A Loo Of One’s Own: The ‘Potty Parity’ Movement Within The Indian Context

“Whatever may be their use in civilised societies, mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action.”—Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

In a remote tribal hamlet somewhere in the jungles of Odisha, Veena and Madhu (names changed) ask for a toilet break from the tailoring class the NGO started for them. They walk into the nearby forest and reappear after a few minutes. This is what they have known for a toilet their entire lives. In the same village, at the shared handpump, a group of women, all dressed in their saree blouses and skirts, take a bath with their clothes on.  

Their village is in the middle of a forest. The forest is their everything. From the village deities to their livelihood to even relieving themselves- the forest is all they know. There are some temporary shack-like structures that have been partly constructed by the government authorities, which can be loosely called toilets; however, these structures are mostly used as collective storage spaces for the village. 

I sit in a cafe in a city. I have a sudden urge to pee- I go to the washroom with a huge mirror and access to water. As I looked into the mirror, I understood this basic privilege which was not realised till a few months ago when I had to use the jungles as a shared urinal with humans and animals alike.

Women in many developing countries face unique challenges when they realise they have to pee, challenges that women are often uncomfortable discussing in public. This observation is as much theoretical as it is personal. Apart from the challenges that peeing and pooping in jungles can have on anyone’s health, women are doubly prone to battery and attack by wild animals and sometimes by animals who call themselves human.

The potty parity movement, as understood in western feminist literature and context, can be interpreted and understood differently within the Indian scenario. The potty parity movement refers to advocacy efforts and actual legislation that addresses the long queues for women waiting, which are seen at public restrooms. Within India, this can be interpreted differently within the infrastructural context of either unavailability or lack of access to toilet spaces or within the cultural and behavioural context of the practice of not using restrooms. Within India, the lack thereof is perceived and understood differently at different socio-economic, cultural, and geographic levels. 

The rural-urban divide makes for a vast difference in how the Right to pee safely can be understood and hence can be related to the overall movement of potty parity. The Right to pee movement, which started in Mumbai in 2011, addresses the challenges that women face due to the lack of public toilets within the city, at places of work, etc. The urban challenges in India are different and need subjective context-based interventions. 

In the dirt-poor and vast slums of Mumbai and Delhi, women find themselves curtailed geographically by access to a public bathroom or somewhere they can safely relieve themselves. If they do need to use a public bathroom—of which there are few in India with women’s facilities—they are often forced to pay for the privilege.

In the Indian cities of today, where women are going off to work and farther away from home in ever-increasing numbers, the problem of lack of toilets or functioning toilets is likely to only worsen. Again seen in the wider framework of the feminist movement, the potty-parity seems insignificant. With the feminist movements fighting for equality and basic rights women lack- this issue can seem trivial.

However, literature considers the lack of equal access to toilets as a subtle form of discrimination against women, especially since their bodies are objectified and hence susceptible to battery and assault. There are many social and environmental pressures that cause stress for women seeking safe, private locations for sanitation needs: injury from crossing streams or railway tracks is common, as is damage from attacks by animals or insects.

Gender roles that pose demands on women’s time or which restrict their movement outside of the home may limit their ability to freely attend to sanitation needs. Not even that, women biologically, especially due to menstruation, require, as I would like to call it, taking inspiration from Virginia Woolf – A loo of their own.

All of these experiences have emerged surprisingly consistently across a wide range of recent studies. In this research, women are reported to cope with constraints by exerting ‘control’ or ‘discipline’ over their bodies, which refers to strategies to avoid urination or defecation—including the restriction of food and liquid intake throughout the day. 

The rural challenges within the Indian context are unique and quite different from what might be seen in the cities. Swacch Bharat Mission has managed to construct toilets in India far and wide, but emerging studies on the impact of toilet gains suggest that these gains have not been as large as government statistics convey.

Apart from the reason that the construction of many toilets remains pending, there is also a hesitation within the community and the belief that the toilet/latrine opening is a trench and would not work. In remote rural areas, people also fear children falling down the toilets. These concerns are legitimate for the first generation of users who might just start using toilets.

Seen within the tribal context, the toilets that have been made by governments—are incomplete. The pipes are not yet laid down. Where there are toilets that have been fully constructed, the hesitation to use them within the population remains. While the behavioural challenge of using the toilets remains, another lack within most of the villages remains the inaccessibility of bathing areas. There are no different structures for baths. The common water pumps are where the entire village takes a bath. 

Tribal communities in India are constitutionally protected. Several provisions have been incorporated in the Constitution for safeguarding and promoting the interests and rights of the Scheduled Tribes in various spheres so as to enable them to join the national mainstream. While there are government policies and efforts directed to empower tribal communities, the smaller efforts for behavioural changes are often lost in translation, in lieu of showing big as well as overt gains in the holistic whole of things.

In the Indian scenario—be it urban or rural—this lack (of toilets) might be culturally embedded rather than consciously pursued, yet it exists. For the tribal rural communities, the lack of functioning toilets for both males and females can be considered the primary reason, but the cultural and behavioural implication is also a reason enough. There is a direct impact of sanitation insecurity on women’s quality of life.

Cultural change, especially in rural and far-flung areas, is organic and a slow process. This change cannot be forced. It does not mean that nothing can be done. What it means is that interventions should be tailored to not just the perceived needs of the community but should be matched by an empathetic understanding of the ways of the community. 

Also read: World Toilet Day: Why Are Toilets A Feminist Concern?

Within that context, interventions should be designed with a long-term association that would first educate about the use and need of using toilets. It is poetic to think that change is quick and sudden, and even more poetic to see the bigger picture. However, as they say, that creation lies in details. Details lie in context. Context lies in behaviour. A lot of one’s own isn’t that far-fetched or hard to achieve—it just would require focussed and consistent efforts with compassion.

Also read: For A Toilet Inquilab, Feminism Must Talk Loos More Often

Featured image source: Deccan Herald