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Mahatma Gandhi Centre

for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health

PRESS RELEASE

MUMBAI - WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014

SYSTEMIC CRIME,
not a TRAGEDY!
How many Kalpana Pimples must die and suffer humiliation before
Government ends the TOILET TORTURE in Mumbais slums?

Mahatm
I was inside the toilet when I heard a loud crash, immediately followed by a
womans desperate cries for help from the adjoining toilet. I thought the
woman must have slipped and injured herself. But when the cries grew
louder and hysterical, I got scared. I rushed out and tried to force open the
door. A few seconds later, the cries stopped and there was eerie silence.
Others who had queued up for their turn to use the toilet helped me break
open the door. When I looked inside, all I could see was a gaping hole where
the floor should have been. There was no sign of the woman. She had fallen
into the septic tank below the toilet when the floor caved in. This was the
account given by Supriya Sonawane in a trembling voice, unable to control
her emotions. Grief, dread and shock were writ large on her face.

Supriya, a second-year BSc student of

Vivekanand College, Chembur, was sharing her
experience at the Jan Sunvaai (Public
Hearing) organised by the Mahatma Gandhi
Centre
for
Sanitation,
Cleanliness
and
Community Health just a few metres away
from the killer toilet in Maharashtra Nagar, a
slum in Mankhurd, where Smt. Kalpana Pimple,
a 45-year-old widow and loving mother of two
Supriya Sonawane sharing her teenaged children, died on March 4, 2015.
experience at the Jan Sunvaai
Smt. Pimple fell to her death in the filled-toorganised at the Maharashtra
Nagar
slum.
Supriya
was capacity, 20-feet-deep septic tank, when the
occupying the toilet adjoining the floor of the toilet occupied by her collapsed.
one which collapsed, killing Smt. Her body was extricated four hours later. The
Jan Sunvaai, organised on March 8, International Womens Day, was
attended by nearly 500 slum residents mainly women.
Not a single BMC official or any political leader has bothered to visit
Maharashtra Nagar following this incident. Is our life so cheap? The police
have registered a case, but will justice be done? asked Smt. Vaishali Jadhav.

Smt. Jyotsna Kamble, another resident, squarely put the blame on the BMC
and demanded penal action against all those involved in the construction
and maintenance of the toilet block. Kalpanatai had lost her husband a year
ago. Now she too is gone. Will the Government take care of Kalpanatais
young children who have been orphaned? For how long will we have to risk
our lives for such fundamental needs? she asked. One by one, the women,
young girls and even the male residents of the slum vented out their
anguish, anger and helplessness at the incident, all pleading the BMC and
the Mahararashtra Government to provide them regular and safe access to
clean sanitation.
Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni, Chairman, Observer Research
Foundation Mumbai, who also heads the Mahatma
Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness
and Community Health, assured the
residents that the purpose of the Jan
Sunvaai was to lend a voice to the
residents of the slum, who have till
now suffered in silence from the total
inadequacy of sanitation facilities.
Shri Kulkarni, who had visited the
area along with his colleagues the
Nearly 500 residents of Maharashtra Nagar very next day (March 5), has written
to
Chief
Minister
Shri
slum
mainly women and young girls letters
participated in the 'Jan Sunvaai' organised on Devendra
Fadnavis
and
BMC
March 8, 2015.
Commissioner Shri Sitaram Kunte
demanding immediate remedial action: (1) demolition of the Killer
Toliet and construction of a superior facility before the onset of the
monsoon; (2) suitable compensation for the orphaned children
Snehal Baburao Pimple (who is studying BSc second year) and
Prateek (who is studying in the 12th standard.)
Shri Kulkarni announced that the Mahatma Gandhi Centre would
give Rs. 1 lakh to the affected family as our humble contribution to
the societal care of Kalpana Pimples children.
He said: It is shameful that we have gathered here to mourn the death of a
woman for such a disgraceful reason on a day when womanhood is being
celebrated around the world. The civic administration and the citys political
leadership should awaken from their slumber and ensure that millions of
Mumbaikars who continue to live in dreadful conditions in slums are given
assured access to clean and safe sanitation facilities.
Kulkarni added: The quality of construction of the toilet, which was built just
five years ago, is so visibly poor that it is truly inexcusable that the
authorities cleared it for public use. Can such a death be passed off just as a
tragedy, or should it be considered a crime due to the total systemic failure?
he asked.

During the Jan Sunvaai, activists of

the
Mahatma
Gandhi
Centre Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni addressing the
inspected the mobile toilets provided residents of Maharashtra Nagar slum.
by BMC for the use of slumdwellers
after the closure of the Killer Toilet.
We were shocked to see that these
had no provision for safe sewage
disposal. The excreta from these
mobile toilets was flowing out in the
open, posing a serious health hazard
to the entire population of the area.

WITHOUT PROPER SANITATION FOR SLUMDWELLERS,

SWACHH BHARAT IS MEANINGLESS
The Mahatma Gandhi Centre would like to inform the media and the
authorities that what happened in the Maharashtra Nagar slum is not an
isolated case of poor construction and zero maintenance of shared
community toilets in slums. Rather, most of the community and public toilets
in Mumbai are in terrible condition, thanks to an unholy nexus between local
politicians, government officials and contractors. The 4,000-odd ramshackle
free-to-use toilets built by MHADA are the worst in this regard; these, by
design, do not have any water or electricity connection. A majority of MHADA
toilets, and thousands of other community toilets across the city, are without
connection to municipal sewer lines. Raw sewage from these toilets flows out
directly into open drains and nalas in the neighbourhood. Their septic tanks
have not been desludged for decades. The lack of proper vents make a vast
majority of such septic tanks potential bombs that can explode due to the
over-accumulation of methane and other noxious gases. Casualties owing to
explosion of such poorly maintained septic tanks are not uncommon.
Besides being life-threatening owing to negligence and total lack of
maintenance, as this unfortunate death of Smt. Kalpana Pimple has proved,
community toilets in slums threaten the safety and dignity of users,
especially women. The Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness
and Community Health has recently released a report titled TOILET
TORTURE In Mumbais Slums: When will our political and
administrative leaders end the daily assaults on womens safety
and dignity? The report prepared by Ms. Payal Tiwari is accompanied by a
documentary film made by Dr. Sumedh Kulkarni. The death of Smt. Kalpana
Pimple has vindicated the main finding in this report namely, that the
condition of most community toilets in Mumbais slums is a cause of daily
assaults on the safety and dignity of women.
About 63% of Mumbais population lives in slums. Nearly 20% of slum
dwellers have no access to toilets at all. Therefore, open defecation is not a
matter of choice for them; it is coerced inevitability. The remaining slum
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population uses mainly community toilets on a shared basis. The condition of

these community toilets in slums is truly shocking. According to a survey
conducted by the BMCs Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP)
department, which is responsible for a vast majority of community toilets
constructed under the Slum Sanitation Programme since 1997, 58% of the
community toilets in slums have no electricity and 78% have no water! It is a
shame for Mumbai that many women become victims of sexual harassment
and crimes (most of which go unreported) due to lack of sanitation, which is
a basic human need and a fundamental right of every citizen. This shame
and injustice must end.

OUR DEMANDS
The Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community
Health demands urgent and result-oriented action from both the state
government and the BMC on the following recommendations of the report.
These should be treated as demands on behalf of Mumbais suffering
slumdwellers.
Order a structural audit of all community and public toilets in
slums in Mumbai. Those found deficient should be demolished
and reconstructed.
Order a comprehensive audit of amenities in all the community
and public toilets in Mumbais slums. Ensure adequate and 24X7
supply of water and electricity in every community and public
toilet.
Order an audit of water supply and sewage management at all
community and public toilets in slums in Mumbai. Unsafe sewage
facilities must be immediately repaired and improved.
Bring a new legislation to make Sanitation and Clean Water
fundamental rights of every Indian citizen.
Make Mumbai free of open defecation in two years by filling the
demand-supply gap in slum sanitation. Without this, the Swachh
Bharat Mission cannot succeed.
Create a policy to move towards the best solution for the
sanitation problem namely, to close shared community toilets
and facilitate construction of self-contained toilets in every
house. These provide the highest level of safety and are also well
maintained.
Establish a single, empowered and apex-level Mumbai Sanitation
and Cleanliness Authority (MSCA) under BMC by doing away with
the sanitation-related functions currently handled by multiple
agencies such as MHADA and MMRDA. MSCA should adopt a
transparent public-private-people partnership model (without

political interference and scope for corruption) to design, plan,

build, maintain and monitor all categories of community and
public sanitation facilities in Mumbai.
MPs, MLAs and Corporators should not be allowed to build toilets
in slums using government funds allocated to them as elected
representatives. Experience has shown that most slum toilets
built by elected representatives are used for gaining short-term
political mileage and are in very poor condition. Moreover, there
is large-scale corruption involved in the construction and
maintenance of such toilets.
Accept and implement the demand of the Right to Pee campaign
by ensuring adequate number of toilets and urinals, especially for
women, in all slums and public places. In particular, the
sanitation needs of women railway commuters must be met
urgently.
Ensure adequate provision for childrens toilets.
In the specific case of the Killer Toilet in Mankhurd, kindly order
its immediate demolition and reconstruction.

For further information, please contact:

Dhaval D. Desai: 9820290940 / dhaval.desai@orfonline.org;
Nilesh Bane: 9892745685 / nileshbane@orfonline.org
To talk to the residents of Maharashtra Nagar who participated in the Jan
Sunvaai, please contact:
Supriya Sonawane: 8689861602 / 9702945233; Jyotsna Anil Jadhav: 9220081603;
Vaishali Baban Jadhav: 8108974985

Observer Research Foundation

Mumbai

Ideas and Action for a Better India