Sanjana (name changed), a 27-year-old, was travelling overnight by a private bus from Bengaluru to Mangaluru recently with friends. They had boarded the bus around 9 p.m. They had gone straight from work. They had expected the bus driver to stop somewhere for dinner and a loo break. He didn’t. Somewhere on the way, passengers started complaining.
“The driver stopped in the middle of nowhere and told us that whoever wanted to relieve themselves could do so there. We were forced to go behind some bushes, as we did not have any other option and also didn’t know if the bus would stop again. It was dark, scary and humiliating. Each of us stood guard for the other,” she recalls.
Travelling long distances, for many, has become synonymous with having to ‘hold’ or ‘control’ their bladder, or ‘adjust’ with the available facilities, whatever the condition it may be in. These facilities comprise toilets, mostly paid, at restaurants along the highway or dhabas or bus stands.
Women, persons with disabilities and senior citizens are particularly vulnerable, especially if they are at the mercy of the wishes of the bus driver.
Their plight has prompted an online petition on ‘Change.org’ from Bengaluru-based activist Vasudeva Sharma, whose ‘Safe and clean highway toilets for women’ call to Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways has gathered over 20,000 signatures so far.
“Many Indians travel by bus because of non-availability of train tickets or the prohibitive cost of flight tickets. But for women, senior citizens and people with disabilities, travelling by bus in India has always been a nightmare because of the toilet problem. The government needs to fix this huge problem with the Indian transport system. What is the point of futuristic highways and smart cities if women can’t use these highways?” he says in the petition.
The State government took the initiative with the announcement of the ‘Kuteera’ scheme in its budget to provide high quality basic amenities on national highways for tourists. However, little has been done on the ground.
“Construction is not the big thing, maintenance is. Even local bodies are not showing interest. Such facilities exist, but are not enough for the number of highway users, which has doubled in the last five years,” said a Tourism Department official.
