Drawing attention to toilet troubles

Why does one lack remorse when vandalising public toilets? Damaged facilities broken pipes, cigarette butts strewn around, and suggestive graffiti on the walls may be an indication that a matter is deeper than an infrastructure issue but more of a sociological issue, says WASHLabs. At a Madras Day event, A Dialogue with the Public Toilets of Chennai, held recently, WASHLabs, which works alongside the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and Recycle Bin, opened up difficult conversations of a basic humanneed urination and defecation. Earlier, in a toilet walk organised by WASHLabs, vandalism in a community toilet near Sunambu canal and Kannappa Ram Nagar was observed. A few participants felt that the lack of ownership or responsibility gives a space for identities to turn anonymous and bring out a space to express repressed imaginations and wildest fantasies, ones tucked away in public spheres but expressed in the four walls of a dirty toilet, where you lack accountability, and have no remorse for the sanitation workers. Often, the cleaners of toilets are a mysterious, invisible layer. Who are they? Where are they from? This makes the user out of touch, and civic responsibility diffuses, said Ganga Dileep, founder of WASHLabs and CEO of the Thoomai Mission, which has been piloting sanitation literacy and recycling models with the Greater Chennai Corporation. One can also observe a gender disparity in vandalism; most graffiti depicts crude drawings of the female body, or even scrawled numbers you can quickly dial up for some fun. Many underlying social and psychological factors come to light here, where thoughts that are taboo to express may reveal themselves in the shadows of an unlit public toilet, a few other participants pointed out. The team has mapped over 1,400 toilets in 2022, to research why, in Chennai, where public toilets are an essential need, most toilets are in a dilapidated state. Moreover, the quality of the existing disabled-friendly toilets needs to be drastically improved. Toilets are underfunded, and there is a stark difference in the salaries earned by janitors and those employed by the government. Maintenance is nearly always outsourced with no clear system of monitoring, says Shebin, director of WASHLabs. In a Pee Point Mapping programme conducted by WASHLabs, it was observed that that among the open urination spots, some were, in fact, right outside or opposite to these public toilets. That the people would rather urinate a few metres away from a public toilet, even if it is clean, rather than walk in through these two doors makes one question the deeper underlying sociological issue. A form of self-expression seen in a democracy wall near Kannappa Ram Nagar Toilet premises A fact most ignored while constructing a toilet is the typology, cultural context, and site planning, Shebin noted. Toilet maintenance is a wicked problem, which means it has no ready-made solution, he added. A point to reconsider is the failed typology of toilets. In 2016, Chennai became the first city in India to deploy 183 self-cleaning, unmanned eToilets. However, none of these toilets is functioning now as most of the electrical equipment was either stolen or has stopped working. Hence, the focus now is to remove all electrical equipment from public toilets and bring back the basic toilets, said Shebin Contextual solutions are also a way forward. For instance, the team noticed that in a certain public toilet near pumping stations in Chennai, a survey revealed an alarming number of UTI infections. Here, the toilet building enters the sphere of womens health-related issues. Since UTI is more water-borne, removal of all open water-collecting facilities and replacing them with overhead water tanks could be a way forward. Hence, every issue has a certain context and requires a particular kind of solution, Shebin added. Although toilets should ideally be open 24/7, in some areas, it does more harm than good, as the toilets are built in an inaccessible spot, compromising on womens safety and even the janitors safety. So, what would an ideal toilet look like? Not just a new building, but a functioning ecosystem. One that treats janitors as integral workers with fair wages and protective gear. One that recognises the toilet as a community space, adopting models under CSR or neighbourhood ownership. One that incorporates sanitation literacy in schools so future generations see toilets, not as shameful, but as vital. Building new toilets alone is not the solution, but rather, repairing and utilising our existing facilities to the best is the right way forward, Shebin emphasised. Toilets are intimate spaces, but also public ones. They are where the citys most hidden truths surface about class, gender, health, and responsibility. Until policy, design and society acknowledge this, vandalism will not be the problem but the symptom of a deeper neglect.