Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha leader and former MLA Vatal Nagaraj is all set to embark upon one more protest. He will now put up toilet equipment and accessories on display at the Kempe Gowda bus stand here on May 8 to protest against the lack of toilet facilities for rural women.
Announcing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Nagaraj said that the protest would be taken to all the areas of the State in phases.
He expressed concern that rural areas did not have any public toilet facilities for women. This had turned out to be a big problem as most of the rural poor families did not have toilets at their houses also. This had resulted in rural poor women waiting till dark to ease themselves, he said.
Appealing to people, especially those in urban areas, to desist from looking at this issue in a lighter way, he said that lack of toilet facilities in rural areas had not only become a social problem but had also impacted the health of poor women.
He demanded that at least five toilets per village should be provided for women. The State Government should take up a special scheme to provide toilets for rural women at a cost of Rs. 10 lakh for a toilet, he said.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the budget not having any schemes for construction of toilets, he said that his party was considering moving a court of law if the process for constructing toilets did not commence within a month.
Mr. Nagaraj alleged that even Bangalore did not have the adequate number of public toilets. Pointing out that the city's population would exceed one crore if floating population was included, he said that the city did not have appropriate number of toilets.
The shortage of toilets was felt more near parks, including the city's lung spaces of Cubbon Park and Lalbagh, he said and added that Bangalore needed nearly 15,000 toilets and the State about a lakh toilets. He sought construction of toilets at a distance of every five kilometres along the highways besides giving importance to maintaining cleanliness at the existing toilets on the premises of hospitals, bus stands, railway stations and cinemas.
