An Unexpected Question – Women Deliver

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June 1, 2017 Mandy Moore, PSI Global Ambassador

An Unexpected Question

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Actress, singer-songwriter and Population Services International (PSI) global ambassador Mandy Moore traveled to India in September 2015 to learn what girls and women need to lead healthier lives. The following blog post providing an account of her visit to PSI’s ongoing sanitation program in the State of Bihar, India, was previously published on www.psiimpact.com

Actress, singer/songwriter and PSI Global Ambassador Mandy Moore meets with a group of women in Bihar, India, who took out a loan together to build a toilet for their community. Before the toilet, many women had been shamed and verbally harassed when relieving themselves in nearby fields.

This morning for breakfast, I joined the PSI/India team to learn how they and their partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Unilever, are building toilets and developing a sanitation system in Bihar by turning the traditional nonprofit model on its head. PSI/India has developed a social enterprise and is treating the open defecation problem like a business problem.

The idea is to make toilets convenient, affordable and attractive in a state where 80% of the population currently lives without them.

When communities lack basic sanitation, kids die (more than 450,000 did in India last year due to diarrheal disease), people get sick, and girls and women are at greater risk of rape and violence when they’re simply trying to find a private place outdoors to relieve themselves.

We piled in the car and drove about an hour to Daniawan, where I was greeted by a dozen or so women and invited to join their meeting. They’ve named their group Durga, after the goddess of strength and power.

Turns out it’s the perfect name.

I was prepared for a quiet start to the conversation, but they jumped right in. They are spirited, smart, determined and outspoken.

They spoke passionately about how dangerous, undignified and inconvenient it was to have to relieve themselves in the fields, especially during the rainy season.

Having a toilet gave them dignity and respect. And it’s keeping their families — especially kids and older relatives healthier.

The group took out a loan through the Centre for Development Orientation and Training (CDOT), a microfinance effort started in 2000 by RR Kalyan, a man so dedicated to serving the needs of women, he invested his own money into opening a first-ever one-stop toilet shop for lower income families.

The loans and shops make it possible for people who previously couldn’t afford a toilet to buy one.

Having a toilet gave them dignity and respect. And it's keeping their families — especially kids and older relatives healthier.

 

Sushma's husband came across their 5th grade daughter, Shalu, relieving herself in someone else's field one day in India's Masnapur Village. His own shame and hearing the verbal abuse from others motivated him to purchase a toilet through PSI's social enterprise program responsible for funding and building more than 16,000 toilets. 

At the shop, or sanitation mart, as he calls it, people can choose the toilet model and housing that’s right for them. While this may not be an innovative idea for you and me, in India, one of the main obstacles to building a toilet is that people have to cobble all of the components and tradesmen together from different places — brick layers, pit diggers, cement mixers — and then find all the materials for the toilet separately. It can take up to six months.

PSI’s work in sanitation is changing all that. Now people can afford a permanent toilet that’s attractive, that they can afford from a single vendor. And, through another innovative business approach, they benefit from mechanical waste removal and treatment. To date, the project has sold over 190,000 toilets, 52% of which have been to families below the poverty line. And, 950,000 of waste has been collected and disposed of.

But the women aren’t concerned with the inner workings of the business model, what’s important to them is how it’s changed their lives.

“Now I have dignity and respect,” said Anita Devi, a woman who covered her head with a printed sari. “It’s convenient,” another chimed in.

Towards the end of the meeting, I asked if they had any questions for me. And, they did. Just one. A woman in a bright pink sari spoke out. “I am Lekha,” she said, “And, what should we say to people who try to make fun of us or shame us for taking a loan for a toilet?”

What I loved about this question was that there was no doubt she was getting a toilet, and she knew the obvious benefits to her and family. She only needed a little help thinking through how to respond to the haters.

I thought for a moment and we talked about it as a group, I shared that I’d taken a loan for my home and that I thought what she is doing — investing in the health and dignity of her family — is something very admirable. There’s no shame in that. In fact, she’s setting an example for others. I’ll bet in time, they’ll be asking for her help on how to get a toilet in their homes too.

She simply smiled.

Preeti, a married mother of two from Masnapur Village in India, told her in-laws and husband that if they didn't get a toilet, she'd go back to her parents who did. Her husband paid for a toilet through PSI's social enterprise. One of the most popular features of the toilets PSI is helping to construct in India is the small "cubby shelf" in upper right corner that lets women store sanitary supplies for menstruation. 


All photos credited to Population Services International / Manprit Shergill. Story by Mandy Moore

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