Perceptions of gender-based violence around public toilets in Mumbai slums.
Open accessAbstract
The lack of adequate public toilets and associated gender-based violence around their use is a matter of concern in many developing countries and has recently come to the forefront of the political agenda and media discourse in India. Previous research suggests the absence of lighting, inadequate provision of basic sanitation, poor design and siting of toilets, and lack of police presence in slums as facilitators for violence against women. However, the evidence is often anecdotal and usually unsystematic. The exact extent of crimes against women in these circumstances is unknown because unsurprisingly women in slums rarely report crimes to the police, either due to fear or lack of access. The research reported in this paper gauges women’s perception and experience of crime and violence around different types of public toilets in two slums areas in Mumbai, India. A survey of 142 households indicated that although women’s fear of crime was higher than their actual experience, the perception of insecurity was not uniform for all toilet types and locations. Findings also indicated that there was at least minimal provision of toilet facilities, basic security features, water, and electric supply in the research sites. Furthermore, greater police presence and previous contact with the police in one slum area led for greater confidence in reporting offences to the police as compared to the other. Overall, better provision of lighting and regular police patrols were considered by a majority of those surveyed to reduce fear of crime around toilets.
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General and sexual harassment are more frequently observed/documented in sanitation than water research.
“General harassment, including taunting, teasing, name calling, and throwing things at women or girls is more frequently observed in sanitation [138, 168, 174, 175, 181, 187, 190, 263] than water research [168,199] Sexual harassment, including verbal harassment, peeping, flashing, and male masturbation is also more frequently documented in sanitation [171-174, 189, 190, 214, 217, 226, 231, 233]”
From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [171]
Fear and experiences of sexual violence were reported by women and girls who had to leave home for water and sanitation needs; women openly defecating were particularly vulnerable to non-partner sexual violence compared to those using latrines.
“Fear and experiences of sexual violence were reported by women and girls who had to leave home for water and sanitation needs (_((((xxx))))_)[70, 76, 108, 123, 135, 143, 153, 171, 173-175, 177, 179, 181, 183, 184, 186-189, 191, 198, 214, 231, 233, 238-240, 255, 258, 259, 261, 265, 268-270] Research from India, [181, 268] Kenya, [269] and Nigeria [70] found women openly defecating were particularly”
From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [171]
General safety concerns were widely noted, including feeling unsafe collecting water or using sanitation facilities at night, and when toilets lack doors, locks, lighting, or are far; safety issues were particularly intense for adolescent girls, young women, and minorities.
“General safety concerns were widely noted, [100, 119, 123, 139, 143, 147, 171, 177, 182, 186, 188, 191, 201, 202, 223, 226-229, 233, 238, 240, 241, 251, 255, 257] including feeling unsafe collecting water, [100, 119, 177] or using sanitation facilities at night, [168, 171, 190, 229, 255-257] and when toilets lack doors, locks, lighting, or are far [171, 190, 214, 223, 239-241, 252, 255].Safety”
From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [171]
Limited income and asset access and control, including over land, constrained women's access to sanitation and limited independent decision-making about latrine construction; women reported using public pay-per-use toilets and incurring higher costs than men due to more frequent need.
“Similarly, limited income and asset access and control, including over land, constrained women's access to sanitation [119, 124, 125, 135, 147, 168, 171, 174, 186, 187, 191, 217, 239, 240, 270] and limited independent decision-making about latrine construction [119, 124, 135].Women reported using public pay-per-use toilets [168, 171, 174, 227, 239, 270] and incurring higher costs than men due to”
From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [171]
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- Authors
- Belur, J., Parikh, P., Daruwalla, N., Joshi, R., & Fernandes, R.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Society for Nutrition Education and Health Action (IN)
- S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Belur, Jyoti
- Venue
- International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-10-13
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 63-78
- ISSN
- 0192-4036 (ISSN-L)
- 2157-6475
- OpenAlex
- W2531109753
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 10 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 0.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- discovery.ucl.ac.uk
- Locations
- International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- UCL Grand Challenges Small Grant (1413/003)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies and Social Issues
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
- Keywords
- gender-based violence, public toilets, slums, Mumbai, violence against women, fear of crime, women's perceptions, sanitation facilities, police presence, crime reporting, lighting, police patrol
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