Call for Applications: Institute on Gender and WaSH

About CREA

CREA is a global feminist human rights organisation led by feminists in the global South. CREA works to build feminist leadership, expand sexual and reproductive freedoms, and advance human rights of all people. CREA advocates for positive social change at national and international forums and seeks to provide a wide range of training and learning opportunities for activists and advocates.

About CREA’s Gender and WaSH Programme

The Gender and WaSH programme is designed to bring a gender, sexuality and rights-based approach to the urban sanitation ecosystem. Through a gendered analysis of the sanitation sector, CREA underscores the barriers and challenges to, as well as the opportunities for, creating a more inclusive and equitable system.

The programme focuses on amplifying the voices of structurally excluded groups that are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to adequate sanitation facilities. CREA's work centres on women, transpersons, sex workers, persons with disabilities and the elderly. Additionally, CREA engages with sanitation workers to better understand their challenges and advocate for improving their safety and working conditions and eradicating manual scavenging.

CREA works as a virtual resource hub to build the capacity of key actors in the WaSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) sector, including civil society organisations, urban local bodies, sanitation workers, WaSH committee members and others, and offer strategic guidance on how to incorporate a gender and intersectional lens in programme implementation.

Course Objectives

The Gender and WASH Institute 2026 aims to:

• Build a nuanced understanding of the intersections between gender, sexuality, caste, disability, labour, and power within the urban sanitation ecosystem.
• Critically analyse sanitation laws, policies, programmes, and institutional frameworks through a feminist and human rights lens.
• Strengthen participants’ ability to identify and challenge structural exclusions, including caste-based sanitation labour, ableist infrastructure, and gendered divisions of work.
• Equip participants with conceptual tools and approaches to design and advocate for gender-transformative, disability-inclusive, and rights-based sanitation interventions.
• Create a sustained learning network of practitioners and advocates committed to advancing inclusive and equitable sanitation.

Format and Outline

The Institute will be conducted entirely offline and in English. There will be discussions and group exercises to allow for practical engagement in course content. Resource persons will use a variety of pedagogic methods including presentations, readings, videos (with subtitles), discussions and practical exercises. Sessions will be scheduled from 9 am to 5.30 pm, over five consecutive days.

Eligibility

The Institute is designed for senior and middle-level WaSH practitioners, development professionals, civil society professionals, academicians and other movement actors. Participation is encouraged from all structurally excluded people — women’s human rights defenders; trans, intersex, nonbinary, lesbian, bisexual or gay people; disabled people; people living with HIV; sex workers etc.

A working knowledge of English is required. Participants must be Indian citizens.

Costs

CREA will cover the Institute cost including travel, tuition, accommodation and meals for all participants.

Accommodation will be on a twin-sharing basis.

Logistics

The Institute will be held in person and selected participants are required to stay at the venue (Delhi or Jaipur) from 15 to 20 February 2026. Applicants must commit to being present for all days and all sessions.

The application deadline is 10 January 2026. Selected candidates will be notified by 25th January 2026.

Application Process

• Applicants should submit their job profile/CV and fill up the application form.
• Applications are due by 10 Jan, 2026.
• For clarifications, please write to