The result of building a toilet - safety, dignity and hygiene

Four borrowers and three villages after we started our day visiting borrowers around the town of Musiri, we reached the village of Evur, home to Mayula Subramani. Evur is a small village removed from the city of Trichy by a distance of 40km and housing a population of a thousand families. We drove past the village’s school, watched the asphalted road disappear into a mud path and took a turn to arrive at Mayula’s home. Mayula had obtained a loan, funded by Milaap, to construct a toilet. That was two years ago; now she has a toilet that the entire household can use. “The toilet has benefited my daughter and me the most. We don’t have to worry about using the toilet at any part of the day or night like we used to,” explained Mayula. She qualified her answer - “Earlier we used the nearby fields, but visiting the fields at night, in complete darkness, soon became a safety concern.” “Does every member of the house use the toilet?” I asked her. “No,” was her honest answer. In her reply, I discerned a lingering embarrassment that cultural attitudes with regard to toilet usage had still not changed. The Guardian staff member who had accompanied me on the visit reiterated the benefits of sanitation to the whole family and community. He also highlighted the fact the maximum benefit of having a functional toilet in the house was not being derived in this case. Mayula then informed us that she could not have completed the toilet without the loan. In fact, she had used the microloan, along with some of her family’s savings, to construct a bathroom cubicle adjoining the toilet. Today the toilet and bathroom give Mayula and her daughter the privacy and safety that they wouldn’t have received otherwise. In addition to her daughter, Mayula lives with her husband and three sons who currently attend the local government school.