Plea in HC for women toilets every 500 metres in east Delhi

THE PETITION CLAIMED THAT PROVIDING CLEAN, SAFE TOILETS FOR WOMEN IS THE BASIC DUTY OF CIVIC BODIES AND FAILURE AMOUNTS TO VIOLATION OF RIGHTS

NEWDELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the response of the Delhi government and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) on a plea which sought construction of a female toilet every 500 metres on the road side in east Delhi.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar sought to know the stand of the EDMC commissioner on the plea, which says that washrooms for women was a basic and natural requirement.

According to the plea filed by advocate Shadab Hussain Khan, he had written a letter to the authorities to make special arrangements of toilets for females on roadsides all over east Delhi but no action has been taken till date.

The plea claimed that the petitioner had also filed an RTI inquiring about the number of female toilets and pendency of any writ/pil regarding the same, but did not get any reply for either the letter or the RTI.

The petition contended that it was the basic duty of the civic body to provide basic facilities like clean, covered and hygienic female toilets and failing to so amounts to the violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.

It said that due to the inaction of the authorities, women in Delhi are facing problem for searching toilets all over the place.

The plea also sought that the newly-constructed toilets should be free of cost and should have two female attendants throughout the day. It also said that cleaning should be carried out at the washrooms thrice a day — at 7 AM, 1 PM and 7 PM— and should have at least one exhaust fan or an air conditioner. The court fixed the matter for September 5.