|
REGIONAL INITIATIVES
Initiatives and success stories, best practices
South
Asia
|
|
THE WOMEN OF THE NIGHT: A Story from India
|
In one village in India, the members of local women’s group began
working with health workers and developed a growing understanding of the
importance of sanitation. Acting upon their new understanding, they
approached the local council (panchayat) to ask that a better drainage
system and soak pits be created. The council refused. The group tried to
put pressure on the council, but the council ignored them.
The women decided that a different type of pressure was needed. They
got together in the middle of the night and dug big pits in front of each
household. When the villagers woke up the next morning, they found that
the big holes dug by the women made it impossible for the bullock carts
and other vehicles to pass in the roads. The village council called a
meeting and asked the women why they had committed this act. The women
replied that the village children were unhealthy and were getting malaria
because of the bad drainage system. They said, "Now we have started
the work, so you can go ahead and complete the soakage pits."
The council could no longer refuse.
Source: The Local Decade: Men, Women and Agencies in Water Development,
IRC, Netherlands, 1984
|
|
|
Return
to Regional Initiatives home page
|
