Sanitation Vulnerability: Women’s
Stress and Struggles for violence-free
sanitation
Seema Kulkarni, SOPPECOM, Pune, India
Kathleen O’Reilly, Texas A&M University, USA
International Sanitation and Gender Workshop
Park Hotel, New Delhi, India
9-10 December 2013
Study Objectives
• Investigate urban women’s experiences of
psycho-social stress due to sanitation-related
violence.
• Explore women and their families’ responses
and solutions to sanitation-related violence.
Relevance
• Number of urban dwellers without sanitation
going up
• 60% shared toilet users urban
• Shared sanitation may not be hygienic or safe
– May force women inadvertently to resort to OD
because shared toilets are unacceptable
• Cleanliness
• Accessibility
Relevance
• Women and lack of acceptable sanitation:
– Privacy
– Dignity
– Physical insecurity and vulnerability
– Psycho-social stress:
•
•
•
•
fear, hazards, risk
shame
time/travel/opportunity
bodily discipline
Specific goals
• Assess the number of women in the study areas
who: a) have experienced violence; b) fear
violence
• Count and evaluate water and sanitation facilities
in the study areas
• Understand the nature of san-related violence
and assess its differential impacts on socially and
geographically diverse groups of women
• Evaluate the role of women in decision-making
and implementing sanitation initiatives
Methods
• Kerala:
– Interviews with women who participated in the successful
struggle to overcome violence
• Maharashtra and Rajasthan:
– Group discussions for the purpose of introduction,
household level socio-economic data collection, and
neighborhood water and sanitation access information
– Detailed narratives with 50 women about their (and their
families’) experiences and responses to violence
– Create maps using GIS to locate water and sanitation
facilities and link them with sites of san-related violence
Contributions
1. Complement existing research on
motivations to use or not use urban toilets
2. Understand women’s struggles to solve
sanitation vulnerability
3. Provide policy suggestions to problems of
urban sanitation and shared toilets
4. Connect water access and access to safe
sanitation for women
• Is it a given that women need to enter
dangerous spaces for defecation daily
– New toilet block is one thing; but accessible,
clean, creep magnet
• What are the psycho-social stresses: hazards,
risks, shame, ??
• Travel in groups
• discipi;line the body
Selection of slums
• In consultation with partner NGOs (who would
help to initiate the study and will take it forward
later)
• Slums with open defecation, access to public
toilets, partial access to private toilets
• 5 slums selected so far, 1/2 more would be
identified soon
Selected slums
Slum
Location
Main drinking
water source
Availability of
sanitation facility
Ganesh
Nagar
On a hillock, Irrigation
dept land, adjacent to
canal, close to high way
Tanker
Open defecation
Rajiv
Gandhi
Nagar
Oh hillside, private land
Private
Open
taps/public taps defecation/private
toilets
Samartha
Nagar
On hilltop, forest
department land
Private taps
Laxmi
Nagar
On hillside
Private
Open defecation/public
taps/public taps toilets
Ambedkar
Nagar
Middle of the city
Private taps
Open
defecation/private
toilets
Open defecation/public
toilets
Work done so far
Vasti
No of
FGDs
1
No of
interviews
9
GIS based
mapping
Yes
2
4
Yes
1
6
Yes
Laxmi Nagar
1
3
Ambedkar Nagar
2
4
Total
7
26
Ganesh
Nagar
Rajiv Gandhi
Nagar
Samartha Nagar
Sample map: toilet availability in Rajiv Gandhi Nagar
Preliminary observations: factors that would
affect experiences of harassment
• Sanitation facility: open defecation sites are
more vulnerable than public toilets
• Slum location: accessibility to open defecation
site for outsiders
• Age: More reporting of harassment by young
women
• Caste:
• Occupation:
Preliminary observations: cases of harassment
•
•
•
•
•
Ogling
Passing comments
Making inappropriate gestures
Taking photos with mobile phone
Writing vulgar things and drawing pictures inside
public toilets
• Snatching chain by threatening
• Attempt to sexual violence
Women say...
• "At times I have to wait for hours to be able to
defecate. Young men sit on the water tank nearby,
the whole day and watch women who come for
defecation. I often get a stomach ache having to wait
like this but there is no other option."
• “Once when I had gone to defecate in the open,
during my pregnancy, I suddenly felt some
movement behind me. When I turned I saw a man
hiding there. I was scared, and I ran. After the
incident, I could never go there alone.
Preliminary observations: stresses due to
lack of sanitation facility
• Constant fear of encountering sexual violence
(especially in case of open defecation)
• Fear for young daughters
• More problems during menstruation, pregnancy
and post-delivery period
• Fear of snakes and insects
• Embarrassment at being watched
Women say....
• ‘We have to keep looking in every direction for the
passersby. Whenever we see someone approaching,
we have to stand up, and then sit again when they
are gone.’
• ‘Imagine someone you know watching you in such
situation. If a male acquaintance sees you, it is so
embarrassing when you meet him the next time.’
Preliminary observations: issues of public
toilets
• No cases of violence reported so far
• Available toilets are inadequate for using
population
• Lack of maintenance, unclean
• In some cases closed at night
• Time consuming
• In some cases maintenance fees are expensive
Preliminary observations: women’s coping
mechanisms
• Choosing times to go for defecation when there
is least possibility of being watched
• Going in pairs/groups
• Avoid going at night
• Immediately taking medications for upset
stomach
• Eating less/less spicy food
• Sending their young daughters to stay with
relatives
Women say...
• ‘We are always eagerly waiting for the evening,
because that means we can go to
urinate/defecate, without the fear of being
watched.’
• ‘I carry stones in my saree when I go for
defecation, and if I see a man approaching, I
throw it at him.’