|
|
Article: Dignity and the decent facility: sanitary engineers regard a toilet as a health aid. But women paint a very different picture, as Libby Plumb explains.(WOMEN AND GIRLS)(Essay)
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- August 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
'We didn't have anywhere to defecate as there is nowhere private. When we went outside, the boys used to follow us and we felt shy and afraid. We used to end up going inside our houses, on the floor, just like children, and then cleaning it up.' It took guts for 15-year-old Baby from the Indian city of Gwalior to describe how she dealt with having no toilet in her home. The personal and sensitive nature of excretion renders it taboo, a topic that many grown women in developing countries, let alone adolescent girls, are uncomfortable discussing in public.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Women want and need toilets, but are profoundly inhibited from saying so. ...