Water security is an extremely important point to ponder for securing the growth and development of the Indian economy. The countrymen of the second largest populous nation in the world rely directly or indirectly on groundwater. But the burden on groundwater has been increasing day by day since the annual waterfall declination. The nationwide drought of 2009 and 2016 affected more than 330 million people. This provides us with enough evidence of water scarcity and mismanagement of mega water resources. Sanitation is another big problem which restricts the growth of Indian welfare.
But what if the idea of ‘waterless urinals’ is implemented across the nation? Will it revolutionise the Indian sanitation system? Will it reduce the burden on already scarce water resources?
Yes, it will. It has all the potential to create a water-efficient sanitary system. Talking specifically considering the school point of view, India so far accounts for 1.4 million schools, and the number of students attending them is 139.9 million. Now give these figures a thought, and imagine the figure of reduced water consumption if waterless urinals are installed.
Average households consume 398 liters per day, and 80 liters of water go for sanitation. Even a normal urinal uses 4-6 liters of water per flush. Here again, one can find the impact of the waterless urinal in conserving water.
India struggles for water to fulfill needs from irrigation for domestic purposes and groundwater is the only source for 80 % of the population. States like Punjab, Haryana, and Maharashtra in the west, and Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the southeast, suffer from great inadequacy and have been constrained to very minimal water resources.
Besides this, the depleting ground water level has also triggered communicable diseases due to pollution. Water extraction from deep reservoirs also exposes harmful chemicals like arsenic, causing serious health threats.
The scarcity of water has also led to water conflicts, like the Kaveri dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and the one between Haryana and Delhi. Several states like Goa, Punjab, and Rajasthan also share conflicts with other states.
Lack of water alone adds chaos to many social, political, and environmental problems and neglecting these issues can turn disastrous for society. Rising population and the demand for water rises in parallel, but we unfortunately lack the infrastructure to meet the demand.
The latest version of the waterless urinal developed by Reap Benefit is made up of tin. The smell and the cost of maintenance both have been reduced from the previous version which was made of a plastic container and a TT ball.
The new design reduces the smell and stands tall on the parameter of hygiene.
The data suggests one single waterless urinal can save approx. 50-75 % from prior consumption. The maintenance cost also drops drastically since very few inventory parts are used. Along with these advantages, there is also saving in the water bill.
This version of the urinal has been installed in several private and public schools of Bengaluru and nearby areas. Being cost-effective, and with better durability, it has generated plenty of demand in low-budget government and private schools.
The urinal is made up of solid tin, and doesn’t require multiple inventory parts. It can be fixed anywhere with a wall for support. All you need is a few metres of plastic pipe and a single TT ball to get started.
This also reduces replacement and maintenance costs drastically.
With the future in mind, this system can revolutionise the urban public toilet system of India with minimal effort and certain enhancements in infrastructure. Waterless urinals can reduce the instances of open defecation, and can also save a lot of water in rural as well as urban areas. Their durability and low maintenance cost can make it a success in a nation which largely constitutes of lower middle-class families and a population with limited access to toilets.
Join Reap Benefit in its mission to solve local civic environmental problems through data and innovation. Visit the website.
In 2008 when the jhopadpattis on the pavements of Sewri were demolished, Parveen Sheikh sat by the footpath with her friend Kanta Nada mourning her lost home.
Out of 680 homes, according the 1995 election rules, only 280 homes were rehabilitated — Parveen’s home was not on the list. The BMC assured the angered pavement dwellers to not lose hope, it was just the first phase of rehabilitation.
A 12-year-old boy ran to Parveen and said, “Aunty, they have come with weapons to kill you, run away.”
Running at a distance towards her was a crowd of people with every weapon she had possibly seen— knives, bamboos, sticks alike, bloodthirsty for a certain Mahila Milan leader responsible for their lost homes. Zia bhai, one of Parveen’s neighbour rushed with his wife’s burqa, she donned it and hid in the blue water drum in a neighbour’s movers and packers truck. She remembers staying in hiding with her family for a month in a room in Mankhurd. A few days later, the same phone calls made their way back again. This time apologizing for their misunderstanding. Parveen Sheikh had had enough, she would give up social work. But she realised, it was perhaps their homelessness that led to their reckless actions. She crusaded for their rehabilitation again. Within a week after that, 122 more homes were passed and people thanked the same Mahila Milan leader again.
Who is Parveen Sheikh?
Parveen Sheikh, 48, member of Mahila Milan and NSDF (National Slum Dwellers Federation) for the past 20 years, was born on the footpath and lived most of her life on it. To be homeless plus a woman was nothing short of daunting. Everything she ate was measured to avoid the embarrassment of open defecating on the Sewri railway tracks.
“Sitting near the tracks was frightening because trains would pass regularly. And going in the night was unsafe for the fear of physical or sexual assault,” she recalls.
“So, when I opened the door to my new home in Govandi, I did not look left or right. The first thing I saw was the toilet. And the realisation that I owned this toilet and I could use it as many times as I wanted was empowering. My food intake no longer needed measurement,” she smiles.
Recalling the days she spent as a pavement dweller in Sewri, she says, “When we went to banks earlier, they would ask for residential proof and a guarantor who had an account in that bank. We did not have a roof over our head, where would we get residential proof from? In 2007, I connected to Mahila Milan, a saving unit where savings started from smaller amounts like Rs 5 and we did not need a guarantor. That one decision changed my life beyond words.”
Started in 1986, Mahila Milan is a decentralised network of poor women’s collectives that manage credit and savings activities in their communities. It currently operates as a savings co-operative for women slum dwellers across Mumbai. From micro door-to- door savings of less than Rs 5 per day in the 90s to the current day scenario, Mahila Milan today has become a self-sufficient unit of saving women.
Photo Source Today, Parveen heads the Mahila Milan Sanghatan at Govandi, and also runs a local sanitary pad manufacturing unit under the Myna Mahila Foundation that works in association with Mahila Milan. With low levels of formal employment in slum communities, especially among young women, Myna employs women and trains them to be entrepreneurs who can run franchisee businesses for women’s products.
They make sanitary products, such as sanitary and maternity pads to improve women’s health, at subsidized costs.
Women sell the pads door-to-door, in public toilets, balwadis, clinics and local NGOs, to other women who are bound by the societal taboo of leaving their homes to purchase sanitary pads. The company was established in June 2015 by Suhani Jalota and is run by Parveen with two other highly experienced women from the slums of Mumbai, Meena Ramani and Malati Ambre.
“We started with a mere group of five women, today we have 20 women working with Myna. The road was rocky at the start, it almost took a month to train women to master the entire process of making a pad. We ourselves used to be shy about the kind of product we were making and promoting. Suhani spoke to us about how this was a natural process that we shouldn’t be ashamed of discussing. We felt empowered understanding the importance of menstruation to a woman’s fertility. Today when we have meetings, and there are men, we speak to them about it and encourage them to take sanitary products home,” says Malati Ambre.
Myna runs a factory in a slum redeveloped colony in Shivaji Nagar to provide employment to local women to make low-cost, high quality sanitary products that can be used locally.
“Our central aim was to create awareness about menstrual hygiene and encourage women to discard their old practices of using cloth and use sanitary pads instead. We never wanted to make a luxury product or collaborate with a brand name. The idea was clear, we wanted a simple and basic product –– made by women, for women and sold by women. We conducted extensive surveys and arrived at the result that 90% women in our slums used cloth. We spoke to experts and in turn showed women videos and conducted workshops to create awareness about the hazards of unhygienic menstrual practices,” shares Meena Ramani.
“People were not ready to turn away from practices they had followed for generations. It took more than a year for our women to create that kind of awareness. When women went from door-to-door selling, people would turn their backs and mock them saying, “Aren’t you ashamed. Why are you selling this?” says Parveen.
Today 80% women are using pads. Donning goggles and patiyala suits, these women have trained their younger generations to ride the pink Myna auto rickshaw that is used for transportation too. They call it their ‘Myna sawaari.’
While Myna Pads are manufactured, and sold door to door to women, Myna Maternity pads are sold to local clinics and hospitals. “From the day we started till date, the cost of one packet of Myna, which consists of 8 pieces, is Rs. 25. While leading branded pads weigh 6-7 grams per piece, our pad weighs 11 grams,” she adds.
While Bombay hospital is one of their most loyal customers with a prescription of 500 maternity pad packets per month, KEM orders 350.
On an average, Myna Pads sell 9,000 to 10,000 packets per month.
With newer demands and increase in usage of sanitary pads and feedback from users, Myna has also started manufacturing sanitary pads with wings. While the packet is priced at Rs. 40, they sell 3 packets on a subsidized rate of Rs.100 in slums. The women engage the users in a complete demo of 3 to 4 minutes where instructions from opening the pad, to using and disposing of it are covered. The packets bear their contact numbers for home deliveries.
For families with five to six women and girl children, packets are loaned that can be repaid once financially viable.
Connect to Myna Mahila foundation here. Write to them at mynafoundation@gmail.com.
The low cost sanitary pads can be ordered on the following numbers:
+91 98-70-504589 / +91 98-70-661620
Tired of holding your bladder thanks to lack of toilets in public, or more importantly, hygienically safe toilets in public?
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has partnered with Google on the latter’s toilet locator awareness campaign through which public toilets across Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida zones can be located on Google Maps.
According to The Indian Express, the Google Toilet Locator Awareness Campaign had already been flagged off as a pilot project last year as told by officials at NDMC.
Over 5,000 community toilets and toilets near petrol pumps, railway stations and bus stands have been geo-tagged and are part of the database on Google Maps.
Reportedly, the campaign had emerged as an imminent resort to tackle the never-ending crisis of open defecation and urination across the country by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) last year.
Though the initial reports had been about piloting the campaign across the National Capital Region or NCR, the talks have been going on about scaling and expanding the project across other cities after receiving feedback from users in the region.
The toilets falling under the NDMC region can also be located using the NDMC Mobile App — NDMC311.
“The civic body is in the process of launching smart toilets across the region that will come attached with facilities like ATMs, rooftop solar panel, sanitary pad vending machine, digital health clinic and online user feedback tablet. A total of 109 smart toilets are being constructed,” Naresh Kumar, who is the chairperson of NDMC, told The Indian Express.
As part of a campaign to make Maharashtra’s Osmanabad district open defecation free, over 10,000 pits have been dug in a single day by local villagers to allow for the construction of as many toilets to begin in the next seven days.
Braving monsoon rains, villagers of the district worked together for 18 hours to complete the unprecedented feat which aims to bring proper hygiene and sanitation to the district’s 621 villages.
Photo for representation purposes only. Source: Flickr
The toilet pit drive inches the district closer to October 2, the target date set aside for the completion of the campaign and the last time local villagers use open spaces as human-waste grounds.
Everyone, from Zilla Parishad President, Vice President, elected members, officers, Zilla Parishad employees, social workers, all Block Development Officers, Sarpanches and all those at grass root level took an active role in digging the pits.
Zilla Parishad official, Hanumant Gadge, told NDTV, “People of Osmanabad indeed have made the Clean India Mission into a mass movement. Every person is enthusiastic about contributing their bit towards cleanliness and sanitation, and this can be seen with the kind of self-involvement we have witnessed in the last few months.
The scheme is part of the `Marathwada Hagandari Mukt Sangram’ (Marathwada campaign for eradication of open defecation) which had been launched on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, the Marathi new year. The campaign has devised a number of incentives to garner interest and involvement from the locals including a ‘Build A Toilet And Visit Singapore’ initiative.
As per the incentive, 32 villagers will be selected through a lottery system, and the chosen ones will be sent to Singapore on an all-expense paid trip. The only criteria they need to fulfill is to build a toilet at home. The results are set to be announced on the campaign’s completion day.
When Gondappa’s son reached the age of five, he walked with his hands on the ground and feet in the air to the temple of the village Goddess in Thesgora, Madhya Pradesh. A host of villagers accompanied the man to celebrate the survival of the first child who reached the age of five, in a village known for the highest cases of diarrhoea in India.
According to a WHO report, India has the highest number of Under 5 mortality in the world with an estimated 1.2 million deaths in 2015 – 20 per cent of the 5.9 million global deaths.
Children promoting safe hand wash.
“The most rampant causes for the rising Under 5 mortality rate in India include unsafe washing practices and open defecation,” says Paresh Kumar, founder of DevInsights, a Delhi-based Research, Monitoring and Evaluation private company.
In an innovative solution to drive behavioral change and attain social development, Paresh’s company came up with an model called Music 4 Development or M4D.
Conceptualisation
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the Swachch Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014, the aim was to ensure a clean India by 2019. The mission saw numerous bureaucrats, politicians and celebrities promoting cleanliness activities.
A major course of action consisted of allocation of funds to build toilets around the nation. But mere construction of toilets isn’t enough, thinks Paresh. “Construction may be the first step, but the key is ensuring the usage of those toilets. Many a times, it doesn’t come naturally for most people who’ve never lived with that kind of infrastructure,” he says.
The challenge then is to drive behavioral change by encouraging people to not litter streets, build and use latrines in their houses and educate their children and neighbours about the significance of hand-washing.
Children assemble for the launch.
Music 4 Development believes in achieving this by engaging communities through music.
Talking about the conceptualisation of the behavior change model, Paresh says, “In 2015, we were writing a book on water sanitation and hygiene wash, where they was a chapter on communications. We conducted robust and in-depth research into the existing communication models being used in the country. And we realised that most of them were cliche methods of mass communication, where either a big celebrity was taken on board or only interpersonal communication was bestowed to frontline workers like the ones from Asha and Anganwadi. Eventually what happens is, behavior change does not take place.”
They started brainstorming different innovative models that would hit the right chords of their target group which included rural India and urban slum dwellers. An in-depth literature review on the impact of music led to the concept of Music 4 Development.
“Music has immense power. I am a music composer and writer myself. I started questioning myself about why I don’t utilise both skills to bring about an innovation? That’s how Music 4 Development came about. It is a unique combination of science and art. A marriage of behavioral science and the art of music to produce social change and development.”
The uniqueness of the concept of M4D is – it believes in making children the agents of change. “Changing the behavior of an adult is way difficult as compared to a child. Giving you a simple analogy – all of us know smoking is injurious to health; it’s even written on the packet. But we still continue smoking. This happens when the communication model is ineffective and does not hit the audience,” says Paresh.
Paresh believes that children, as against adults, have an innate power – the ‘pestering’ power, he calls it. If the child continues to pester, he/she can bring about the desired change in behavior.
Session on WASH
“The intervention happens at the school level where children are targeted and where they themselves act as agents of change. When you catch them young, you can be sure that they’ll understand and absorb the message better and retain this behaviour for a longer time as compared to adults,” says Paresh.
Just how Mozart’s music was used in the past to direct appropriate behaviour among young offenders and punk rock used as a strong tool for communicating, rebelling and empowering women, M4D aims to effect sustainable change in behavior.
Every song is constructed based on thorough research where a team of dedicated researchers visits the target area to understand the current knowledge, attitude, behavior and practices. These include their likes, dislikes, lifestyles, interests, preferences, etc.
“Children have strong likes and dislikes, and they are extremely honest about it in our focus group discussions. The effort is to create music that the children of a particular region are familiar with. So, the songs don’t seem foreign and easily position themselves in the mind of the child,” says Paresh.
These songs are then sung by children accompanied by a few adults. The idea is not heavy duty messaging. The lyrics strictly promote and emphasise key WASH behaviours. They are routinely played in the school. The top priority is recalling it and ensuring it is enjoyable. And yet making sure it doesn’t overshadow the lesson. The lyrics are playful, informative and easy to grasp for any young child.
“We developed this model by utilising our time, money and resources. We did try to raise funds, but two factors did not work in our favour – the fact that we were using music sung by children sounded kiddish to a lot of people we pitched the plan to. Also since we are a private organisation, not many were interested in taking the project on board,” says Paresh.
Tables turned when DevInsights pitched the concept to the Aga Khan foundation, who were looking at doing something new. “We explained the model to them and they saw merit in it. They supported us in terms of giving us an opportunity to work with their schools in the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. They told us to pilot our concept there and see the results.”
The pilot was conducted in 6 government schools. The songs were widely accepted by the children and one could always see a group of students singing along, memorising the lyrics and dancing to them.
A girl sings the song on open-defecation
“The teachers were very instrumental, cooperative and participative. They expressed how the model was making their work a lot easier. That’s the beauty and power of music. The children have started not only internalising it, but are also trying to translate this knowledge and practice to their families and community at large,” shares Paresh.
Impact
Paresh’s team conducted a detailed monitoring and impact report on three schools to track toilet usage.
“Three months ago the baseline data in these schools displayed that only 5 per cent of the students used toilets in the school. With our M4D behavior communication model in place, the endline has shown a rise as high as 90%,” says Paresh.
He believes that the successfully piloted model can be replicated into different settings, sectors and geographies. It is a low-cost model, as the only expense includes music production. The songs can be played in the entire district to drive change because the language in which it is sung is common to the masses.
“The model could be used to create awareness not just about safe WASH practices, but also menstrual hygiene, breastfeeding, malnutrition, complementary feeding and a host of other issues that fall in the purview of health,” he says.
Researchers of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, have achieved another feat by innovating a low-cost dirt detector that will soon open up the possibility of keeping public facilities clean and hygienic at all times.
Reportedly, the device can be placed at places where cleanliness needs to be monitored on a regular basis.The smart hygiene monitor (SHM) can record the levels of ammonia, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter with the help of sensors. It also sends online alerts to stakeholders as and when the prognostic threshold gets crossed.
This will be a boon for maintaining hygiene at public facilities like toilets, hospitals, eating joints, parks, railway stations, and airports that are cleaned only once in a while.
The research team behind the development of the device was headed by Aurobinda Routray, a professor in the Electrical Engineering department of the institute.
While explaining how the implementation of the device will be significant towards reducing water, harmful cleaning agents, and even labour, Aurobinda said that the authorities will only be alerted for cleaning the premises when the need arises.
“This monitor using sensors detects the level of hygiene in a room and through cloud sends data to the stakeholders,” he told The Economic Times.
Aurobinda also mentioned that the installation cost for a 20sq. ft. area would amount up to ₹5,000.
While the device has been created with a sensor-embedded platform that is connected via Internet of Things (IoT), the threshold level in each sensor has been fixed as per the deemed air quality index levels set by SAFAR-India (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research).
“Once these threshold levels are exceeded, an email alert will be sent via the cloud to the administrative office indicating the room condition as well as the need to clean it. Simultaneously, an alert will be sent to the concerned cleaning person stating the location of the room that needs to be cleaned,” Aurobinda explained.
Additionally, for each room equipped with the facility, a data analytics report featuring the real-time levels of pollutants will be available online and will be accessible for concerned authorities.
Equipped with light indicators, the model will help users remain up-to-date about the cleanliness status of the room. Like a traffic signal, the green light would indicate ‘clean space’ while red would imply that the space requires cleaning.
“Often in the metro airports or malls, you will find that cleaners mechanically go on cleaning toilets and other areas at stipulated intervals, even on low footfall days. This not only results in wastage of water and other cleaning resources, but also leads to overuse of cleaning chemicals, which have environmental ramifications. By using this solution in such places can reduce wastage,” Aurobinda added.
Currently, a lab prototype of SHM will undergo multiple levels of field trials that will help evaluate its efficiency.
You can reach out to Aurobinda Routray at aroutray@ee.iitkgp.ernet.in .
The Coconut Garden Residents Welfare Association (RWA) is an informal body of residents in Nagarbhavi, Bangalore, and comprises around 130 houses. As is with most of the RWAs, the work of the association with its dedicated team is to ensure water supply, internal road work, tackling problems of electricity, cleanliness, helping with documentation and organising cultural activities. The association strives for the overall welfare of its residents, who are quite active and enthusiastically participate in the programmes.
One such programme, which was organised in June, was different than the rest – the annual day. For the first time, the association and its members thought it fit to honour the pourakarmikas, or the municipal sanitary workers, employed by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). This was in recognition of their hard work throughout the year. The residents were aware that their health, to a large extent, depended on the cleanliness of the locality. So, this was the least that they could do for the people who kept it clean.
The idea of honouring the pourakarmikas came from the residents itself, who discussed it during a committee meeting.
Municipal sanitary workers were honoured at this event in a Bengaluru society.
There were 10 pourakarmikas – five men and five women – along with their supervisor, all of whom were publicly honoured. All the pourakarmikas were invited to the stage to a loud applause.
The workers received a ‘Certificate of Appreciation’, a fruit basket, ₹500 cash and new clothes. It was a very emotional moment for them. Some of them expressed how it was the first time someone had appreciated their work.
“We have been working in the colony for more than 10 years and hardly has anybody spoken us. Whenever they did talk, it was usually to complain. For the first time in our life, we feel proud, we feel recognised, and have felt a sense of identity,” said one of them. “We can live in poverty but not with abuses and insults. We are very, very happy at this kind gesture,” said another worker.
When the idea of honouring the pourakarmikas was discussed, it was whole-heartedly agreed by the association. The celebration ended with dinner for the workers, who ate with the residents. It was an unforgettable day for both. The association plans to organise more such programmes in the future.
A feeling of achievement, a sense of fulfillment – such was the impact that now the residents want to take it forward by discussing any problems that the pourakarmikas face regarding their children’s education, so that they can offer help
The amount of sanitary waste that is generated every year in India remains largely unknown because there are no reliable statistics on the subject.
Though the menstrual revolution brought relief to millions of women in India in the late nineties, the fact that this accessibility was owed to the mass production of disposable sanitary napkins. This came at the cost of clogged sewers and polluted environments.
Made of plastic, most of these non-compostable pads post-use find their way into landfills or worse, water bodies, since no dedicated waste management or incineration units for sanitary waste exist in our country.
With more awareness about the environmental damage caused by sanitary waste rising among people, many women are switching back to a practice followed by our grandmothers or mothers in the olden days,
Though a lot of organisations and small companies across the country have started manufacturing eco-friendly and cloth based pads that are reusable, anyone can make these at home, if you have an inclination towards Do-It-Yourself (DIY) activities!
Some of the basic materials that you would require for the task are as follows:
A disposable pad for reference (this can be according to your preference)
Flannel cloth (make sure the flannel is made of 100% cotton for best use)
An old towel
A sewing Machine
Snaps or Tic-Toc buttons
Here are the simple steps through which you can make your very own eco-friendly menstrual pads:
1. To make the outer body of the pad, you need to trace the disposable pad on the flannel cloth and cut out two pieces.
2. Make sure you add more length to the wings in the flannel since the commercial pads are meant to be stuck on your underwear while the wings on these overlap each other through fastenings.
3. Next is what goes inside the pad. Take an old towel that is still usable and cut out some rectangular shapes with curved edges.
4. These need to an inch shorter than the flannel cutouts. Place the towel liner centred between these. You can place more than one based upon your preference.
5. You can keep the layers in place using a pin or more in case you’re worried about the shifting.
6. Now starts the stitching work. You can either hand sew the pads or use a sewing machine. Either way, stitch two channels in the centre to fasten the towel to both the flannel pieces.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
7. Next stitch carefully all around your pad sticking as close to the edge as you can, and again backstitching at the beginning and end. Make sure you align and pinch the layers so that they stay put as you work around.
8. In case of any excess fabric edging out of the outer stitch, you can snip it out using scissors. But do be careful, lest you shear off the stitches.
9. Now you need to fix the snaps or tic-toc buttons on the wings that will keep the pad in place.
10. Make sure you place the male snap/button on the upper side of one wing and the female snap on the lower side of the other wing.
Talking about the wash and care, this is where many of us recoil at the very idea of reusable menstrual pads and dealing with our own blood. But just the way it took time for accepting the menstrual cycle as an unavoidable aspect during your initial days of puberty, you can get used to these too.
You need to wash the pads right away after use preferably with cold water. Also, make sure you wring it really well. Unlike the commercial pads, these pads do not smell and can last really long. Not only are the materials environmental friendly, they are comfortable and cheap too.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor, Anil Baijal, issued directives for 100 per cent mechanisation of the sewage cleaning after more than 10 deaths of sanitation workers cleaning sewages manually were reported in the city.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and concerned authorities were also directed to run a campaign to create awareness about the harmful effects of cleaning sewers on the health of the workers.
Lt Governor Baijal tweeted about the high-level meeting:
“Held joint meeting with Hon’ble CM. Directions issued for 100% migration to mechanization for sewers/drains cleaning. Strict regime to be prepared within 7 days. Intensive publicity of laid down norms for observance by contractors. Police to take stringent action against defaulters.”
In the meeting presided by the Lt Governor, attendees included Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Water Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, and PWD Minister Satyender Jain, Chief Secretary Dr. M.M. Kutty and other officials.
The Delhi Jal board has also been asked to work on a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in the next 7 days, in cases that demand emergency manual intervention.
Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Water Minister, Rajendra Pal Gautam, said, “Anyone found sending a worker down any drain or sewer in the Capital will not be charged under negligence. S/he will now directly be charged under section 304 of the IPC which is culpable homicide.”
Remember that scene in the movie Sholay, where Veeru finds Jai wounded on the ground and asks him how he got injured? Jai explains how, because there was no toilet in his house, he went outside to defecate in the dark and accidentally fell and hurt himself.
Remember that?
No? Well, at least that’s what the posters in south Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh district say!
The script ‘re’-writers of this scene from Sholay are the Chhoti Sadri Municipal Council.
Posters inspired by this scene have been put up everywhere in the district to discourage open defecation.
The posters have used this scene from the movie Sholay to spread a message about open defecation.
It is part of an initiative launched by municipality executive officer Himanshu Agarwal.
And this is not the only poster. Several scenes from famous Amitabh Bachchan’s movies have been used as inspiration in the posters of Chhoti Sadri as well as the Nainital Municipal Corporation in Uttarakhand and the Ranchi Municipal Corporation in Jharkhand, reports Hindustan Times.
There’s another one, which has Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan fighting for their mother’s custody in Deewar. But their mother would only go with the son who has a toilet at home!
According to HT, Sholay posters have also been put in the Howrah division of the Indian Railways to discourage littering at stations. The civic body officials have said that as many as 1,000 households of the 1,800 in the area have toilets.
Earlier this year, a documentary called Kakkoos unmasked the infernal conditions of public toilets in almost all parts of Tamil Nadu, and the miserable lives of sanitation workers who are forced to clean them.
The situation is not very novel in other parts of India either. This, of course, is old news.
But considering the unreliable statistics reeled out, which seem to try and prove that the situation in India isn’t as bad, now would be a good time to discuss what an average Indian’s hesitance with flushing the toilet is.
It’s either that they don’t think flushing after use matters, or that there is no adequate water in the flush – which is usually the case.
Either way, an average Indian would rather let the toilet stay dirty than touch the flush handle full of germs.
Realising manual flushing as a hindrance to sanitation in public toilets, Sushant Wath, a senior scientist at the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), decided to get rid of the flush altogether.
He, along with other experts at NEERI, built a prototype of a urinal, which has a low-cost, automatic mechanical flushing system.
Gents Urinal Unit (R) and Ladies Urinal Unit
With this urinal, they’re trying to solve three problems – lack of water, non-functional flushes and the apprehension of the user towards going anywhere near the flush handle.
“The urinal consists of a bulged portion acting as a temporary water reservoir. When the person stands near the urinal to use it, the pre-specified quantity of water automatically gets loaded into the temporary water reservoir. When the person leaves, the water collected in the reservoir automatically gets dispensed into the urinal,” Sushant told The Better India.
How this urinal is better than those with automatic sensors being used so far is the fact that it doesn’t require power, and its installation is much cheaper.
This, especially, makes it suitable for rural areas, where both power and water come at a price. Moreover, it promises to save 90,000 litres of water a year by using one litre per flush, as opposed to four or five litres in a standard flushing toilet.
This project, which is under the CSIR-800 initiative, is being coordinated by Nitin Labhsetwar, senior principal scientist and head at NEERI. Part of the team is also Rakesh Kumar, director of NEERI.
The urinal prototypes introduced under this project are for both men and women. Two units have already been installed within the NEERI campus for public use. Apart from that, two units have been introduced in Kalmeshwar village, Nagpur, and two in a school in the same village.
These installations are part of their last research phase, where they will test these urinals for their functionality and response they get from users. After this, they will be introduced to mass buyers.
The potential areas where the urinal can be introduced include rural and urban toilets, railway stations, bus stands, malls, airports, office, residences, colleges, schools and tourist spots.
While a large percentage of people in India continue to remain aloof when it comes to speaking out loud about menstruation and the issues faced by women, a temple that is well worn with time celebrates one of the most natural biological processes.
The Kamakhya temple is not just a famous pilgrimage site in Assam, but is also a unique temple in the country.
The Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati. Source: Wikimedia.
Located on the Nilachal hill in the capital city of Guwahati, the deity of the temple, Kamakhya Devi is revered as the ‘Bleeding Goddess’.
It is believed that the ‘Garvagriha‘ or the sanctum sanctorum of the temple houses the mythical womb and vagina of the Hindu goddess Shakti.
Curiously enough, every year during the month of Ashaad (June), the Brahmaputra river near Kamakhya turns red. It is believed that the goddess ‘menstruates’ during this period.
Contrary to the shaming treatment that menstruation gets elsewhere in India, here it is revered as the ability of a woman to conceive.
Idols adorning the walls of the temple. Source: Wikimedia.
Considering this to be a woman’s power to give birth, the deity and temple of Kamakhya is a celebration of this ‘shakti’ within every woman.
The story of origin is behind the temple quite interesting. It revolves around the Hindu gods Shiva and Sati.
Legend has it that Sati fought with her husband to be part of the grand yajna that her father was offering to appease the gods—of which both were purposefully not invited to. Paying no heed to her husband’s advice, Sati headed to the yajna nevertheless, only to be insulted by her father.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
The last straw was when he spoke ill of Shiva as well. Unable to bear the insult, Sati leapt into the very sacrificial fire of the yajna.
When Shiva came to know of what had happened, his anger knew no limits. Carrying his wife’s burnt corpse, he went on a rampage with his ‘Tandav‘ or the dance of destruction.
While all other gods cowered in fear under Shiva’s rage, it was Vishnu who sent his chakra and cut the body, in order to calm the aggrieved deity.
It is believed that Sati’s body parts fell in 108 locations across the country, which are today known as Shakti peeths.
The place where her womb and vagina fell is what constitutes the Kamakhya temple.
A menstruating idol at the temple. Source: Wikimedia.
Kamakhya finds its name from the Hindu God of love, Kamadeva. As the story goes, the god had sought out Shakti’s womb and genitals after having lost virility to a curse.
As a tribute to Shakti and her ability to lend back Kamadeva his potency, the deity of Kamakhya Devi was installed and continues to be worshipped until today.
The place where the Kamakhya temple stands today is also considered to be where Shiva first courted Sati.
An offering of Hibiscus flowers for the Devi. Source: Wikimedia.
In a country that continues its archaic attitude towards menstruation as unholy and gruesome, it is important for each one of us to know the progressive approach that the Kamakhya temple displays—of celebrating womanhood.
While there is no image of Shakti in the temple complex, it is Yoni or the female genitalia of the goddess located in the corner of the cave in the temple that is the object of reverence.
On the surface, Indore looks like any another unremarkable town in central India. Unlike its less commercial cousin – Bhopal – Indore really has little to offer in terms of visual beauty and charm. Even the fact that it is the commercial hub of Madhya Pradesh isn’t very evident to an outside observer.
But don’t judge a book by its cover. At this point in time, there is nothing less than a mini revolution going on in the city and, in particular, in its citizenry. At a red light, a writer saw a taxi driver tell off an auto rickshaw driver who spat on the road that he should watch it; else he will call the helpline. “Fine lag jayega”, he told him angrily while uttering some other words that are better left unsaid.
There’s another strange thing one notices if one drives around the city long enough. All the stuff that usually lines many Indian sidewalks across the country is by and large missing here.
No uncle chips and Haldiram packets, no filthy peels of fruits, no plastic bags, no flies, no stray dogs.
Even the cows are missing! So much so that when one actually spots a plastic bag, it rankles. For regular Indian eyes trained and accustomed to trash, the obvious question that arises is, what on earth is going on in this town?
Here’s what. A man barks some instructions into a Motorola walkie-talkie as the car zips down the road heading towards his next engagement. His instructions reach 400 officials including ward heads (also known as daroghas) to scrub the public toilet seats so there are no marks left whatsoever. “Just throwing some water in won’t solve the problem,” he explains in chaste but firm Hindi. The urgency in his tone is a bit unnerving. Traveling with him in the vehicle, you can’t shake off the feeling that you are in some kind of a war zone. A war against garbage.
But just barking orders is not how Manish Singh, the 49-year-old municipal commissioner, 2009 IAS batch, MP cadre – who has been municipal commissioner of Bhopal too – has achieved this remarkable feat. When he joined in May 2015, a private company entrusted with the task was almost defunct and no services were being provided. The city was filthy, as anyone who lived there or visited will testify. He found almost 1,800 spots in the city that were eyesores. A public interest litigation had been filed by an activist in the city against the authorities. Asad Warsi, director of Eco Pro Environmental Services, working as a consultant to the authorities, says Indore was “no different than Lucknow, Allahabad or several other UP towns” – often spoken of as role models of how bad things can get.
Backed by a committed and gutsy mayor – Malini Laxman Singh Gaur – Manish has employed every possible tactic available to get the job done. But to start with, he started doing what municipal corporations are supposed to – door to door collection of garbage.
The city generates around 1,100 metric tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) a day. Collection services by municipal authorities are now on offer at almost every door (including slum areas and illegal colonies) at ₹60 a month (less than what private services charge). Three drivers that a reporter spoke to confirm that the areas where they live have “never been cleaner”.
Commercial establishments can avail the service twice a day. A separate collection system with bigger vehicles is being put in place for 1450 bulk waste generators.
Collecting garbage from every household is one aspect. Keeping public areas and roads clean is another.
Main roads are swept thrice a day instead of twice as in most cities.
Corporate employees help clean Indore. Source: Twitter
Mechanical sweepers are used every alternate day on roads. Roads are washed every night by pressure jets with the aim to make the city dust-free, a task that sounds impossible in Indian towns. The trenching ground has a massive shed to wash all the Nigam trucks on a regular basis. As a result, no trash can be spotted sticking onto the trucks as is commonly seen elsewhere.
Almost 1,400 dustbins all over the city have been removed. Removed instead of added. Why ? Because residents who had no option – since door-to-door collection services had come to a halt – put their garbage into plastic bags and threw them into public dustbins – often not taking the trouble of getting out of the car but just chucking from the car window in the direction of the public bin. The result was, more garbage around the bin than in it, several stray animals and rag pickers poking their heads in, a filthy mess at the most prime locations and unpleasant smells all over the city. “Removal of dustbins is in some ways proof that door-to-door collection is happening and is efficient,” explains Manish. Smaller litter-bins have now been placed and are being added for pedestrian use. 175 community and public toilets have been made operational and it is estimated that the city will need to add around 50 more as of now. Several public urinals have been constructed with working sewage lines.
18 months ago, even in richer colonies and more upmarket areas, there would usually be open garbage spots – either in empty plots or at some convenient corner – where people threw their trash daily. Over 850 such open spots have been removed, in a phased manner across 85 wards.
Sarafa is a popular local hang out and a place to sample the famous street food of Indore. Most well-off Indore residents never visited this area because it was littered with trash and infested with flies and stray animals. Anshu Bhargava, who runs a leisure farm and agro-park in the city, says she has avoided eating at Sarafa for as long as she can remember but visited it twice last year. She says it’s clean and that makes the food looks appetizing. Hawkers point you to the bin even before they collect payment; failure to keep the area around them clean means losing their spots and livelihoods.
The most commonly spotted vehicle in the city is the yellow Nagar Nigam trucks (they have 800 vehicles now), running between colonies and the trenching ground.
Close to 50-60 jeeps have been given to ward heads, giving them mobility and no excuse to not do their job. The 85 ward heads keep a hawk’s eye on their wards, fining (spot fine collection has been roughly ₹80 lakh in the last 18 months) and charging penalties from offenders. They, in turn, risk the wrath of their boss, a man not known to brook any defiance. Sources say that close to 600 safai karamcharis who refused to work have been fired after taking six union heads into “alliance and confidence”. A 1,000 willing workers have been hired instead, taking the total number of staff to 6,500 at present.
Other than fines, user charges have been levied for all occasions. Even a political rally has to pay a per head charge to the authorities. Even senior politicians are paying these for their events. If they don’t comply, the newspapers report it.
Residents explain that strong-arm tactics have also been employed with more stubborn offenders like slum dwellers. 7000-8000 jhuggis have been moved and removed. Those who breed animals – cows, dogs, pigs – but leave them out as strays during the day have been dealt with quite firmly. Temporary labour encampments have also been dealt with stringently and in many cases demolished.
Of course, as with all such drives, it is only possible with strong political will. Besides the support of a dedicated mayor, a lot of this has been possible with the tacit support of local politicians, authorities and the media. At public forums, the commissioner is instantly surrounded by the local media – a rock star-like halo enveloping him. He makes sure he briefs them thoroughly and with attention.
Manish says that besides the support of a strong mayor, any municipal commissioner has to take a daily morning rounds across wards. That’s all he needs to do from 6 am to 9 am, he explains, for things to fall in place, making it sound like a cakewalk. In the initial months, Manish and his team of 400 started their day at 5:30 am every day and scoured the area – gali wise – till 10 am. People began to fear the Nigam jeeps like they did the police jeeps. He personally has the power to charge a fine up to ₹1 lakh from an offender.
Six NGOs including BASIX with 400 volunteers have been roped in to explain sorting, segregation and to create public awareness. A huge awareness campaign was launched across media; be it radio FM (well-known jockeys have been made brand ambassadors), TV ads, jingles, talk shows and newspapers. Young children and youth know the jingles by heart and have acted as brand ambassadors for the Nigam. Slogans have been painted on one and half lakh square meters of wall space across the city, discouraging and warning citizens from spitting, public urination and littering. It’s hard to see a wall without a message painted.
The trenching ground – where all the collected garbage is brought – is a sight to savour. Green and spotless, none of the usual smells greet you. After the garbage is sorted and cleaned, composting is done. The compost has been used to develop green areas and belts around the garbage dump. The result is that the green overshadows the trash. A huge shed stands in one corner; it’s the bathing area for trucks. Plastic segregated from the garbage heap is moved further to a NGO-run plastic recycling centre that compresses the plastic and sells it to a road manufacturer and a cement plant. Indore has been declared plastic-free and several thousand tons of plastic bags have been seized from marketplaces and shop owners.
On May 4 this year, 18 months of hard work paid off – the city was declared number one in the Swacch Bharat ranking, up from 86 in 2015, prompting IIM Indore to do a case study on it. IIM Indore’s Director, Rishikesh Krishnan, says he himself has experienced the alacrity and commitment of the current urban local body. He had requested for a speed-breaker to be built outside their campus but nothing happened for two years. Manish had it built within two days of his visit to the IIM campus.
Manish estimates that the total amount spent on the drive till May 4 was ₹60 crore and says so far 75 per cent of their work is done; 25% still remains. Pressure on him to sustain what has been achieved is mounting as well. Experts in the sector warn that individual-led drives and efforts often peter out once the concerned personalities change – a danger Indore is also susceptible to.
But what may save and sustain the exercise is the change in the public itself. When the residents have seen results (an efficient and committed municipal body), they have met the authorities more than halfway. Manish counts this as their biggest victory – the perceptible change in public attitude. “Throw something on the road and you will attract dirty looks and in many cases reprimands. Even arguments and physical fights have broken out,” he adds.
About the author:Anjuli Bhargava is a Consulting Editor for Business Standard.
The manner in which menstrual products are represented in Indian TV commercials has a lot to do with how society perceives menstruation in the first place. Not only do these ads depict society’s stigmatised view of menstruation as being filthy and taboo, but they also further validate it.
Advertisements are made with the sole purpose of selling the product. It doesn’t matter, then, if they manifest the negative cultural perceptions surrounding menstruation, and, as a result, strengthen the stigma attached to women’s bodies. As long as the product is selling, it’s all good.
The purpose of this article is to analyse how menstruation is represented in Indian advertisements and to deconstruct the underlying meaning of the recurrent imagery and language used in these commercials.
Let’s start by discussing the premise under which these ads are created. While marketing sanitary pads to their Indian consumers, most ads are concocted under one theme – women empowerment.
The girls jump fences, run for social causes, become abnormally bright and breezy, and why? Because they’re wearing a sanitary pad. These pads will protect them, save them and boost their confidence.
Heck, it’ll even make them scale mountains with no special skill needed, thank you.
Screengrab of Stayfree’s 2017 advertisement
At the same time, however, these ads depict menstruation as a debilitating evil. One that affects their sleep, their school grades, and their career prospects. The women are awkward, irritated and repulsed by it.
Stayfree’s 2008 commercial ran with the tagline ‘Kisi bhi roop ke sath samjhauta nahi’. The woman in the ad wouldn’t have to compromise with whatever role she chose to play – whether that of a teacher or a loving daughter – thanks to Stayfree’s ultra thin, secure, dry sanitary pads.
The fact that the ad assumes that a woman is somehow compromising with her true identity, or is always low on self-esteem when she’s on her period makes menstruation look like some kind of a disease.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
A recurring imagery in these ads is the use of the colour white. From their clothes to the bed sheets, everything is white. Even the walls and curtains are white! What won’t be immediately evident to the consumer is that here, white is a major subtext, which marks a clear distinction between regular happy days – when not on the period – and ‘those days’.
The advert tries to tell the consumer, ‘Hey, you can wear or sit on anything that’s white, take these pads and rest assured you’ll never stain.”
However, what it actually does is use a concealment strategy in a more convincing white environment.
Screengrab of Whisper India’s 2013 advertisement
Their desperation to eliminate and exclude any sign or ‘mark’ that would prove the woman is menstruating becomes evident with these reappearing images of all-things-white.
Experiences of menstruation are different for every woman, but there’s one thing that all of us have in common – we don’t bleed blue. The misrepresentation of menstrual blood as a blue gel is problematic on so many levels. Although meant for those who menstruate, these ads are created keeping in mind the discomfort society would go through if they saw the dirty, unholy period blood.
Even though it is just a gel, why can’t it be red in colour?
From Whisper India’s 2017 ad
Hence, the aspirations of the advertisement match the socio-cultural aspirations of society.
Forget period blood; the ad protagonists don’t even talk about periods. They may sometimes refer to period days as ‘un dinon’ or ‘those days’, or not mention it at all. Whisper’s 2014 ad elaborates this. A girl sits dejectedly, worrying about her upcoming hockey match. Her mother reassures she will win and presents to her Whisper’s special dry-weave top sheet sanitary pads.
Note here that there was absolutely no dialogue between the two about menstruation. The mother, with her special psychic abilities, knew that if her daughter was upset about something, it had to be because she was menstruating. Because what else could it be, right? She can’t be nervous about her hockey match for sure!
One ad that strayed away from the usual template format was Whisper’s ‘Touch the Pickle’ that set out to break a common taboo associated with menstruation. However, it looks like it was the only TV commercial of its kind.
Perhaps Indian ads could start with referring to menstruation directly, without shame or hesitation, and not dehumanise menstrual flow like they do currently. A direct conversation between the mother and daughter, with no use of euphemisms. Maybe they could even involve the brother or father in the dialogue, and stop adolescent girls from being embarrassed about a normal, physiological process they undergo every month.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
Understanding the importance of the Swachh Bharat campaign, the inhabitants of a small village called Brahmaputhi in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district have promised never to defecate in the open.
Their Gram Pradhan organised a panchayat in which they decided to never get their girls married into families that don’t have toilets at home. This decision was taken unanimously by the villagers including the pradhan, reports YourStory.
Open defecation is the cause of a number of diseases like diarrhoea, jaundice, and polio, and also pollutes the environment. Women, with no toilets at home, go to open fields to relieve themselves, where they also fall prey to sexual assaults. Moreover, 22 lakh people die every year due to diarrhoea. This step on the villagers’ part will ensure none of this happens.
All villagers and especially the women were happy with the decision made during the panchayat.
A woman from the village said that it will definitely help stop their troubles, reports the publication.
This concept of ‘No Toilet, No Bride’ is already a hit in Haryana, where it was started in 2005 by the government. In a state which has the most skewed sex ratio in the country, the walls in the state carry this message everywhere. It encourages women to demand toilets before they accept a marriage proposal.
The main aim of this campaign is to ensure toilets were built in rural areas and to discourage open defecation, and hence, the spread of deadly diseases.
A few days ago, a 24-year-old woman from Ajmer divorced her husband as he refused to construct a toilet at home. A family court in Bhilwara granted her divorce on the grounds that not having a toilet at home amounted to “cruelty” against the wife.
How many times have you heard a co-worker react to your outburst by asking, “Is it that time of the month again?” and controlled the urge to snap back?
Or you were simply about to enter a place of worship and saw a board that said, “Women on menstrual cycles not allowed?”
Despite the fact that it’s 2017 and ISRO has launched 104 satellites in a single flight, the taboos and myths surrounding menstruation in the country have not seen a drastic change.
The Better India spoke to a few men to gauge the craziest myths they have grown up with.
While we certainly don’t wish to generalise these myths as a reflection of the beliefs of the greater majority, these 14 instances, prove why India needs to have the ‘period talk’ with young boys and men.
“Women tend to be unproductive at work when they’re chumming, but a lot of women continue to work (at office or in their respective jobs) fine on their periods.”
– a 23-year old trainee journalist from Mumbai
“PMS is not real. Women only use menstruation as an excuse to shield their irritation and win fights.” – a 20-year-old photographer.
“A woman is impure when she is menstruating. She shouldn’t enter religious places to offer prayers.” – a 34-year-old technician
“As kids we’d play a game where boys would try to easily identify a girl on her periods, by analysing the way they walk. I used to think girls walked with their legs spread slightly apart whilst on their period.” – 21-year-old student.
“Our mothers grew up with period cramps and never cribbed about them. Period pain is ‘just like’ any other pain you’ve experienced. Why should women be allowed leaves on first day of their period?” – 37-year-old electrician.
“I have heard that period blood is just dirty blood that is released from a woman’s body and it smells awful.” – 18-year-old student.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
7. Hilarious taboos around tampons:
“Using a tampon makes a girl lose her virginity”
“How does a tampon fit up there? Isn’t it like a few inches long?”
“Do you use a plier of tweezers to pull a tampon out?”
“You can’t pee with your tampon on.”
8. “Women on their period will contaminate food, if they touch it. They should avoid going into kitchen, shouldn’t cook and certainly not touch milk or newly made pickles.
9. Things women should do on their periods: shouldn’t exercise, shouldn’t washing their hair, certainly not swim.
10. “I have read somewhere that showering while on your period causes infertility.” – 30-year old BPO employee.
11. “Pads shouldn’t be disposed in the same bins we use otherwise at home and need to be kept unseen and hidden.” – a 26-year-old photojournalist.
12. A certain tweet read “Women shouldn’t eat ice or cold things on their period, as it would cause the flow to get cold and chunky.”
13. “I thought a girl’s period flow had something to do with their fluid intake. So, every time my sister complained about cramps due to a heavy flow, I’d tell her to not drink too many fluids.” – a 32-year-old sales executive.
14. “I always wondered how pregnant women went through the whole ordeal of 9 months whilst on their period. Little did I know until I grew up, women don’t bleed while pregnant.” – 24-year-old Business Development employee.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
Most cities in our country don’t have an adequate number of public toilets. Even if there are public toilets, lack of maintenance and hygiene concerns put off most people from using them.
The city of Thiruvananthapuram was grappling with this issue as well but to no greater avail. It was the onset of the Onam season that prodded the authorities to take heed of the necessity of more toilets.
And not just at regular public places but at venues as well, where hoards of people turn up for events and programmes conducted as part of the festivities.
To tackle the problem, the city corporation has come up up with the ingenious idea of mobile toilets. The corporation has put to effect four such structures.
Each has ten cubicles and can be taxied away to any location. Launched under People’s Planning Scheme with a budget of ₹37 Lakh, the best part about these toilets is that they are unisex and will cater the transgender community who are shunned from using public toilets at large, reports TOI.
The initiative was flagged off by Mayor V K Prasanth on Thursday. According to the officials, this was done hurriedly to meet the sanitary requirements of large crowds at public places before the festival comes to an end.
“Corporation used to operate mobile toilets. The new toilets have been purchased to replace the defunct ones,” said a corporation official to New Indian Express.
Each of the mobile toilets is equipped with a water tank that has a capacity of 1,200 litres as well a storage tank that can collect the same amount of waste. The waste can be drained using a suction pump.
If more such mobile toilets make inroads, it can hopefully help ease the dilemmas faced by people in search of toilets in public places!
Hide them in layers of black and brown. Whisper ‘can I borrow one’ to your colleagues so no one can hear. Skip work and tell them you’re under the weather. Say you’re ‘down’ or ‘on the rag’, but don’t say the word. Period.
Ask any woman, and she will tell you how confusing, embarrassing and scary it was to get her first period. Thanks to awkward parents and sub par education in schools, most girls never get the period talk before they start menstruating.
And the consequence? They hide it like it’s an abomination best left unuttered.
This is why there needs to be a straightforward, honest and respectful interaction between parents and children – both boys and girls – about menstruation.
And this should happen before the girls get their period.
An open conversation starts with explaining what periods are and what the girls should expect. Tell them you can be approached whenever their period starts, so they’re not left to deal with it alone. Make sure you’re the first one they come and talk to.
It’s also highly likely that your daughter will be in school when she gets her first period. Tell her not to panic and inform the teacher when that happens.
Keep it casual. They need to believe it’s normal to talk about it, especially the boys. Ask them what they already know, and explain further. Clear their doubts.
Introduce them to menstrual products. There are enough and more TV advertisements they’re exposed to. So, if they’re growing up thinking period blood is blue, now’s the time to tell them.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
You could also talk to them about your first period. Tell them they’ll experience cramps too, and that it’s normal. Anything they go through that you didn’t, is also normal. Menstruation is different for everyone.
At the same time, don’t tell them to do what worked for you. Introduce them to all kinds of period products and let them choose what works best for them – cups, tampons, sanitary napkins or even contraceptive methods.
Most importantly, bust their myths. Tell boys it’s not okay to feel shy or embarrassed to talk about periods, even though they’ll never experience it. Tell them it’s a biological process, which can be sometimes uncomfortable and painful for girls who experience it. But it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s not ‘dirty’ or ‘gross’.
Involve the dads. No reason they shouldn’t have the period talk with their daughter or son.
Kids will have doubts, but if they have parents who are approachable and whom they feel comfortable talking to, they will grow that much better.
So, get over the weirdness and have that talk.
In collaboration with Aakar Innovations, The Better India is setting up a sanitary pad manufacturing unit in Ajmer, Rajasthan, that will not only produce eco-friendly or biodegradable sanitary pads, but will also employ women from rural communities around the area.
Did you know the Indian cricket team’s jerseys are made from recycled PET bottles? To be precise – 33 bottles make a single outfit, jersey and bottom included.
Recycled plastic is a versatile material, and India capitalises on its potential.
The country is said to have one of the highest recycling rates for polyethene terephthalate or PET, an all too familiar material of plastic that we see used to manufacture water bottles and food containers, says a study conducted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – National Chemical Laboratory (NCL).
Nearly 65% of the PET made in India is said to be recycled at facilities, by the unorganised sector and a small portion of it is reused in homes.
Encouraging, given the seemingly poor state of waste management in the country.
Unrelated, but equally disheartening is the alarming rate of open defecation in India, easily one of the highest in the world. More than half of the rural population (52.1 percent) of the country still defecates in the open. That’s a shocking 400 million people. A sanitation crisis, to put it mildly.
Meet an individual doing her part to tackle waste management and India’s sanitation crisis, unlike so many armchair critics in the country.
Rashmii Tiwaari
Inspired by the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and its focus on eliminating open defecation, Rashmii Tiwarii, an architect from Hyderabad, reuses PET bottles to construct public restrooms.
Eco-toilets made from plastic bottles
Her final project in college was modelling such a toilet, and she passed with flying colours, realising that this had the potential to help solve a lingering sanitation problem in India.
The first place she decided to build the PET toilet was a government school in Hyderabad – The Dr Ambedkar Government School. With the principal’s support and Rs 18,000 of her own money, Rashmii got to work.
“I used cement and sand for plastering; that’s how I could cut down the construction costs by 30 percent. I used 1,200 one-litre PET bottles in place of conventional bricks. For the mortar, inside the bottles, I used mud, cow dung, and cow urine,” she says.
Partly unplastered wall
She intends to do this exclusively in government schools, slums and villages where there is a scarcity of toilets.
“I chose toilets as there is an acute scarcity of toilets particularly villages, government schools and slums. It is observed that the girl students particularly are facing difficulty in schools. It is learnt that in many parts of our country people defecate in the open, while women wait for the sunset to relieve themselves. Many times their modesty and life is at risk,” concludes Rashmii.
So how long does it take to make such a restroom?
“It took two weeks for me to complete the construction and we tested the impact of weather conditions. When all worked well, it was inaugurated on in May,” says Rashmii.
When the eco-toilets were completed, Rashmii was recognised for her inspiring work. She was congratulated by Harichandana Dasari, the zonal commissioner of the central zone, GHMC (The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) at that time and has been asked to build 60–80 toilets in one zone under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
When Swachh Bharat Campaign was launched in 2014, one of its key objectives was to make the country open defecation free (ODF).
Even now, there are many places across India where people continue to defecate in the open—for the lack of toilets and financial support to even construct one. In remote villages of Barpeta district, this had been the case too.
“When Swachh Bharat Mission was rolled out in 2014, we realized that the men were not enthusiastic about the work. I decided to rope in women workers as masons. They were given proper training and they embarked on this mission,” Arpana Adhikary, the mastermind behind the idea told Times of India.
Taking the lead themselves, 22 women joined hands to encourage families in their district to fund the construction of toilets themselves by providing the means.
And because of their intervention, around 480 pucca toilets have been constructed by the women in Bhulukabari and Balarvitha villages since January.
The Swachh Bharat campaign entails ₹12,000 for the construction of each pucca toilet. However, the women sought no help from the government by convincing the families to pay for themselves.
With 218 households in Bhulukabari and 153 households in Balarvitha having erected pucca toilets through their own expenses, the women have helped save a sum total of ₹44,52,000 from the government’s coffers.
Arpana mentioned that their work had been highly appreciated. “They are much better than their male counterparts. They know intricate details about masonry,” she added.
