What can we learn about reducing discrimination from supply of piped water and toilets at home?

Author: Ranjani K Murthy, May 8 2024 - It is clear that piped water and functioning toilets are a means for meeting the practical needs of women. However, they can address strategic gender (and other marginalised identity) interests, too. In a part of South Asia I recently visited, Dalit women (members of the lowest stratum of the castes on the Indian subcontinent) were discriminated against in terms of access to community water. They had to take water last from community pipes after other caste women took their turn. Access to piped water in their home gave them a life free of discrimination in this respect, apart from reducing drudgery. Similarly, access to functional/accessible toilets in their backyard strengthened the safety of women and adolescent girls - more so those from marginalised identities, including people with disability.

At another level, the above example points to the need to take services to the households of the marginalised to strengthen their access, so they are available free of discrimination. Some recommendations emerge from other sectors:

• Health: Having male and female health workers visit women and men of marginalised identities at home for preventive and promotive health services and referrals could reduce discrimination based on marginalised identities in access to these services.
• Education: Providing first-generation learners with free evening confidence-building and education support on the same street as their homes to supplement school education will also reduce discrimination where streets are segregated by race, caste, or religion.
• Right to agriculture/land/homesteads in rural areas: Ensuring this right will enable households to have a fall-back/main occupation. The land may be listed under joint names of couples, which will reduce discrimination in benefits from irrigation projects and water user associations.
• Right to water for cultivation: Right to water for sustainable irrigation (drip irrigation) and water conservation measures is a must. Dry land agriculture yields little results. Provision of water for this purpose should be a government responsibility.
• Manufacturing and service sector in nearby towns: While home-based work may be exploitative of women, if manufacturing and service sectors are in nearby towns, it could benefit women and marginalised sections and reduce distress migration.
• Right to internet and smart phones: While ownership of mobile phones amongst poor women/girls and men/boys has increased (with a gender gap), there is a class, gender, caste, ethnic, and religious divide in access to smart phones. While smart phones can lead to exploitation, they are also a source of information, with those who have them using them to access market prices, technical knowledge, and information related to health and education, as well as to contact personnel for help with child protection and gender-based violence.

Ensuring the right to resources and bringing services close to the marginalised can reduce discrimination and inequitable development!

Image caption/credit: A videojournalist does spot interviews on the topics of caste discrimination and water quality issues in a remote village in Surendranagar, Gujarat, India on December 14 2012. Suzanne Lee / Marie Claire France via Video Volunteers on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed)

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