No access to toilets for 63 million girls: Report

As we celebrate International Women's Day, a recent report on sanitation facilities for women across India has revealed that 63 million out of India's 120 million adolescent girls lack access to a private toilet. Another 23% of girls drop out of school on reaching puberty due to a lack of facilities for them to manage their menstruation. In both urban and rural contexts, over 50% of adolescent girls lack access to adequate sanitation facilities.

This and much more has been revealed by a report complied by a strategic philanthropy foundation called Dasra, in collaboration with Bank of America, released on March 4.

The report has also found that the fear of sexual assault, the need for privacy, and the generally unusable state of sanitation facilities results in girls controlling their bladders for as long as 13 hours a day. This has significant, long-lasting repercussions on their overall as well as reproductive and sexual health.

"Girls tend to miss school an average of three to six days a month due to the inability to effectively manage their menstrual health at school. This eventually contributes to almost 23% of girls dropping out of school on reaching puberty and, in turn, critically undermines their potential as individuals and future workers," the report claims.

They also suffer due to the misinformation that typically surrounds good hygiene practices. This gap has a detrimental impact on many areas of an adolescent girl's life, including identity and health.

"Adolescent girls are more vulnerable than women since they are at a point where they have to deal with a changing physical identity, and have neither been hardened by experience nor have the ability to deal with how others perceive them. Poor access to sanitation and hygiene facilities makes them even more vulnerable to sexual harassment and rape, undermining their confidence and the evolution of their changing identity," the report claims.

The report also claims that the government's target of building 4,00,000 toilets in schools across India will not resolve the problem unless stakeholders ensure regular maintenance and repair of these toilets.

"Our social investment strategy in India is focused on adolescent girls — a demographic often overlooked despite various critical needs, including sanitation and hygiene. The reason for selecting this particular group lies in the fact that the investments in this demographic can have a long-term multi-generational impact. In the years to come, these girls can become conduits of information for the next generation, thus creating higher demand for improved products and services," said Kaku Nakhate, Bank of America's president and country head for India, who launched the report.

Crucial recommendations
View girls as end users, not beneficiaries
Target adolescent girls to boost India's sanitation and hygiene achievements
Move beyond the 'menstruation hypothesis'
Engage boys and men in addressing girls' hygiene and sanitation needs
Build data for the sector from the ground