CHENNAI: A week ago, at the Adambakkam Subway, I felt the urge to use a lavatory. I located one near the St Thomas Mount Railway Station, but a round steel lock adorned it. I was then told that there was an e-toilet down the road. I reached the second e-toilet, 400 metres away at the end of MKN Road. It was also locked.
While this was my ordeal just for a few minutes one day, this is a common issue faced by street vendors, police officers on duty, and people who have makeshift homes on the platforms. As of 2020, 794 public toilets were under the Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC) maintenance, yet citizens resort to deserted street corners or opt to hide behind huge tree barks to relieve themselves. And the reasons to do so are often lack of accessibility, absence of directions, and usable options.
Though the United Nations declared sanitation a basic human right, accessing a clean and safe sanitation facility can be a mission in bustling urban neighbourhoods. Despite a number of e-toilet provisions available in our city, how many are functional and within reach? On World Toilet Day, CE finds out.
Hold it in
Why is it hard to find one mobile toilet? I was in this dilemma, when I finally noticed a pink-coloured van stationed outside the Integrated Court Building, Alandur. I rushed towards it: ‘Greater Chennai Corporation, a female toilet, She Toilet’ read the board. As I finished my business, a 7-year-old girl, Azhagi, walked in. When asked what she was doing there alone, she said, “We stay under the St Thomas metro bridge. My mother wants me to defecate in the open. I do not like that, so I run here whenever I want to use the washroom.”
She Toilets have been a relief and often the only option for people like Azhagi. These usually have three Indian and one Western-style toilet, a common washbasin and dustbin, grey exhaust fans, LED bulbs and colourfully-printed plastic bucket sets in all four cubicles, and a paper pasted onto the open door saying ‘Magalir Mattum (only women)’. “Each vehicle stores 1,000 litres of metro water from Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board CMWSSB and 800 litres of sewage tank. This capacity often lasts for a day and a half,” a GCC official shares.
Run free of cost, these mobile toilets were launched by the GCC and 15 of them were inaugurated in 15 zones in September 2023 by Minister for Municipal Administration KN Nehru.
The government stated this move as one to “provide safe and clean toilet facilities for women in public and to improve the city’s sanitation infrastructure”. “The vehicles are custom-made by a Delhi-based company, Bhutan Infra. Each one costs `30 lakh. Along with GCC, the police department has procured a few mobile toilets for women officers,” adds the official.
Besides Alandur and Marina, CE found functional She Toilets at T Nagar and Valluvar Kottam. At the launch event, officials and the Minister ensured the introduction of 150 more such vehicles and to place them strategically in high-footfall areas. They had also added that the vehicles will have an LED screen to display awareness messages, Corporation’s public health drives, and store sanitary and hygiene products after collecting feedback from toilet users.
Navigating the roads
Fourteen months since the promise, here is what Chennai women have to say. “She Toilets are way better than other public toilets. Firstly, the positioning of public toilets is wrong. They are either on busy roads or at the end of quiet lanes, Secondly, there is no proper water supply and it stinks. I highly doubt anybody cleans them,” remarks M Swathy, a lawyer. P Mrithula, a CS student says, “I often use the pay and use toilets at Marina Beach. I don’t know why they closed it a year ago. Six months later, I saw this She Toilet stationed near the Lighthouse. It smelled fresh and neatly maintained. I use them regularly during my morning walks.”
On the long stretch amid sand and tar road at the Marina promenade, two She Toilets are parked. Wearing a bright pink shirt, Babu was resting under the shade of a tree, some 20 metres from the van. He was accompanied by Sekar, the cleaner, sitting a little further. “From a distance, I make sure only women use the facility. Sometimes, men do not read the board and enter. Sekar guides people if they ask him for the toilet. This space is also for women’s safety,” says Babu, the driver.
Retired from government jobs, Sekar and Babu were employed by a private company, Das Services Company, that secured the tender over a year ago to maintain She Toilets. “We come here at 7 am and go back to the office at 1.30 pm for lunch. We come back at 4 pm and stay here till 8 pm. On days when protests happen, we stay a little longer and do not go for lunch or tea breaks,” Babu notes.
Flush it down
GR Baskar, the proprietor of Das Services Company, says that 72 employees including electricians, plumbers and mechanics provide for She Toilets. “The staff work an eight-hour shift and are trained to clean the toilets. We show them videos from corporates on toilet sanitation and provide them with cleaning supplies.” The vans are parked at composting centres in their respective zones.
“Here, the sewage is let into the manholes which also collects excreta from households. It is then screened and eliminated solid waste, while the remains are treated at Sewage Treatment Plants (STP),” says M Srinivasa Raghavan, additional secretary to government, CMWSSB. Baskar adds, “The sewage from all the She Toilets is treated at STPs in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi.”
He shares that in the coming months, “a ramp will be installed in each of these toilets to make it disabled-friendly. Additionally, a storage unit will be given to stock cleaning supplies and sanitary napkins. There are also talks for another cubicle for mothers to breastfeed their babies.”
Since 2013, the United Nations has observed November 19 as World Toilet Day to raise awareness on the importance of sanitation. Individuals should have access to a hygienic and safe toilet connected to a well-managed sanitation infrastructure to dispose of waste.
A step has been taken in the right direction, but having one She Toilet per zone, for a stipulated period of time, may not really serve the purpose. So, the question remains, will accessible, clean toilets round the clock, especially for women and children, ever become a reality?