By Amita Bhakta
It is with great pride that I share our brand new journal paper, ‘The need of the hour: Providing water in shared toilet facilities for menstrual hygiene management in urban India’ written with Aasim Mansuri, Jigisha Jaiswal at the Center for Water and Sanitation and Mona Iyer at Faculty of Planning CEPT University and which has just been published in the Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development! In this paper we draw on the existing literature and data from Maharashtra, and use the example of urban India to highlight the ‘need of the hour’, the provision of water in shared sanitation facilities in the global South for menstrual hygiene management. Key points:
– Water supply is needed for menstrual hygiene management (MHM).
-The supply of water for MHM is neglected in shared toilets.
-Providing water in shared toilets can improve MHM and reproductive health, support women and girls dependent on community and public toilets, encourage sustainable MHM, and reduce menstrual waste.
– Evidence-based water supply norms for MHM should support policymaking to provide water supply in shared sanitation services
The full text article is available here.