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| Deteriorating environment: Assault on women's health | | | Dr. Pragya Khanna | 12/4/2011 9:24:09 PM |
| The Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen, who is known for his contributions to welfare economics and his work on poverty, gender inequality and political liberalism emphasizes, "Advancing gender equality, through reversing the various social and economic handicaps that make women voiceless and powerless, may also be one of the best ways of saving the environment, and countering the dangers of overcrowding and other adversities associated with population pressure. The voice of women is critically important for the world's future-not just for women's future". How pragmatic!
It is a well acknowledged truth that women play a vital role in the management of natural resources, including soil, water, forests and energy and often have a deep insight into the conventional and contemporary knowledge of the natural world around them. This is due to their role as the primary users and managers of these natural resources. Women in rural areas of developing countries spend major parts of their day growing food, gathering fuelwood, cooking and carrying water, besides growing vegetables, fruit and grain for home consumption and often also for sale and are known to represent more than half (51 per cent) of the world's agricultural work force.
Taking into account the enormous daily interactions of the women with the environment, they are the most intensely affected by its degradation and also exposed to a variety of environmental and health risks. In many of our rural areas, where there is paucity of drinking water as a result of deforestation or contamination, the women have to spend hours together in order to seek safe, clean water and that in turn increases women's risk of water-borne diseases. Whereas, soil erosion, water shortage and crop failures reduce harvest yields the women who the main managers of indispensable household resources are the most affected for they are the ones who have to ensure adequate resources to meet the family needs for nutrition and health care.
As part of their daily routine it is the woman in most of the rural and urban households who is responsible for the daily cleanliness. She collects garbage, trash, refuse, compost and becomes vulnerable to a number of infections as such degraded environments are the breeding ground for germs, worms and disease-bearing insects. Having little concern for her personal hygiene and risk factors associated, she gets debilitated by diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, dengue fever, dysentery and cholera. Many environmental threats to her health are aggravated by persistent poverty, conflicts, natural and man-made disasters, and social inequity. Most rural Indian homes still use traditional chulhas, which are fuel-inefficient and main source of pollution causing respiratory disorders in women. Overflowing water stagnating around the tap, water pump or any other such source is a common sight in villages where a proper drainage system does not exist at all. Apart from creating an unaesthetic sight, it causes environmental pollution, favors mosquito breeding and also leads to contamination of water at the source which puts infants and children of the house into equal risk.
Not only in the rural setup but also in the urban areas the woman folk are at a high risk due to environmental contamination. For poor women, though, urbanization means less physical labour to find fuel, food and water, but they often lose direct control over quality or quantity. They are exposed to air and water pollution that are more intense in the cities and the women have the highest levels of exposure. The unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, indoor air pollution, insufficient food hygiene, poor housing and inadequate waste disposal are some of the problems faced by the urban areas of the developing world which again pose the greater amount of threat to women folk and children. Unsafe chemicals in toys and household products may also harm children.
The women belonging to affluent and educated class in urban areas are often exposed to different kinds of health risks due to a variety of reasons, including the construction of more tightly sealed buildings, reduced ventilation, the use of synthetic materials for building and furnishing and the use of chemical products, pesticides, perfumes, hair sprays, furniture polish, glues, air fresheners, moth repellents, wood preservatives, and many other products used in the house as they spend more time indoors. Toxic chemicals and pesticides in air, water and earth are responsible for a variety of women's health risks. They enter body tissues and breast milk, through which they are passed on to infants and have been linked to a high number of stillbirths and miscarriages.
To be effective managers of household and other resources, both rural and urban women need a range of options: choices over family size, health care, education. Their role both as consumers and producers, caretakers of their families and educators, women play an important role in promoting sustainable development through their concern for the quality and sustainability of life for present and future generations. Educating women in environment related issues is the best possible solution to gain a rapid and swift progress. Women must be the ambassadresses of environmental issues, for the environment starts from the home. Each woman can contribute considerably to protect her environment and it is her obligation too. However, due to inequity and lack of awareness, many women are incapable to exercise their full potential in natural resource and environmental management. Women make up more than half the population; perform 2/3 of the world's work. However women earn only 10% of the world's income and own 1% of the world's property. It is high time that we persuade women to develop their abilities to form new solutions and deploy new ideas and generate practical paths to attain desired goals. |
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