Women’s participation is considered integral to the sustainability of the projects created to meet the water and sanitaion MDGs. Bringing feminist and geographic critiques to bear on gendered approaches to improving sanitation coverage, the research reported on in this article indicates that latrine building and women’s participation may be contradictory goals for sanitation projects, despite the fact that women are the target group for latrine-building interventions. The findings of the analysis suggest that attention must be given to latrine building as both a technical undertaking and a gendered political intervention. In the Rajasthan (India) drinking water supply and sanitation project studied by the author, women were recognized as having a potentially unique relationship with latrines because social norms entail women’s seclusion and veiling. Women in rural Rajasthan restrict their urination, defecation and bathing to times and places where privacy can be maintained. The project’s latrine-building goals and women’s participation goals merged by appealing to gendered norms. What arose over the course of the Rajasthani project was a contradiction: the sanitation programme marketed women’s empowerment and mobility, but household latrines created reasons for women to remain in seclusion at home.

Contact: Kathleen O’Reilly, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, USA, e-mail

Source: O’Reilly, K. (2009). Combining sanitation and women’s participation in water supply : an example from Rajasthan. Development in practice ; vol. 20, no. 1 ; p. 45-56. DOI: 10.1080/09614520903436976 (Pay-per view: GBP 23). Free pre-print version: Download PDF.

Tags: gender, on-site sanitation, participatory management, south asia