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PRESS RELEASEMUMBAI - WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014

SYSTEMIC CRIME, not a TRAGEDY!

How many Kalpana Pimples must die and suffer humiliation before Government ends the TOILET

TORTURE in Mumbai’s slums?

“I was inside the toilet when I heard a loud crash, immediately followed by a woman’s desperate cries for help from the adjoining toilet. I thought the woman must have slipped and injured herself. But when the cries grew louder and hysterical, I got scared. I rushed out and tried to force open the door. A few seconds later, the cries stopped and there was eerie silence. Others who had queued up for their turn to use the toilet helped me break open the door. When I looked inside, all I could see was a gaping hole where the floor should have been. There was no sign of the woman. She had fallen into the septic tank below the toilet when the floor caved in.” This was the account given by Supriya Sonawane in a trembling voice, unable to control her emotions. Grief, dread and shock were writ large on her face.

Supriya, a second-year BSc student of Vivekanand College, Chembur, was sharing her experience at the ‘Jan Sunvaai’ (Public Hearing) organised by the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health just a few metres away from the ‘killer toilet’ in Maharashtra Nagar, a slum in Mankhurd, where Smt. Kalpana Pimple, a 45-year-old widow and loving mother of two teenaged children, died on March 4, 2015. Smt. Pimple fell to her death in the filled-to-capacity, 20-feet-deep septic tank, when the floor of the toilet occupied by her collapsed. Her body was extricated four hours later. The ‘Jan Sunvaai’, organised on March 8, International Women’s Day, was attended by nearly 500 slum residents

– mainly women.

“Not a single BMC official or any political leader has bothered to visit Maharashtra Nagar following this incident. Is our life so cheap? The police have registered a case, but will justice be done?” asked Smt. Vaishali Jadhav. Smt. Jyotsna Kamble, another resident, squarely put the blame on the BMC and demanded penal action against all those involved in the construction

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Mahatma Gandhi Centrefor Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health

शौ�च | शौ�चिचता� | स्वा�स्थ्य

Supriya Sonawane sharing her experience at the ‘Jan Sunvaai’ organised at the Maharashtra Nagar slum. Supriya was occupying the toilet adjoining the one which collapsed, killing Smt. Kalpana Pimple.

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and maintenance of the toilet block. “Kalpanatai had lost her husband a year ago. Now she too is gone. Will the Government take care of Kalpanatai’s young children who have been orphaned? For how long will we have to risk our lives for such fundamental needs?” she asked. One by one, the women, young girls and even the male residents of the slum vented out their anguish, anger and helplessness at the incident, all pleading the BMC and the Mahararashtra Government to provide them regular and safe access to clean sanitation.

Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni, Chairman, Observer Research Foundation Mumbai, who also heads the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health, assured the residents that the purpose of the Jan Sunvaai was to lend a voice to the residents of the slum, who have till now suffered in silence from the total inadequacy of sanitation facilities. Shri Kulkarni, who had visited the area along with his colleagues the very next day (March 5), has written letters to Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis and BMC Commissioner Shri Sitaram Kunte demanding immediate remedial action: (1) demolition of the ‘Killer Toliet’ and construction of a

superior facility before the onset of the monsoon; (2) suitable compensation for the orphaned children − Snehal Baburao Pimple (who is studying BSc second year) and Prateek (who is studying in the 12th standard.)

Shri Kulkarni announced that the Mahatma Gandhi Centre would give Rs. 1 lakh to the affected family “as our humble contribution to the societal care of Kalpana Pimple’s children”.

He said: “It is shameful that we have gathered here to mourn the death of a woman for such a disgraceful reason on a day when womanhood is being celebrated around the world. The civic administration and the city’s political leadership should awaken from their slumber and ensure that millions of Mumbaikars who continue to live in dreadful conditions in slums are given assured access to clean and safe sanitation facilities.”

Kulkarni added: “The quality of construction of the toilet, which was built just five years ago, is so visibly poor that it is truly inexcusable that the authorities cleared it for public use. Can such a death be passed off just as a tragedy, or should it be considered a crime due to the total systemic failure?” he asked.

During the Jan Sunvaai, activists of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre inspected the mobile

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Nearly 500 residents of Maharashtra Nagar slum – mainly women and young girls – participated in the 'Jan Sunvaai' organised on March 8, 2015.

Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni addressing the residents of Maharashtra Nagar slum.

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toilets provided by BMC for the use of slumdwellers after the closure of the ‘Killer Toilet’. We were shocked to see that these had no provision for safe sewage disposal. The excreta from these mobile toilets was flowing out in the open, posing a serious health hazard to the entire population of the area.

WITHOUT PROPER SANITATION FOR SLUMDWELLERS, ‘SWACHH BHARAT’ IS MEANINGLESS

The Mahatma Gandhi Centre would like to inform the media and the authorities that what happened in the Maharashtra Nagar slum is not an isolated case of poor construction and zero maintenance of shared community toilets in slums. Rather, most of the community and public toilets in Mumbai are in terrible condition, thanks to an unholy nexus between local politicians, government officials and contractors. The 4,000-odd ramshackle free-to-use toilets built by MHADA are the worst in this regard; these, by design, do not have any water or electricity connection. A majority of MHADA toilets, and thousands of other community toilets across the city, are without connection to municipal sewer lines. Raw sewage from these toilets flows out directly into open drains and nalas in the neighbourhood. Their septic tanks have not been desludged for decades. The lack of proper vents make a vast majority of such septic tanks potential ‘bombs’ that can explode due to the over-accumulation of methane and other noxious gases. Casualties owing to explosion of such poorly maintained septic tanks are not uncommon.

Besides being life-threatening owing to negligence and total lack of maintenance, as this unfortunate death of Smt. Kalpana Pimple has proved, community toilets in slums threaten the safety and dignity of users, especially women. The Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health has recently released a report titled TOILET TORTURE In Mumbai’s Slums: When will our political and administrative leaders end the daily assaults on women’s safety and dignity? The report prepared by Ms. Payal Tiwari is accompanied by a documentary film made by Dr. Sumedh Kulkarni. The death of Smt. Kalpana Pimple has vindicated the main finding in this report – namely, that the condition of most community toilets in Mumbai’s slums is a cause of daily assaults on the safety and dignity of women.

About 63% of Mumbai’s population lives in slums. Nearly 20% of slum dwellers have no access to toilets at all. Therefore, open defecation is not a matter of choice for them; it is coerced inevitability. The remaining slum population uses mainly community toilets on a shared basis. The condition of these community toilets in slums is truly shocking. According to a survey conducted by the BMC’s Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP) department, which is responsible for a vast majority of community toilets constructed under the Slum Sanitation Programme since 1997, 58% of the community toilets in slums have no electricity and 78% have no water! It is a shame for Mumbai that many women become victims of sexual harassment and crimes (most of which go unreported) due to lack of sanitation, which is a basic human need and a fundamental right of every citizen. This shame and injustice must end.

OUR DEMANDS

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The Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health demands urgent and result-oriented action from both the state government and the BMC on the following recommendations of the report. These should be treated as demands on behalf of Mumbai’s suffering slumdwellers.

Order a structural audit of all community and public toilets in slums in Mumbai. Those found deficient should be demolished and reconstructed.

Order a comprehensive audit of amenities in all the community and public toilets in Mumbai’s slums. Ensure adequate and 24X7 supply of water and electricity in every community and public toilet.

Order an audit of water supply and sewage management at all community and public toilets in slums in Mumbai. Unsafe sewage facilities must be immediately repaired and improved.

Bring a new legislation to make Sanitation and Clean Water fundamental rights of every Indian citizen.

Make Mumbai free of open defecation in two years by filling the demand-supply gap in slum sanitation. Without this, the Swachh Bharat Mission cannot succeed.

Create a policy to move towards the best solution for the sanitation problem – namely, to close shared community toilets and facilitate construction of self-contained toilets in every house. These provide the highest level of safety and are also well maintained.

Establish a single, empowered and apex-level Mumbai Sanitation and Cleanliness Authority (MSCA) under BMC by doing away with the sanitation-related functions currently handled by multiple agencies such as MHADA and MMRDA. MSCA should adopt a transparent public-private-people partnership model (without political interference and scope for corruption) to design, plan, build, maintain and monitor all categories of community and public sanitation facilities in Mumbai.

MPs, MLAs and Corporators should not be allowed to build toilets in slums using government funds allocated to them as elected representatives. Experience has shown that most slum toilets built by elected representatives are used for gaining short-term political mileage and are in very poor condition. Moreover, there is large-scale corruption involved in the construction and maintenance of such toilets.

Accept and implement the demand of the ‘Right to Pee’ campaign by ensuring adequate number of toilets and urinals, especially for women, in all slums and public places. In particular, the sanitation needs of women railway commuters must be met urgently.

Ensure adequate provision for children’s toilets. In the specific case of the ‘Killer Toilet’ in Mankhurd, kindly order its immediate

demolition and reconstruction.

For further information, please contact:Dhaval D. Desai: 9820290940 / dhaval.desai@orfonline.org;Nilesh Bane: 9892745685 / nileshbane@orfonline.org

To talk to the residents of Maharashtra Nagar who participated in the Jan Sunvaai, please contact:

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Supriya Sonawane: 8689861602 / 9702945233; Jyotsna Anil Jadhav: 9220081603; Vaishali Baban Jadhav: 8108974985

Observer Research Foundation MumbaiIdeas and Action for a Better India

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