Smart City – PMC’s ‘Toilets for Her’ only for “bade log”?

March 22, 2017

A bright, freshly painted bus stands under the sun, unattended at Sambhaji Park. The bus has been converted from an old PMPML bus to a mobile toilet. ‘Toilets for Her’ is an initiative taken by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) as part of the smart city plan to provide for clean and safe public toilets that are accessible to women. As of now, there is no nominal fee being charged to use the toilet. The lonely pink bus in Sambhaji Park is not being used as there is no proper drainage system to treat the sewage that comes out of the bus. “There has been some digging work going on, to connect the drainage pipe from the bus to a sewage pipe that will lead to the river. We think that this will take two to three days to fix,” says Suresh Jagtap, Joint Municipal Commissioner and the man in charge to oversee this project.

But this isn’t the only hurdle that has come in the way of this new initiative as some women feel excluded from the transition to a smart city. Smita Pawar (name changed) and her sister-in-law live next to Sambhaji Park and claim that they have been denied entry into the mobile toilet; “Yeh sirf bade logo ke liye hai! (This is only for the big people). That’s what the attendant told me when we tried to go in. They don’t allow us to use the toilets or the showers. We did not try going there again after they refused us entry.” This project was announced earlier in 2016 as an attempt by the PMC to increase the number of public toilets for women in crowded areas.

Mani Sheikh (name changed) is another woman who claims to have faced problems while trying to access the mobile toilets. Though the PMC is still contemplating charging a nominal fee to users, Sheikh says that the attendees have always charged her between Rs 5 to Rs 10. “I live in Shivajinagar and I did not know that these toilets can be used for free. They did not allow me to use the shower cubicle. I was only permitted entry into the toilet and I had to pay some money.”

Dismissing the above-mentioned claims, Jagtap says, that the toilets are meant for everyone, “There is nothing like that! It’s not something just for big society people. It is for all women to use. It is for every common woman to access. As far as the fee is concerned, we haven’t decided on anything yet.”

There would be no need for these mobile toilets if the public toilets constructed by the PMC are maintained well, but this isn’t the reality. The public toilets under Z Bridge seem to be facing a major water leakage, dripping constantly from the roof. Sheetal (name changed) is inside the toilet with her young daughter washing their clothes. She is unaware of the free mobile toilet facility, “For us, it is this toilet only. All the water coming here is for free.”

Pune365: For the record, our team were on the ground, visiting these installations to see them at work.