Gita Basfore. Photo: Sayantan Roy Chowdhury

Community action to end open defecation empowers women towards better health in Kalyani Municipality – A case story

A resident of Harijan Para, Gita Basfore was one of the women who led the campaign to stop the practice of open defecation in her neighbourhood. She claims that collective community action to build toilets was one of the best changes to have taken place in her community. The benefits were especially large for the women, especially in terms of their health, safety and dignity, she says. Speaking of how women suffered from the lack of access to safe sanitation, Gita recalls how she would join other women from her para to go to the fields, far away from home, to defecate every day. “We would walk about twenty to thirty minutes to get to the fields every morning. Though this used to take a lot of our time and it also felt unsafe, we had no other choice. We would go early in the mornings at dawn, because we did not want to be seen, especially by men. Even then, there would be strange men peeping and trying to catch a glimpse of us. There used to be many goons and drunkards in those areas back then, and we would always be on our guard, thus always hurrying up and not being able to defecate in peace. Each time we would see someone we would get up, and sit again when they passed by. The experience was not only frightening, but also very humiliating.”

What Gita describes above used to be daily life for women in Harijan Para, before 2006, when open defecation was rampant in this slum in Kalyani Municipality, an urban township in West Bengal’s Nadia district in India. Adds Gita, “For the men, practicing open defecation was not as shameful as it was for us women. They would even talk about it openly. The worst thing was when I could not even talk about how I felt to my own husband because this was not something that was to be spoken about. So we women just suffered it in silence.” Gita’s experience resonates with those of other women from the 52 slums in Kalyani at the time. In a recent study conducted by CLTS Foundation Global, it was found that women’s lack of access to clean and safe toilets in Kalyani, made them vulnerable to health consequences that were specific to women due to gender related norms and practices, such as diarrhoea and other infections arising from delayed urination and defecation practices, unhealthy menstrual hygiene management, and severe psychological stress from risks of gender related violence, shame and fear, all of which took a huge toll on their overall well-being.

Gita Basfore. Photo: Sayantan Roy Chowdhury

Describing the various coping strategies that she resorted to in those days, Gita states, “I would eat very little at night, and at times even skip meals, because I did not want to have to ask my husband to take me to the fields at night. This was a practice I developed in my early days of marriage, when I used to be so embarrassed about having to go out to urinate or defecate. I was afraid that my in-laws would get to know and I wondered what they would think of me. Many women like me cope like this. Even if we want to go, we try and hold it in till the next morning. This leads to many problems such as stomach aches, acidity and constipation. During our menstruation, the experience is far more uncomfortable and painful.”

Gita states that participatory exercises involving community mapping was conducted in the community (as part of the Community led Total Sanitation (CLTS) triggering initiated in Harijan Para in the year 2006) which changed women’s lives for the better. “Building our own toilets was one of the best decisions we took for our health. We women saw this as the best chance to solve the problems we were facing. During the exercises, women were actively involved and we learnt that open defecation was the source of the recurrent diarrhoea that we and our children were experiencing, along with other health problems. It was not only about the shame and safety factor anymore. We could not wait even a day longer to protect our health, which for a working class like us, is a very valuable asset. We realized that the starting point was putting an end to open defecation. The men were equally convinced, but it was the added pressure that all of us women put on the men that speeded up the action.”

Gita and her family members, as the others in her community, have been using a toilet since the CLTS triggering in 2006. Harijan Para became Open defecation free (ODF) within 6 months of the CLTS triggering. It was the second slum, after Vidyasagar Colony, to become ODF among the 52 slums in Kalyani Municipality, which became ODF in the 2009. The benefits of the same are significantly evident today according to Gita. “Diarrhoea cases among our children are practically negligible today. For us women, not only has our physical health improved because of adopting timely and hygienic defecation practices, but the very feeling of safety and convenience that having our own toilet brings, has reduced our stress factor drastically and contributed to a feeling of well-being.” Speaking about the impact on the younger generation of girls and women in the community, Gita adds, “I am very happy that my daughter was lucky enough to grow up in a healthier environment. The children in our community are very aware and conscious about cleanliness and hygiene practices. And it goes without saying that we will never allow our daughters to be married into a household that does not have a toilet. This will secure the future generations as well.”

Preetha Prabhakaran is Programme Manager, CLTS Foundation Global

This case story is part of a study titled “The impact of CLTS on women’s health in urban slums – A case study of Kalyani Municipality”, a joint collaborative effort between the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and the CLTS Foundation Global as part of a project within an Accountable Grant funded by UK Aid from the UK’s Department for International Development.

The post “Building our own toilets was one of the best decisions we took for our health“ appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

Kajal Basfore and Seema Basfore of Harijan Para are two young 20 year-old girls, who have been changing lives in Kalyani slums by spreading the message of good sanitation and hygiene through street plays and dramas. “Everything changed dramatically for us after 2006”, say the two young women, recalling the Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) exercise conducted by Dr. Kamal Kar from CLTS Foundation Global in partnership with Kalyani Municipality to stop the practice of open defecation in the slums of Kalyani earlier in 2006. Harijan Para, one of the 52 slums of the Municipality was the filthiest of the lot. “Earlier our friends would not even come to our para, because it used to be so dirty and smelly. Now we feel great pride when these same friends say that our para is cleaner than many of the other paras in Kalyani.”

Kajal and Seema: Photo Credit: Preetha Prabhakaran/CLTS Foundation Global

Kajal and Seema state that the change that took place in Harijan Para after the CLTS triggering was nothing short of a miracle. Kajal says, “Being from the Harijan community, cleaning other people’s houses and toilets was a profession followed by our male members. It was only after the triggering that we realised that while we kept other people’s houses clean, our own houses and surroundings in which we lived were so filthy. We were literally living on shit.” Soon after the triggering, all the community members got together and pledged to put an end to open defecation. Many members actively took the lead and built their own toilets. They formed a committee, held regular meetings and followed up with the rest of the community to ensure that each one built their own toilet, so that the entire community would become open defecation free (ODF). A few of Kajal and Seema’s family members emerged as these proactive ‘Natural Leaders’, thus providing a platform for the young women to get involved as well.

Talking about how the events after the triggering were life-changing for them, they said, “The main change began with each of us building toilets and stopping open defecation, which directly reflected on our better health. We were able to work better and children started doing well in schools. This in turn, initiated many other social changes in the community which was unimaginable earlier. For e.g. men started realising that they were wasting their health and affecting their family’s well-being because of their drinking habits. Slowly, they began to give it up. Alcoholism was a huge social problem in our community earlier. These days, you will hardly find two or three people who still drink. All this was emphasised in the street play that we developed after the triggering to campaign for an open defecation free para. In it, we also included other social messages “

For the girls, acting in the play was a very powerful experience, they say, “Our mama (uncle) asked us to take part in the play to spread the message of good hygiene. We were petrified. Because earlier we had never gone out of our houses or spoken in public. Being girls, we had been brought up in a very restricted manner, given limited opportunities to study or to be seen in public. Nobody had ever asked for our opinion on anything and we were never given the chance to have our voices heard. So for us acting in a play was unimaginable.” As expected, the girls faced stiff resistance from their parents in the beginning who would not allow them to travel outside the para but the Natural Leaders in the community convinced their parents that this was for a larger cause. “The play allowed us to take centre stage. At first we were very frightened and kept mucking up our lines, but soon we gained confidence and took control of the play. We realised that this was not just a play, we were part of something bigger and very important. We were part of the change that was happening in our society.”

Kajal and Seema’s foray into the public space and their role in bringing about positive social changes in the community, acted as a catalyst in influencing an open and progressive outlook towards the role of women and girls in the community. “We have come a long way over the last few years and a lot of changes have taken place in our para. People now recognise us on the streets and they appreciate our work, which makes our parents very proud. All families in our para now allow their girl children to study as much as they want. The girl now decides when she wants to marry. Earlier they would be married off by 14-15 years, but today girls in our para are studying for law, education etc.” When asked what has been their greatest learning through all of this, they say, “It doesn’t matter if you are girl or a boy, we can do whatever we want to do, if we put our mind to it. We realised this when we changed our sanitation situation. From the outside nobody can tell which caste or community we belong to, because we look clean, we look like anyone else. Nobody discriminates against us anymore because of our caste or because we are girls. We finally understood what our real identity is.”

By Preetha Prabhakaran – Programme Manager, CLTS Foundation Global

This case story is part of a study titled “The impact of CLTS on women’s health in urban slums – A case study of Kalyani Municipality”, a joint collaborative effort between the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and the CLTS Foundation Global as part of a project within an Accountable Grant funded by UK Aid from the UK’s Department for International Development.

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The post “Improving our own sanitation story has given us an identity”: Kajal and Seema appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.