It’s an everyday battle for working women in the city

Lakshmi V. rushes to a nearby mall in an autorickshaw to attend nature’s call while she is at a shopping spot along M.G. Road. While she manages to board the vehicle to reach the toilet at the mall without much delay, women selling vegetables and fish daily at Vyttila or at any market in the city have no option but to hold it. They neither have the luxury of catching a vehicle nor the time to take a break from work.

Sanitation facilities

These women represent an ever increasing number of helpless citizens in the ‘smart city’ of Kerala that endure the agony owing to the sheer lack of public sanitation facilities, which include toilets and changing rooms.

“I never consume water while visiting M.G. Road or for that matter any other busy area in Kochi. Most shopping outlets lack toilets, leave alone women-friendly ones,” said Ms. Lakshmi, a banking professional.

Poornima Narayanan, councillor representing Gandhi Nagar in Kochi Corporation, said not a single public toilet in the city met basic hygiene standards for women.

“The condition is pathetic in the markets here where several women work. It is not toilets alone, but women in such work places do not even have a changing room,” she said.

Gracy Joseph, councillor representing Kathrikadavu and chairperson of the development standing committee, admitted that the city lacked clean and safe public toilets for women. “Even the corporation’s facilities at Palarivattom and Vyttila seem to be dysfunctional. These e-toilets have technical issues and they aren’t women-friendly,” she said.

No financial aid

Asked about the proposed plan to set up 14 toilets for women under the people’s plan programme for 2019-20, Ms. Joseph said most of those were being planned in various divisions and not in public spots within the city. “I have doubts about when it will be a reality as we have not even received financial aid from the government for projects planned for 2018-19,” she said.

Architect S. Gopakumar of the Better Kochi Response Group recalled that the Kochi Corporation and Greater Cochin Development Authority could not provide the space for at least a few among the 20 pay-and-use public toilets the citizen’s group had proposed to set up in Kochi within a period of one year.

“We had agreed to set up the facility and undertake its maintenance but Corporation and GCDA are still not ready to hand over a parcel of land for such a key public facility. However, Cochin Shipyard and Kochi Metro Rail Limited have agreed to allot space to set up the toilets, which will be set up in used cargo containers. Such a facility set up by the group has been successfully functioning at a organic farm outlet at Padivattom,” he said.