No Place To Pee – Equal Rights to Pee

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In a city constantly on the move, where an average person travels a considerable distance to and from his workplace, a glaring gap is seen in the most basic public utility — toilets for the people on the go.

As on May 2012, for the 1.3 crore residents of Mumbai, there were only 836 public toilet blocks (excluding public toilets in slums) having a total of 10,381 toilet seats, 2,849 urinals and 842 bathrooms. This means that a single toilet seat caters to 1,250 Mumbaikars (residents of Bombay) even as authorities admit the city needs a minimum of 35,000 public toilet seats. Non-government estimates peg the figure at 50,000 seats.

What is more worrying is that instead of going up, the number of public toilets in the city have actually come down, mainly due to infrastructure works such as expansion of roads, projects such as Metro-rail, Monorail, flyovers and skywalks. A survey undertaken by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in 2005 had found 1,175 public toilet blocks. Since then, more than 300 blocks have been razed due to the aforesaid infrastructure activities while only 14 new blocks have been added during this period. Despite this gross inadequacy, the civic body has no plans to for a survey to assess the actual need for public toilets.

Public toilets have been broadly categorized into two kinds, -'Pay and Use' toilets for the floating population and community toilets in slums. While BMC's Solid Waste Management Department alone is responsible for building public toilets for the floating population, those in slums are built by BMC's Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Project Department under its World Bank-funded Slum Sanitation Program, MHADA and NGOs appointed directly for building toilets using local area development funds of MPs and MLAs, SRA and PWD.

Arputham Joaquim of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Center (SPARC), an NGO that builds and maintains toilets in slums, says there is poor planning when it comes to public toilets. He says building and operating public toilets is primarily the duty of the urban local body but this is completely outsourced. "Along the 47-km-long state highway stretches within the city and the express highways, there are only six public toilet blocks. In South Africa, the government has made it mandatory for every petrol pump to build and maintain a public toilet. Similarly, every market has a toilet block by compulsion. Why can't our government take such steps?" he says.

Pay-and-Use Toilets

Along with Sulabh International (the organisation that runs Sulabh Shouchalayas), a total of 160 other organisations run the 836 public toilets in the city. Under this model, the toilet is constructed under various schemes on BMC land and is operated and maintained by one of these organisations, which as per a Government Resolution of 2003 charges Rs 2 for the use of toilet and Rs 3 for the bathroom.

"Any organisation can send us an application if it wants to build a public toilet. The proposal goes through various levels of scrutiny and once approved, the civic body carries out land acquisition and obtains no-objection-certificates from various BMC departments and other government agencies. The organisation then pays utility bills for water, electricity etc," says a BMC official.

The first Sulabh Shouchalaya (latrine) was constructed at Dadar TT near the Asiad Bus Stand in 1988. With this model, the project took off and Sulabh has since constructed 309 public sanitary blocks across Mumbai. Out of 309 public toilet blocks, 243 are funded by BMC while the balance is funded by various donors. Till 2002, only Sulabh was building these toilets after which the then BMC commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad called for participation by other NGOs and community-based organisations too.

Since many of the toilet blocks are in commercial areas, these also mean good business. There are also frequent complaints about attendants overcharging, ranging anywhere from Rs 3 to 5. Therefore, critics allege that Sulabh makes money while it gets land for free and the construction is with government's or donors' money. Depending on the number of toilet seats, the construction costs anywhere between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 25 lakh.

"During field visits, we have asked operators why they are overcharging. They simply tell us the 2003 rates need to be revised as their operation costs have gone up," says the official, while admitting that there has been no real need-assessment exercise to study the pattern of floating population movement.

Moreover, space constraints have become more acute. At present, public toilets are not allowed on footpaths. The only place now left is the little space below flyovers, foot-overbridges, inside public gardens etc, but acquiring NOCs takes a long time.

Sudhakar Kini of Sulabh International says the main reason for not finding space anymore is because public toilets do not find a mention in the city's development plan at all. "Is it not alarming that the DP that earmarks spaces for public utilities does not consider public toilets at all? Another problem we face is opposition from local residents. No one wants a toilet block in the vicinity of their residence. So many proposed toilet blocks are stuck because of litigation," said Kini.

In 2006, the BMC appointed Fumes International to build 100 '5-star' toilets in the city at strategic locations. Only nine have been made operational so far. While charges are the same as normal toilets, these toilets have an improved level of cleanliness and sanitation and other facilities such as mirrors, hand-wash soap dispensers etc.

Gender Bias in Public Toilets

Mumbai has 57,41,632 females as per the 2011 Census. However, out of the total 10,381 toilet seats, only 3,813 are reserved for them while the remaining 6,568 are for men. BMC has earmarked Rs 75 lakh in the current financial year to undertake construction of more toilets for women.

Paromita Vohra, who made the documentary film Q2P, says she was shocked by the biased process. "Women's toilets in the city are locked at night. It is assumed no woman will be out in the city after dark. Also, women's toilets often go without water and are regularly used by men."

While urinals are free, attendants by and large charge women arguing there is no way to find out if women are using the toilet for urinal or lavatory purpose. The BMC had issued a circular to all operators to not charge women for urinals but were informed by many of them that women tend to consume more water due to natural reasons such as menstruation, which increases their water bills

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The protests by citizens grew louder and 35 non-profit organiaations under the umbrella of the Committee of Resource Organisations (CORO) started the Right to Pee campaign, which aims to put pressure on the municipality to build women's toilets.

Over the past two years, the group has sought information on the financing of the city's town planning projects by filing petitions under the Right to Information Act. It has led public awareness programmes in slums and bus and railway stations, and collected signatures from thousands of women who say they would like to see municipal facilities built exclusively for their use. "When you think about it, this is a biological need. The fact that half the population is being denied a basic human right is wrong," said Supriya Sonar, a member of CORO. An estimated 94 per cent of women and girls in Mumbai have to leave their homes every day for work or education, according to Sonar.

Slum Sanitation

Catering to a population of close to 80 lakh people who live in the slums of Mumbai, slum toilets are a complex issue. Around the mid-1990s, the Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Project (MSDP) was undertaken with the World Bank (WB) funding Rs 1,200 crore to improve the sewerage system of the city. Since slums do not have facility of underground drainage, properly planned toilets that involve community participation for maintenance were required. Slum-dwellers were expected to form a society with a contribution of Rs 100 per household. The project did not take off as planned and since 1997, only 330 toilet blocks having 6,050 seats have been constructed. The only collated data that the BMC has for toilets in slums is from 2001 and no new survey has been carried out after that. As per the 2001 data, there are a total of 9,963 toilet blocks in Mumbai slums, having 77,526 seats. There is a shortfall of 65,000 seats to achieve the ratio of one toilet seat to 50 slum residents. Anand Jagtap from MSDP says 2,734 of these blocks were built by BMC through various organisations while the remaining were built by MHADA or Mumbai Slum Improvement Board for utilising local area development funds of MPs or MLAs.

Politicisation of sanitation is a major hurdle to sanitation in slums. Toilets are built haphazardly before elections to garner votes. They are of poor quality, not connected to a sewage network and are never maintained and are soon rendered useless.

Toilets on Suburban Railway Premises

Apart from the overcrowding in local trains, poor quality and inadequacy of public toilets on suburban railway station premises is another problem faced by the over 75 lakh passengers daily. Poor drainage, lack of water, foul smell, overcharging and erratic manpower is repeatedly complained about even though private parties collect fee from commuters using the utility.

Provision of public toilet blocks comprising a mix of urinals and lavatories is to be made either in the circulating area or on end of platforms. Operational issues such has improper drainage, lack of water and constant stench makes the second option less preferable.

According to Atul Rane, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway (CR), "To avoid these infrastructural issues, toilet blocks are either provided in the circulating area or on the main platform."

A railway official from Western Railway (WR) requesting anonymity, says, "The pressure of water supply from the water pipelines laid by the civic body is very low. As a result, toilets on island platforms often do not have water, which results in poor maintenance. Also, the drainage system provided under the tracks is inadequate."

Since Indian Railways largely meets travel needs of low-income group passengers, as a rule, usage of urinals is free of charge. A passenger is required to pay Rs 2 to use lavatories. On a suburban railway system, this proves to be uneconomical for service providers who have to incur the same cost to maintain urinals.

With small stations finding no takers despite repeated tendering, Railways has opted for a cluster approach where one big station is clubbed with three smaller stations for the benefit of commuters.

"While contractors are able to earn revenue at big stations like CST and Dadar due to heavy footfall, smaller stations like Matunga and Masjid are loss-making. However, the nature of the utility is such that the contractor has to provide equal amount of cleanliness at smaller stations too. This makes them cut corners," says a senior railway official.

Lack of cleaners or 'safaiwallahs' on Indian Railways compelled the administration to involve private parties to maintain toilets on 'Pay and Use' model since 2010. However, the model is unprofitable to private parties which cannot charge for urinals.

"Many contractors exit the contract within three years instead of the five-year time period since they run into losses. Punishment in the form of terminating contracts is of no use since ultimately it is commuter who suffers. There are not many private players interested in maintaining toilets on railways as a result of which we have to lock the utility rendering it futile," says a railway official.

Traditional scheme of 'Pay and Use', which continues to be unpopular for both the service providers and users, in gradually being replaced with public private partnerships models such as Build Operate Transfer (BOT). Railways is also now looking at getting corporate sponsors and maintainers to come together to make the model profitable. This year, CR is approaching advertisers to invest in toilets to avail advertising rights and make the business more lucrative for those maintaining the facility.

On Western Railway, where all toilets are maintained on 'Pay and Use', the administration has given one toilet at Borivali and Andheri station on BOT basis, allowing contractor to charge for use of urinals.

A railway official says, "We have obtained permission from the General Manager of all divisions to charge for urinals in BOT toilets. The numbers of complaints at these toilets have reduced."

In future, BOT toilets are planned at Dadar, Bhayander, Vasai Road and Virar on WR while CR is also in the process of allotting stations.