By Gayatri Manu
From a trip I recently took to Gokarna, I realised that as a female traveller, it is a bad idea to have a couple of beers before boarding a bus. This realisation came 3 hours into the journey, when my bladder was threatening to burst with every bump on the road. I woke my reluctant friend up, and an argument ensued with the bus driver when I asked him to stop the bus at a toilet. Ten minutes later, he stopped the bus in the middle of nowhere and sent us off into the bushes to “do our business,” while he walked to the other side of the road to do his.
Travelling for long distances in a bus or a car has become synonymous with “holding it in” or “adjusting”. These incidents are common among women, senior citizens, and disabled people, where complaints of the lack of proper sanitation facilities on highways are always countered with a quick “go pee in the bushes!” as though this is the solution.
While it might seem like nothing is being done about this, Vasudeva Sharma, a Bangalore-based activist, has started a petition about the same on Change.org, which is addressed to Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways. The petition, titled ‘Safe & Clean Highway Toilets for Women’, has managed to garner over 26,000 signatures in the past 9 days.
He says in the petition, “Many Indians prefer traveling by bus because of non-availability of train tickets or the expense of flight tickets. But for women, senior citizens and people with disabilities, traveling by bus in India has always been a nightmare because of the toilet problem. The Government needs to fix this huge problem with the Indian transport system. What is the point of futuristic highways and smart cities if women can’t use these highways?”
Jan Eliasson, the Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, said on Women’s Day this year that, “Although everybody deserves the dignity of a safe and clean toilet, women and girls are particularly vulnerable to the effects of inadequate sanitation.” A survey conducted in India by the online travel portal Holiday IQ found that around 98% of female Indian travellers feel that there is a need for more toilets across highways in the country.
The Karnataka government, for instance, had taken the initiative to provide basic amenities on national highways, with the announcement of its ‘Kuteera’ scheme in this year’s budget. However, as the Hindu reports, this is only on paper. An official from the Tourism Department said to the media, “Construction is not the big thing, maintenance is. Even local bodies are not showing interest. Such facilities exist, but are not enough for the number of highway users, which has doubled in the last five years.”
But it isn’t only on highways that we need more public toilets. We need them in our educational institutes, work places, and on our streets. Women’s lives would be so much easier if only they had access to a public loo.
June 27, 2016 at 10:21 pm
You miss the “pee break” because heaven forbid you were asleep. So now you are trying to hold it in for the past two hours, after reminding the bus driver to stop at the next loo three times. You wouldn’t have minded the bushes at the state you were in but anyways when the driver did stop the bus at a toll entering Bangalore, the loo was overflowing with shit. Marta kya na karta, you close your eyes and do the job as fast as you can and run back to the bus.
Basically we want more clean, hygienic, safe loos because your travelling should not be focused around pee or worse.
July 1, 2016 at 9:49 pm
There is no denying the fact that we need more and more, preferably at a gap of 4-5 miles on both sides of the highways, more so well maintained hygienically clean and usable. As I have mentioned earlier as my appeal to the friends to sign the petition, we do not know the facilities available on the highways at the bus stands, at the petrol pumps. At the petrol pumps of all the companies, it is mandatory to provide usable clean toilets for the travelers, not necessarily the ones who stop by for refilling the tanks. The petition should address the Petroleum Minister as well to publicise this facility in the media once again. I know about this because I was part of the campaign way back in the Nineties and this is also mentioned in their Citizens Charter.
July 2, 2016 at 9:56 pm
Right from the
school years, girls have toilet problems due to insufficient/ unhygienic
toilets. They learn to control themselves. This can also lead to hysterectomy
in the later years.
July 3, 2016 at 10:39 am
t’s good that you are giving this petition some media coverage and hopefully more people will sign it, demanding change.The present number of signatures is a bit small considering the size of our country. Well. I posted this in the comments at the bottom of the petition and I would post the same here.
This is definitely a priority area and more for women for obvious reasons of hygiene and safety, but certainly for men as well. Nobody wants to contract diseases while out on a fun or a business trip by using dirty contraptions labelled as toilets. Urinating on the side of the road isn’t a very decent or hygienic proposition or an option either for anybody, men & women alike. Also, many places start stinking from their repeated use as urinals as we know from the experience of our cities. Besides what would one do, if one has an upset stomach.https://www.change.org/p/safe-and-clean-highway-toilets-for-women-nitin-gadkari/c/470657405