Mumbai: Women in Worli protest for toilets

Slum dwellers of Mahatma Phule Nagar in Worli protested on December 22, 2024 demanding public toilets. Interestingly, this slum is adjacent to the coastal road. On the one hand, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) built the coastal road by spending crores of rupees, on the other hand, the construction of toilets for the slum dwellers has not been completed. 

Around twelve hundred families live in the slums of Mahatma Phule Nagar in Worli. The construction of toilets in this area was stopped by the BMC a year ago. The civic body has provided a temporary mobile toilet for the residents here. However, this toilet is not cleaned, there is no water facility in this toilet, and the area of the toilet is also unhygienic. Therefore, there is a fear of spreading disease in this area. Tired of this situation, the residents had warned of a march in the area on Sunday. However, as the police did not allow the march, the residents gave a statement to the police station and warned of the agitation. The women of this area have demanded that the work of this toilet should be started within three days and the work of the toilet should be completed within a month.

60% of people in Mumbai live in slums. Residents here have no choice but to use public toilets (community toilets). But the toilets in most of the places have become remote. In some places, the toilets are dilapidated. Due to this, there is a possibility of an accident. As the number of pits is less, each pit is used in large numbers. As a solution to this, the civic body has decided to increase the number of toilets in the slums under the slum sanitation programme. Last year, the municipality had resolved to build 22,000 latrine pits under Lot 11, most of them have been completed.

This year, plans were made to build more toilets under Lot 12, including reconstructing MHADA toilets and replacing single-storey toilets with two-storey structures. Additionally, new toilets will be built in certain areas, with 559 toilets to be constructed in the first phase under Lot 12, contributing to a total of 14,166 new toilets across Mumbai. However, construction delays by some contractors are causing inconvenience to residents.