Indian women demand the ‘right to pee’

Alice Rodgers
WVoN co-editor 

Activists in Mumbai, India, are demanding better public toilet facilities for women, the BBC reported on Monday.

Currently they have to pay to use public toilets in the city, but men can use them for free.

A signature campaign, dubbed the “Right to Pee” has been launched and is supported by 35 non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The campaign demands that women be allowed to use the public restrooms for free, that vending machines providing women with sanitary towels are installed and that there are changing rooms in the toilets.

Rahul Gaekward of the Committee of Resources Organisation commented that “although the civic body rules state that no one should be charged for using public toilets, women are asked to pay”.

He continued: “We have decided to take up this issue with women corporators. They must have faced similar problems and can raise the issue in the house”.

Half of Mumbai’s civic authority are women.

Of the 129 public toilets surveyed by NGOs in the city, all were deemed to be ‘woefully inadequate’.

“We face a lot of problems because there are inadequate facilities in the city’s public toilets” said a female student who signed the petition in the Dadar suburb, adding that it was a question of dignity for women.

The campaign has received a lot of support from both men and women in the city and according to Gaekward, over 7,000 signatures have been collected so far.