CHENNAI: When issues like rape and other atrocities against women get wide attention today, a woman’s basic right — a clean public toilet — is often forgotten.
Greater
Chennai Corporation maintains more than 2,500 public toilets in various parts of the city, but many of them are poorly maintained. To find a solution to the issue, a group of youngsters has conducted a survey in and around the city. The team has designed 600 eco-friendly toilets for women. The report with the plan of 600 toilets will be released at an event, ‘Kakkoos-AKaanom’,, on July 28. Women from various walks of life are supposed to share their experience during the event. The team will submit the plan to the Chennai corporation, after adding the suggestions derived from the conference to the report.
The main problems in maintaining public toilets in the city, according to Govind Murugan of Dhagam Foundation, is the passing-the-buck attitude of various departments. “The CMDA gives land for a toilet. The Chennai corporation takes
care of construction and maintenance of it. The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply provides water. Since many departments are involved in the running of public toilets, each one creates problems. They blame one another. And it eventually affects the maintenance of the toilet,” said Murugan of Dhagam Foundation, an organization that works on basic issues of women, and organiser of the event.
K Snehalatha, a teacher, said toilets are not the issue, how to maintain them are. “We have public toilets, but they are badly maintained. I will be raising my suggestions in the upcoming event. I think ecofriendly toilets for women is a good idea if the government can implement it across the city,” she said. The toilet should be maintained and monitored properly, she said.
Murugan said they expect at least 400 women to participate in the event. “During our survey, we found that many women are not using the public toilets mainly because they are poorly maintained. They are not friendly for menstruating and pregnant women. We thought of designing a woman-friendly toilet with better facilities like incinerator and sanitary napkin vending machines,” he said.
After collecting the views from the participants, the team will send them with the plans that they prepared for the 600 woman-friendly ecotoilets to the Chennai corporation. ‘Kakkoos-A-Kanom’ with a hashtag of #wheretopee?# will be held between 4pm and 6pm at CD Nayagam School in T Nagar on July 28. “We have invited officials from all the government departments. We hope they will turn up. We will submit the plan and suggestions to the Chennai corporation in a week,” said Murugan.
Basic right
