Lack of Inclusive Design in Sanitary Facilities for Sexual Minorities
India celebrated the victory of love on September 6, 2018, when the Supreme Court annulled the oppressive Article 377 that criminalized gay sex. Citizens, especially the youth all across the country rejoiced the abolition of the law that held them back from publicly embracing their true self. But years after this acceptance, the sexual minorities in India still struggle relentlessly for their basic rights as human beings; access to safe sanitary facilities, menstrual hygiene management facilities, and protection from discriminatory violence.
This article aims to analyze the hardships faced by sexual minorities while accessing sanitary facilities in a system that is not designed to respect their needs.
The Centre pushed for better bathroom access for India’s “third gender” by permitting them to use both men’s and women’s bathrooms and community toilets but several important factors are still not considered. Several institutions are also taking a step forward in the direction of building gender-neutral restrooms but there are still many grey areas yet to be addressed. The 2011 Indian Census counted over 487,000 transgender people, including more than 54,000 children under the age of 7 (India Census, 2011). These numbers are estimated to go still higher as they were recorded when transgender identities were penalized in India.
There are various concerns to keep in mind while working on making the system more inclusive. Interviews and discussions with individuals from these groups shed some light on the prominent and unspoken issues they face on a daily basis. Historically and culturally victim to violence, safety remains the primary concern of the sexual minorities. Shreya Reddy of Humsafar Trust recounts how she was followed by men into a public toilet thinking she would offer sexual services as she belonged to a third gender and specifically to the hijra community. Thus, it is important to understand the cultural history of the location before working on inclusive policies. The provision of gender-neutral washrooms may not be helpful in a community where the individual may not feel safe to disclose their identity. Several members belonging to the minorities including women reported how their fear forced them to resist their natural needs. But these resulted in urinary tract infections and bacterial infections due to prolonged usage of pads.
It is important to understand and educate the medical requirements during and after transition surgeries. The process is extremely painful with specific post-surgery needs. The legal documentation afterward proves even more daunting. Completing and procuring all the mandatory documents proving your gender identity is time-consuming and sometimes never-ending. I remember from personal experience how a senior in college struggled in the men’s hostel as the University continued to reject all her applications to the women’s hostel on grounds of lack of documentation. She went on to move out and get an apartment which entailed its own pain in a society conditioned to see the world in binary.
Various studies have been conducted in the past to understand how to tackle this issue effectively. The transgender community’s access to sanitation cannot be viewed in isolation from their daily experiences of stigma, marginalization, and discrimination. Public sanitation is more suitable for heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgender men and needs to take into account the lives and the needs of women, lower caste, sexual and gender minorities, and people with disabilities. Setting up gender-neutral toilets has proved helpful in urban areas while the rural area still requires further measures to ensure safety.
Social stigma continues to be the greatest hurdle and this highlights the importance of public education, awareness-raising, and community empowerment. WaterAid India’s work with academics, WASH organizations, and transgender activists offers case studies from India on different toilet options for transgender people while promoting education on related issues. The Kinnerma Trust works with the Maharashtra government to resolve open defection and unsafe hygiene practices. They have realized that “our voices can help create acceptance, unity, togetherness, and inclusivity of marginalized groups without stigma, discrimination and harassment” (WSSCC, 2016). According to Rutgers University-New Brunswick social psychologist, Diana Sanchez and graduate student Kimberly Chaney’s study, companies with gender-neutral restrooms make women, African-Americans and Latinos feel safer and more welcome at work.
It is also crucial to acknowledge that transgender people have diverse identities, histories, and preferences. They are not a single homogeneous unit. Some communities within face more harassment than others and their solutions will vary too. Ensure adequate representation from all groups while undertaking research, design, policymaking, and execution.
Stigma and social conditioning of centuries cannot be abolished overnight and the struggle to ensure fair representation and inclusion of the sexual minorities is an astronomical process. There is no one solution that fits all and respecting individual subgroups is essential. Public education, spreading awareness, and desensitizing the population to healthy conversations about the subject are helpful to ensure progress.
