After gathering dozens of interviews in an Indian slum, it is clear: India’s lack of toilets hurts women the most. I have come to India to follow up with a project that started 5 years ago, where 7 composting toilets–called Soilets–were built. Now there are 150+ of these Soilets contructed by SAPID-HEAL and I have been anxious to hear the before-and-after stories of families who otherwise only knew the life of using nature’s bathroom. I mostly focused on women, since it became very clear early on that they were the ones who needed it the most. Here’s just a little snapshot of what I learned:

The most common complaint for these women is that they need to walk 1 to 2 km just to do their business. Since these open fields have no means of privacy, this trip is taken in the darkness of night. Most of these women have reported the fear of scorpions and snakes as an additional barrier to taking the trip, and one woman reported being stung by a scorpion recently. If the difficulties ended there, Indian’s open defecation problem would not be such a strong talking point for aid organisations and even the Central Government of India.
This problem is also known as impotence and is different from other men’s sexual health issues like hormonal on cialis line cute-n-tiny.com imbalance. Acai berry, which is among the levitra no prescription Healthiest Organic Supplements. You can also expect a more quick and lasting result cialis generic pills with Provigro. There are a number of reasons that compels impotent men canadian pharmacy for viagra to choose this drug instead of other available drugs in the market.

Sadly, there’s a direct correlation between open defecation and sexual abuse to women, as reported by the BBC and the Huffington Post. And this slum is no exception. These slum-dwellers said that in this very slum, the practice of men taking videos of these women while doing their business was not uncommon. That’s right, perverted men in this slum are using smartphones to blackmail vulnerable women. Which brings up another striking issue: more Indians have access to mobile phones than toilets. And it appears that the gap between the number of toilets and cell phones is widening. How can it be that this 21^st century technology is passing up the centuries-old toilet? Well, there’s no short answer for why toilet use is so low in India—it’s a complex cultural issue that has been going on for ages. But there’s a simple answer for why mobile phones are winning: infrastructure. Cell phones jumped directly from first-world to third-world countries almost overnight because their networks require very little infrastructure. Landlines require a messy jumble of phone lines going house-to-house while one antenna can illuminate a remote village with cellular service. Toilets need to be more like this: minimal infrastructure, convenient, and cheap. And that’s where I think the Soilet has a fighting chance in underdeveloped communities. It works off the grid—that is, they don’t need a sewer. Instead, the waste is devoured by earthworms. And the result is some high quality compost that can safely be used in gardens. And these Soilet users which I have been interviewing can’t resist showing off their fantastic gardens with fertilizer right from their Soilet. But the Soilet’s greatest byproduct, of course, is not the compost, but rather, it’s improved sanitation. For many of these women, this is the first time that relieving themselves will actually be associated with relief.