Experts suggest that the government ought to plan measures for maintaining toilets before building them.
Public toilets built in slum areas lack proper maintenance and water supply. Moreover, no government department is ready to claim the responsibility for maintaining the slum toilets in the city.
Public toilets built in Anjanappa Garden slum lack proper maintenance, lighting and clean floors. While officials from the Solid Waste Management department (SWM) of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said that the Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB) must maintain the public toilets in the slum, the KSDB officials said that they focus only on providing housing to slum dwellers.
The public toilets in the Anjanappa Garden slum have no water supply. And these toilets have not been cleaned for a long time though residents of the slum had complained to the BBMP.
Bhuvaneshwari, who lives in the slum, said that as the toilets are not cleaned regularly, they give out a foul odour. She said, “Sometimes people drink alcohol near the public toilets and break the liquor bottles there.” She added that these men throw the liquor bottles inside the toilets. These actions make the condition of the public toilets even worse, she said.
Praveen Lingayat, Executive Engineer from SWM department of BBMP said that the department only maintains the public toilets and not the toilets built in the slum areas. “If the public toilet is built in a slum, then it will come under the Slum Development Board,” he said. He added that Slum Development Board has to take measures for sanitation and infrastructure of the toilets in the slum areas.He said that they check the public toilets in the city regularly to ensure that the toilets are clean and have regular water supply.
However, the BBMP had called for tenders to maintain the public toilets in Ambedkar Slum in 2018.
An official from the engineering cell of the Karnataka Slum Development Board said that they only provide housing for the slum dwellers. She said that the sanitation of the public toilets doesn’t come under their department. “The sanitation and building of public toilets comes under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP),” she said.
Around 1,200 families reside in Anjanappa Garden Slum. It has three public toilets but the residents complain that the toilets have not been cleaned for a long period and that the doors are also broken. Also, there is no water supply in the toilets.
Thachiamma, a 70-year-old who lives in the slum said, “No matter how many times we complain to the officials nobody takes any measures to clean the toilets.” She said that either they have to use the nearby public toilet outside the slum or use the toilets built in the slum. She said that since she cannot walk a long distance to use a well-maintained public toilet, she chooses to use the toilet in the slum which is not properly maintained. She added that the toilets built in the slum lack clean floors and are slippery.
Hema, another resident from the area, said that they have complained to the BBMP about this issue but no action has been taken so far. She said, “When we complained about the issues in the public toilets to the BBMP, they said that they were not in charge of cleaning the public toilets in our area. They didn’t tell us which department was in charge of cleaning public toilets in slum areas.”
She added that they also clicked pictures of the toilets in the slum and submitted them to the BBMP. She said, “There is no water supply to the toilets, so we have to carry water in buckets from our homes.” She also said that there are no lights in the toilets making it difficult for them to use the toilets in the dark.
According to a study on slum sanitation, 81 percent of the slum population in India has no access to toilets. In the study, it is also mentioned that though free toilets are available in Bangalore, slum dwellers prefer to pay and use the well-maintained toilets in the city.
Swachh Bharat Mission was introduced in 2014 with the aim of making the country open-defecation free by providing toilets to households. The 2022 press release by the Ministry of Jal Shakti shows that about 46 lakh individual household latrines (IHHLs) were built in Karnataka under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
According to the BBMP website, 478 public toilets were built in Bangalore.
A Public Toilet Survey conducted in 2021 by Janaagraha, found that 55 percent of toilets were overflowing with garbage, 66 percent of them lacked clean floors, and 42 percent lacked proper lighting.
Dr. Venkatesh, a public health professor at Padmashree School of Public Health said that not taking proper measures for maintaining the public toilets, has failed the entire project of building public toilets in the slum area. He said, “Before planning to build public toilets, the government must plan maintenance measures.” He said that these sanitation issues will affect the health of children in the slums. He said, “Not only the children but also the aged people in the slums will be affected largely.” He added that inaction by the respective departments will ruin the resources planned by the government for the welfare of the people. He said, “Any facility without proper maintenance is of no use.”
