14 March 2014 - On the occasion of International
Women’s Day, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
(WSSCC) and the UN Human Rights Office organized an all-day event, Inspiring
Change to Promote Women’s Rights and Dignity, which explored women’s
advances in securing their rights and dignity in topics related to water,
sanitation, and hygiene.
According to the Chris Williams, the Executive Director of WSSCC the
focus must be “on the fundamental rights of women, to examine current
policy and practice as well as challenges to women’s empowerment across
their life cycle, looking at vulnerable groups through the lens of water,
sanitation and hygiene.”
Menstrual hygiene is still considered a taboo topic in many places
throughout the world leaving many women without safe, accessible and
hygienic spaces for washing and sanitation. Across the world, it is
estimated that 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation and
many of them are women.
The consequences of discrimination against women and their inadequate
access to water and sanitation can be grave. Menstruating girls may not
able to attend school because of associated stigma and/or inadequate
sanitation and hygiene at home and in schools. Women suffering from
fistula after childbirth or facing health complications as a result of
female genital mutilation may be ostracized from their communities and
families.
According to Jyoti Sanghera, Chief of the UN Human Rights Office
Economic and Social Issues Section, this “stigma around menstruation and
menstrual hygiene is a violation of several human rights, most
importantly of the right to human dignity” that must be overcome.
The interactive dialogue at the event brought together the
international community, as well as health and human rights experts to
share their own personal experiences tackling these challenges.
In Kolkata, India, Smarajit Jana, the principal of Sonagachi Resarch
and Training Institute, launched a successful intervention program for
sex workers that have expanded women’s access to education and health,
improving their health and sanitary conditions. Jana stressed that there
is no dignity without basic necessities—water, sanitation, and sanitary
napkins. “We are talking about the dignity of women,” says Jana. “Sex
workers are just like everyone else.”
Mousomi Mohanti, a health educator in the field of HIV, is working in
West Bengal, India, to support the social marketing of condoms and
sanitary napkins to sex workers. “It’s not the price of condoms or
sanitary napkins,” she says. “The biggest problem is for women to ask for
it.” According to WSSCC, only 12 per cent of India’s 355 million
menstruating women use sanitary napkins.
In Kolda, Senegal, Khalidou Sy has been working as a village
coordinator to eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation, as
well as addressing fistula and women’s hygiene. “You can’t change century
old practices overnight,” says Sy. “You need to bring men and women
together to start the process of social transformation and change.”
In Nepal, Shyra Karki, a Human Rights Officer for Mitini Nepal,
advocates for the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
(LGBT) community.
“Women are treated as second class citizens [in Nepal] and among
these women, lesbian and transgender women are considered even lower,”
says Karki. According to Karki, this treatment can make them
vulnerable to health challenges and feel excluded from accessing sanitary
facilities or materials, especially transgender women dressed as men who
may feel embarrassed purchasing sanitary napkins or seeking medical
attention.
“In a world where 2.5 billion persons lack adequate sanitation, where
menstruation is often stigmatized, and women face multiple forms of
discrimination, the failure to take immediate action to guarantee their
right to water, sanitation and hygiene poses dire consequences,” says
Craig Mokhiber, Chief of the UN Human Rights Office Development and
Economic and Social Issues Branch. “It demands the attention, not
just of the human rights community, but of health professionals,
governments, activists, economists and broader society.”
According to Mokhiber, guaranteeing the right to water, sanitation,
and hygiene is “an enormous human rights challenge of the twenty first
century that has yet to be met.”
