Around 72.63% of rural India practices open defecation (OD) regardless of having toilet facilities. The predominant reason for such practice being lack of awareness, following old age practice and insufficient numbers of toilets. The problem has an impact on menstruating people as compared to others. Therefore, to cater to the issue of toilets in rural areas, the Government of India (GOI) initiated some campaigns to relieve the Indian public from such struggle.
Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)
In India, the campaign was introduced by GOI in 1999 as a restructuring of the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) and implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development and Central government. The core objective was to enhance the overall quality of life in rural areas and promote sanitation coverage through access to toilets in every possible reachable area.
Failure Of TSC
The TSC achieved some progress in the construction of sanitation facilities and an increase in the awareness-around 3.5 million houses in rural constructed household toilets with support of TSC by 2007. Over 1,700 women’s complexes and 41,00 schools were built under the campaign. The actual data from the government revealed the total rural sanitation coverage was 31%. This means less than one in five reportedly constructed were in place.
There were various speculations and evidence on why the policy wasn’t ready to make an impression on people. Sanitation was the rare case expressed as a priority for village leaders and households. Culture resistance to the change was one of the main challenges faced during implementation. It is likely due to the taboo surrounding ‘excreta’. Pertaining to the goals of the campaign, the voices of the most affected stakeholders such as women, children, and disabled was neglected.
A mason who was interviewed during the policy implementation shared his view, “the main constraint regarding the TSC is that it is difficult to convince people about the need for a household toilet. People are in the habit of using open space for excretion and other facilities.” In some cases, it was also seen people using the toilets as a storeroom.
The government officials and engineers who were tasked with leading water and sanitation projects neglected sanitation in favour of more benefited water projects. Even when officers were motivated, lack of training and participatory development methods were an obstacle for the implementation of TSC.
Albeit, the Total Sanitation Campaign didn’t have any positive correlation with menstruation management. As aforementioned, the main goal was to target open defecation which I think was the parallel step before planning anything schemes and policies on menstruation health and management.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
After remaining Total Sanitation Campaign as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, the focus was on achieving the vision of Nirmal Bharat (pure India) by 2020. But to combat the loopholes and to achieve the pure sanitation in the country, the TSC/Nirmal Bharat was relaunched as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014 to acquire the previous set of goals of TSC along with modified objectives to reduce open defecation
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan And Menstrual Health Management
Menstrual health management is an integral part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan where the focus area is issues related to women’s hygiene menstrual hygiene. In addition to making sure that each household has a toilet, the government took the responsibility of ensuring public awareness on menstruation, facilities to adolescents with menstrual products, toilets, and proper disposable facilities of menstrual absorbent.
Along with the aforementioned goals, each state and district have a role in framing the relevant state policies. They have the power to make decisions and monitor the program for its full efficiency, training and capacity building of Anganwadi and ASHA workers. The school and communities have a role to sensitize the boys and girls on the topic. While imparting skills and ensuring they have access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, working on myths and misunderstanding on menstruation is in the hands of the district and state leaders.
Efforts are being made to supply sanitary napkins to school-going girls by installing napkin-vending machines at schools. To subdue the difficulty of disposal of sanitary pads, low-cost incineration were installed in the girl’s toilet. For community women, previously the government had launched 100% oxy-biodegradable sanitary napkins “Suvidha” in packs of 4 at Rs. 10. In 2011 under revised menstrual health scheme(MHS) a pack of six sanitary napkins called “Free Days” was provided to rural adolescent girls for Rs.6.
Like the Total Sanitation Campaign, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (specific to its relation to menstrual hygiene) has its own defaults in implementation, such as going against instruction and building one toilet for both boys or girls, toilets without drainage, having no water facilities, no facilities of soap and dustbin for disposing of menstrual absorbent.
“I have used the toilet just two-three times in the school,” says 12 years old, fifth standard Sunehra . “Even if a few girls use the toilet, it becomes dirty, and we cannot go there anymore. I don’t like to defecate in the open. We are big girls, and many people look at us.”
Despite various initiatives introduced by the government through TSC, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the stack of challenges still remains to be addressed. Ensuring menstrual health and management for women would require a clear understanding of the intricacies related to the problem to achieve an ideal outcome.