DREAM OF A GIRL

DREAM OF A GIRL

-         TAMIZH INIYA

Priya, a civil engineering student was in her final years. She was of moderate height, dark shade and had attractive eyes. She was so friendly that she could become friends with everyone. Her father was running a pavement shop for second sale books at Chennai Triplicane. His earnings were meagre and could hardly run his family.

Priya was a studious student who completed her schooling in a government school in her area and started her engineering course by obtaining education loan from a bank. She could repay the loan amount along with the interest amount after she completed her studies and getting a job.

Priya’s family resided in a compound house, which had six houses in a row. Those houses had two toilets in common. Almost all the women in that compound tried to complete their toilet routines early in the morning, before 5.30 a.m. itself. After that time, men and children occupied the toilet one by one. Sometimes there may be a queue.

Priya who was living a satisfied life hated that common toilet system. The aim of her life was to construct a house and to build separate toilet for her. That made her to choose the civil department in engineering.

Priya often argued with her father to search for a house with attached toilet, but her father’s earning was not up to that level to pay rent for such a house in their area. Many days she used to cry alone for her situation. Also, she used to argue with her mother, “ma, better I could have brought up in a rural village, so that I could have used open toilet area rather than this queue.”

“No Priya, you don’t know the difficulties of those women who use the waste lands as their lavatories or toilets.”

“No ma, I think that is far better than our situation. Few people never clean it properly, which creates a huge quarrel in our compound, at least twice a week. Not only that, how far these situations are safe for our hygienic life?”

“I accept your view, but that doesn’t mean open place is better than this. Separate toilet for each family is a remedy for this. When you get a job, we shall move to a house as per your wish.”

“Ma but the difficulty is everyone knows who is going to the toilet and how many times they are going. In spite of these inconvenience I like our compound people very much, who cares and shares everything. The only drawback is...”

 “Ok ok no more arguments. I think you have your college campus interview tomorrow. So prepare for that.”

“Yes ma, I just forgot it. Ok ma, please make me a cup of coffee, so that I shall prepare well.”

Priya’s mother went to look after her kitchen works by munching all the arguments with her daughter.

Priya attended her campus interview and she was selected for an IT firm, which accepted her appointment through 3 years bond for their company. Many students hesitated to accept the bond system, whereas Priya accepted without any second thought. The foremost thing for her was to get a job immediately, so that she could start repaying her loan debts. Only after clearing her loan, she could think of purchasing a house. All the most she felt happy for getting selected in such a big firm.

Priya shared her happiness with her friends and family. She gave a small get together treat for her friends and her neighbours in her compound. Her family shifted their residence to a new rental house as per Priya’s wish.

The IT firm in which Priya selected, assigned her designation as a junior site engineer. She was to be trained under a senior engineer. That IT company undertook a project to built public toilets in many villages of Tamilnadu.

The company ordered Priya to go to some villages where their projects were to be under taken. Priya who already had some craze over village life accepted the offer without any hesitation. As a start up, they selected some villages in 4 districts of Tamilnadu. Priya went to the village where their first venture was in process.

The construction labourers were from the same village, where the project was in process. They were paid for their work. Priya liked to stay in the villages were the work was in process. During the break or lunch time she used to chat with the labour women about their village lives.

Priya was also forced to use the open land for defecation and urination. There were many trees in those open land which acted as a barrier from others. However, she was not feeling comfortable in such a process. She thought about her mother’s words about the open toilets. She was able to realize it.

Since Priya’s father was selling second hand books , she had a habit of reading books. She used to read all sorts of books, like novels, magazines, encyclopaedias, social articles, etc. Even while travelling she used to carry some books with her to read it in her leisure times.

While she was on the site, she started reading some books. One day, she was reading a monthly magazine in which she came across a short story that was similar to her thoughts and questions.

The story was about a village girl who was to be married. The girl asked her parents to search for a groom who works and resides in a town or city. When her parents asked the reason for that, the reply from that girl was that, if she married such a person, she could live in a house with toilet facility, because in her village they din’t have toilets in their houses.

Finally, she was married to a man who worked and resided in Chennai city. The girl full of dreams entered the house where she was going to start her new married life. When she questioned her husband about the toilet, the husband showed her two common toilets for those twelve houses in that compound. She could not question more and went to sleep by controlling all her emotions. The next morning, her husband wakened her earlier in the morning and said her to complete her toilet routines quickly. She answered that she could go when she feels like to go. Her husband said that most of the women in their compound used the toilet in the early morning, before men queued there. After hearing that, she went to the toilet, but already there was a queue, many women standing and chatting there early in the morning. She waited for her turn and went inside, but she could not defecate because of the continuous noise from outside the toilet. Tears were rolling under her cheeks and she could hear only the chatting of the women and someone shouting to hurry up and come out soon.

At that time she thought that her village open area toilets were far better than her present situation.

The story was ending in that way.

While reading that story Priya’s thought went back to her house, about how she felt on some occasions. When Priya started her first menstrual periods, Priya’s mother forced her to get early in the morning, almost 4.30 a.m. and asked her to complete her toilet routines, so that no men would come there at that time. Tamil people has several rituals and traditions for their girls when they attend their first periods. One among that is those girls should not look at other men face until they come out after 7 or 16 days (number of days would change according to the people) of their rituals.

At that time Priya argued and quarrelled a lot with her mother. However, Priya’s mother maintained her patience and explained each and everything to her daughter.

Priya who was in her thoughts was disturbed by a voice of a woman. She went back to the site after her lunch break.

The next morning while Priya was on her way to the site, she heard a voice of a woman who was addressing a gathering in the panchayat office of that village. Priya had a look at that meeting and went to her site.

On the site, she questioned the women about that meeting. One woman said, “It is our Magalir kuzhu(women group) meeting. We used to have it once in a month.”

“Who was that woman who addressed the meeting? I liked her gesture and the way she spoke to you all,” said Priya.

The other woman said, “She is Chandra, our Kuzhu Thalaivi (head of our village women’s group).”

“Is she highly educated?”

“No madam, she completed her tenth class and did not have scope to continue her studies. She got married to a man in our village.”

“Oh god, the way she spoke is equal to a speech of a highly educated women. Can I meet her?”

“Sure madam, just 10 to 15 minutes walk from here. We shall meet her in the evening after our work time.”

“Ok, I will be ready by 7 p.m.”

“We will come and pick you up by 7p.m.,” answered the two women.

At 6 p.m., Priya left the site and went to her room. She was given a room by a family in that village, because she was the only female in her group. Other colleagues resided in a temporary shed they made for themselves.

By 7p.m. the two women arrived and Priya joined her. The three of them went to Chandra’s house. Chandra greeted them with a good smile on her face. The women narrated to Chandra about Priya’s eagerness.

Priya introduced herself and said to Chandra about her eagerness to meet her. Chandra was pleased by Priya’s words.

Priya asked, “Chandra, you are organising your village people in a good way. I have an important question. Can I ask it to you?”

“Sure Priya,” said Chandra.

“Many government schemes are taken to the village people through people like you. I can witness many improvements in your village that could be recent one. Isn’t it?”

“Yes Priya. I am being the Magalir Kuzhu Thalaivi for 4 years since. Whatever the schemes are, I am taking my effort to reach it to our village people.”

“Then why there is no toilet facility in your village? I think our government provides many schemes and loan to built a toilet for each house in villages. I could rarely see lavatories in any of the houses over here.”

“Yes Priya, hardly ten house has that facility. There are two hundred houses in this village. Even our village availed the subsidy and loan scheme from the government and all people built toilet in their houses. Even our village Panchayat President received an award from our state government for building toilets in all the houses in our village. All these happened before I came to this village.”

Priya was shocked to hear the news and she also got confused. Looking at her confused state Chandra continued, “I can read your mind Priya. Our people just built four walls that too the family members themselves did that work and buried the Indian style toilet seats. They took the photo of that and received the amount that government gave to each family. But after that they did not use that. No sceptic tank facility was done, so that the toilet could be used. Even many of them resold the toilet seats after receiving the money.”

The women those who were hearing patiently the chats of Priya and Chandra started answering from their view. One of them said, “Madam, we are having water scarcity in our village. Our panchayat supplies water once in three days. We have to save the water for three days. Sometimes it may drag for one or two more days. How could we use two buckets of water for each person in a family.”

Priya asked, “However, you are going to use water to clean yourself after defecating or urinating. Why can’t you use that water in toilets? That is safe isn’t it?” 

“No Priya our people hardly use a mug of water to clean their private parts after defecating. I have noticed many of them taking water filled in a half a litre water bottle or half bottle in one litre bottle. Many women urinate being in a standing position and do not wash themselves.” Chandra narrated her anxiety.

“Oh no, is it safe for them? Doesn’t it affect their health?” asked Priya.

“They all got practised to it and they never connect their illness to their cleanliness. But many women are suffering  from some urine related problems.”

“Can’t you advice them to rebuilt the toilets through other schemes?”

“The housing loan from the government is being sanctioned only if the house has a proper toilet facility. So the people who are under that schemes are building it now. Since, already we availed the government loan for building toilets, we can’t avail it until this year. From next year we have a chance from other schemes. I am teaching our women about the safety measures of our girls. So, many women are coming forward to built toilets in their houses. By the end of next year our village people will build toilets in their houses.”

“Yes madam, Chandra said is true. Last week one of our village girl who was 19 years old was sexually assaulted by a man from other village when she went to defecate on the land away from the residential area.”

The other women said, “Not only that, some people had died of snake bite when they went at odd hours like early morning or at night times. Feared of snake bite, people used to defecate on the road sides or the street sides when there is a need at odd hours.”

Chandra interfered and said, “That’s why we can hear women quarrelling in the mornings questioning about the stool passed in their paths.”

They all laughed together.

Priya said, “I had lot of questions inside me, but I got cleared through our chatting. I thank you all for this opportunity.”

One of the women said, “A girl from Gujarat stopped her wedding for, the groom did not have lavatory at his house. Our Chandra said in our meeting. Nowadays, village girls are being educated and tries to stand for their rights.”

“Yes, even I came across it in a social media. Brave girl and we must appreciate her parents for supporting her. Some more incidents, similar to this had taken place in different states of our country,” answered Priya.

Priya continued, “Not only village people, people who live in slum areas of big cities face the problem of sharing common toilets or public toilets among many number of people. Sanitation and Hygiene is a great question mark over there. Even I used to argue and quarrel with my parents for living in a house with common toilet. But I think that I am far better than your situations. The only thing is that we all must try to maintain it cleanly.”

Chandra asked Priya whether she could give a short lecture on the toilet topic to their village people those who were interested in attending the meeting. Priya accepted gladly.

On the day of meeting, Priya was tensed, but she gave a good lecture. The practise of taking seminar classes during her college days gave a scope for her addressing. Also, she spoke logically and to the point. Almost many people from that village including male and female attended the meeting and they all praised Priya for her valuable speech.

After completing the work in that village, Priya herself gave her acceptance  and willingness to her company, to work on the sites of villages.

Wherever she went as a junior site engineer, she continued her preaching about the necessity of toilets in the villages. Soon she came to be recognised by the village people wherever she went.

Priya, who dreamt of building a separate house for her, started dreaming about the need of the people.
                            

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