Mumbai: In a city bursting at the seams, Mumbai’s public toilets have come to pose a mortal risk after claiming seven lives in the last 23 months, with three people dying just last week in rest rooms that are appalling in terms of both hygiene and safety standards and highlighting the fact that neither the Maharashtra government nor the civic body in the city cares for human life or dignity, says a think tank that is preparing to file a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court.
In an incident on February 3, three men died while five others were rescued from most certain death when the floor of a toilet built by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) caved in at Indira Nagar, in the north-eastern suburb of Mankhurd.
The deaths come close not long after six-year-old Mohammad Shaikh died on December 1, 2016 after falling into an open septic tank at Nehru Nagar, Kurla, where the pit was dug by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for a toilet that was never constructed and the tank itself was never completed.
Last November, four-year-old Astha Taal fell into an open septic tank in Malad and died as her mother used the rest room. Earlier that month, a three-year-old toddler, Adarsh Jitendra Kewat, drowned in the sludge of an open septic tank in Goregaon. Most of these deaths occurred in community toilets in slum areas across Mumbai.
The bereaved families of the victims came together two days back to release a report titled ‘Jaayein to Jaayein Kahaan? (Where to go when there is a need to go) Finding Answers to Nature’s Calls in Maximum City.’
Authored by Dhaval Desai, a senior research fellow and vice-president at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Mumbai, the comprehensive study on sanitation in Mumbai covers public places that witness heavy footfalls — from market places, bus depots, courts to government offices and government hospitals. The report highlights how the lack of proper, safe access to sanitation facilities affects all, with women and children being the worst sufferers.
The MHADA toilet where three persons died recently was constructed in 2007 from the funds of the then Congress legislator Yousuf Abrahani, who later became chairman of MHADA, the body that continues to construct thousands of hellhole toilets. The toilet was initially a free-to-use facility but later converted into a pay-and-use facility charged at Rs2 per use. Maintenance remains non-existent though, despite an average of 4,000 to 6,000 people using the toilets daily.
Desai says: “ORF Mumbai, in its report, pegged the total revenue generated from the business of pay-and-use toilets in Mumbai to the tune of Rs3.92 billion per annum. That’s more than Rs10 million per day being spent by the poorest of the poor in the city for the most basic necessity that we normally do not even think twice about.”
The ORF has demanded a total ban on the use of local area development funds of elected representatives to construct public or community toilets and proposes a single, empowered and apex-level Mumbai Sanitation and Cleanliness Authority. It would mean doing away with sanitation-related functions currently handled by multiple agencies like MHADA and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority in addition to BMC.
The report includes case studies of best practices from across India and Pakistan’s Orangi Project, which have been recognised globally as ideal solutions to tackle urban sanitation problems.
Speaking of the loss of lives, ORF chairperson Sudheendra Kulkarni said, “This is not just a tragedy anymore but a systemic crime against humanity that must be stopped.”
Each time a regrettable incident happens, the BMC conveniently shrugs it off stating that the toilet was constructed by MHADA, and other agencies, too, wash their hands off the tragedy. “Such blame game is unacceptable,” Kulkarni said. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis should take it upon himself to ensure a single empowered authority on sanitation and cleanliness is brought into place,” he insisted.
Kulkarni also said that the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health, an initiative of the ORF Mumbai, will file a Public Interest Litigation in the Bombay High Court to seek specific and clear directions to the state government and BMC to act promptly in the wake of the deadly incidents and establish a single authority to oversee the city’s sanitation needs.
The report’s author, Desai, says: “The only long-term solution is to allow slum residents to construct self-contained toilet in their homes.”
In fact, 83 per cent of slum residents interviewed said they wanted to construct a toilet without any financial subsidy from the government. All the government has to do in this respect is to provide sewage lines but even then it often cites the excuse of technical non-viability.
