Mumbai public toilets turn deathtraps
Think tank to file public interest litigation after 3 people killed in a week at ill-maintained facilities
In a city bursting at the seams, Mumbai’s public toilets have come to pose a mortal risk after claiming seven lives in the last 23 months, with three people dying just last week in rest rooms that are appalling in terms of both hygiene and safety standards and highlighting the fact that neither the Maharashtra government nor the civic body in the city cares for human life or dignity, says a think tank that is preparing to file a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court.
In an incident on February 3, three men died while five others were rescued from most certain death when the floor of a toilet built by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) caved in at Indira Nagar, in the north-eastern suburb of Mankhurd.
The deaths come not long after six-year-old Mohammad Shaikh died on December 1, 2016 after falling into an open septic tank at Nehru Nagar, Kurla, where the pit was dug by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for a toilet that was never constructed and the tank itself was never completed.
Last November, four-yearold Astha Taal fell into an open septic tank in Malad and died as her mother used the rest room. Earlier that month, a three-year-old toddler, Adarsh Jitendra Kewat, drowned in the sludge of an open septic tank in Goregaon. Most of these deaths occurred in community toilets in slum areas across Mumbai.
The bereaved families of the victims came together two days back to release a report titled ‘Jaayein to Jaayein Kahaan? (Where to go when there is a need to go) Finding Answers to Nature’s Calls in Maximum City.’
Authored by Dhaval Desai, a senior research fellow and vice-president at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Mumbai, the comprehensive study on sanitation in Mumbai covers public places that witness heavy footfalls — from market places, bus depots, courts to government offices and government hospitals. The report highlights how the lack of proper, safe access to sanitation facilities affects all, with women and children being the worst sufferers.
The MHADA toilet where three persons died recently was constructed in 2007 from the funds of the then Congress legislator Yousuf Abrahani, who later became chairman of MHADA, the body that continues to construct thousands of hellhole toilets. The toilet was initially a free-to-use facility but later converted into a payand-use facility charged at Rs2 per use. Maintenance remains non-existent though around 6,000 people use it daily.