Indian Women and Access to Toilets

Poor Indian women, especially villagers, usually wear saris without any underwear.  (They have a petticoat underneath as underwear, but no panties).  Amazingly, they can pee standing up when they have to.  What they do is walk to a discreet place like behind a tree or around a corner and they lift the sari up a little, lean forward and then urinate.  After I was told about this, I saw some women doing it several times.  It cleared up a great mystery to me about why we see men peeing in the street all the time but never women.  The women are just more careful about who sees them!  Anyway, I asked what they do about the fact that they drip after peeing, and they admit that they do not wipe themselves.  Even when they have the time and privacy to pee comfortably by lifting up their sari and squatting, they usually do not wipe themselves.  They told me that they do drip a little, but most of that is dried quickly in the weather here.  Sometimes the drips are absorbed by the sari petticoat which they wash regularly.

Sadly, millions of people in India are still forced to defecate openly, either in the streets or in the fields.  If you travel through India, you will see a lot of open defecation, but usually you see men and children doing it.  Women must also be discreet about it, so this means that they usually must wake up very early in the morning to get some privacy because it is taboo for them to expose themselves in public.  I read that many village women have to defecate before sunrise, and they risk being raped because some men wait in the dark to attack them on their way. 

Wealthier Indian Women

Middle class women have it much better.  They all have toilets in their homes, work in clean workplaces with good facilities and attend schools with toilet facilities.  Moreover, the posh clubs and shopping centers and restaurants of wealthier India have modern, clean toilet facilities everywhere.  Wealthier women in India will not be forced to pee in public anymore than a woman in the US would.

Some middle class Indian women wipe with water each time they urinate, but some do not wipe at all.  American women will wonder about dripping and feeling wet if they do not wipe or if they wipe with water.  I asked a few Indian women about this discomfort, and they did not seem to think it was any big deal.  Some didn't even know what I was talking about.  I think this is a big cultural difference that I don't really understand.  Indian women also told me that in public, they prefer squat toilets since they do not have to sit on the dirty seat.  They said that Western style public toilets are usually dirtier because women try to pee hovering over the toilet and make the seat messy.

More here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aErNiP_V4RLc&pid=20601109

http://www.newint.org/features/2008/08/01/women-girls/

Indian Women and Menstruation

In general, poor Indian women do not wipe at all when they pee unless they are on their periods.  Then, they wear underwear or pin cloth around themselves and put a folded up reusable towel or rag to catch their blood.  Women are starting to purchase disposable sanitary pads, but as these are expensive it is still more common for them to use towels and rags.  They clean the towels and rags themselves and hang them to dry.  As you can imagine, wearing these towels restricts women’s movement quite a bit just because it is so cumbersome.  There are all sorts of taboos associated with menstruating women- some are not allowed to cook, visit temples, touch their husbands, etc.  But the most difficult part involves toileting.  There are not enough public toilets in India (hence why people pee in the streets), and it is much more difficult to discreetly urinate when one must first lift the sari up high and remove panties and menstruation rags.  Because periods are messy, women then have the need to wipe with water each time they urinate, and this is also difficult to do in public.  For this reason, girls sometimes drop out of schools when they start menstruating and women’s activities are limited when they are on their periods.  The toilet facilities in most schools are not adequate to give girls the space to clean themselves while they are on their period, and the taboos associated with menstruation can cause a young girl a lot of embarrassment.  It’s strictly taboo to leave any evidence of menstruation such as soiled sanitary pads or bits of blood in the toilet, yet the public facilities usually do not have running water or trash bins. 

Wealthier Indian Women

For middle class women, things are a lot easier.  They have a larger range of clothing to choose from and they use disposable sanitary pads.  Moreover, they can easily clean themselves with water when they are on their periods then wash their hands with soap afterwards.  

More here:

http://www.mum.org/menhydev.htm

http://www.newint.org/features/2008/08/01/women-girls/

How Indian Women Dispose of Sanitary Pads

An American woman visiting India is likely to be confused about how to dispose of sanitary pads and tampons.  It is rare to find trash cans in the bathrooms of Indian homes, and it is even less common to see them in public toilets (when you can find one).  Even if there is a trash bin, there is no toilet paper to wrap the pad or tampon up in and no toilet paper to clean yourself afterwards. 

How To Dispose of Pads At Home

I asked middle class Indian women how they deal with this.  They say that when they are at home, they wrap their soiled pads in newspaper, then take it to the main trash can in the home.  If there are people present that would make this embarrassing, they keep a plastic bag in their bedrooms where they dispose of their soiled pads until a more convenient time allows them to throw them in the main trash. 

How To Dispose of Pads At Other People's Houses

I asked what they did when they were visiting other people’s homes.  They said that they frequently carry their purse with them into the bathroom, wrap their soiled pads in newspaper, put it in a plastic bag in their purse, then disposed of them when they got back to their own homes.  If it is a good friend or relative, then they just put the soiled pad in the main trash like they would at home. They admitted that this process is very difficult sometimes when they are in a new place.

How To Dispose of Pads In Public

I asked what they did when they were in public, and most said they follow the same process with the plastic bag in the purse though some admitted that they simply throw the soiled pad on the floor of the public restroom because they felt they had no other option.  Everyone I spoke to pointed out that it is becoming more and more common to see trash cans in restrooms, and I’m sure it is much more common in India now than it used to be.  However, it is still far less common than it is in the US and the American woman traveler will struggle with this inconvenience unless she stays most in fancy places geared towards middle class and wealthy Indians.

All women said that when they are on their period, they clean with water then wash their hands afterwards.  

Tampons and Virginity

Virgins can use a tampon.  I’ve had a lot of people in India tell me that it is physically impossible for a virgin to use a tampon.  I’m not sure why they say this.  I used tampons when I was a virgin, as do millions of other Western girls.  So the people who say that virgins cannot use tampons either do not understand female anatomy or else they have a different definition of virginity.  

Using a tampon will not cause you to lose your virginity. Indian women are frequently concerned with maintaining an intact hymen so that they will bleed the first time they have sex in order to prove that they are virgins.  This is an issue that really makes me angry, but it is another topic.  For now, let me just say that not every virgin has an intact hymen in the first place, and that hymens break and tear for all sorts of reasons aside from sex.  Likewise, some people still have a hymen or part of it after sex.  Finally, not everyone bleeds the first time they have sex.  If you are a virgin and you do have a hymen, you have a little hole in your hymen. How else do you think the period blood comes out?  The hymen is stretchable.  You can almost always insert a tampon through the hole(s) in the hymen. It should not be uncomfortable if you are doing it correctly and if you are relaxed.  If you are worried about it, your body might be tense and you might want to use a little lubricant to make it slide in more easily.  A girl with an anatomical anomality in the shape of her hymen may have trouble inserting a tampon, but no one else should.

Hymens have nothing to do with virginity.  Anyway, the larger issue is that intact hymens have nothing whatsoever to do with virginity.  A virgin is someone who has not had sex.  Unfortunately, many women around the world are shunned, abused or even killed when they do not bleed the first time they have sex because it is assumed that they are not virgins if they do not have an intact hymen.  No women should perpetuate this injustice.  Girls should be allowed to participate in sports, straddle bicycles and wear tampons without any concern for their hymens whatsoever. 

More:

http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/hymen

http://health.discovery.com/centers/sex/sexpedia/hymen.html