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“We don’t have a toilet at home and the public toilet near our house is locked after 10:00 pm; it is particularly difficult for my twelve year old daughter to manage, who uses a crutch.” says Abha*, a middle aged woman from Madanpur Khadar, a low income settlement in south Delhi. “Each visit to the toilet costs two rupees- the caretaker simply won’t allow us to use the toilet if we don’t pay.” adds Meeta*. “The maintenance of the public toilet in our colony is poor. When it gets too dirty- that cubicle is closed, so now we have four seats left.  I usually have to wait an hour in the morning before my turn to use the bathroom comes” laments Sakina*.  Adolescent girls from the settlement also add their experience of the added difficulties they face in menstruation management in the absence of adequate and hygienic toilets.

The renewed emphasis on sanitation witnessed in the last few years with the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), has drawn attention to, among other factors, the gender dimensions of sanitation. The ‘Darwaza Band’ Campaign (Shut the Door Campaign ) launched last year to promote freedom from open defecation and other communication strategies of the programme have been designed not only to encourage toilet use through behaviour change in men, but also to encourage women to raise their voice on the issue.

While the linkages between sanitation and women’s health and safety are recognised, ensuring gender responsiveness of sanitation programmes requires not just construction of toilets but also addressing specific challenges confronting women and girls (and other genders) in this domain. Factors such as age, occupation, life cycle and residence/dwelling site, influence to a large extent, the differential gender needs with respect to sanitation and access to toilets. Frequent urination, fear of slipping and difficulty in negotiating steps among pregnant women, need for menstrual hygiene management infrastructure for menstruating girls and women, incontinence among elderly women (and men), lack of access to toilets for homeless women are some issues that merit attention in scheme design and guidelines.

It is worth reflecting on how well these and other gender concerns are recognised in the design of SBM.  The guidelines of both components of the scheme- rural and urban recognise several gender concerns. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (the nodal ministry for SBM (Gramin)) has issued guidelines to address gender concerns in sanitation as well as Menstrual Hygiene Management National Guidelines. Likewise, the scheme guidelines for SBM (Urban) have recognised a range of concerns pertaining to persons with disabilities, homeless population, construction workers, manual scavenging all of which have a marked gender specificity  as well as vulnerable sections such as pensioners, girl children, pregnant and lactating mothers. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has also developed guidelines for school toilets.

Despite the recognition of gender concerns in scheme guidelines of SBM, concerns persist. Why?  For one, some of the norms prescribed in these are not too encouraging; for instance, one seat for twenty five women in public toilets and the emphasis on user fee in urban areas. Moreover, these guidelines for ensuring gender responsive features are recommendatory. It is not mandatory for implementing agencies to abide by all that is recommended in the guidelines. It is also important to keep in mind that states and local governments also incur additional expenditure on sanitation – and are free to follow norms, scheme design and unit costs independent of SBM. These may or may not include the gender responsive features of SBM. The question of how already constructed toilets could be retro-fitted to incorporate at least some gender responsive features also needs deliberation.

The need to go beyond monitoring construction of toilets to toilet use, such as the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey undertaken by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation is a necessary step in the right direction. However, usability, access and design are equally important from a gender perspective and need to be  monitored; ‘Darwaza Band’ is important but certainly not enough!

 

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the position of CBGA. You can reach Kanika Kaul at kanika@cbgaindia.org.