Young women are part of a campaign to bring much-needed social change and improve sanitation facilities

MDG : India: Indian Muslim brides Indian Muslim brides pose with their hands adorned with henna art before the start of a mass wedding organised by The Gujarat Sarvajanik Welfare Trust in Ahmedabad. Photograph: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images

“Burden of Inheritance” published in October 2009 by WaterAid India, report is an outcome to understand the complex and shameful practice of manual scavenging which unfortunately still exists in our country.

This report tries to seek answers to the question: Why have we not been able to eradicate manual scavenging? To get to the bottom of this scourge, the report has first explored the question: why are people continuing in this occupation despite availability of other dignified livelihood sources? Why is manual scavenging in practice in towns and cities where other cleaner options for survival exist? When there are feasible and viable technological alternatives to dry toilets, one of the drivers of this occupation, why does the practice continue?

"Clean water and sanitation can make or break human development."... read about the drinking water and sanitation scenario across the world in the “Human Development Report 2006' Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis”. The HDR 2006 is an independent report commissioned by the UNDP for to assess the level of people's long-term well-being.

"Sulabh Community Latrines: 12 Million Customers Daily", is a case study on Sulabh written in 2004. Every day, Sulabh provides sanitation to 12 million people and charges a small fee, demonstrating that even poor people are willing to pay to use a clean toilet. Sulabh is running over 6,000 community centers all over India, but this is still a drop in the ocean. The founder, Bindeshwar Pathak, says that over 150,000 such centres would be needed. The service is just breaking even, but now Pathak wants to create a new organisation that will allow him to expand further. 
Read the case study

The following case studies depict the positive impact of the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, on the lives of rural women, as a result of the provision of sanitation facilities within their households. The case studies are written as conversations with or personal stories of a woman, whose life has been impacted by AKDN's work.