A Survey conducted on children living in four Delhi slums has revealed that 81.6% of them do not have toilet facilities at home. According to the survey, of 423 children living at Inder Camp, Israil Camp, Sanjay Camp and Kalyan Vihar, 345 said they don’t have a toilet at home.
The survey, titled ‘A Study of Access & Safety of Toilets for Children in Slums of Delhi’, was conducted over three months by the Kailash Satyarthi Children Foundation (KSCF) to assess the quality of existing community toilets and their accessibility for children in urban slum communities.
Children aged between 5 and 18 were identified and interviewed. “Children are forced to use public toilets, which are unsafe and unhygienic. Children living in areas such as Israil and Sanjay camps have been urinating in public,” said Rakesh Sengar, director, child-friendly committee, KSCF.
While 111 respondents were from Israil Camp, 105 respondents each were from Sanjay Camp and Kalyan Vihar Camp. Another 102 respondents lived in Inder Camp. Of the total respondents, 223 were girls and 200 boys.
The survey said almost 71% of children who used public toilets said they were inaccessible round-the-clock. It was also observed that due to lack of access to a public toilet at night, most children (56%) defecated in the open. A large proportion of children (92%) said there was no security at the public toilets. “The elected Bal Panchayat in these camps has written to several authorities asking them to set up toilets,” added Sengar.
The outcome budget report released by Delhi government last week showed that the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) met the target of constructing 241 Jan Suvidha complexes this year.
The government has set a target of 245 such complexes for 2019-2020. “Our target is to construct 27,000 community toilets across the city by the end of this year. So far, 22,000 toilets have been built by DUSIB and around 3,000 by civic agencies. We are in the process of constructing 2,000 more toilets,” Bipin Rai, DUSIB member, told The Indian Express.
