Kavita and Sarita are teenage sisters who have grown up in Savda, but dream of futures beyond the colony. Kavita wants to work in a beauty parlour and is doing a course for it along with high school. Sarita, on the other hand, wants to do a computer course.

Their father works as a mechanic while their mother is a home-maker. They have two younger brothers.

Kavita and Sarita’s mother has been involved with MHT, and they know of our work through her. Their family’s association with us began by availing the subsidy to construct a toilet.

Before they had a household toilet constructed a year ago, they would use the community toilet. The pay and use facility is a little distance away and would not be very clean. When they fell sick with stomach ailments, it was a huge struggle as they would have to rush to the community toilet. Often, they would also find used sanitary napkins lying around in the cubicles. “I used to find it very disgusting. I would not feel nice at all, seeing it lying around. Sometimes I would not even go to the toilet because of this, but what could I do?”, says Kavita.

The individual toilet is more convenient and safer than the community toilet. The girls save time in the morning before going to school, and don’t have to worry about going far away at night. “I really like this, we don’t have these issues now that we have this toilet.”

In school, the facility is available, but many of the students do not keep it clean. Despite teachers telling the students, girls do not use water or dispose sanitary napkins hygienically.  As a result, Kavita explained, “I find it very dirty there. I come home and use the toilet here.”

The household toilet has given the girls greater freedom, whether it is in terms of saving time from having to go to the community toilet, or improving their health through hygiene.

Blog Courtesy: Roshini Diwakar