Mary Knott Girls’ Hostel Toilet and Bathing Area Project Proposal

The Mary Knott Hostel is administered by the Methodist Church in India and cares for orphan, semi-orphan and abandoned girls. There is a hostel for orphan boys in the same compound.

The hostel is located in the small town of Vikarabad about 60 kilometres west of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

The hostel is home to 150 girls of all ages. As is the case in most of India, families in this area prefer sons to daughters, because a son is expected to care for his elderly parents whereas daughters will require an expensive dowry when they reach a marriageable age.

In the poorer families a first daughter is usually tolerated but second and third daughters are sometimes killed in infancy, abandoned or given to an orphanage to raise.

The current consequence of this ill-informed attitude is a flood of unwanted girls that fill children’s homes like the Mary Knott Girls’ Hostel.

The first half of the 20th century in India saw significant church-sponsored investment in social programs and a variety of institutions, including schools, colleges, leprosariums, medical clinics and orphanages.

The missionary effort was at its peak and funding for construction and maintenance of these institutions was provided by the home conferences and churches of the missionaries resident in India. But most foreign missionaries have left the country, due both to a geographical shift in church-related outreach from India to the African continent and to a governmental and societal attitude that strongly discourages Christian conversions in this predominantly Hindu nation.

The Methodist Church in India today is operated by Indian citizens and foreign funding has shrunk drastically. For example, ten years ago the Methodist Church in India received approximately £13.3 million each year from churches overseas. Today they receive just £1.6 million, according to Methodist Bishop Taranath Sagar.

With predominantly low income congregations, the Methodist Church in India is unable to adequately support the institutions created by foreign missionaries 50 to 100 years ago. Consequently, orphanages must rely primarily on child sponsorship programs from British and American charities for their operating revenues. The Mary Knott Hostel is typical of many orphanages in having to stretch the funds received for 53 sponsored children to meet the needs of all 150 residents. Of even greater concern is the deteriorating condition of the buildings in many of India’s church-run children’s homes. Most of these buildings were constructed at least six to eight decades ago and have seen virtually no improvements since. The Methodist Church in India is simply not able to provide funding to improve or rebuild orphanage buildings, even when they pose a threat to the safety and health of the children.

Problem

The Mary Knott Hostel was established 100 years ago, and many of the buildings currently in use were constructed at that time. The most pressing need was for a new toilet facility and bathing area for the girls.

The world was a more innocent place a century ago and the bathing area at the Mary Knott Hostel reflects an era when the modesty and safety of young girls was not the issue it is today. The bathing and clothes washing area is situated in the back of the hostel compound some distance from the dormitory and the administrative offices. The site is tucked away in the far corner of the compound and was probably chosen for its private location decades ago.

The bathing cubicles were set against the compound wall and were open on the top and front. Orphanage administrators were greatly concerned for the girls’ safety and modesty since village men sometimes peered over the wall to watch the girls.

The girls are responsible for washing their clothes and this open area was located next to the bathing cubicles. Nearby was the toilet facility which, while affording privacy, was entirely inadequate. The roof of this toilet building was rusted and provided little protection. The concrete walls and floors were crumbling. Water was provided to the toilet block and bathing and clothes washing areas via an electric pump. There was no water storage tank at the site, so water had to be collected in buckets and carried to where it was needed.

The problem was compounded by frequent power cuts, at which times the electric pump was inoperable. There was no sanitary waste water system at the site.

Solution and Benefits

Wherever the Need funded the removal of the old bathing, clothes washing and toilet facilities, and the construction of a new enclosed building that houses all three functions in a safe and completely private unit.

The toilet block has 20 stalls and the interior is lined with ceramic tiles to allow proper cleaning. Electric lighting permits its use after dark. A new water storage tank provides water on-demand, rather than only when electricity is available. A septic tank drainage system ensures that waste water does not surface as a breeding area for mosquitoes and harmful micro-organisms.

In summary, this project has eliminated an unhygienic and exploitative situation and ensured the privacy and safety of 150 girls when they bathe and wash their clothing.

The photo above shows the old open clothes washing area and the bathing cubicles beyond. The photo below shows the old bathing area.

The wall behind the cubicles was the outside wall of the orphanage and men from the village sometimes peered over to watch the girls. Water had to be carried in buckets for bathing or clothes washing. There was no waste water disposal system.

The toilet shed was dilapidated and unsanitary.

There were too few individual toilet stalls and the concrete floor was crumbling and not easily cleaned.