Open defecation continues due to lack of toilets

Ahna Prakash| NT
Bengaluru

Is Bengaluru open defecation free? According to the government, the answer is yes. The BBMP declared Bengaluru to be open defecation free in 2019. However, the reality on the ground is different. Due to the lack of public washrooms in slums like Ejipura, many have no option but to defecate in the open, where they often contract infectious diseases and women face harassment.

Rubi, a resident of the Ejipura slum, has to face the same problem due to the lack of proper washrooms in her area. “There are a few washrooms in the area. At night or early morning, me and my daughter would go to open areas to relieve ourselves. Sometimes, men would come and peek at us. It makes me uncomfortable,” she said.

Rubi’s daughter Sakshi says that the condition becomes worse during rains. Water would enter people’s homes and tarpaulin covered toilets. “When it rains heavily and there is an emergency to use toilets, I have to go outside in the rain. It also becomes very difficult for me when I am menstruating,” said Sakshi. In the name of washrooms, these people have bamboo structures with pieces of cloth and tarpaulin tied around them.

Residents informed that around 30 people are dependent on one washroom. Even to access those, people have to wait in long lines. Residents say that during an emergency, they would defecate in the open rather than wait. Abdul, another resident of the slum, said, “It is more difficult for women to go alone at night. Men manage somehow, but it is very dangerous for women. I don’t earn enough to make a toilet in my house,” he said.

Abdul claims that officials from BBMP came before lockdown and took printouts of their Aadhar card. The officials informed that this was being done to build washrooms around the area. But even now, no washroom was built in the slum.

According to a survey by Janaagraha, there are 462 public toilets in the city. Out of which 54 are not functioning. The remaining ones are unhygienic and lack basic amenities like water and soap. Recently, BBMP’s annual budget stated that out of Rs 10,478, the civic agency would use 46 per cent of that for constructing and maintaining public toilets.

“We have funds to build toilets. We were not aware about the condition in Ejipura slum. I will investigate the matter,” Harish Kumar, special commissioner of Solid Waste Management, told News Trail.