Article DetailsEnvironment and the Women | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Added: August 29, 2007 01:54:46 PM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Environment and the Women.
If someone requests me to be self-imprisoned within my house, I afraid, I would become either mad or commit suicide. But I have seen my own grand mother who was married at the age not reaching two digit years and expired almost a century after marriage as a widow. Life of a woman in such conservative undivided Brahmin family as wife in those days was no better than a prisoner. She had to carry out the will of the boss-like mother and father in law compared to the prison officials, satisfy the will of the husband. Act like a female labour as a generation productive agent in a much-neglected atmosphere in the name of profanity similar to a prisoner produce stone cheeps under pressure of the guard inside the prison in an unclean environment. All these had to be maintained by her as a housewife with in the four walls of the dwelling house. Besides, she bore patiently with a smiling face many other oppressive acts of other members of the family few of which are female. Ironically these mothers digested such inhuman severity in the name of customs without any protest, as they believed that these are the duties imposed by god. This is common feature in the age-old orthodox family irrespective of cast, creed, religion or the country.
Should it be accepted?
Obviously the answer will be - No.
What should be done?
Historically women are exploited through dominating social systems inherent in them. They are used as a commodity. Delivery of a female child result torture where as a male baby delivery are ceremonies with joy. Poor mother is helpless in both the cases. Most of them believe that they are duty bound to serve the male for being a woman. It appears sometimes to be originated from their physique, customs or religious belief. It is difficult to come out of such unholy acceptance of discrimination by the sex with such firm belief and superstition unless they (the sex) began to feel their capability for doing for the society equally like a man. Fortunately some positive forces have now become active throughout the world. It is now wide accepted that development has a deeper sense well connected with the broader concerns for enrichment of human well being. Professor Amartya Sen has also stressed these views of giving prime importance equally to the male and female.
It is thus not a myth but surely a reality that issues relating to women do not belong exclusively for their own development. Human development finds its way of progress only, if, it is closely associated with women’s’ involvement in the process. Development experts, academicians and activists often criticize about gender discrimination. Many examples and views are heard of the evil gender biasness. Some also advocate for training and planning for women. These are nothing new to mention separately. Since 1980s the shortcomings of these ‘to do something for the women’ thinking became prominent. The socio-political, historical and religious hindrances against women development were then taken into account and ways for removal of these evils were largely discussed. But after the late eighties aspects like reducing extreme poverty, improvement of health, education and extension of gender equality became unanimously acceptable as the prime important duties to the world community for the women.
Advanced human society understands the loss of productive force for its development. Seminars, conventions and awareness campaigns have yielded results not up to the expectation. In the World Bank report ‘Gender and Poverty in India of 1991’ Lynn Bennett writes “…Women must be seen as economic actors-actors with a particularly important role to play in efforts to reduce poverty.” Academicians specially in the developing countries attempted motivations in this direction. One such example is the movement of Prof Younis of Bangladesh which minimized their poverty and encouraged gender equality. Direct involvement in the socio-political movements and in the State Functionaries viz parliament, assemblies and in the local self govts. like Zilla Parishad, Village-Panchayets, Municipalities etc. makes women self reliant with leadership aptitude. With the acceptance of Nagar-Palika Bill in the Indian Parliament and with its successful implementation in West Bengal has proved worthy of this proposition.
Participation of about six lakhs women in the self help group in West Bengal with utter enthusiasm is another milestone for the same.
It should be kept in mind that sustained progress in any area depends critically on developments on many other areas. Shortcomings of development in any one area can reverse the progress across a broad front. Progress in the front of water and sanitation are the two such well-linked and unavoidable indicators in these days.
Religious fanaticism is another strong hindrance against the movement for gender equality. Education is the most powerful instrument which can drive out this evil. The famous say of Bretch - ‘Child of an educated mother can never be illiterate’ is relevant. Disparities in education linked to water and sanitation can create serious impact transmitted across generations. It has been observed in general that educated girls have smaller, healthier families and less child mortality than the uneducated girls. These gains are cumulative, as are the losses associated with gender inequalities.
These are some of the suggestions and examples which have been discussed by many academicians or activists in the field of the movement in the recent days. It is well known that our village women have to face the hazard of poisonous gases out of the oven fueled by wood. They are one of the prime victims of pathogens and bacteria due to lack of improved sanitation. Thus environmental hazards affecting the gender are also not new.
In this write up attempt will be made to establish that women who constitute 50% of the productive force are seriously affected out of the poor availability of clean water and hygienic sanitation particularly in the underdeveloped world.
The Crises- Water & Sanitation
The two main foundations of human development are laid through access to clean water for a) life in the household including drinking water and b) livelihoods through production. Unlike other crises water shortage has so long remained unchecked. But its depth can jeopardise the entire global community. Until recently, the dire consequence of the problem was not given importance to that extent it needed. Better late than never, environmentalists have identified the problem as one of the worst consequent inviting. We have already entered the age of these crises which will obviously derail the total development. More than one billion people are denied the right to clean water and 2.6 billion lack accesses to adequate sanitation. Every year 1.8 million children die from diarrhoea & other diseases resulting from use of unclean water and poor sanitation most of whom are in the developing countries. It is also apprehended this century would find shortly that unclean water is the world’s second biggest killer of the children. According to the UNDP report 2006, the root of the crises can be traced to poverty. It has been observed that for urban areas improved water coverage 92% compared to 72% for rural. Sanitation for urban coverage is twice that of rural. At least a part of rural-urban gap can be related to poverty and difference in income groups. From the findings of the study on 1.1 & 2.6 billion people in 2004 of the UNICEF 2006a the following data showing the distribution status regarding improved water and sanitation was reported (fig –I). In Tajikistan about 1/3 of the population takes water from canals and irrigation ditches, with risks of exposure to polluted agricultural run off. The problem is not that the people are unaware of the dangers-it is that they have no choice.
It is evident that 1.1 billion which is 1/5th of the people of the developing world lacks access to clean water. Some 2.6 billion people, almost half the population of the developing countries, do not have access to adequate sanitation. Female as a gender cannot escape the danger rather they are the victims to fulfill household requirements.
Fig – I
 Source – Human Development report -2006 Female Education, Improved sanitation
Starting with a few lines from a 10 year old girls grief queuing for water by a stand-pipe in El Alto, Bolivia -
“Of course I wish I were in school want to learn to read and to write and I want to be there with my friends. But how can I? My mother needs me to get water, and the stand- pipe here is only open from 10-12.You have to get in line early because so many people come here.”
We can imagine the depth how young girls who shoulder a disproportionate share of the costs born by the household. The time burden of collecting and carrying water is one explanation for the very large gender gaps in school attendance in many countries. In Tanzania school attendance levels are 12% higher for girls in homes 15 minutes or less from a water source than in homes an hour or more away. It is also found that attendance rates for boys are far less sensitive to distance from water source. Young girls, particularly after puberty, are unwilling to attend schools with no hygienic sanitation. This may be attributed to their feelings of insecurity and lack of privacy. Whatever be the reason the net result is the increase of drop out for the girls. During the period 1990-2000 a UNICEF school sanitation program in Bangladesh was instrumental in improving the girls’ enrollment by about 11%. This explains that the improvement of school sanitation can enhance female education.
In almost all countries the gender division of labour assigns responsibilities to women that men do not share. Collection of water to meet household requirement is shouldered on women particularly where source of clean water is at a distant place from the residence. In Mozambique, rural Senegal and eastern Uganda women spend on an average 15-17 hours a week for collecting water. It has been found that in eastern Uganda women spend time almost equivalent to two months a year to collect household water. We can imagine the loss of opportunity for education, income generation not to tell about leisure. This also reduces the time for other activities such as childcare, rest or productive work and therefore reinforces time poverty, disempower women and lower income. Research in India by revealed that in a semi arid area of Gujrat women spent 3-4 hours a day for collecting water. The same research also calculated that if the time for collection of water be reduced by one hour a day the, it was possible to earn additional $100 a year by them. We can feel the loss of income in that particular area of high poverty and thus can also emphasize the importance of income generation to their independence.
Access to safe hygienic and private sanitation facility is of the strongest indicators of dignity. Dignity is hard to measure but it is in the heart of human development. Few lines of the statement of an Indian Dalit woman as reported in the UNDP report-2006 ‘ we feel so dirty and unclean in summer, we do not wash our cloths for weeks. People say, these Dalits are dirty and they smell. But can we be clean without water?’ - clearly relates the human dignity and water. For millions of women across the world inadequate access to water and sanitation is a source of shame, physical discomfort and lack of security.
The direct leadership of the Government of a country obviously plays a vital role for the progress in this direction. The NGOs or community-based projects can also create a sense of development but to a limited extent compared to the huge requirements. In India the state Government of West Bengal has established the fact. Since 1990 a strategic partnership with International agencies like UNICEF, State level NGOs and the local governing authorities like Panchayets and DRDA etc. keeping an uninterrupted monitoring throughout has yielded impressive success in the field of rural sanitation. East Midnapur has now 100% sanitation coverage. Two more districts in the state are being scrutinized vigorously before final declaration. During the last five years two million toilets have been constructed in the state resulting 40% coverage compared to only 12% in 1991 when the project has started. It is due to involvement of the state government and the political instruments working hand to hand. In Andhra Pradesh sanitation campaign was launched in 1997 but with high cost and heavily subsidized latrines with an average price five times that in West Bengal . The campaign reached a very few poor people. Thus subsidy alone cannot replace community partnership.
To get a sense of the effectiveness of this partnership we can compare Bangladesh with India. Ten years ago the two countries faced similar problems. Today India with an average income some 60% higher has a lower rate of sanitation coverage particularly in the rural area even though some of the Indian States have made remarkable progress. Sanitation coverage finds a direct relationship to infant mortality and thus it can be used as an index of discrimination to the female. This is evident from the following table.
Source- UNDP report-2006
The entire globe has thus entered the period of deep crises for household water and proper sanitation. The female in particular are therefore affected seriously creating a new type of danger to the human civilization. Half of the society losing time as a work force, who can create revenue, getting less time to look after the health and education of the child resulting dire consequences to the generation. Human development will enter a fast retarding stage. Time wastage will lead to deeper crises and the problem would become rapidly irreversible.
References -1. The Human Development Report (UNDP) 2006 2. Gender Development and the women’s Movement-Mary E. John.
Dr. Biplab Chakraborty - An Educationist Copyright © Skill Hut | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||