World Water Day :: Baha'i Perspectives

World Water Day

iman March 22nd, 2008

Women Water

March 22 is World Water Day. Lack of access to safe water and adequate sanitation kills at least 1.6 million children under the age of 5 years yearly, as outlined in the latest report published by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. Aside from the obvious health benefits derived from having access to adequate water and sanitation, it is interesting to note that the positives also extend into the realms of gender inequality and education.

UNICEF states that “women and girls bear the burden of fetching water - and as a result miss out on opportunities for education, productive activities or leisure time”:

Women and girls must be educated — spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. A mother must be educated in all the relevant fields of knowledge in order to perform her role as transmitter of culture and values. A child needs a nurturing environment and wise guidance in the first years of life in order to develop sound character and a well trained mind. If the mother is unable, because of her own deficiencies, to provide her children with experiences which will equip them for later, formal schooling, they will find themselves at a serious, often crippling, disadvantage.

(Baha’i International Community, 1992 Mar 17, Equality Girl Child)

A study entitled “Transforming time into money using water: A participatory study of economics and gender in rural India”, highlights the benefits and importance of the role of women in society, given equal opportunities.

A similar statement, pointing out the potential that equality between the sexes can have in economic performance, was recently issued at the UN “Financing for Gender Equality” roundtable by representatives of the Baha’i International Community. It is often the case that certain deeply rooted traditional and cultural practices prevent women from being provided with equal opportunity. Such practices can be eliminated with spiritual and moral education:

Presently the world is caught in a cycle of miseducation, wherein harmful character traits are passed from one generation to the next, retarding social progress. One source of this miseducation is the failure to respect women, especially in the home…..The world can ill afford the consequences of continued ignorance and injustice…..The cause of universal education deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and for the perpetuation of prejudice. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all its citizens. Lack of resources limits the ability of many nations to meet their peoples’ needs, imposing a certain ordering of priorities. It is for this reason that the decision-making agencies involved would do well to consider giving first priority to the education of women and girls, since it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society.

(Baha’i International Community, 1992 Mar 17, Equality Girl Child)

The message from these statements is clear. Access to safe water is essential for human survival; yet as we progress towards this aim, it is important not to lose sight of the eventual goals of self-sufficiency and economic advancement for all. Achieving this, in turn, requires greater capacity-building at the grassroots level through programmes of education, with particular emphasis on those who are most affected by the water crisis, namely women and girls.