The Nagpur citizen’s Forum held a protest today demanding an increase in the number of public urinals for women under the ‘Right to Pee’ campaign. Nagpur Citizens Forum launched a ‘Right to Pee’ campaign to demand clean, safe and free toilets for the citizens on December 30, 2021.
Under this campaign, the ‘Nagpur Citizens Forum’ surveyed and examined the situation by visiting the toilets available in different parts of the city”, a member of the forum said. Various members of the Citizen’s forum participated in the protest and raised slogans demanding better urinal facilities for women in public places from the government.
Advocate Smita Singhalkar, a Women Activist and a member of the forum said that unhealthy urinals might lead to various diseases and improper public urinals site often result in crimes against women and girls. “The lack of adequate public toilets is a matter of concern. Women and girls are forced to use other people’s improper or private washrooms, which may lead to crimes such as rape or sexual harassment,” said Smita.
“It’s very important to provide better urinal facilities to females. Thus, on this women’s day, we demand to increase the number of better public urinals under the Right to Pee campaign from the Maharashtra government,” Smita added. Informing about the surveys conducted in the rural areas, Smita said, “Even the schools that are present in the rural areas do have not proper washrooms and girls are forced to request the nearby people to use their washroom. Such kind of negligence may lead to crimes against these girls”.
She also said that their organisation filed a PIL a few years back but no specific or recognisable actions have been taken by the government. Also, it is necessary to increase the number of public toilets in the area and provide better facilities in the existing washrooms such as better gates, tap water, electricity, etc. Further, they urged the government to take necessary actions in constructing hygienic and safe public toilets for women to avoid crimes against them.
