BENGALURU: Have you ever been forced to relieve yourself in a dirty public toilet and felt all the less relieved? You can do more than just cringe and complain; click a picture of the toilet, maybe narrate your experience and expose ill-maintained toilets in Karnataka.
Towards this end, city-based activist Vasudeva Sharma has started a campaign — Public Toilets in India - To show, name and shame.
“Many toilets look fancy from outside but are not well-maintained. In many places, they are not cleaned at regular intervals. Some do not even have regular water supply despite many being pay-and-use toilets,” he said, adding that posting pictures on social networking sites, like Facebook, would prompt the authorities concerned to wake up and ensure that they are clean and hygienic.
Mr. Sharma had started an online petition demanding ‘Safe and clean highway toilets for women’ six months ago. The campaign currently has 1.72 lakh signatures. The National Highways Authority of India had responded by promising to develop a facility every 50 km where travellers will have access to toilets, food and fuel.
Recollecting his experience of travelling in north Karnataka earlier this week, he feels that women are particularly vulnerable and are forced to control their bladders during long distance travel. “In the Yadgir bus stand, I saw two girls who came in a car. They entered the toilet and walked out almost immediately. After a little persuasion by their father they went in again. The incident speaks volumes,” he said.
He added that many women have shared their experience of avoiding unclean toilets due to fear of infections.
Although the pictures may be dirty, filthy and embarrassing to post, he believes that the effort will bring about a change in the maintenance of toilets.
