The sanitation crisis affecting girls’ education in rural Pakistan
“I couldn’t fathom that while most of us have the luxury of using our own personal toilets, thousands of girls are being denied their fundamental rights.” (Courtesy of Amna Quddus)
Pakistani student Amna Quddus explains why she’s on a mission to solve this problem once and for all.
“Every time I go to the fields with my friends, I pray that we return to our school safely,” says 11-year old Dua*, a student at Government Primary School Basti Bangan in Bahawalpur, Southern Punjab. “Fear of being molested or bitten by a snake or scorpion makes us very tense. The thought of being watched by someone also increases my anxiety. I feel very humiliated.”
Dua is among a number of school-aged girls across Pakistan struggling to educate themselves while putting their health, safety and dignity at risk. In Pakistan, the lack of proper sanitation facilities at schools is a serious hurdle for girls on their path to getting an education. And it’s a hurdle that many people neglect to discuss.
According to the 2018 WaterAid report, one in three schools in Pakistan lack sanitation facilities. Girls like Dua must traverse miles outside their school to go to the restroom in open fields, exposing them to sexual harassment, rape, kidnapping and attacks by snakes and insects. The lack of menstrual hygiene products — coupled with the absence of toilets — makes an already discomforting situation even more tormenting.
Access to adequate facilities is worse for the most marginalized girls in poor areas due to limited investment in their school infrastructure. Preventive maintenance is sparse, with educational authorities failing to properly review facilities, make repairs and provide guidance to teachers. Girls usually go back to their own homes to use the washroom, never returning to attend the remaining classes of the day. These absences not only hinder the student’s learning achievements but also greatly discourage them from attending school.
“In Pakistan, the lack of proper sanitation facilities at schools is a serious hurdle for girls on their path to getting an education. And it’s a hurdle that many people neglect to discuss,” Amna shares. (Courtesy of Amna Quddus)
Inevitably, girls may also miss weeks of school because of their periods. Around the age of puberty, many adolescent girls often drop out of school completely. The 2018 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, “Shall I Feed my Daughter or Educate Her?” revealed that a third of girls across the country are not attending primary school, compared with 21% of boys. By the ninth grade, just 13% of girls are still in school. “Walking long distances to the fields and carrying bottles of water whilst having period cramps is very difficult,” says 13-year Zohra* from Government Girls Primary School Trust Colony. “In such times, I curse myself for being a girl.’’
Last year, a random conversation with a villager in Bahawalpur exposed me to this pressing problem when he shared that his daughter’s school lacked latrines. I couldn’t fathom that while most of us have the luxury of using our own personal toilets, thousands of girls are being denied their fundamental rights. I visited the school to speak with the girls about this issue.
Almost all the girls shared feelings of fear and dread while traveling to the fields. Apart from it being an embarrassing experience, some girls reported experiencing harassment and teasing by men at least once. Furthermore, the majority of the girls said they could not implement any hygiene practices like handwashing.
“Walking long distances to the fields and carrying bottles of water whilst having period cramps is very difficult.”
To tackle this challenge, I reached out to officials from the Ministry of Education of Pakistan. With their help, I designed a sustainable plan to construct latrines and handwashing stations in at least 50 girls’ primary and elementary schools in the remote and rural areas of Bahawalpur, South Punjab by May 2022. With the help of local government officers responsible for education, we shortlisted four schools in the Bahawalpur district requiring immediate intervention.
Establishing the sanitation facilities in the schools required a lot of funding. By personally reaching out to donors — calling at least 40 to 50 people each day and showing people recorded interviews of the students — we managed to raise $2,500 in two months. With these funds, we constructed the first sets of girl-friendly toilets across four primary girls’ schools in Bahawalpur. The toilets were handed out for use in late November, facilitating around 910 young girls. We aim to help create a safe, healthy learning environment that results in increased attendance and low dropout rates of girls at the primary school level.
Our work also involves breaking the silence around the taboo topic of menstruation and raising awareness about feminine hygiene. We arranged menstrual hygiene management and sanitation workshops where we addressed general misconceptions about periods. We worked to debunk common myths in Pakistani culture about periods, which included women not touching food, cooking or taking baths while menstruating. Often, girls are shunned from any human interaction while on their periods, which causes them to miss weeks of school. We taught good hygiene practices that will help protect them from potential diseases like urinary tract infections and diarrhea.
“Our work also involves breaking the silence around the taboo topic of menstruation and raising awareness about feminine hygiene,” Amna shares. (Courtesy of Amna Quddus)
Just one month after establishing the sanitation facilities, the four schools reported a combined average of a 6% increase in the registered monthly attendance of the girls. Teachers reported that girls would display a more positive behavior towards learning, completing the daily classes, and maintaining a good hygiene routine. “Now, I don’t have to miss a single day of school because of my periods,” says 12-year-old Nadia* from Government Primary School Basti Bangan.
I was encouraged to begin the second phase in the rest of the schools. After raising $2,700 in January, we started construction in four other schools, where latrines and hand washing points in two schools have already been completed. The remaining two are under construction.
There is a dire need for governments to reexamine the education infrastructure policy and invest in installing and rehabilitating schools’ sanitation facilities. “Pakistan has made steady progress toward national-level access to improved water (91%) and sanitation (64%) and met the Millennium Development Goals’ WASH targets by 2015,” reports UNICEF’s Country Programme of Cooperation between the Government of Pakistan and UNICEF 2018-2022. “But only half of the people living in rural areas have access to improved sanitation, compared to 83% of people living in urban areas.”
“There is a dire need for governments to reexamine the education infrastructure policy and invest in installing and rehabilitating schools’ sanitation facilities.”
To increase the retention and attendance rate of school-going girls and promote a safe learning environment in rural areas, provincial governments and decision-makers in the education sector should reconsider their education policies. It’s essential that provincial governments work to allot more education funds for the construction and rehabilitation of safe and personal toilets in girls’ schools. They must prioritize more resources that create a female-friendly educational environment in schools. Providing feminine hygiene supplies and devising a gender-sensitive curriculum that teaches young girls about menstrual hygiene management is a key for progress.
These resources should be further used to address gender disparities and ensure all children — regardless of their gender — have access to high-quality primary and secondary education in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 4. Furthermore, coordination between the school management and local police should be maximized to mitigate occurrence of sexual harassment and kidnapping. Additionally, appropriate disciplinary action must be taken against individuals responsible for such acts to help increase the safety of the school-going girls. Awareness campaigns organized across girls’ schools to openly discuss topics like menstruation and feminine hygiene can help change the mindsets of young women and empower them to make better decisions for the rest of their lives.
“It is important for everyone to advocate to bring girls back to their classrooms safely and happily,” Amna expresses. (Courtesy of Amna Quddus)
Growing up in the United Arab Emirates, I had been oblivious to the many unheard and unseen struggles Pakistani girls face in the education system. The non-availability of proper hygiene facilities and the effects that has on school-going girls has been eye-opening. I have learned to never take something even as seemingly basic as clean water and toilets for granted because these same necessities are hindering thousands of girls from completing their education in some parts of the world.
I hope to inspire people across the world to advocate for this cause and help us in reaching our target of expanding our work to the remaining schools in South Punjab. It is important for everyone to advocate to bring girls back to their classrooms safely and happily. And until the barriers jeopardizing the future of thousands of young, bright minds have been removed once and for all, our work will continue.
*Names have been changed
Read more
