Wednesday 20 February 2013

Raising a stink about global sanitation


(CNN) -- We each spend an average of three years of our lives sitting on them, King George II of Great Britain died while on his in 1760 and 2.5 billion people still do not have access to one.
The humble lavatory is the unlikely subject of global celebration on Monday, as one of the world's most essential inventions but one that too many people still struggle without.
Although many of us tend to take ours for granted, campaigners hope that World Toilet Day 2012 will draw attention to what they're calling the "global sanitation crisis," with over a third of people worldwide living without a clean and private place to go.
This means that one in three people still have to defecate in the open, using fields or bushes, rivers, railway lines or roadsides, or simply a plastic bag. Others use unsanitary latrines or disease-ridden and foul-smelling buckets.
"It's difficult for old people to go and it's hard to go at night. It's also hard for grown up girls because of the risk of sexual attack
Ajara, Gwalior, India
The majority of those without access to a toilet live in sub-Saharan Africa or Asia, with over half of people in Asia not having proper sanitation, according to the UK-based charity, WaterAid.
Ajara lives in a slum in the city of Gwalior in the Madhya Pradesh province of India. She told WaterAid how people in her community have to defecate on a nearby hilltop.
"There are no trees and privacy at the moment and so we have to wait until night to go there. It's difficult for old people to go and it's hard to go at night. It's also hard for grown-up girls because of the risk of sexual attack," Ajara said.
This World Toilet Day, international aid agencies arehighlighting the particular risks to women of poor access to toilets. WaterAid says women are most vulnerable because they're not only exposed to disease, but also have additional shame, harassment and risk of attack when they go out in the open.
1 in 3 women lack safe toilet
India tackles public defecation
Sandimhia Renato in Mozambique described to WaterAid how she has to cross a very dangerous bridge every time she goes to the bush to defecate.
"I think it takes 15 minutes to get to the bridge," Renato says. "I come here once a day, between 4 and 5 pm. At night it is very dangerous. People get killed. A woman and a boy were killed with knives. One woman I know of has been raped."
But it's not just the shame and inconvenience of having no private place to go to the toilet, but a huge public health issue.
When you consider that one gram of faeces can contain 10 million viruses, one million bacteria, one thousand parasite cysts and one hundred worm eggs (according to UNICEF) you can see why open defecation is so harmful to a community's health. Without a sewerage system to remove human waste and make it safe, cholera, typhoid and other infectious diseases spread quickly.
"At night it is very dangerous. People get killed. A woman and a boy were killed with knives. One woman I know of has been raped
Sandimhia Renato, Mozambique
The United Nations says more than 2.7 million people die each year due to lack of sanitation. With diarrhoeal diseases killing more young children in developing countries than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles put together, it's the second biggest cause of death in under fives, according to the World Health Organization.
Tackling it, says the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program, is extremely cost effective. It estimates that poor sanitation costs African countries around $5.5 billion a year and $53.8 billion in India is lost through associated economic impacts.
The program's study of 18 African countries found that even the time it takes people to find a discrete location to use the toilet accounted for almost $500 million in economic losses. That's before you examine the cost of healthcare, premature deaths and lost workdays due to illness.
In fact, according to the World Toilet Day organization, every dollar invested in sanitation yields a return of five dollars. Its message is that the solution to the global sanitation crisis lies not in any miraculous technological breakthroughs but in stronger political leadership and a commitment to invest in sanitation infrastructure and education.
Mahatma Gandhi for one seemed to recognized the value of the toilet to humanity when he said "Sanitation is more important than independence." Campaigners for World Toilet Day will be hoping that these words resonate with today's leaders.



Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/19/health/toilet-day-sanitation-crisis

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Thursday 14 February 2013

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Menstruation taboo puts 300 mln women in India at risk - experts


Menstruation taboo puts 300 mln women in India at risk - experts

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:13 GMT
Source: Alertnet // Julie Mollins
Women in Bettiah, Bihar, India learn how to make, fold and clean sanitary napkins from used cloth on Nov. 18, 2012. WSSCC/David Trouba
By Julie Mollins
LONDON (AlertNet) – More than 300 million women and girls in India do not have access to safe menstrual hygiene products, endangering their health, curtailing their education and putting their livelihoods at risk, say experts at the Geneva-based Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).

At least 23 percent of girls in India leave school when they start menstruating and the rest miss an average of five days during each monthly menstrual period between the ages of 12 and 18, according to WSSCC, a partnership run by government, non-governmental organisation (NGO) members and a United  Nations-hosted secretariat.

“From a taboo standpoint they are ostracised – it’s an awkward situation to be in if you are having your monthly period and you simply do not want to be seen by others because they may perceive you as either dirty or unhygienic in some way,” said Chris Williams, executive director of WSSCC.

“It touches on human rights and equity. It touches on issues of preventative health and positive health outcomes,” he told AlertNet.

Many women and girls in India are forced to use such materials as old rags, husks, dried leaves, grass, ash, sand or newspapers every month because they lack access to essential sanitary products, according to WSSCC, which works to achieve sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene worldwide.

Taboos about menstruation are compounded by a lack of proper sanitation in India where only 34 percent of people have access to improved sanitation facilities, which ensure the hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact, according to 2012 statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.

The taboo is related to a very complex web of issues, but the starting point is an extremely patriarchal, hierarchical society responsible for the silence around menstruation, said Archana Patkar, a programme manager with WSSCC.

“It’s quite strange because menstruation and a menstruating woman are stigmatised, and then a woman becomes pregnant due to the menstrual cycle – without which it’s not possible to bear a child – and it’s a celebration,” Patkar told AlertNet, adding that the first step to reversing the taboo is to break the silence.

“If we can actually have a single celebration from puberty to motherhood and therefore this issue becomes an issue of pride rather than shame, then all the psychological burden and the trauma associated with the silence slowly starts being chipped at and will in time die away,” Patkar said.
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

India loses about $53.8 billion each year due to increased health costs, productivity losses, and reduced tourism revenue due to inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene, said WSSCC citing the Water and Sanitation Programme.

In 2012, as part of its public education campaign, WSSCC helped organise a Yatra, or roving carnival, in India across five different states to raise awareness about menstrual hygiene management. Around 200,000 people participated in the carnival.
During the carnival, WSSCC interviewed 775 women and girls and held focus groups with some 12,000 women and girls.
“It was amazing to discover that 90 percent didn’t know what a menstrual period was before they had their first one. They described to us the fear associated with it – they didn’t know what was happening.”

The problem is big in any poor area – urban or rural – in any area where people are so poor they cannot cope with daily survival demands, Patkar said, adding that WSSCC plans to adapt public education programmes to suit different menstruation-related taboos in other parts of the world.

DEVELOPMENT INDICATOR ON GENDER

WSSCC successfully lobbied to have menstrual hygiene management recognised as part of the future 2015 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets on water, sanitation and hygiene at a high-level meeting in The Hague in 2012, Williams said, adding that it’s unlikely to be a goal in itself.

“More important than goals, I hope it would be an indicator of improved sanitation because in that way international development organisations, governments and NGOs would all be seeking to achieve sanitation by demonstrating that they’ve improved menstrual hygiene management.”

As the most powerful cross-cutting indicator influencing gender, it should also be included as a measurable indicator of progress on education, health and workplace development goals, Patkar said.

Policymakers are in the process of mapping out SDGs to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eight anti-poverty targets agreed in 2000 by U.N. member states. At least 2.5 billion people worldwide do not have proper sanitation facilities.

A meeting at U.N. headquarters in Geneva on International Women’s Day hosted by WSSCC will examine how international conventions on women’s sexual and reproductive rights do not explicitly address menstruation, although the taboos around it plague a third of the world’s population. Topics to be covered at the March 8 event include menstrual hygiene management in education, health and the workplace.

“Beginning the conversation is the first step,” Williams said. “Once that conversation is generated it lends itself to a wider discussion about improving sanitation and hygiene generally and then dealing with safe waste management.”



Source:- http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/menstruation-taboo-puts-300-mln-women-in-india-at-risk-experts/

Friday 1 February 2013

The Role of Sanitation in Girl Child Education - A Documentary Film


The Role of Sanitation in Girl Child Education - A Documentary Film by HEEALS




Please Click on the following link to Watch Documentary Film :- 

Vimeo      :- https://vimeo.com/58771979
YouTube :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-_2hGn_ebY

Heeals is a Non Profit Organisation registered under the Indian Government societies act 21 of 1860
A vibrant civil society organization aims to safeguard health, environment, education and livelihood to promote sustainable development of society.

Through The Medium of Documentary Film and Art we are trying to create Awareness Among the Masses about Girl Child Education , Menstrual Hygiene, Sanitation and Safe Drinking Water and trying to relate how Girl Child education is directly suffering due to bad sanitation facilities , unsafe drinking water and lack of knowledge to obtain the same.

For suggestions , feedback related to the documentary please contact us at communications@heeals.org 
To support our work and help us in our efforts Visit us at:- http://heeals.org 
Blog:- http://heeals.blogspot.in/
Volunteer Blog :- http://volunteerheeals.blogspot.in/



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