Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Some Sunshine

Around the globe there are still people who are living in the 17 th century or may be 25 centuries before the current era started. To them sunshine is very important part of their livelihood. It is nice to know that there are communities which take the heat and light of Sun and start their day. They ought to live the life of a historical human being though... That lived way back in the time continuum.
What do I mean by this?
Communities that get water from the river or from the wells far off from their living quarters.
Communities that do not have sanitation and water supply facilities.
Communities where power supply is far from their reach.
Do such communities exist?
You bet your shirt on your back, they do.
Do they exist in remote villages or in places where human dwelling is impossible?
Well, they may in such remote corners of the world, but they definitely co-exist amid the hustle bustle of the cities, where there are crowds of people living in a somewhat social life, despite the lack of sanitation, water supply, electric supply or any form of development in their living grounds.
Where are they?
Who lives in there?
May be they are the slums that are part of the urban life as much as the activity and modern technology is part of the urban areas.
For those people living in such conditions, it is a thing they have no choice but take it and work hard to change it.
Would they change the infrastructure of such communities?
No.. No no no.. You did not get what I was saying..
I did not mean that they would bring in new facilities in order to bring about that change in their lives. It is they, who move to a different locale, the circumstances would be different.
So, if Fatima Bi or Shakuntala amma or Mrs. Robinson want to wash their clothes and dry them in sunshine, they may be able to do so. However, they might have to walk to a river site or area with water abundance, at least at one point of time in the day. In their living grounds, it would not be possible, if they were to wash their clothes they wear or the clothes they use to keep themselves dry in the days when they are may be, say, menstruating.
Not that people are not aware of the measures societies take to cope up in those special days. It is just that they cannot afford to buy the sanitary napkins and use those to keep themselves free. They, day in and day out, all the five days or so in a month, each time they have periods, only use washable clothes in its place.
So, they use clothes in place of sanitary pads, what's the big deal?
They can be washed and dried in the sunshine, no? No. Absolutely not. Women do not display their undergarments, let alone sanitary clothes in public, so where is the question of getting Sunshine in their lives or those of the clothes.. some sunshine is all they want to protect themselves from being infested with bugs and germs...
They cannot expose things of such private nature in public, it leads people to think about their genetalia, if they happen to see those clothes and if you extrapolate the consequences and into the imagination of human mind, the thing that they can think about the size of that part of the body of the female who uses it, no? Extrapolate further...
Then what is the point in discussing this?
The point is that, washing facilities for communities can be provided, not by government municipalities, but also private agencies or ownerships.
There could be washetarias built in areas where people dwell, and allow them to use such facilities. May be, they could even provide space within four walls to clean up their mess with a time limit and limit to the usage of natural resources like water, to some reasonable extent. The ladies who depend on such facilities could contribute to the maintenance of such facilities, and if they use that in large numbers, may be the cost would be divided to a bearable burden...
In the west, people live in small apartments and they are restricted from hanging their clothes, let alone sanitary pads in the open.
They however get to have washer or drier connections or laundry areas where the people can use the facilities by shelling some quarters or nickels and dimes...or whichever...
Sometimes, individualized services are available, when they order private vendors to clean baby diapers, that are recyclable. They not only provide service, but also provide reusable baby diapers, made of cotton. Why not? Privatize, the methods to cater to those needs. Take things in your care..watch the difference.

3 comments:

  1. I wrote this article as a response after reading the story by Mahe Jabeen garu in the Jan issue of VIhanga at http://vihanga.com

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