ON THE WAY TO AN OPEN FIELD. The rape risk for women for open defecation.

On the night of 27th of May, in Katra Sahadatganj, two girls said to their parents they’d have left home for toilet. The girls were found hanged from a tree the following hours. From a first investigation, the girls have been raped, killed and then hanged to make it looks like a suicide. Unfortunately, as many cases like this, it turned in suicide leaving the culprits free. This is not an isolated case, especially in the villages, women who have to find an open field to defecate or only to cleanse themselves are many and they usually doing this under the cover of night, far from the village eyes. Many women say to prefer to wake up before down and think it is better doing with someone else like a female friend or relative, never alone. They know that men lurk, watch and worse. “Try to squat in a sari, while holding a cup of water to cleanse themselves and keeping an eye out for rapists” wrote Rose George for HuffPost. According to a 2015 UNICEF/WHO report, this is what about 300 million women and girls in India have to face every day because they have no access to toilets. A WaterAid, DFID-funded Sanitation and HARE study, explains that in the slums people have to share public toilets and girls under the age of 10 reported to face a higher risk to be raped on the way to reach the public toilets. In many interviews conducted by researchers, women from villages and slums narrate the high frequency of cases of assaults. In any case, women always faced lewd remarks, physical gestures and rape when they hide in the bush. Particularly, a mother said she had to fight with a group of delinquents for protecting her daughters from getting raped. She knew that or they kill her to rape her daughters or they back off. The frequency of this assaults is chilling.

Nearly half the world’s population lacks access to improved sanitation conditions and half of them reside in India, where almost half a billion people defecate in the open. The lack of adequate sanitary facilities lead women to an increased exposure to the risk of gang rape and lynching. This is one of the reasons why open defecation have to be stopped, in addition to diseases caused by faecal contamination. Indeed, according to the recent UNICEF survey, 102 813 children in India died, in the 2016, due to diarrhoea. No country in the world has more open defecation than India, where one in two people defecate outside. Although open defecation has been reduced by 31 percent since 1990, about 300 million women and girls in India still have no other choice.

The improvement of toilet infrastructures in the villages is a target for the decrease of women sexual violence for open defecation, providing them some level of protection. According to Approva Jadhav, a US researcher, the non-partner violence is a type of sexual violence closely linked to open defecation places. The research results suggest that women who use open defecation have twice the odds of non-partner sexual violence (NPSV) than women who use household toilets. So, it is necessary to improve infrastructures to provide women with some level of protection against NPSV.

However, the building of infrastructures for sanitation purposes has to face an important challenge regarding the changing of people behaviour. According to a study, at least 50 per cent of structures built for sanitation purposes in India remains unused or is used for other purposes. According to some critics, this is due to the fact that imposing an infrastructure never used before without a direct request from the population, leads to a psychological rejection in front of the change in their habits. The change of behaviour can be done only by a demand driven by the population. For example, it is known a movement called "No loo, No I do", through which brides refuse to get married into families which live in homes without toilet. This can be useful for rousing the population mind.

India is running far behind to attain its sanitation goals and the situation is getting difficult with each passing year. The researchers strongly recommends infrastructure improvements that can provide women with some level of protection against sexual violence, along with behaviour changes to utilise these built toilet facilities.

Currently, many campaigns and NGO’s action, like HEEALS committed in the UN’s WASH project,  and the Indian government are underway to raise awareness of the use of toilets and to stop open defecation, involving the aim in the national conversation and following the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2 for sanitation and hygiene. This is an important need that population can’t avoid anymore, because it regards public health and safety but also human dignity.

Elisa Stucchi-

WASH & MH Coordinator 

Happy Guru Nanak Jayanti To All

A LAW IS ENOUGH FOR DEFEATING CHILD MARRIAGE?

India is a country with not only a long history but also a defined pattern of various traditions and laws.

Firstly, during the previous century, India’s Government tried to solve the deep issue of child marriage across the state. The main Act adopted,in this sense, is the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929. Unfortunately this Act did not produce the desired results: as a matter of fact, nowadays child marriage is still present in India.

Since the ineffectiveness of Child Marriage Restraint Act,  a new legislation, to replace it, was enacted in the form of Prohibition of Child Marriage Actin 2006. This Act has the noble purporsed to prevent that phenomenon, enhancing punishments of rigorous imprisonment for two years and/orpenalty of 100,000 Indian rupee.In addition, it is established the husband could pay the maintenance of the “child-wife”, if he is a major (more than 21 years old). On the other hand, so if the husband is a minor, his parents could be designed to pay that maintenance.

One of the most evident weakness of this last Act is that the legal status of a child marriage is voidable at the option of the parties. Only, if the consent is obtained by fraud, deceit or if the child is enticed away from his lawful guardians and if the purpose is to use the child for trafficking or other immoral wills, the marriage would be invalid.

Having said that, it appears clear that there is not a total and efficient prohibition of child marriage in India, also because some remarkable Indian Regions, like for instance Jammu, Kashimere and The Union territory of Pandicherry, did not sign the Act of 2006.

Secondly,  two main problemsare affecting currently the Country:

1.      The several inconsistencies between different personal laws and secular law.

2.      The evident lack of effectiveness of the law in general.

As far as it concerned the first issue, it is possible to analyze briefly some “religious act”:

·         The Hindu Marriage Act, released in 1956.

Under this Act, only the parties to a child marriage are punishable, even if they did not consent to the union. Moreover,it is not provided to punishthe parents or people who solemnised the marriage. Broadly speaking, a girl can obtain the annulment of her marriage   only if she was married off before turning the age of 15 and if she challenges the marriage before turning 18. There is any track of the will to not allow the child marriage itself.

·         Muslim Personal Law

First of all, it is necessary claim that  Muslim code  law is not codified in India and that its provisions are based on the interpretation of Quran by scholars.

Under these Acts, child marriage not has any limits.Therefore, it is a sort of right to get a child married. However, the couple has ‘option of puberty’(15 years old), so they can repudiate the marriage after attaining puberty, only respecting two dictations: they have to do it before turning 18 and the marriage must has not been consummated.

·         Indian Christian Marriage Act (ICMA)

UnderICMA, if the marriage is contracted between two minors it is necessary to issue a preliminary notice 14 days before the marriage. After that period, the parties can go on with the marriage without the consent of their “guardians”.

·         Others personal laws

Among those, it is a useful considered both the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act (PMDA) where child marriage is totally invalid, even if the Act is silent regarding age where the provisions for an invalid marriage are listed,  and Jewish law, which is uncodified in India, but it result clear form it that the marriageable age is the age of puberty, that is 12 years old.

It is possible to sum up this point saying that currently in India there is an useful “melting pot” of law and habits and even the judicial trends of the Supreme Court has not clarify this state of ambiguity yet. This fact is the one reason why there is,no so far, serious and unique group of law, which defeat child marriage, so far.

The other mentioned problem, or in the other words the evident lack of effectiveness of the law in general, is deeply rooted and visible in India society. As everyone knows, one think is having a rules’ code and another one is enforcing it. Likewise, it has been observed that the majority of the population has not trust in the institutions in general. Having said that, the incapability to transform the law in action is clear.

Finally, to end up the article,Indian society is truly complicated and mere legislation are not able to defeat child marriage, unless the whole society starts to support and to respect the law in general. An uniform Civil Code could also help in preventing child marriage, but for the facts previous considered, it is a hard challenge.

-Martina 

Inter Coordinator 

19th November 2018 World Toilet Day

We organized WASH Workshops In Schools & Distributed Soap Bars and Hand Wash Posters

Theme : “When nature Calls”

We need a toilet. But billions of people don’t have one.This means human faeces, on a massive scale, is not being captured or treated – contaminating the water and soil that sustain human life. We are turning our environment into an open sewer.We must build toilets and sanitation systems that work in harmony with ecosystems.World Toilet Day is about nature-based solutions to our sanitation needs. When nature calls we have to listen and act.

World Toilet Day, celebrated on 19th November, is about taking action to ensure that everyone has a safe toilet by 2030. This is part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)6 : Sanitation & Water

62% People around the world don’t have access to safe sanitation

892 Million people practice open defecation.

4.5 Billion people live without safe Toilet

1.8 Billion people use a drinking water source that could be contaminated with faeces

Come Join Us Today ! In Our WASH Project .

Email : communications@heeals.org 

HEY YOU, DO YOU KNOW CHILD MARRIAGE MAIN FEATURES?

First able, I would like to spend few words in order to introduce myself.

I am Martina, I am 22 years old and I am currently doing an Internship at HEEALS, an NGO which is facing with several issues that nowadays annoy the Indian society.

In this article I would like to guide you inside the obscure world of child marriage.

In India, the legal age for the marriage is 21 years old for the men and 18 years old for the girls, but one thing is having a law, other is enforcing it. As a matter of fact, every years, a remarkable and unthinkable number of children is enforce to get married from his family. According to UNICEF, globally, 36% of women aged 20-24 were married or in a union, forced or consensual, before they have reached 18. In addition,  an estimated 14 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 give birth each year.

Child marriage is an evident violation of child rights, and has a negative impact on physical growth; health, mental and emotional development, and also on education opportunities.

Both girls and boys are affected by child marriage, even if girls are involved with a greater intensity. Moreover that phenomenon can be seen, across the Country (India obviously), with a superior incidence in rural areas than in urban. Particularly girls from poorer families, scheduled castes and tribes, with lower education levels are more likely to get married at a younger age.

“The Hindu”, a local journal, explains that despite the last changes through the modernity, such as the spread of technology, the improvements of work conditions and instruction, the older uses and costumes are becoming more and more widespread . For this reason, it is possible to conclude that the technological developments has not been followed by a social growth. Broadly speaking, parents tend to believe that their children, with their phone and their Internet connection, tend to lost easily their sense of duty and theirs innocence, so getting marriage since childhood is a safe way for “controlling and saving” them.

Likewise, another important cause of the child marriage is the endemic poverty. Families not only cannot afford a good level instruction for their children but also they strongly believe that it is better for them working instead of studying. Often poor families sell their children into marriage either to settle debts or to make some money, also because marriages seem to be a solution to secure to the younger a successful future. Furthermore, giving a daughter in marriage allows parents to reduce family expenses by ensuring they have one less person to feed, clothes and education. In communities where a dowry or ‘bride price’ is paid, it is welcome income for poor families; in those where the bride’s family pays the groom a dowry, they often have to pay less money if the bride is young and uneducated.

Having said that, now it is necessaire considering the consequences of child marriage. Among them, there are, in order of importance, an high level of children death; a spread of illness, like for instance HIV or AIDS; and last but not least a growth of the marginalization of young girls, that brings to a lack of education and consciousness.

It is vital understand that all these outcomes are not enclose only inside a families or a single persons, but they affect the global Indian society, reinforcing the cycle of endemic poverty and perpetuating gender discrimination, illiteracy and malnutrition.

Youngs are an uncountable resources for the economic, cultural and social society and they are a necessary millstone for built up future generations with new and more fair values.

To sum up, child marriage is still widespread in India, which is home to a third of the world’s child brides because about half of Indian women were married before they turn 18.

Figuring out the primary  facts of  child marriage is a duty for us, who live in a different part of the World, because only in these way we can try solve the problem permanently.

Martina Scavino

LET ME SAY “MENSTRUATION”. Hygiene education for facing cultural taboos.

Nowadays, our society still finds difficult to tackle the "menstruation" discourse. Although they are natural, cyclical and common in every woman, even today it is not easy to talk freely about this topic. All over the world, the female gender must face something that represents them negatively every month. In the United States, a research was carried out in the 1990s in which it was sought to understand what the opinion among students was about menstruation. As if they are something natural, they are at the same time annoying. Women during the period should lead their lives normally without having to show menstruation. Thus, instead of celebrating the cyclical nature of being a woman, they must ignore the phenomenon so as not to neglect husband, children and work. On the contrary, however, during the menstrual cycle a woman undergoes strong hormonal changes, the body consumes a lot of energy and the feeling of exhaustion is stronger than usual, the area of ​​the belly at the uterus swells and often hurts, indeed many women suffer from very intense pains in the lower abdomen (premenstrual syndrome).In short, for about six to eight days a month, woman undergoes a change in her body. She can lead her life normally but that does not mean she has to hide what she is going through. What we are talking about is recognized as a cultural taboo. This is also demonstrated by the use of different euphemisms such as "menses" or "period" or the prestige games that women make to go to the bathroom with a sanitary napkin to change, hoping to avoid to show it. The social exclusion of women during menstruation is rooted in many cultures but a particular cultural taboo is recognized in India. Menstruation, in addition to being an "off-limits" topic in education, also find a lack of facilities that together exacerbate the maintenance of intimate hygiene. Behind social exclusion and cultural taboos, religious and cultural practices play an important role.In fact, during menstruation many women cannot perform normal religious functions, Muslims cannot touch the Koran and many cannot enter places of worship where to pray. 

We are talking taboo because many women are not informed before the menarche to prepare themselves psychologically. In fact, many girls when they have the cycle for the first time remain traumatized by what happens to them. According to a purely cultural aspect, everything that expels our body is impure and dirty, which is why our body intends to eliminate it by making it come out. This means that menstruation is something dirty and impure that comes out of a woman's body and is itself impure and dirty. In India, many women when they have the cycle cannot enter the kitchen and cook because they can spread "diseases", touch the fruit or vegetables because they become rotten, or they poison the food; they cannot touch plants because they die, but not even sacred animals.

The first experience of the menstrual cycle is not pleasant: you lose for the first time a lot of blood from parts of your body little known; the pain can be mild but annoying and you do not know what you're feeling pain for; you do not know what to wear because your clothes are stained and you cannot walk without having something that can absorb the blood; It's embarrassing because you do not want anyone to know, otherwise you could be judged. Think about it without having ever heard about “Menstruation”. Many girls could think about an illness.

According to a purely cultural aspect, everything that expels our body is impure and dirty, which is why our body intends to eliminate it by making it come out. It’s true, our body is programmed to expel the impurities, but the fact that it is capable of it is a positive aspect.However, this means that menstruation is considered as something dirty and impure that comes out of a woman's body and is itself impure and dirty. In India, many women when they have the cycle cannot enter the kitchen and cook because they can spread "diseases", touch the fruit or vegetables because they become rotten, or they poison the food; they cannot touch plants because they die, also sacred animals.

However, the problem gets worse when girls in schools do not have separate baths and only about half of the schools in India own them. Without separate baths the girls have no privacy to wash or change their dirty clothes. Furthermore, in rural areas girls do not have sanitary towels, they use dirty fabrics, sand, sawdust, dust, leaves to tamp with menstrual flow and use water to contaminate to wash their private parts. All this causes vaginal infections or sexually transmitted diseases that, due to embarrassment, are not treated.

As a result, 113 million young girls leave school when they reach puberty. A recurring fact is that only 12%, out of a total of about 350 million women who have a menstrual cycle, use sanitary pads, above all for their high cost, unattainable for the lower caste. To counter this situation, campaigns are taking place in the country to make the sanitary towels accessible to all women and above all to spread education in schools. In fact, the idea of ​​HEEALS NGO is to start from the education of Menstrual Cycle Management in schools and distribute absorbers to girls in village and rural schools. Education is a fundamental element for the awareness of girls who often find themselves facing a traumatic and panic experience during their first menstrual cycle. In fact, according to the 2016 international weekly magazine Newsweek, 70% of girls in India have never heard of menstruation before their arrival. Keeping girls from the menstrual cycle in the dark is also due to the desire to prevent awareness of their sexuality and the possibility of becoming mothers. This attitude is adopted especially in rural areas where girls are given in brides at 13-14 years as soon as they have menstruated and consequently leave school. The achievement of puberty is seen as the right time to start taking care of the family and looking after the home professions.

Finally, although it is one of the most natural thing in the world, in India, as in several other countries and for several religions, the menstrual cycle remains a taboo. The woman "in those days" is isolated from society, or feels uncomfortable in the environment in which she lives. For this reason there are awareness campaigns such as that of Sushmita Dev, a politician and a member of the Indian National Congress, which intends to guarantee Indian women the possibility of having free sanitary towels. In addition, various humanitarian organizations, such as HEEALS, have begun to make available free or low-cost women's sanitary napkins and awareness campaigns to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal no 5 for gender equality, hoping to make women free to express themselves, guaranteeing them the right to feel the benefits from awareness by giving the correct education to face personal intimate hygiene as any other day.

Elisa Stucchi-

Why Menstrual Hygiene Management Matters Most !