Shaina NC: Better toilets for girls

Working in the public sphere I meet the most inspiring people One such person is Anu Gond a 13yearold girl living in the Ganesh Deval Nagar slum of Bhayandar Currently in the 8th standard in an English medium school her rented home is a small tin cube where she lives with her father brother sisterinlaw nephew and uncle Anu wants to be a doctorEach morning when there is enough light in the sky Anu makes her way to the common toilets situated 10 minutes from her lsquohomersquo The womenrsquos toilet is filthy stinky and in poor condition dimly lit with bad sanitation and no doorldquoWe pay Rs 30 per month as lsquorentrsquo to the lady who cleans the toilets but she doesnrsquot clean it regularly I donrsquot go to the toilet after dark because I am scared of going alonerdquo says this brave girl who has trained herself at this young age to go to the toilet only in daylightShaina NCThe primary concern is that as young girls like Anu transition from childhood to adolenscene there are much larger implications of not having access to proper sanitation facilities which will not only affect her heath dramatically but also her growth ansd development The lack of access to proper saniatiaon facilities which is one of the most basic human need is a shocking reality that young girls like Anu have to deal with across Mumbai This is partly because they do not know any better but mostly because they do not have a choice and have to accept the amenities that are availableShame and fear are the two most common feelings girls accessing public toilets battle with daily Bad access paths to community toilets where strange boys and men leer at them having to walk to community toilets with water cans in hand waiting in long queues putting up with filthy toilets fighting with other women for a toilet standing next to the menrsquos line at the toilet and in many cases having to resort to opendefecation are just some of the reasons for their traumaSome lucky girls that attend school or work have trained themselves to wait and use the toilets available at their education institutions or workplaces This is however no solutionResearch suggests that women living in the slums of Mumbai are often traumatised due to the lack of access to proper toilets either at home or in their community I am shocked and you will be too by this thought Would I want my teenage daughter to grow up in such deplorable conditions The thought that I am living in the very city where millions of girls her age have no access to toilets and basic sanitation is both shocking and saddeningAccording to the UNICEF women at high risk of abuse and harassment without access to sanitation facilities The concern in India and more particularly in Mumbai is that a significant number of girls do not know how to identify harassment and either laugh it off or giggle when discussing these problems Sanitation is still a taboo concept in India and so most girls and for that matter even men are not comfortable discussing issues that are related to sanitation The WHO reports that lack of adequate sanitation is costing India as much as 54 billionThis figure does not account for the psychological damage that lack of sanitation causes Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist Dr Anjali Chhabria says ldquoThere is a term called Sanitation Related PsychoSocial Stress SRPS which means that people go through stress related to hygiene and sanitation This results in girls and women feeling shame embarrassment and indignity for their basic biological needsrdquoThe need is to provide better access to sanitation to our citizens especially our women Pravin Nikam of the Right to Pee Campaign has been championing the basic rights of girls for a decent toilet since 2010 says ldquoThe number of girls staying out of home for extended hours and regularly travelling long distances whether for work or education has increased exponentially ndash informal sector female workers are out for an average of 16 hours in a dayrdquoWhile there is increased stress on education programs and their increased need to bring about change in India there is also a very dire need to provide better sanitation for girls like Anu who is going through very important physical and emotional changes in her being right now If we cannot help her get access to better sanitation soon she might not be able to realise her dream of becoming a doctor And then we would have failed our examWrite to me at shainancnowgmailcom or tweet shainaNC with solutions Letrsquos start a movement todayRead PARTONE and PART TWO