The article titled, “Sanitation: The hidden gender problem” written by Sakuntala Narasimhan, a senior journalist based in Bangalore in July 2002 highlights that  due to the absence of proper sanitation is affecting women's lives.

This case study depicts the suffering of women’s in the absence of toilet is affecting women's lives as well as the worst victims of poor sanitary situations such as case study highlights that both rural and urban areas, women without toilets only go out to relieve themselves in the dark, because their gender ideology tells them that they cannot take the risk to be seen. In fact, in one case Munni, a woman among the displaced families on the outskirts of Bangalore has radically changed the way she eats and she has deprived herself of food items. “Yes, I am hungry. I have not eaten since morning, but if I eat now I will have to go to the toilet by the time the food is digested -- and there is always a long line at the washroom. We have just two toilets for women in this camp. So I eat only one meal a day, to minimise the number of visits to the toilet," she says.

Furthermore, as some of the women affected by the limited access to toilet facilities confess to only solution available is to ensure that their need to use a toilet is reduced as far as possible which means that wait till the dark results in constipation and adapted diet and drinking habits, which give serious health problems. According to Dr Almas Ali, a medical practitioner working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Andhra Pradesh, estimates that gynecological and urinary tract problems run higher (almost one-third) among women who lack access to sanitation facilities. According to the latest Human Development Report estimates that only 31 per cent of the population in India has adequate sanitation facilities, as against 73 percent in Vietnam, and 68 per cent in Zimbabwe, for instance.

Evidence pointed out to conclusions that the absence of facilities is not merely because of poverty but also because of the cultural inhibitions and constraints regarding women's bodily functions. And that continues to be so, even today, in spite of all the advances that the female half of the population has chalked up in various fields.

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