American media: "Nightmare of toilet" makes Indian women have no choice, "can only endure"

The American "Atlantic Monthly" article on July 24th, the original topic: Some Indian women have no choice but to endure a humid afternoon in May, and several Meng buy residents gathered in a house of a resident point. They chatted very well until someone mentioned the problem of hydration that emotions changed. “我们今天不能再喝水了，”31岁的卡拉瓦蒂说，“否则我们可能会在晚间急着上厕所，那可不安全。”到了夜晚，用了一天的公厕将会肮脏不堪，并且Black lights are blind. However, it is not much better during the day, and the local public toilets are rarely clean. In addition, the number of them is far from enough. As of 2020, there were more than 9,000 residents in this resident, but only two public toilets with 12 toilets (6 men and 6 women) each. The municipal government is responsible for the hygiene of public toilets, but there is almost no supervision. Therefore, for the residents of the residents and many low -income people around India, the number of toilets usually depends on insufficient toilet infrastructure rather than physiological needs. Several local women said they often urinate and avoid drinking water to reduce the number of toilets. These behaviors cause stomach pain and constipation, but they do not have better choices. The resident has no private toilets, and these homeowners cannot afford the cost of using the city's toll public toilets often.

This dilemma prompted India to work hard to provide a clean toilet for its 1.4 billion people. The Hinduist said that until 2013, nearly half of the Indians still went to the toilet in the open air. Due to the lack of septic tanks, water and cleaning products, the pathogens spread rapidly and lead to severe diseases. The "Clean India Movement" launched by Indian Prime Minister Modi in 2014 built about 100 million public toilets. According to data from the World Bank, only 15%of India has the open -air toilet in the open -air.

But many public toilets in India are still overcrowded. This has led people to lined up long lines, sewage overflowing, and personal security concerns. All these constitute a series of public health problems. The survey shows that this situation is particularly serious in urban areas such as Mumbai. Safety concerns and social norms have caused some women to dispel the idea of ​​going to the toilet in the open air. Doctors and activists said that the continuous surnames and class discrimination exacerbated related harm, and some women were banned from using toilets at work. Women who participated in the above chat, Sangita, recalled that she had seen a pregnant woman fainting in a long line lined up outside the community toilet.

A few years ago, researchers investigated 600 women in Mumbai's 33 slums in Mahara Satra. They found that more than 21%of the respondents who could not go to the toilet said that there was urination, and more than 26%of them called to avoid adjusting their diet at night. Studies have found that when women think that their community toilets are not safe, they also avoid toilets. Mumbai gynecologist Sukitra Darvi said that changes in such behavior may have a negative impact on health. Frequent urination helps to rinse germs, thereby reducing the risk of urinary tract infection.

Even the relatively wealthy women's groups will be affected. Darvi remembers a dialogue with the Minister of Sanitation of the state, and the latter is a woman who often needs to travel. The minister also limits herself drinking water, because she knows that she is likely to encounter insufficient toilets on the road. This highlights that the problem is bothering all Indian women. Di Pa Paval, who pays attention to the marginal group, said: "The toilet infrastructure is not just a health issue. This is a bigger problem, involving health, gender and social justice." Many free public toilets are forced to close.

As a member of the nomadic tribes, Paval knows that some women prevent social dynamics from using basic service facilities such as toilets. She said: "In the campaign, we asked local officials how to solve the problem of the toilet differences of the nomadic tribes. Their reactions often ask us why we do not use the free public toilets in the shopping center." The reality is that these places only cater to the middle and upper classes. It is not welcome people with lower socioeconomic status. "Are the female unions holding the ox carts allowed to enter the shopping mall?" Paval asked. Looking forward to the future, researchers hope to see more home toilets connected to the sewer, residents can maintain them well, and women do not have to pay such a heavy price for the country's efforts to eliminate open -air toilets. (Author Luqi Kumar, translated by Ding Yan)

- END -