Toilet as ‘mainland’ of institutions: A study of toilets in Tribhuvan University Clock Tower Building
Event Website
1900-01-00
Description
The goal of this paper is to see toilets as more than a mere physical space for disposing human waste. The toilets in the clock tower building of Tribhuvan University, the oldest and the largest public university in Nepal were the site of study. We argue that toilet is a social space which reflects the sanitation practices, socio cultural values, gender relations, social inclusion, monitoring and surveillance system of the institution and its everyday practices when using 'public' services and spaces, and therefore, is a "mainland" (van der Geest and Frinkler, 2004) of institution. To test our argument, we use secondary data collected through a review of existing practices in Nepal as well as qualitative information collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and key informant interviews with the administrative staffs, faculties and students who were the regular users of the toilets and also responsible for its maintenance over a two years period (2014 – 2016) along with informal conversations with the students taking classes at the university building during 2019. Qualitative data is supplemented by audio-visual information collected during the research and it uses descriptive method of analysis. The research was carried out for completion of dissertation for Master's degree in Anthropology program. The findings suggest that the study of physical characteristics and condition of the toilet helped in understanding the negligence in maintenance of hygiene and sanitation practices, gender disparities, disability exclusion, lack of surveillance and monitoring and lack of sense of responsibility which were being practiced at the university.
Toilet as ‘mainland’ of institutions: A study of toilets in Tribhuvan University Clock Tower Building
The goal of this paper is to see toilets as more than a mere physical space for disposing human waste. The toilets in the clock tower building of Tribhuvan University, the oldest and the largest public university in Nepal were the site of study. We argue that toilet is a social space which reflects the sanitation practices, socio cultural values, gender relations, social inclusion, monitoring and surveillance system of the institution and its everyday practices when using 'public' services and spaces, and therefore, is a "mainland" (van der Geest and Frinkler, 2004) of institution. To test our argument, we use secondary data collected through a review of existing practices in Nepal as well as qualitative information collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and key informant interviews with the administrative staffs, faculties and students who were the regular users of the toilets and also responsible for its maintenance over a two years period (2014 – 2016) along with informal conversations with the students taking classes at the university building during 2019. Qualitative data is supplemented by audio-visual information collected during the research and it uses descriptive method of analysis. The research was carried out for completion of dissertation for Master's degree in Anthropology program. The findings suggest that the study of physical characteristics and condition of the toilet helped in understanding the negligence in maintenance of hygiene and sanitation practices, gender disparities, disability exclusion, lack of surveillance and monitoring and lack of sense of responsibility which were being practiced at the university.
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hprc/2021/papers/2