The possibility of access to safe, accessible and clean
sanitary facilities reperesent an added value to the dignity of man and, in
this particular context, of women.
In India, one of the greatest challenges is to provide women
the opportunity to use safe and functional toilets to manage their personal
hygiene. Many people in India are forced to defecate outdoors which not only
corresponds to a lack of privacy but also to a mismanagement of hygiene because
there isn’t clean water available to wash your hands and clean the body after
defecation.
Although the Indian state is engaging through the Swachh
Bharat mission undertaken on 2nd of October, 2014 to ensure that the
entire Indian population has the benefit of being able to use safe toilets,still
today, access to clean water and sanitation is a great problem.In India, about
522 million people still defecate in the open, increasing the risk of spreading
diseases like diarrhoea and other types of viruses, not being able to wash
their hands and walk for the most part barefoot.According to Indian government
data mission the percentage of children who do not have access to the toilet
corresponds to 50.2% of males 44.6% of females compared to those who instead
use accessible baths that account for 26% of males and 24% of females.Although
the state is committed to providing more infrastructure, the problem affects
more deepen in the socio-cultural and educational aspect. More specifically,
this factor affects the dignity of women and respect for gender equality.
Women who live in rural areas and in suburban villages that
do not have toilets, often reduce themselves keeping their physiological needs
until the night, and look for a land abandoned, miles away from home in the
complete darkness to be able to relieve themselves. This, however, exposes them
to a high risk not only to contract parasitic diseases but also to the nights
dangers, as ill-intentioned that would sexually abuse them or would like to rob
them.According to research, 70% of abused women suffered this type of violence
while looking for a place to defecate far from their home.
Keeping the physiological needs, brings serious consequences
to metabolism, requiring your body an unnatural effort that causes infections
both in the urinary tract and in the intestine due to the bacteria not expelled
for too long by our body. According to the Indian Medical Association, retaining
physiological needs for a long time, and not expelling them when the body
requires, itcan also cause the intestine to collapse as well as the lack of
assimilation of nutrients. Indeed, some data reported by the Indian government
in 2013 show that 33.5% of women in the state of Andhra Pradesh weigh below the
threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO), also declaring
that the% 63 of women suffer from anaemia such as % 56.4 of pregnant women,
while men reach 20%.The Indian Medical Association also added that resisting to
defecate necessity provoke and accumulation of gases in the intestine that
damage the inner bacterial flora which becomes weak and don’t protect the
intestine from intestinal virus and bacterial infections easily verifiable in
case of bad quality of the water. Data show that, 1.7 million cases of
diarrhoeal diseases were registered in Andhra Pradesh in 2013, more than half
of them in women.
Hygiene Education and the good practices.
The
absence of a toilets or a latrine where to defecate, also means not having
available clean water to be able to wash hands after defecating. This means
that the faeces bacteria are transferred to the hands and contaminate
everything that the hands touch, like the food that women cook. Being able to
manage one's own hygiene is fundamental in order to avoid many infectious
diseases. However, it is necessary to explain the value of this practice,
because unfortunately it is not common, especially for those used to defecate in
the open. The importance of disease prevention is often not understood because
it changes the practices of common use which contrast the willingness to use
latrines because they are considered dirty. It is important to act through
education and teaching also at school level of which are the unfortunate causes
caused by a lack of personal hygiene and defecation outdoors. In this respect,
the intervention of many NGOs, such as HEEAL, is vital for the purpose of
learning and achieving hygiene practices. In fact, for HEEALS the objectives
are schools, where children are the right age to fully understand and not have
already rooted improper practices, difficult to change. Through interactive
lessons, Heeals promotes and supports personal hygiene education and adequate
water use, in order to guarantee children, and adults who learn from children,
a healthier life by avoiding many diseases.
-Elisa
Stucchi.
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