New Delhi: South Delhi restaurants to let you pee for fee.The move will be enforced from April.
We will no more see Indian men urinating against walls and shrubs from April, at least in the southern part of the national capital.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) plans to ask more hotels, restaurants and eateries in the area to turn their washrooms into public toilets. Anyone using them will have to pay a nominal fee of 5 rupees for every time.
Corporation says the move would make more than 4,000 toilets accessible to the public. The civic body plans to enforce the rule by adding a provision in the health trade licenses issued to these establishments. “The license has a condition that the corporation can modify it any time. The move will be particularly beneficial for women who face problems due to lack of toilets in marketplaces,” SDMC commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel told The Times of India.
Restaurant managements, however, reacted with skepticism. The trade association says it is wrong to force the move on them. “This will violate our basic right to keep the rights of admission reserved. Besides, it will also raise issues regarding security,” said Riyaaz Amlani, president of the Restaurants Association of India.
Civic officials said Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had advised the SDMC to explore the possibility of opening up toilets in restaurants and hotels to the general public. Thereafter, the decision was taken after consultations.
The restaurant association said it would study the details of the move before planning its course of action.
“I appreciate the intent behind the move. Even now, people don’t have to buy food to use our toilets. But forcing it on private enterprises is wrong. We will look at the details to see whether our fundamental rights of admission and security are being violated,” Amlani said.
The south corporation has issued 4,586 health trade licenses to establishments which include hotels and restaurants. “Many of these places are small and do not have toilets. But more than 4,000 of them have toilets which will be opened for public use without any burden on tax-payers,” Goel said. Under the new rules, establishments may provide the facility for free. But they wouldn’t be allowed to charge more than 5 rupees from each user.
“Maintenance charges in restaurants usually vary depending on the restaurant but we have decided to keep it at Rs 5 otherwise people from the lower economic groups would not be able to use the facilities,” Goel said. The restaurants will also have to “prominently display” the fact that toilet facilities are available in their establishment. “Currently such provisions are available in some European nations. This innovative and trend-setting move may also encourage other civic bodies to follow suit elsewhere in Delhi and other cities,” he added.
Will this move end the menace which is another example of gender discrimination in India?
Sociologists say Indians are conditioned to think that a man can do anything in public. Man is a public animal while woman is a private being. Man can get away with anything. Patriarchy allows that. Indians have perceived that for generations.
For example, a man can stop his car on roadside, get out and ease himself on the closest wall or tree. Women, on the other hand, struggle to find a toilet while they are on the move. This forces women to avoid drinking water when they are out. The result: more women than men complain of urinary tract infections because of holding back for long periods of time.
India has few pay-and-use toilets for commuters, motorists and pedestrians. Those existing are unclean and often unusable. Public toilet is an imported concept in India.
In March 2016, as part of its clean India campaign the federal government had directed states to start fine the public for littering, open defecation and public urination.
Littering or urinating in public places could invite penalties ranging between 200 to 5,000 rupees, according the new directive.
The ministry has set a strict time frame for states to provide an adequate number of public toilets and ensure facilities for garbage collection. States have been told to ensure there are public toilets, door-to-door garbage collection facilities and adequate dustbins at public places in wards where the fines kick in.
Sanitation experts said fines should have been preceded by adequate sanitation facilities.