Woman's World

Woman's World used personal contact to orient women as to how to use photography to "describe" their everyday lives, where water and sanitation practices are concerned. Organisers state that "Some women got a chance to see their entire village for the first time. For women from Alang village, this activity carried out secretly allowed them to come out of their homes for the first time in 25 years!" Photography was a medium for empowering women.

Specifically, women members from the village water committees were first briefed about the activity. In the words of organisers, "They resisted that they have never ever seen or held a camera in their hand - its not possible. After considerable persuation, 80 women from 12 villages agreed. They were initially given a digital still camera but soon more women wanted to participate so we also handed over the slr [Single Lens Reflex] camera to shoot pictures."

The basic idea was to give women the tools to document good and bad sanitation practices as seen in their villages. Some of the negative images the women captured included garbage dumps at doorsteps, waste water streams in lanes and by-lanes, pigs at garbage sites, and dirt around hand pumps. Among the positive practices they captured were clean lanes with soak pits, clean compounds without dung heaps, and a clean water storage place. Apparently, none of the women took personal pictures; only public places were focused upon.

These pictures were displayed at an exhibition set up for the World Women's Day celebrations, wherein 140 women from the project villages participated. When participating women were asked to discuss their experiences with the project, some stated that they had taken pictures of negative practices so that the Gram Panchayat members would take action (the photos were to be put up on the Gram Panchayat notice board. In addition, women's groups have taken these pictures back to elected representatives in their villages to show as proof of the dirt and muck. CEE states that proposals for soak pits have been coming in).

Women, Water, Health (Sanitation).

CEE states that, traditionally, women have been assigned the prime responsibility of water care, sanitation, and personal hygiene in their families. The basic idea of Woman's World was to see the village through the eyes of the women who live day in and day out in these villages. A caption in a CEE publication explains, "Though being part of the village water committee we as women were unable to monitor the work carried out by the contractors. Look what the men did not bother to check upon..." (accompanying a photograph of a troublesome sanitation practice).

Reflecting on some of the qualitative impacts of the project, organisers say "It helped women to gain confidence because they had clicked the pictures (till that day they thought only men can operate such machines), they were able to focus on the main issues based on their perception while they also could see their entire village for some after 25 years of living in the village. They have also begun to participate in the meetings and voicing their opinions and concerns at meetings. Men of course have not liked this..."

This project was one of the activities for Women's Day, conducted under the rubric of the Jalsankalp project, wherein CEE has been working with 28 villages of Talaja and Ghogha blocks of Bhavnagar District, Gujarat since 1999 (click here to access a summary of this project). Jalsankalp is an initiative of the Community Managed Ghogha Regional Water Supply and Sanitation Project (CMGRWSSP).

Established in August 1984 as a Centre of Excellence supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, CEE is affiliated with the Nehru Foundation for Development (NFD). CEE, a national institution with headquarters in Ahmedabad, works to "improve public awareness and understanding of environmental issues with a view to promote the conservation and wise use of nature and natural resources."