Babul Ali and Sunita Begom, workers on the Dikom Tea Estate, Dibrugarh, Assam with their children Jahid Ali; Sashid Ali. They have clean toilets, an immaculate house and a vegetable garden.

Gender Responsive Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

By taking women’s needs into consideration, water, toilets and hygiene can be accessible for all.

Recognising the need for services that serve everyone equally.

Safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are vital – particularly for women, who face additional challenges from menstruation, and the of risk violence and harassment when unable to use a private toilet.

Many tea workers still don’t have reliable access to these essential services at work or at home on tea estates. Following an assessment in 2023, we have identified significant gaps in women’s WASH needs in three tea gardens in Assam, India, and are developing an initiative to address them.

  • Status: On-track
Policy
Project
Equality
Empowered safe communities
Equal opportunities
India

Project overview

This initiative will use a rights based community-focused approach developed by Care International to address WASH issues in three Assam tea estates.

Project partners

Taylors of Harrogate, Unilever

Girdhary Naik and Anita Naik with their new toilet on the Dikom Tea Estate in Assam, India.
  • Safe and clean drinking water is available to tea garden communities.
  • Tea garden communities have access to fully functional toilets in labour lines.
  • Women and girls can safely relieve themselves, and women can maintain menstrual hygiene while at work.
  • Environmentally safe management and disposal of domestic, community, menstrual and medical waste is practiced in tea gardens.
Babul Ali and Sunita Begom, workers on the Dikom Tea Estate, Dibrugarh, Assam with their children Jahid Ali; Sashid Ali. They have clean toilets, an immaculate house and a vegetable garden.

This project’s activities will use Care International’s innovative Community Development Forum model to tackle hygiene and sanitation awareness, menstrual hygiene solutions, toilet and changing facilities in gardens, and safe waste disposal.

The project will also influence company policy and make recommendations for changes to in-kind benefits to be more responsive to the needs of women and girls. The project will influence government water and sanitation projects to fill existing service gaps in tea estates.

Babul Ali worker on the Dikom Tea Estate, Dibrugarh, Assam with their children Jahid Ali; Sashid Ali. They have clean toilets, an immaculate house and a vegetable garden.

Our initial study covered 360 respondents, six focus groups, and 12 interviews, including six key informant interviews. These covered a range of stakeholders from tea garden workers, community member service providers, and young people, with a major focus on women and girls.

Our assessment also provided 12 major recommendations to follow through on.

Pilots are now underway in three tea estates in Golghat and Sivasagar districts of Assam.

Key contacts

Leena Camadoo

Gender & Livelihoods Lead

Nirbhay Singh

Programme Manager

Ranjana Das

Country Manager