that I routinely got threatened with a beating for attempting to use my school's restrooms, anyway. For most of my young teen years I had to just hold it till I got home in order to avoid bullies. And the perennial drama of being embarrassed about asking permission in the middle of class, or a male teacher (or particularly vile female teacher) actually REFUSING.

Not that Indian schoolgirls don't need toilet facilities, of course. Just that, as Blackbird implies, it might be a whole lot more complicated than just the physical toilet.

Kingstonian

That was kind of the point of the whole thing, really.

edwardseco

Its the interplay of factors in development not the single factor in itself that makes a difference. Public health and sanitation plays a role in this is part of a process of building a more productive economy. By itself without economic impetus not much. As part of a broader process essential..