Musician strums away at Bengaluru's 'yellow spots' in bid to curb menace of urination in public places

BENGALURU: Armed with his guitar, musician Vasu Dixit headed to Banashankari and Kumaraswamy Layout last week, strumming away Ee Bhoomi. The song brought out by his music band Swarathma in 2012, was apt for Dixit’s mission: an attempt to stop the practice urination in public.

“This habit has bothered me for a while. In fact, I myself was planning to hand out Rs 2 ever time I spotted someone urinating in public, to encourage them to use the nearest public toilet,” he says. So when grassroots people’s movement Citizens for Bengaluru reached out to him about this joint initiative between  Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the NGO Janagraaha, Dixit decided to spread awareness in his own style. “It’s about a mindset that has to be changed.

At the place I sang in Banshankari, there’s a toilet 200 metre away, but men won’t use it. And nobody really goes up to them and tells them off,” he says, adding, “Do you see women urinating in public? Then why is it that men don’t follow the same?.” With BBMP allocating money for building public toilets, the idea is to figure out yellow spots in the city to gauge the number of toilets required.

“Even if a couple of them are built, it will make a difference, but only if people use it. So it comes back to a change in mindset,” says Dixit.   His post on social media garnered a big response, confirming his belief that music is the best way to draw the attention of people and make them understand issues in a manner that might bring about a change. “Instead of simply complaining, you need to be proactive. For any social change, music can be a catalyst,” says Dixit, adding that the theme of the song revolves around the earth becoming a paradise. 

(You too can report the sites on yellowspots.in)