A/HRC/27/55 62. People may be deliberately excluded from the use of existing facilities, for instance through societal rules preventing Dalits from using water fountains 75 or not allowing women and girls or other individuals to use an existing toilet in the household.76 Inordinate amounts of time spent by women and girls carrying water have major impacts on access to paid employment and education. Measures to address such practices could seek to alleviate that burden, for instance by making water collection over long distances unnecessary by providing direct access, while challenging the stereotypes which lead to that task being assigned to women. 63. Sanitation workers frequently face serious health risks, stigmatization, violence and exploitation. In India, the Parliament adopted an act requiring that sanitation systems be overhauled so as to eliminate the need for manual scavengers and seeking to eradicate stigma, inter alia by arranging for alternative jobs.77 The Supreme Court of India observed that “manual scavengers are considered as untouchables by other mainstream castes and are thrown into a vortex of severe social and economic exploitation”. 78 It held that the continuation of manual scavenging violated human rights and ordered the State to fully implement the new act and take appropriate action in response to any violations.79 64. Women and girls are frequently subjected to unacceptable risks of violence, including sexual violence, in accessing water and sanitation facilities. Their right to personal security may be violated by failures to provide adequate protection from violence, including through appropriate design and placement of facilities with the participation of women. 80 Many other groups and individuals such as Dalits and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals also face violence in accessing water and sanitation, often linked to deeply entrenched stigmatization.81 65. Many cultures have certain prescriptions for women’s and girls’ behaviour during menstruation which may amount to harmful traditional and cultural practices, violating not only the right to sanitation but, more broadly, women’s and girls’ human rights and gender equality. In Nepal, the Supreme Court issued an order to eliminate the practice of chaupadi, which forces menstruating women and girls to sleep in isolation from the rest of the family, in a hut or shed, with risks to their health and security. The Court declared that the practice was discriminatory and violated women’s rights. It ordered the Government to conduct a study on the impact of the practice, to create awareness and to take measures to eliminate the tradition.82 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 18 Ibid., para. 36. See Maggie Black and Ben Fawcett, The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis, pp. 84–85. “Stringent anti-manual scavenging bill passed”, The Hindu, September 8, 2013. Supreme Court of India, Safai Karamchari Andolan and Ors. v. Union Of India and Ors. (Writ Petition (C) No.583 of 2003), March 27, 2014, para. 2. Ibid., para. 15. Amnesty International, Risking Rape to Reach a Toilet. Women’s Experiences in the Slums of Nairobi, Kenya (2010). A/HRC/21/42, para. 36. Dil Bahadur Bishwakarma v Government of Nepal, Supreme Court of Nepal, Writ Petition 3303 of 2004, Judgement 2 May 2006; see also Kabita Pandey, “Judicial Education on the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Nepal” in Women’s Human Rights, CEDAW in International, Regional and National Law, p. 425 (Anne Hellum, Henriette Sinding Aasen, eds., 2013), p. 425; E/C.12/NPL/CO/2, paras. 15 and 34.