A public toilet on West Cemetery Road in Old Washermenpet, Chennai, has become a symbol of the city’s struggle with providing adequate sanitation facilities, especially for women. Despite having two doors and a display board indicating separate toilets for men and women, only one door is functional, and that’s for men. The other room is used as a storeroom.
This situation leaves women in the area with limited options. Jaya M, a resident of a nearby housing complex, shared that she has to walk 600 meters to reach a public toilet in a commercial complex. Others, including men, have resorted to open defecation due to the lack of a proper toilet basin for feces. The road, being a market area and home to a mosque, sees a large footfall, making the issue even more pressing.
The storeroom, while potentially accommodating a functional toilet, is currently used to store a motor, a plastic chair, and gunny bags. The corporation assistant engineer of ward 51 acknowledged the issue and stated that a proposal for constructing a women’s toilet had been submitted in a ward committee meeting. While the toilet was recently renovated and given to a private agency for operation and maintenance, the lack of proper facilities remains a major concern.
The ward 51 councillor, Niranjana Jegadeesan, mentioned that the toilet used to be locked by a local resident before being handed over to the private agency. However, the current situation suggests that the private agency might not be fulfilling its responsibilities. A local activist, Ramesh Ramadoss, observed that the cleaning staff leave the toilet key with the owner of a nearby tea shop after cleaning and monitoring the facility for a couple of hours.
Adding to the woes, just 500 meters away, another public toilet in Korukkupet behind Bharat Theatre, managed by the same private agency, Dr RSB, required the services of manual scavengers to unclog a septic chamber last week. Despite attempts to contact the agency’s zonal manager, no response was received.
The situation in these public toilets highlights the urgent need for better infrastructure, proper management, and accountability from the authorities and private agencies responsible for their operation. It also underscores the importance of ensuring equal access to basic sanitation facilities for all, regardless of gender, in a city like Chennai.
