Political parties woo women voters with promises of toilets in Pune

Bhagyashree Kulthe
With 50% seats now reserved for women in the municipal corporations, the political parties are all set to woo women voters with promises to build toilets for them. Though the parties are yet to come out with their manifestos, the leaders say it is an important issue and insist that it will top the agenda of the party.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is the only party to have come up with its manifesto so far and it promises to construct more toilets for women in Pimpri-Chinchwad. However, interestingly, the manifesto does not find a place for it on its agenda for Pune. The manifestos of most political parties are yet to come out, but their leaders are already making promises to get more public toilets for women.

Lack of adequate number of women's toilets in the city has been making headlines for the last couple of years and yet the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) seems to have made little progress on this front. The city, with a population of more than 35 lakh, has toilets with 364 seats for women and 1,437 seats for men, according to PMC data. The 364 toilets for women include 242 pay-and-use toilets and 11 community toilets, which means public urinals for women are around 100. The PMC's public health norms state that one urinal should be available per 100 people. However the present figures show there is only one urinal per 9,000 people.

Activist Vijay Kumbhar said that information gained under the Right To Information Act, 2005 had revealed that in 2008 there were six urinals for women in the city and the number has not gone up much further since then.

Congress corporator Aba Bagul, who recently inaugurated a swanky public toilet for women on Satara Road, said if his party is voted to power, it would make it mandatory for builders to construct a public toilet on the premises or outside it. "We would ensure the builders get some benefit in floor space index in return," he said.

However this is only about new constructions and he is not sure how the party will go about addressing the need for public toilets for women. He assured it would be a prominent issue for the Congress.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator, Medha Kulkarni insisted on toilets at every chowk. "Whether we come to power or not, our stand will remain the issue. The PMC has been misguiding women on the number of women's toilets. The figures they have given includes community toilets which are not public urinals. We have promised our voters to build more public urinals," she said.

Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe had taken to the streets for more public urinals for women and has said that it will be an important issue on their agenda. "It's not just about construction of urinals, but also about cleanliness. The existing toilets are unhygienic and are leading to health problems," said Gorhe. 

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader, Ranjit Shirole was not sure whether the issue would come up on the manifesto, but said their corporators will see to it that the PMC focuses on constructing more toilets.