‘To pee or not to pee?’: State of Public Toilets in India
We have all decided to hold in our pee instead of using a public washroom because they were too dirty or smelled bad. A survey by the Union Housing Ministry showed that 55% of public washrooms were either dirty or completely unusable in Delhi. The results from Delhi pretty much reflect the situation of the entire country where basic sanitation and hygiene is a privilege not everyone enjoys.
Despite claims of becoming 100% open defecation free, reports by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) on water, sanitation, and hygiene by the World Health Organization and UNICEF suggest that at least 15% of the Indian population continued to defecate in the open until 2021. While part of the reason behind this number is the lack of behavior change, one can attribute it to the state of public washrooms as well.
Sunita Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment, which conducted a study on the state of sanitation facilities in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh, states; “ It is one thing to build toilets, quite another to ensure they’re being used. Besides motivating people to change, concrete steps will have to be taken. These include repairing or rebuilding unusable toilets, and incentivizing behavioral change,”
United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 aims to achieve universal access to basic water, sanitation, and hygiene services by 2030. According to India’s environment report 2021, India ranked at a low 117 with respect to the goal. Despite having a direct bearing on public health and the economy of the country our performance remains subpar. The condition of public toilets in India, marked by no water supply, broken doors, no soap, no locks, and bad odor is only reflective of a small part of the issue.
The problem of sanitation and access to public washrooms amplifies itself in the case of menstruators. With no soap, water, privacy, or proper disposal units menstruators find it difficult to use public toilets while they are on their periods. A study done by a menstrual hygiene brand, Everteen with 6000 women, found that 74.6 percent of the women get uncomfortable if they need to change their sanitary pad at a public toilet and 88.3 percent believe that dirty toilets can be a source of persistent urinary tract infection. Given the condition, it was noted that dirty public toilets are one of the major concerns for women. The findings show that the lack of public toilets put menstruators in a more disadvantaged and vulnerable position than they already are in, both in terms of their mental and physical health.
Public toilets even become the site for gender-based violence against minorities including transgender, non-binary individuals, and women.
Research on the subject suggests the absence of lighting, inadequate provision of basic sanitation, poor design and sitting of toilets, and lack of police presence in slums as facilitators of violence against women. Individuals from the transgender and non-binary community who are forced to use either male or female toilets, also find themselves dealing with stares, sniggering, taunts and threats of violence as finding a “gender-neutral” or unisex toilet is rarely an option. The situation hence warrants the need for ensuring access, safety, and hygiene in public toilets.
With both national and international attention drawn towards basic sanitation facilities for all. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been particularly helpful with the construction of toilets and generating awareness about the issue. In the last few years, India has not only seen large public washroom facilities but also the advent of gender-neutral public washrooms. Reports from the ground, as highlighted above, however, make it clear that we have a long way to go.
Building a case for Sanitation as a human right, Digvijay Singh narrates the account of a Syrian woman once released from a detention center; “You feel you will never be free again — that you will never see your family, never go to [a proper] toilet. It is a joy just to go to the toilet when you want.” This chilling narrative highlights the importance of something as ordinary as a toilet.
Often considered embarrassing and seldom spoken about, it’s only when one stops to think that they realize how much easier life would be if no one had to worry about the availability of safe and hygienic toilets. The crux is to acknowledge that access to sanitation and hygiene facilities is a basic human right. Every citizen of the country should therefore have access to clean and safe public toilets, so no one, all around the country, has to ask themselves to pee or not to pee.
Drishti is currently an intern at Project Baala. An English literature graduate currently pursuing a master’s in Development, she aims to bring about positive change in society by penning down realities from the ground while focusing on action. In her free time, you’ll find her petting dogs or color-coding the post-it notes in her planner to perfection.
