Gender-sensitive sustainable sanitation - Women s groups in Chhattisgarh take initiative to bring toilets into their households and sustainable sanitation into their communities - ADB case study

Sanitation in Women’s Hands

Women in the villages of Chhattisgarh, India have banded together to bring some decent sanitation facilities in their homes—something which has been missing in their lives for a very long time.

With some funding from ADB’s Pilot and Demonstration Activity (PDA) facility, women in the villages of Harratikra, Koreya, and Kandarai.

• Established and strengthened 12 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) through which women have been able to access microfinance loans to construct their very own toilets.
• Underwent training in conducting awareness-raising programs in the communities, including female youth volunteers.
• Have been elected in Village Sanitation Committees tasked to prepare comprehensive plans for sanitation improvement and management in their respective areas.

Furthermore, because of women’s active participation, the Village Sanitation Committees have been duly recognized by the national government and were authorized to work as the statutory committees under the government’s Total Sanitation Campaign. This enabled the committees to access government financial and technical resources, and implement / monitor the government supported development activities in the villages. The Total Sanitation Campaign, launched by the federal ministry of rural development, allows toilets to be built inside homes at heavily subsidized costs.

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