CHENNAI: The year is 2020. Hightech super toilets with heated seats, Bluetooth speakers, integrated bidets, no-touch flush, air-dryer mechanisms, built-in night lights, motion-activated seats, automatic air freshener, and several other extravagant functions have made the ‘potty talk’ a sophisticated discussion about luxury and technological marvels.
Yet, despite the advancements and its availability to a section of the society, 4.2 billion people in the world still live without basic access to safely managed sanitation. Here, in Chennai, for over 9,000 people who’ve been rendered homeless and living on the pavements and streets for generations, access to safe, sustainable and hygienic toilets has been nothing but a flight of fantasy.
Dismal conditions
Forty-four-year-old Iyamma, who resides on the streets of Wall Tax Road, has been deprived of a clean toilet her whole life. “I remember my mother struggling to use the shared toilet. She had to walk a few hundred metres to relieve herself. For me, once I reached puberty, managing the days when I menstruated became harder without a proper toilet,” she recalls.
Decades later, not much has changed for the north Chennai resident. Every day, the homemaker wakes up during the wee hours and walks for six minutes to a community toilet located near the Chennai Central Parcel Office to relieve herself, before going about her everyday chores. With close to no income, for Iyamma, paying anything between `5 and `10 (per use) to access the toilet is a luxurious affair. “We don’t have a choice but to pay and use the toilets.
But, the toilets are unclean 99 per cent of times; there is a lack of running water, the lights are most often dim, there’s no proper handwashing and disposal facility,” she tells. With most public toilets across the city closing its shutter early in the evening, the residents have no option but to control their ‘business’ till the next morning or to opt for open defecation, making the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status for Tamil Nadu a far cry.
“Post 7 pm-8 pm, the stores in the narrow lanes in our area shut shop; it’s mostly dark and isolated. So, if we are unable to control ourselves and need to relieve ourselves, we are forced to defecate outside. This is not how we want to live, but do we have a choice?” asks Iyamma, a member of the Pavement Dwellers Rights Association (PDRA), who lives along with over 60 families on the streets, in makeshift houses made of plastic sheets and wooden sticks in dismal conditions.
“While inadequate toilets in the area are a problem to everyone, it’s all the more difficult for young girls, women and senior citizens,” she explains, pointing to how gender violence and threat to the sexual and reproductive health of women are looming dangers of unmet sanitation needs. Santhanalakshmi* and Prabu*, 20-something-old residents of Barracks Road, and firstgeneration graduates, say that they end up eating less and drinking little to no water, controlling their bladder, before they go to bed. “If we eat or drink, we’ll have the urge to use the toilet at night.
Since it isn’t open during those hours, we will have to defecate in the open. It causes discomfort and disrupts our sleep and quality of productivity the next day. This further burdens our performance at work, deterring progress. Not having toilet access not only threatens our sanitation but our socio-economic development too,” shares Prabhu, who works at a consultancy firm.
A dreadful journey
For 26-year-old flower seller Nandini, who lives in the narrow lanes of Nyniappa Naicken Street, walking to the public toilet near the Government Hospital on the main road, is a task she dreads. “To walk for five to 10 minutes, wait in a queue, and enter an unclean toilet to relieve ourselves is draining. Post 6 pm, when we have to defecate in the open, it requires a lot of planning too.
We have to be mindful that no one watches us while we do our job, that we aren’t harassed by miscreants. For the sake of safety, women always need their spouse, a family member or other women from the area to escort them. It takes more than one person’s effort and it’s taxing.
This makes us highly dependent. Having a private toilet will make us feel more independent, safe, and secure,” opines Nandini, who earns anything between `200 and `300 every day. “I have two children and my earnings have to be split between taking care of the family and the toilet expenditure. We have to pay Rs 10-20 to use the bathroom to shower and `5 to use the latrine. It is unaffordable,” she rues.
A threat to human right
The Coronavirus pandemic and the monsoons have further compounded the woes of those living on the streets, it seems. Shanthi, a 45-year-old resident of Periamet, who earns a living by sweeping the streets on a contract basis, laments that the residents have to wade through knee-deep sewage mixed water during rains before reaching the public toilet.
“Once we reach the community toilet after the struggle, we end up finding out that it’s defunct! It’s, at times, closed during the day too, due to lack of running water or because it’s clogged. So, we’ll have to end up walking to Central, to use the community toilet there. Even if someone is struggling with food poisoning and has to use the toilet, they cannot. The situation is pathetic.
If on normal days it’s hard, walking during rains, when there are puddles of water and sludge everywhere, it gets harder. This time of the year makes it further difficult to defecate outside during the nights,” she says. “The government asks us to stay safe, wash our hands regularly and keep a check on sanitation to protect ourselves from corona.
But how can we, without having proper water and toilet access?” she asks. Women in the area, for several years, have been showering only at night to avoid the rush hour at the community toilets, she tells. “The public toilets are also used by those in the area, pedestrians and other commuters. So, there is always a queue. For those from our area who have to go to work in the morning, we cannot afford to waste time.
So, women tie a long cloth or plastic sheet as a screen around the water pump area and shower at night to avoid public gaze,” she explains. Out of her daily wage of `300, Shanthi spends `5 to `20 to use the toilet. “I am the sole breadwinner of my family. My husband lost his job due to the pandemic. For people who are already living a life that’s fragile, ripping us off our dignity by not providing basic facilities is disheartening,” she says.
No room for health
The most common form of infections that arise due to unhygienic toilet practices are Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and faecal-oral transmission, says Vijayalakshmi Balakrishnan, senior infectious diseases specialist, Kauvery Hospital. “When people defecate in the open, the surrounding environment gets contaminated and this passes on to the food chain. Ultimately, this causes diarrheal infections, abdominal pain, and Cholera. Even today, Cholera is one of the major causes for higher mortality rates in children, especially in the Indian subcontinent.
Hepatitis A, hepatitis E, Enteroviruses, amoebiasis, jaundice, brain fever, typhoid and skin infections are other problems that can arise due to unhygienic toilet practices. But, it is to be noted that it is not just a toilet surface that causes infection but also the inadequate use of water/ lack of enough water supplies in toilets,” she shares. Using toilets with unclean water can also cause inflammations, skin allergies and other diseases.
Hence, it is imperative to have clean and adequate water in toilets, frequent cleaning and maintenance, ensuring there are no leaks in the toilets that might contaminate the surroundings, adds the medical professional, echoing the requirements of those without access to these very things. Santhanalakshmi says that using the non-functional and filthy toilets also affect their mental health. “Despite the regurgitating toilet water, recurring instances of clogging and the generally poor upkeep, we still have to use the public toilets.
That leaves us with a lasting impact, scarring us psychologically,” she rues. “People ask if we are used to living life this way. Until a solution is provided, we have to make do with what we have, don’t we? But does that give people the authority to take us and our needs for granted? We are treated as though we are at their mercy. But we are only demanding our basic human rights!” says Shanthi, her voice tearing through the cacophony of vehicles in the background.
Over the decades, despite several petitions to the authorities and civic body, the grievances have been met with apathy. With sanitisation being under prioritised, The Sustainable Development Goal 6.2: ‘By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations’, looks like yet another aspiration that fails to take notice of the layers of scum caking the ground reality.
*Names changed