Lack of Toilets Keeps Women Out of Politics

Women village councilors in Penakota, a village in southeast India, go out into a field to relieve themselves, as there are no toilets in their workplace. Credit: Stella Paul/IPSBy Stella PaulMALLAMPETA, India, Jul 4 2014 (IPS) Nine months after she was elected head of her village council, 36-year-old Krupa Shanti has overseen some significant changes in this rural outpost of Mallampeta, 570 km away from Hyderabad, capital of the southeastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. “Since I took over, 300 people have got their Below the Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards and are receiving subsidised food, and another 200 people have received their voter cards,” Shanti told IPS. But the village’s first woman leader has not been able to change the one thing that is closest to her heart – the sanitation situation for the women in her community. “I have not received the necessary funds to construct a single toilet,” Shanti said, adding that she was extremely frustrated that she and her female colleagues are still forced out into the bushes and fields to relieve themselves. “I have political rivals now whom I defeated in the election. What if they follow me to the field or the bush and attack me there?" -- Swaroopa Chamtla, a council woman in the village of ChowtapalliSix hundred km away, in the village of Chowtapalli, Council Head Sandhya Rani complains of losing precious work time due to poor sanitation. Rani’s office, which she joined in August 2013, is in an old, dila...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Asia-Pacific Development & Aid Editors' Choice Featured Gender Headlines Health Human Rights Poverty & MDGs Regional Categories Women in Politics Women's Health India open defecation SEWA Bharat toilets Total Sanitation Cam Source Type: news