Women’s participation in the workforce is often under-represented in both informal and formal roles, which is a serious concern. In the sanitation sector, women are often seen as users, participants, or beneficiaries. However, several women professionals work across the full cycle of sanitation in various roles. They face myriad challenges throughout their careers, and their contributions to the sanitation sector are seldom recognized.

To change this perspective and create awareness about the contributions of women to the sanitation sector, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)-led Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP) initiated the Women in Sanitation (WIS) campaign in 2020. The campaign uses basic tools to capture and augment the contribution of women sanitation professionals.

The Problem

Over the years, the world has seen numerous movements that have been instrumental in redefining the role of women in society. Inspiring stories of women breaking biases and creating a difference have been sources of encouragement and confidence for many. However, there is much to be done. Globally, the labour force participation is around 63% for women, compared to 94% for men; and fewer than 1 in 5 water workers are women (World Bank, 2019).

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the more informal the work in sanitation, the more women are involved; this is in line with other trends, e.g., UN Women, 2021 data reports that women are increasingly engaged in informal work. Women in the sanitation sector also face challenges across their career trajectories. Additionally, their contributions have seldom been recognized. Stigma and ostracization continue to haunt grassroots workers in the sector, most of whom are women.

The Solution

The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)-led Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP) initiated the Women in Sanitation (WIS) campaign in 2020 with the intention of:

• Creating a platform for cisgender/transwomen professionals to share their stories.
• Recognizing and celebrating their work.
• Inspiring other women to pursue a career in the field.

Designed to align with the themes of International Women’s Day, the campaign adopts a simple approach to capture the lived perspectives of the women through participatory and unstructured interviews to highlight their journey, struggles and successes. While the campaign initially featured professionals from Tamil Nadu, it later expanded to include stories from other parts of India, and Africa.

So far, the campaign has featured women community toilet caretakers and cleaners, desludging operators, treatment plant operators, solid waste workers, entrepreneurs, community workers, engineers and administrators. T. Saranya (Figure 2) had this to say:

I am the first woman working in this Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant. Earlier there used to be a lot of problems with the truck drivers. I have figured things out now, but it was not easy.

Their videos were shared on multiple digital platforms, disseminated in conferences and film festivals, and amplified through sector professionals, partners, sanitation workers and non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations networks. The campaign also includes various collaborations to get diverse stories. Since its launch, the campaign has been well-received, with a proportional increase in views and online interest. The WIS stories have garnered over 100,000views on YouTube, and have attracted more than 2000 followers across various social media platforms. The campaign’s concept has also inspired many organizations to further the cause with their own initiatives. Stories of selected participants from the WIS campaign were featured in a storytelling session, “Women in Sanitation: Glimpses from Across the Chain” at World Water Week, 2021, which was attended by over 250 participants from across the world. The emerging lessons and recommendations from the campaign are being mainstreamed into state and city-level gender initiatives.

The campaign results revealed that the Faecal Sludge Management sector could be a good platform for empowering and providing opportunities to marginalized communities. Similar behaviour change campaigns could be vital in addressing several misconceptions related to sanitation job profiles and the role of women. Initiatives like the WIS campaign help participants feel empowered and recognized while inspiring fellow workers and creating awareness in society. Sustained communication efforts can reorient perspectives and improve the working conditions of women sanitation workers through better interactions with the public, a clearer understanding of their issues among policymakers and fostering a sense of solidarity among the workers. As the campaign enters its fourth edition, it hopes to strengthen national and global partnerships to systematically document diverse stories and support advocacy efforts.

Lessons Learned

The key lessons from this intervention are:

• Space to share stories: Many cis/trans women in water and sanitation sectors reported that they were given the opportunity to speak for themselves as professionals for the first time.
• Challenges: While experiences differed, all women spoke of challenges they faced on account of their gender, e.g., lack of ergonomic personal protective equipment, vehicles and tools, the need to balance between caregiving and professional roles, societal outlook on pursuing occupations traditionally held by men, biases faced in promotions/progression, among others. The campaign acted as a space to identify nuanced challenges for women professionals, not just in the informal/unpaid pursuits but also for administrators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
• Intersectionality: The campaign also brought out significant perspectives on intersectionality in the context of gender and sanitation. These stories highlighted the issues of caste, gender identity, disability, and their impact on their professional roles.
• Instilling a sense of pride: Many roles in sanitation are traditionally stigmatized, further so when there is a layer of gender, identity, caste or disability added to it. The stories from the WIS campaign are consciously positioned to change these narratives and valourize the professionals, recognizing and celebrating their roles and contribution to the sector, public health and environment.
• Targeting systematic change: With every edition of the campaign, the response –quantitative and qualitative – indicated a significant interest among the public in listening to what women sanitation workers have to say. Sustained efforts such as the WIS campaign, can draw attention to sanitation as a topic while positioning women’s role in the same.

Useful Links and Resources

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX_a5TgJt9iri_CR15fR6FdkNn6dp3Oy4
https://www.worldwaterweek.org/event/10072-women-in-sanitation-glimpses-from-across-the-chain

Initiative timed to mark International Women’s Day

For International Women’s Day, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements is launching atwo-week social campaign on ‘Women in Sanitation’.

It would introduce stories of women, who form an integral part of the sanitation chain,striving to achieve total sanitation for their towns, cities and State.

The campaign aligns to the global campaign for International Women’s day 2020,#EachforEqual, beginning from February 29.

It would focus on the challenges women face in this sector, and would be live till March 12.

The campaign is aimed at initiating dialogues on the status of working women in the globalscenario and gender gaps in the Indian workforce.

Starting March 3, short films on the women in the sanitation sector in Tamil Nadu wouldbe released.

This would include women who are faecal sludge treatment plant operators, engineers,sanitation workers, septage operators and community toilet operators.

The campaign can be viewed on @TNUSSP (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram).

The short films would be posted on social media from March 3 to 10, the release said.

IIHS and TNUSSP have come together to to celebrate our women working in the sanitation department and have launched a social media campaign to bring more attention to their work

Kamala is a 32-year-old transwoman who studied upto the seventh standard and then dropped out due to family circumstances. She has held a variety of jobs in the past. T Saranya is a 28-year-old woman who finished her BCom and is now working. The connection between the two women is that they play a huge role in safeguarding the environment and taking care of us.

How, you wonder? They are both women working in the sanitation sector. People who are often overlooked but hold the key to safe and hygienic living. So this Women’s Day, we got up close and personal with two women who have been working to ensure and encouraged santised living.

Off templles, toilets and being a transwoman

Kamala has had her share of problems growing up and as an adult, because of her gender identity. From society to government policies, Kamala has fought a number of battles, but her struggles don’t define her. At least, they are not the only things in her life that define her. “I just always wanted one thing – independence, financial stability. I didn’t want to depend on anyone. I just wanted a job, any job. But I wanted one, one that would not just leave me at mercy of society,” Kamala says. Speaking about how women from the trans community are often forced to get into the flesh trade, Kamala said, “Those women are only pushed into that trade because there are no jobs that are offered to transgenders. The government won’t give us jobs and neither will people. So what will women do for food?” she asks.

Kamala is happy with her job though, she is a community toilet operator in Tiruchy. Before this, she worked as a daily wage worker on a construction site. She joined as an operator about three years ago, “In the morning I work at a temple here, I do all the cleaning and it also becomes my home at night. After I finish my work there, I come to the community toilets around afternoon and spend the rest of my day here. I had out tokens to people who want to use the toilets,” she explained. Kamala has four colleagues and they all take turns to maintain the restroom. “It makes me happy that I’m being of service to society and helping people feel happy and healthy. It is important to make people aware oh how they can keep themselves hygienic and how they can help others too,” she says.

People keep asking Kamala why she works so hard as it’s anyway just a toilet, “When people see that a toilet is clean, they also put in more of an effort to keep it clean when they leave. It’s encouraging,” she adds.

However, people have not always been good to Kamala, they have chided her about work in the community toilets, “People make fun of me, tease me, put me down for doing this work but I have no issues with it at all. I’ve learnt it take it in my stride and just move on. What I want to be known for is doing my work well, that’s all I care about,” she says. Kamala says she’s not one to go for searching for happiness because it has not always reached her but she doesn’t mind a life full of struggles, “That’s life anyway.”

Kamala has tried various ways to keep get a permanent job, she’s run from piller to post to do so. But nothing has helped so far, “I keep getting sent from one officer to another. It is hard and frustrating because I’m a good worker and I want to continuing serving the people,” she tells us.

There’s a teacher in every one of us

Saranya’s life in Karunguzh town Panchayat, Kancheerpuram is slightly different. She is a fecal sludge treatment plant supervisor. She was the first
woman to work as a supervisor at the plant, yet again breaking into a male dominated industry. Saranya completed her BCom and wished to become a teacher. But six months after joining the plant, she feels she’s still a bit of a teacher because she has to guide so many people who are under her.

“When I joined I was a little worried because all the other supervisors were men and the truck drivers were all men too. I was the only one, but my boss encouragedall men too. I was the only one, but my boss encouraged me. He said that it didn’t matter what gender so was because all the job needed was talent and I already had that, ” Saranya says smiling. She credits her boss for making her more confident and encouraging her to break the barriers.

Saranya guides the FSTP operators and helps them with their work. She is also in charge of the large gardens and farms hat surround the plant and she also heads awareness campaigns to make people aware of the plant and how treatment of sludge has so many benefits.

“The best part of my job in that I get to work in this amazing mini forest. We have all sorts of fruits and vegetables and trees and I thoroughly enjoy taking care of them, I also like that I’m helping keep the earth more clean,” she says.

Saranya also travels to areas around their region, organising mass campus yelling people about the benefits of composting, the best way to stay hygienic and how amazing the process of fecal sludge management is, “To tell people that throught treatement we can drink good water and use the rest of the materials for farming is a huge responsibility and I love doing it.”

She hopes that now since she is the first, other women will also join in. She’s still relatively new but knows the in and out of the plant and has plans to stay on in the plant for the next couple of years. “I have such great colleagues here, I feel I might not be as happy in other
plants,” she says.TAGS women’s day LGBTQ sanitation Kamala and Saranya are being celebrated along with five other women in sanitation by the Indian Institute of Human Settlements and the Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme through a social media campaign. The organisations are noticing and honouring the women that keep our surroundings clean and probably do much more for the environment than all our hashtags for climate change do. The happiest of Women’s Days to them!

These professionals are making inroads into a male-dominated field

A day at work is no ordinary achievement for K. Aravalli, 45, who is one of five women professionals paving a way through the male-dominated field of sanitation service providers in Tiruchi. Her company Sri Sai Enterprises, based out of Ponmalai, has been undertaking deep cleaning operations of drains and toilets in residential and industrial premises since 2012.

“I was inspired by my elder brother, who runs a septic tank cleaning company in Pudukottai; but when I decided to replicate the same business idea in Tiruchi, I didn’t get much encouragement,” Ms. Aravalli told The Hindu. “Some of my own relatives doubted my ability and the propriety of my choice of occupation.”

Karate master, and three children, Ms. Aravalli decided to raise funds for her first desludging vacuum truck, which cost ₹18 lakh, by pawning her jewels. With business picking up after a few years, Ms. Aravalli now owns two de-sludging trucks and manages a team of six workers (two drivers and four de-sludging staff).

“There was a time when we had very little money; I am fortunate and proud to be in a position to employ people today,” said Ms. Aravalli. “Society should be more accepting of those who work in such difficult fields.”

While Ms. Aravalli doesn’t drive the vacuum trucks herself, she pitches in to help her male staff fix the industrial equipment for cleaning jobs. “A regular assignment, where we just open a manhole and get started, can take up to two hours. In places where we have to organise minor demolition of concrete drainage covers before we can get to the actual spot,our work can stretch out to over 10 hours. We are busiest during the rainy season,” Ms.Aravalli said.

As a recognition of her professional success, on August 23, Ms. Aravalli is one of the Tiruchi-based guests who will be sharing her experiences at a virtual storytelling session on behalf of the Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP) and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) at the World Water Week (WWW) organised by Stockholm International Water Institute.

Yakkoppu AP, a transgender sanitation worker who maintains a community toilet in Srirangam, is the other guest invited to speak at the event.

The session, titled ‘Women in Sanitation: Glimpses from across the chain’ will discuss the challenges faced by women sanitation professionals across the public, formal and informal sectors and the possible solutions to create a gender-inclusive working environment.