“All we want are toilets inside our homes!”: The critical role of sanitation in the lives of urban poor adolescent girls in Bengaluru, India

Movement restrictions influenced women and girls' access to water and defecation, urination, and menstrual management locations, and are most widely reported in India.

“Movement restrictions influenced women and girls' access to water [101, 110, 178] and defecation, urination, and menstrual management locations, and are most widely reported in India [62, 135, 174, 181, 182, 184, 187], [101,110,187,[189][190][191].”

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]”

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”

Limited household income has forced women to prioritize needs like food over sanitation; women in Kenya and India adapted by using preferred pay-per-use locations less often or strategically, like for defecation only.

“Limited household income has forced women to prioritize needs like food over sanitation, whether investing in or paying to use toilets [135,147,186].Women in Kenya [240, 270] and India [187] adapted by using preferred pay-per-use locations less often or strategically, like for defecation only [187,240,270].”

Social capital has facilitated sanitation access; women and girls have formed and maintained social connections when accessing sanitation locations, and sought social support to ensure privacy and safety and to protect reputations when urinating or defecating.

“Social capital has facilitated sanitation access.Women and girls have formed and maintained social connections when accessing sanitation locations, [130, 182, 189] and sought social support to ensure privacy and safety and to protect reputations when urinating or defecating [173, 182, 184, 187-190, 223, 226].”

Boys in India were reportedly embarrassed to be seen helping girls carry water.

“and boys in India were reportedly embarrassed to be seen helping girls carry water [187].”

Inter-household sanitation-related conflicts were reported related to shared toilets, where women practice open defecation, and accessing sanitation facilities.

“Inter-household sanitation-related conflicts were reported related to shared toilets, [187] where women practice open defecation, [189,190] and accessing sanitation facilities [175].”