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Domestic Environment and Health of Women and Children

H. N. B. Gopalan and Sumeet Saksena (eds). Tata Energy Research Institute, Darbari Seth Block,Habitat Place, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003. 253 pp.

To the editors of this book goes the credit for bringing out a timely document on domestic

environment and its influence on women and childrens health for several reasons. Works thatsystematically document the linkage between health and domestic environment issues are few andfar between, since womens health is considered a soft issue. Further the gender and child-specificapproach adopted has greatly enhanced the value of this document since there is increasingrealization about the need for gender disaggregated data amongst researchers and policy makers.Macro analysis with quantitative indicators, micro level qualitative analysis through case studies andthe link between research and policy framework have been very well set out.

The authors have included four sections namely, housing, biofuels, water sanitation and nutrition

within the ambit of domestic environment. Within each section they have analysed the existingscientific documents and policy literature. While the authors have correctly pointed out the need forincluding a wider and complex set of factors in understanding linkages in order to plan effectiveinterventions, they have made only a superficial observation about the relationship between availabledata and policy conclusions. In the chapter on housing (page 17) for example, the editors argue that

policy literature recognizes the differential impact on women and children though there is very littlecorroborative scientific literature. This argument appears to be based on the presumption that policies

are based on scientific data alone.

Other powerful factors such as political ideologies, personal commitment of individual policy makersand efforts by peoples groups have played a vital role in policy/programme formulation, e.g. theprovision of adequate maternity leave and child care support for women engaged in economicactivities greatly enhanced the health and nutritional status of women and children, leading to a

natural adoption of the two child norm, in the erstwhile Soviet Union. This was possible only becausethe Communist countries viewed women as workers and considered the provision of child caresupport a state responsibility. The introduction of the state-sponsored noon meal scheme in TamilNadu, to improve the health and school attendance of children was due to the personal commitmentof the then Chief Minister and not based on any scientific data. Organized struggle by people againstindustrial pollution and social action movements such as Chipko have influenced policy decisions

and the enactment of environment friendly legislation.

In analysing gender dimension within the household, the multiple roles of women and lack of supportfrom the men/family of the household have received only a passing mention. While it is true that dataon these issues is inadequate and incomplete, far more than what is quoted is available with regard towomens work, its invisibility, its lack of monetization, womens management of multiple roles and itsimpact on health and nutrition. A separate chapter on these issues would have added more depth to

the gender analysis.

In the section on nutrition, the editors have pointed out the shift in perception in recent times, aboutwomens health. Womens health should not be perceived from a narrow standpoint of maternal andchild health but from a wider perspective of their social roles and activities. However even this shift

has a built-in gender bias, since even here the thrust is on how important it is to improve womenshealth in order to help them carry out other functions smoothly, such as providing care and nutrition

for their family members.

As a result, the fact that women need to have better health/nutrition simply because they have a rightto it like any male, irrespective of their performance or non-performance of roles, has been missedout. Access to good health, nutrition and educational opportunities is the birth right of every child andindividual and is endorsed in the constitutions of nations. Creating an enabling environment for all is amust for all societies and Governments, irrespective of whether the individuals are productive or not.The UN slogan on Rights issues of women and children summarizes the spirit of any genderanalysis.

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As a consequence, though there is thin reference to issues such as lack of participation by males inhousehold chores (page 213), the suggestions for interventions are largely on what could be done forwomen rather than about women. For the age-old gender bias, inequity and discrimination todisappear, policies and programmes should target men especially husbands, fathers, professionalgroups such as doctors, employers, administrators, etc. While it is true that empowering womendirectly through formation of womens groups, training, etc. is very important for achieving genderequality, other measures such as sensitization of the males at all levels of society and working

towards changing social attitudes in the long run will have to be contemplated for achieving a trulygender-neutral environment.

RAMA NARAYANAN

3rd Cross Street,

Taramani Institutional Area,

Chennai 600 113, India

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------

The environment and health for children and their mothers

The issues

More than three million children under five die each year from environment-related causes and

conditions. This makes the environment one of the most critical contributors to the global toll of more

than ten million child deaths annually -- as well as a very important factor in the health and well-being

of their mothers.

Polluted indoor and outdoor air, contaminated water, lack of adequate sanitation, toxic hazards, disease

vectors, ultraviolet radiation, and degraded ecosystems are all important environmental risk factors for

children, and in most cases for their mothers as well. Particularly in developing countries, environmental

hazards and pollution are a major contributor to childhood deaths, illnesses and disability from acute

respiratory disease, diarrhoeal diseases, physical injuries, poisonings, insect-borne diseases andperinatal infections. Childhood death and illness from causes such as poverty and malnutrition are also

associated with unsustainable patterns of development and degraded urban or rural environments.

Major environment-related killers in children under five years of age

y Diarrhoea kills an estimated 1.6 million children each year, caused mainly by unsafe water andpoor sanitation.

y Indoor air pollution associated with the still-widespread use of biomass fuels kills nearly onemillion children annually, mostly as a result of acute respiratory infections. Mothers, in charge of

cooking or resting close to the hearth after having given birth, are most at risk of developing

chronic respiratory disease.

y

Malaria, which may be exacerbated as a result of poor water management and storage,inadequate housing, deforestation and loss of biodiversity, kills an estimated one millionchildren under five annually, mostly in Africa.

y Unintentional physical injuries, which may be related to household or community environmentalhazards, kill nearly 300 000 children annually: 60 000 are attributed to drowning, 40 000 to

fires, 16 000 to falls, 16 000 to poisonings, 50 000 to road traffic incidents and over 100 000

are due to other unintentional injuries.

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Health-damaging exposure to environmental risks can begin before birth. Lead in air, mercury in food

and other chemicals can result in long-term, often irreversible effects, such as infertility, miscarriage,

and birth defects. Women's exposure to pesticides, solvents and persistent organic pollutants may

potentially affect the health of the fetus. Additionally, while the overall benefits of breastfeeding are

recognized, the health of the newborn may be affected by high levels of contaminants in breast milk.

Small children, whose bodies are rapidly developing, are particularly susceptible - and in some instances

the health impacts may only emerge later in life.

Furthermore, children as young as five years old sometimes work in hazardous settings. Pregnantwomen living and working in hazardous environments and poor mothers and their children are at a

higher risk, as they are exposed to the most degraded environments, are often unaware of the health

implications, and lack access to information on potential solutions.

Improving children and mothers' environmental health by addressing and tackling issues affecting their

health, presents an essential contribution towards the achievement of the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs).

The solutions

In many cases, low-cost solutions for environment and health problems exist. For instance, simple

filtration and disinfection of water at the household level dramatically improves the microbial quality of

water, and reduces the risk of diarrhoeal disease at low cost. Improved stoves reduce exposures to

indoor air pollution. Better storage and safe use of chemicals at community level reduces exposures totoxic chemicals, especially among toddlers, who explore, touch and taste the products found at home.

Personal protection from malaria through the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets has a proven

track record of saving lives, particularly children's.

Education is also key - mothers who receive the information they need to understand the environmental

risks present in their homes and communities are better equipped to take appropriate action to reduce

or eliminate exposure.

WHO action

WHO's programmes and initiatives on water and sanitation, vector-

borne diseases, indoor air pollution, chemical safety, transport,

ultraviolet radiation, nutrition, occupational health, food safety and

injury prevention all address issues critical to the environmental healthand well-being of children. These programmes support awareness

raising, training and advocacy; prepare tools for identification of key

hazards and assessment of health impacts; and provide guidance to

policymakers, professionals and communities on "good practice"

solutions.

WHO and its partners also lead and coordinate research and global

knowledge-sharing about the long-term impacts of major

environmental hazards on child health. For instance, long term

children's studies to examine the relationship between environmental

factors, childhood health and development are being promoted in ten pilot countries, where thousands of

pregnant women and their children will be recruited in the next few years.

Long-term children studies

To tackle indoor air pollution, WHO is supporting the thorough assessment of the health and broader

impacts of household energy solutions, such as improved stoves or ventilation. Bringing together the

evidence from projects around the world by 2010 will enable policymakers, households and women in

particular to make informed choices about the most suitable good practice solutions.

Addressing the links between indoor air pollution, household energy and human health

WHO is helping improve water and sanitation in several ways. A WHO-led international network has

brought together more than 60 collaborating organizations in a new International Network to Promote

Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage. The Network engages with decision-makers, raises

WHO action links

Water, sanitation and health

Vector-borne disease

Indoor air pollution

Chemical safety

Health and Environment

Linkages InitiativeUltraviolet radiation

Nutrition

Joint WHO-ILO tripartite

meeting on occupational health

of health workers: Geneva, 6-9

July 2010

Food safety

Injury and violence prevention

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grassroots awareness, and supports research. Currently, projects to improve household water

management - and thus reduce rates of diarrhoeal disease - are under way in 50 developing countries,

involving the mothers as key players in these initiatives.

Household water treatment and safe storage

The storage of drinking water in the domestic environment has an important implication: in many

countries, the Aedes mosquitoes breed in small water collections in and around the house that transmitthe dengue virus. Its most virulent form (Dengue haemorrhagic fever) is very severe. Outbreaks are on

the increase, and children are the main victims. Yet, keeping these household water collections free from

mosquito breeding only requires simple measures: storing drinking water under cover so that

mosquitoes cannot deposit their eggs. Pregnant women and mothers, as the caregivers providers, play a

key role in carrying out such simple actions that can have tremendous benefits for their own health, as

well as for their child's.

In initiatives that cut across all sectors, a WHO-led environmental burden of disease study is providing a

more comprehensive assessment of the contribution that environmental hazards make to specific

childhood diseases and disabilities. Capacity building among professionals is another important activity.

For instance, a Training Package for Health Care Providers enables those on the "front-line" of maternal

and child health care to recognize, assess, prevent and treat environmentally-related diseases.

WHO also coordinates two interagency partnerships specifically related to children and environmental

health. These involve a range ofU

N institutions, governments and NGO

s. The partnerships include theHealthy Environments for Children Alliance (HECA), launched at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable

Development (WSSD), that aims to raise awareness and support policymaker and community action on

children, health and environment issues. HECA is now supporting country-level projects that focus on

addressing multiple risks in an integrated and cross-sectoral manner, in home and school settings.

Also launched at the WSSD summit, the Children's Environmental Health Indicators (CEHI) Initiative

aims at improving country-level assessment of children's environmental health issues through better

monitoring and reporting of key childhood environmental health indicators. This initiative is closely

linked to the preparation of national profiles on the status of children's environmental health, that enable

countries to do rapid assessments on the situation of their children and the means available to provide

solutions. Regional pilot projects to improve monitoring and reporting of such indicators are already

under way in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America.

Healthy Environments for Children Alliance

GlobalI

nitiative on Children's EnvironmentalH

ealthI

ndicators

The way forward

There are over 600 million children under five in the world today. They represent the future of the planet

and boundless human potential. However, only mothers who are themselves healthy, and in a position

to provide a healthy, clean and safe environment can preserve their child's right to life. In order to

achieve this goal, it is important for decision-makers at international, regional and national levels,

together with non governmental organizations, communities and families to join efforts in recognizing

and addressing key environmental hazards. This may include policy action, advocacy, prevention, and

grassroots participation.

Action to reduce and eliminate the key environmental hazards to childhood and maternal health will help

"Make every child and mother count."

REFERENCES

World Health Organization Statistical Information (WHOSIS)

WHO(2002) Healthy Environments for Children - Initiating an Alliance for Action. World Health

Organization, Geneva.

Healthy Environments for Children - Initiating an Alliance for Action

2002 World Health Organization, Geneva.

FURTHER LINKS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE PROTECTION OF THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT

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BACKGROUND

Women stand on the front line in the battle with environmental degradation. Their health depends on the

health of the land, forests, air and water around them. As those in closest contact with the land and the

natural world they are usually the first to suffer from its degradation.

Deforestation increases the amount of time women must spend in seeking both fuel and water: when the

trees are felled water sources also dry up. In Gujarat, India, women now have to devote four or five hours a

day to collecting fuelwood, whereas not long ago they only had to go out to get it every four or five days. Every

day in South Africa alone, the countrys women walk the equivalent of going to the moon and back 16 times

over to fetch water for their families. Both tasks cripple the health of the women who have to carry the heavy

loads.

The water is often unsafe, killing more than 3 million people a year, mostly children. And pollution from the

fuelwood and other biomass which 2.5 billion people have to use because they lack modern forms of energy

disproportionately kills women and children, who spend most time in the home.

Women, who tend to carry more fat, are also more vulnerable to the toxic chemicals that build up in it, and so

are their unborn babies. In countries as different as the United States and the Sudan increased neonatal deathshave been found among the children of women farmers exposed to pesticides. High levels of dioxins and other

hazardous chemicals have been found in breast milk in a wide variety of countries, while women exposed to

polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) around North Americas Great Lakes have given birth to children with

delayed motor development and dramatically lower intelligence.

Yet women are often also at the forefront of the fights t o conserve health and the environment. They have led

the Chipko movement against the felling of forests in northern India and similarly are campaigning againstchemical-intensive agriculture across the subcontinent. The soil in womens plots in Ghana has been found to

retain its fertility longer than the soil in mens ones, while half of all the United Kingdoms organic farmers are

female, ten times the proportion in the countrys agriculture as a whole.

Geoffrey Lean

Women and the environment through history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Environmental history books have mostly focused on mens roles, and generally womensinvolvement with nature has been ignored. Even historical texts have been deficient in

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future.[7]

Repeated studies have shown that women have a stake in environment, and thisstake is reflected in the degree to which they care about natural resources. Ecofeminism

refers to women's and feminist perspectives on the environment - where the domination andexploitation of women, of poorly resourced peoples and of nature is at the heart of the

ecofeminist movment.

[edit] Environmental change and women

Today, women struggle against alarming global trends, but they are working together to

effect change. By establishing domestic and international non-governmental organizations,many women have recognized themselves and acknowledge to the world that they not only

have the right to participate in environmental dilemmas but they have different relationshipwith environment including different needs, responsibilities, and knowledge about natural

resources.[6]

This is why women are affected differently than men by environmentaldegradation, deforestation,pollution and overpopulation. Women are often the most directly

affected by environmental issues, so they become more concerned about environmental

problems. Studies have shown the direct effects of chemicals and pesticides on human

health.

[5]

According to United Nations Chronicle journal researchers have found anassociation between breast cancer and the pesticide DDT and its derivative DDE; and also

one study by the World Health Organization has found that women who are exposed to

pesticides face a higher risk of abortion.[5]

These kinds of health problems cause women to

feel more responsible regarding environmental issues.

[edit] Gender and perception of the environment

Given the environmental degradation caused while men have had dominance over women,

and womens large investment in environmental sustainability, some have theorized that

women would protect the Earth better than men if in power. Although there is no evidencefor this hypothesis, recent movements have shown that women are more sensitive to the earth

and its problems. They have created a special value system about environmental issues.People's approaches to environmental issues may depend on their relationship with nature.

Both women and nature have been considered as subordinates entities by men throughouthistory, which conveys a close affiliation between them.[8]

Throughout history men have looked at natural resources as commercial entities or income

generating tools, while women have tended to see the environment as a resource supportingtheir [[basic needs

[citation needed]. As an example, rural Indian women collect the dead branches

which are cut by storm for fuel wood to use rather than cutting the live trees.[9]

Since African,

Asian, and Latin American women use the land to produce food for their family, they acquire

the knowledge of the land/soil conditions, water, and other environmental features.[1]

Any

changes in the environment on these areas, like deforestation, have the most effect on women

of that area, and cause them to suffer until they can cope with these changes. One of the goodexamples would be the Nepali women whose grandmothers had to climb to the mountain to

be able to bring in wood and fodder.[1]

An example of female proeminence in the defense of natural forests comes from India in

1906. As forest clearing was expanding conflict between loggers and government and peasant

communities increased. To thwart resistance to the forest clearing, the men were diverted

from their villages to a fictional payment compensation site and loggers were sent to the

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forests. The women left in the villages, however, protested by physically hugging themselvesto the trees to prevent their being cut down, giving rise to what is now called the Chipko

movement, an environmentalist movement initiated by these Indian women (which also iswhere the term tree-huggers originated).[10] This conflict started because men wanted to cut

the trees to use them for industrial purposes while women wanted to keep them since it was

their food resource and deforestation was a survival matter for local people.[10]

Gender-based commitments and movements such as feminism have reached to a new

approach through the combination of feminism and environmentalism called Ecofeminism.

Ecofeminists believe on the interconnection between the domination of women and nature.

According to ecofeminism the superior power treats all subordinates the same. So,

ecofeminism takes into account women subordination and nature degradation.[2]

Remarking

all these different reactions, one can see that however, most policy decision makers are men.

[edit] Women environmentalists

[edit] Rachel Carson

One of the outstanding women environmentalists is Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was a scientist, writer, and ecologist. Rachel Carson went to the Pennsylvania College

for Women, majoring in English, but she was inspired by herbiology teacher so she switched

her major to biology. She became more interested and focused on the sea while she was

working at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Massachusetts. Her eloquent prose let to the

publication of her first book, Underthe Sea-Wind: a NaturalistsPicture of Ocean Life , in

1941. In 1949 she became chief editor of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Her second

book, The Sea AroundUs, won theNational Book Award and sold more than 200,000 copies.

After that she retired from FWS and became a full time writer. After her third and final book

about the sea, The Edge ofthe Sea, Carson focused on effects of chemicals and pesticides on

the environment. That is when she wrote her book about environment, SilentSpring. Thebook was about what man has done to the nature and eventually to himself, and started a

modern environmental movement. Carson believed that human and nature are mutuallydependent on each other. She argued that industrial activities such aspesticides use can

damages the earth ecosystem and will have far-reaching ecological consequences such asfuture human health problems. Today, scientific studies have demonstrated these

consequences.[10]

[edit] Maria Cherkasova

Maria Cherkasova (1938 - ) is a journalist, ecologist, and director ofCentre for Independent

Ecological Programmers (CIEP). She is famous because of coordinating a 4-year campaign tostop construction of hydro-electric dam on the Katun River. After Cherkasova's involvement

in the student movement on environmental protection in 1960s, she began to work for the

Red Data Bookfor the Department of Environmental Protection Institute. She researched and

preserved rare species until she became the editor ofUSSRRed Data Book. She co-foundedthe Socio-Ecological Union, which has become the largest ecological NGO in the former

Soviet Union. In 1990, she became director of CIEP, which arrange and drives activities in anextensive range of ecologically related areas on both domestic and international fronts.

Cherkasova recently has shifted her focus on children rights protection to live in a healthy

environment and speaks for both inside and outside Russia.[10]

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[edit] Ecological movements initiated by women

People in Western countries think they originated the environmental movements without

knowing that the villagers in mostly poor and developing countries gave birth to these kinds

of movements.

[edit] Chipko movement

One of the first environmentalist movement which was inspired by women was the Chipko

movement (Women tree-huggers in India). "Its name comes from a Hindi word meaning tostick (as in glue). The movement was an act of defiance against the state governments

permission given to a corporation for commercial logging. Women of the villages resisted,embracing trees to prevent their felling to safeguard their lifestyles which were dependent on

the forests. Deforestation could qualitatively alter the lives of all village residents but it wasthe women who agitated for saving [End Page 163] the forests. Organized by a non-

governmental organization that Chandi Prasad Bhatt led, the Chipko movement adopted the

slogan ecology is permanent economy. The women embracing the trees did not tag their

action as feminist activism; however, as a movement that demonstrated resistance against

oppression, it had all the markings of such.".[11]

It began when Maharajah ofJodhpurwanted to build a new palace in Rajasthan which is

Indias Himalayan foot hills. While the axemen were cutting the trees, martyrAmrita Devi

hugged one of the trees. This is because in Jodhpur each child had a tree that could talk to it.

The axmen ignored Devi and after taking her off the tree cut it down. Her daughters

environmentalists like Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna

[edit] Green Belt movement

Another movement, which is one of the biggest in women and environmental history, is the

Green Belt movement.Nobel Prize winnerWangari Maathai founded this movement on the

World Environment Day in June 1977. The starting ceremony was very simple: a few womenplanted seven trees in Maathais backyard. By 2005, 30 million trees had been planted by

participants in the Green Belt movement on public and private lands. The Green Belt

movement aims to bring environmental restoration along with societys economic growth.

This movement led by Maathai focused on restoration ofKenyas rapidly diminishing forests

as well as empowering the rural women through environmental preservation, with a special

emphasis on planting indigenous trees.[12]