1st women-only toilet at Mumbai Central stn

Mumbai's first women-only toilet was inaugurated by Aditya Thackeray and Mayor of Mumbai, Vishwanath Mahadeshwar. A group of Norwegian volunteers, once drug addicts, have built the toilet exclusively for women near Mumbai Central station.

Thackeray and Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, in a joint initiative to promote women sanitation, have also installed city’s first sanitary napkin vending machine in the toilet.

Under construction since March 2017, the toilet is now thrown open for public use. The toilet has all state-ofthe-art facilities including a changing room, pump room, baby changing station and seven lavatories. The charges are kept at Rs5 to use the toilet. The lavatory will be maintained by a private conglomerate until the corporation is ready to take it in their hands.

“It is an important step ahead. But making bathrooms and maintaining it are two different things. People should use it responsibly,” said Yuva Sena president, Aditya Thackeray, adding, “We should ask ourselves are we respecting women enough? Women can take care of themselves but men need to strive to empower them as well.” Thackeray also added that he, along with Akshay Kumar, will install 100 sanitary pad vending machines across the city. The Norway group flew from Norway with a budget of Rs25 lakh, adding Rs15 lakh from their wallets and funding the remaining amount from a private conglomerate, and sought permission from the Municipal Corporation for land allotment.