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toilets and public toilets are needed to “We went door-to-door in the slums The Hamdard The Helping Hand.
fulfil the needs of the whole population, of Kashmiri Gate and Okhla and found For 11-year-old Neha and her two fe-
especially deprived urban communities. that people don’t want to defecate in the male friends, the pavements of Nehru
Community toilets are required in many open, but they don’t have adequate toi- Place are their home now where they
settlements of vulnerable communities, lets. The slums are overpopulated and live with their parents, who earn their
where density of habitation does not al- the toilets are scarce. And, slum dwellers livelihood through begging. These girls
low for the construction of individual toi- cannot build their own toilets because never go without each other to relieve
lets. Populations on the move, especially there is no mechanism of safe disposal of themselves as it’s “safer together” in the
people engaged in the informal economy household faeces into the drains. Though evenings. Sometimes, they would walk
need public toilets.However, the provi- the concept of ODF has become a move- 250-300 meters to nearby parks, under-
sioning of both community toilets and ment, there is a long road ahead,” says ground parking spaces or dark alleys of
public toilets are inadequate, and where Satya P Mishra, Health and Safety Office, commercial buildings when the public
they exist, their maintenance leaves toilets are overcrowded.
much to be desired. The need for mainte- The Delhi govt was These scenarios are quite common
nance is an urgent given that inadequate across the national capital. Other places
numbers of community and public toi- rapped by CAG, when like Kalkaji, Okhla, Jangpura, Kashmiri
lets make the existing ones overused.” in April 2018 it tabled Gate, areas of Lal Quila, etc. struggle for
Adding further, Kazi says, “In Delhi, the lack of sanitation facilities. The truth
the multiplicity of bodies responsible for a report in the state is after decades of incremental develop-
public and community toilets make it assembly claiming that ment; Delhi has failed to provide such
difficult for civil society organisations or basic facilities to the homeless people liv-
communities to monitor them. It would the AAP government had ing in the city. Besides, homeless people
need concerted and collaborative effort not constructed a single are citizens too, if they haven’t got toilets
on the part of city administrations, em- yet, how can India be declared an open
powered communities and collectives of toilet under the Swachh defecation-free nation?
informal workers to make Delhi truly an
open defecation free city.” Bharat Scheme letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 31 october 2019 32 www.Tehelka.com