This report summarizes the hopes and aspirations of individuals and groups who are often there, but seem to fade into the background… They are the silent who continue to defecate in the open, use unclean, unsafe toilets or are unable to wash their hands with soap…
This report is the culmination of 55 consultations, which were jointly conceptualised, facilitated, analysed and summarised by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), the Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA) and partners across South Asia.
Consultations were organised between 10 October and 9 December 2015 in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
These had two aims: first, to provide an opportunity for women, adolescents, older people, people with disabilities, transgender and intersex people, and sanitation workers to reflect on their access to safe and satisfactory sanitation in the backdrop of the commitments made at the South Asia Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) V in Kathmandu in 2013; and second, to facilitate the direct participation and representation of voices from these constituencies at SACOSAN VI in Dhaka, in early 2016.
