What is it that makes us urinate in public?

Vikram Puranik (name changed), a media professional whose office is on MG Road, often takes a smoke-break on the pavement of the city’s main thoroughfare. But somewhere in between, when Nature’s call sets off an alarm, he crosses the road, gets under the under-construction Metro station and relieves himself in full view of pedestrians across the road.

This, despite an easier, more civil alternative available to him – run inside his office to use the toilets there to do what he does under the almost-complete Metro station.

But just a few months ago, when Puranik returned from an official tour of Europe, he was going gaga over the public utilities in the European cities which he visited. Asked whether he urinated in public even once when he was there, he said: “No chance!

There’s no way anyone even feels like urinating in the public. They (the civic authorities in the European countries) provide the best of the public toilet facilities, and the citizens exhibit the required civic discipline.”

The question then arises: Why does Puranik, who has apparently had a brush with what civic discipline is all about when in Europe, still pee in the public in his own city of residence?

That is a question that most educated Indians, who are resorting to this public nuisance on a daily basis, fail to answer.
What is it that makes us urinate in public? It’s a million-dollar question!

Early beginnings
Our failure lies not just in failing to resist the temptations to urinate in public, but also in discouraging our own children from doing so.
You could see a thousand instances in which parents help their young children relieve themselves by the roadsides. “It’s OK for our children to do so here, rather than in the backseat of our cars,” appears to be their line.

However, what fails to strike us is that these children will most likely grow up – as have we – to be adults assuming that there’s no problem urinating in public because their parents themselves encouraged them to do so.

The concept of child-friendly toilets is still an alien concept to Indian cities. Children can acquire clean habits while using these facilities meant for them. But it’s not being seen as a priority at all, feels Asha Ramesh, a women’s rights activist.

Dirty, dirty public loos
Even as the city grows taller and wider with more malls containing utilities, the pavements continue to be abused. Why? For one there is the Indian mentality, says Psychiatrist Dr B Madhukar.

“People would keep their homes clean but would not care about the environment,” he says. There’s more to the ‘Indian mentality’ that keeps our streets from being urine-free. “We are still not used to the pay-and-use system,” Dr Madhukar says. Also, the pavements are much cleaner than some of the ill-maintained utilities, so are walls, pedestrian subways, trees…and mostly men prefer these over the dirty, stinking public toilets, he says.

Whither education?
There is one more aspect of being Indian to be talked about in this context – lack of education. People are ignorant of a proper way of using toilets, that’s why maintenance remains an issue. “People have to be taught how to use these facilities. They have not acquired hygienic ways of doing things. Merely building toilets is not enough, education, awareness campaigns should come with it,” says women’s rights activist Asha Ramesh. That awareness is lacking and behavioural change is necessary is evident at toilets at places like airports, malls frequented by the affluent; cleanliness in these places cannot be taken for granted.

The other side of this story is absence of proper toilets for a huge population even today.  Karnataka has been performing very poorly in the total sanitation campaign. “The sanitation problem in the state is serious,” Asha Ramesh says. Where toilets are available they might be pay and use, if not cleanliness is an issue. Water not being available or loos being locked are also common, says Sushma Varma of Samanatha Mahila Vedike.

Male vs Female
There is also conditioning and cultural issues to tackle. Men and women have the same urges (no pun intended). But the man lets go freely in public. “Because he can,” says Asha Ramesh explaining the deep-seated attitude towards a man, say just stopping his car, getting out and to the closest wall or tree, undoing his fly and doing the deed. “We have been conditioned into thinking that a man can do anything in public. Man is a public animal; a woman is a private being. Man can get away with anything. Patriarchy allows that. We have perceived that for generations,” she says.

Women, on the other hand, try hard to not find themselves in need of a toilet while they are on the move. “They do not drink much when they are out. Also, fear of infections makes them keep away from commodes in public toilets,” Dr Madhukar says.

And therefore, more women than men complain of urinary tract infections because of holding back for long periods of time, says Asha Ramesh.

Lot needs to change for a developing country like ours. Basics like these should figure among priorities, even in cities, she feels.

But no solution in sight
Despite this, the pay-and-use toilets are very few in number for commuters, motorists and pedestrians. And many of those that stand, are unclean, says Dr MJ Thomas, consultant psychiatrist, Sagar Hospital. “Public toilet is an imported concept in India. And that these toilets remain dirty, puts off an average Indian from using it,” he says.

In November, 2008, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) decided to exempt people using Nirmala toilets from paying the fees in favour of generating revenue through advertisement hoardings or posters put on the toilet blocks.

The idea behind this, according to BBMP officials, was to encourage people to use the toilets, and refrain from relieving themselves in public. They felt that the payment of ¤1 to use the toilets deterred the people from using the toilets, and this in turn would lead to reducing the problem of people urinating by the roadsides.

What the BBMP did was to get into an agreement with a private firm, Hype Integrated Communications, to spruce up the toilets, to keep them clean to appeal to the public, in the hope that if money was charged for answering to the nature’s calls people would happily enter these toilets to do their jobs...for free.

At least 30 of a total 126 Nirmala toilets, developed through a ¤8 crore initiative taken by Sudha Murty, wife of Infosys mentor, NR Narayana Murthy, in 2005, were earmarked for this sprucing up operations under the BBMP-Hype Integrated Communications agreement in November 2008.

But the plan apparently backfired. Our Uncle Pee continues to be at it, because if it’s a free lunch, he cares two hoots whether he does it inside or outside, in the open, where there is little scope of being the target of stink that floats around inside. Now, it is our mindset to be blamed, and people prefer to return to the shades of the trees or the roadsides to relieve themselves. The problem continues till date. Nirmala toilets did not even make a dent while trying to help improve the civility among our citizens by providing a facilities.