What if you worked 11 hours a day, were barely allowed to sit, had to take permission to use the toilet and even when it were ‘granted’, you were made to use a filthy, unhygienic loo?
That’s a day in the life of a saleswoman in India.
No matter what the location, for an underprivileged woman, accessing a clean toilet is hard. A visit to the toilet strips women off their dignity, and makes them prone to dangerous infections.
And while the issue is discussed in the media, the conversation around women and their right to use clean toilets has been once again brought to the fore by Akshay Kumar’s film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.
Any discussion on this topic would be incomplete, dear readers, without mentioning the incredible story of six saleswomen who waged a 106-day strike against Kalyan Sarees in Thrissur, Kerala, in 2015. Their demands were simple – the right to use the toilet, and the right to sit at work. Initially denied both, they eventually won the battle.
And while Toilet discusses the issue from a rural perspective, I want to take you back to a story I did almost two years ago, where I set out to meet the saleswomen working in the Atta Market in Noida, which is within walking distance of The Quint office. These were women with whom I may have interacted with while shopping, but whose stories I had somehow missed.
Their simple revelations made me witness first hand the millions of battles, big and small, that women have to go through each day, including the battle to access clean toilets.
No Benefits
Meet Neetu. She works at a small clothes shop in the Sunehri Market opposite the more famous Atta Market in Noida. For the hours she puts in, Neetu makes only Rs. 5,500 a month and an extra 100 rupees if she works on Tuesday, her off-day. Neetu suffers from lower back pain, a common ailment among saleswomen.
Neetu is part of 94% women workers in India who work in the unorganised sector. This means low salaries, no promotions, no Provident Fund, no maternity benefits, and no health insurance.
I met Shifa next. This 28-year-old works at a cosmetics store. Shifa told me she has no Provident Fund (PF) account. Hell, she doesn’t even know what it means.
No Provident Fund
The women here get no provident fund from their sahabs. For establishments employing less than 20 employees, there is no such provision under the Employees’ Provident Funds Act 1952. Although open to the unorganised sector, there is no compulsion to join the system.
No Promotion
Nishu is 23 years old. And after working for over 10 hours a day, she earns only Rs 5,000 rupees a month. When I asked her if she was ever promoted, Neetu drew a blank stare and asked, “promotion ... bole to?”
Nishu’s naivëte isn’t without reason. Shopkeepers are more likely to promote men to the position of a sales manager.
No Toilets
Neetu, Shifa, and Nishu are ‘allowed’ to use the toilet only once a day. That too, in the evening. Nishu tells me she usually walks up to the closest metro station in order to use the toilet.
As I walk through the market, I ask the men to direct me to the nearest loo. They have no idea since they mostly use walls to pee!
The women later direct me to a toilet. I climb three flights of stairs to find a dirty, cramped and smelly loo. This one has water supply, but most such toilets don’t. No wonder then, these saleswomen suffer from frequent urinary infections.
No Maternity Benefits, No Health and Life Cover
The government has announced life cover and old age protection for the unorganised sector, as also health and maternity benefits, in accordance with the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act 2008. However, the ground reality, as I realised after meeting these women, seems to be starkly different.
So much for women’s empowerment.
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