A Call to Action--India and the Right to Pee Campaign

Hi everyone!

I'm en route to spend a few weeks with my brother in the beautiful state of Colorado. It's a long road trip when it's just me on my own, but the end result is worth it!

I want to tell you about an article that really struck me in today's New York Times. Apparently--and probably not surprisingly--there are more people in India than there are toilets. According to this article, the link to which I'll include below, in Mumbai alone there are 5,993 public toilets (with an additional 2,468 urinals) for men and only 3,536 for women. In these public toilets--which are filthy beyond belief--a male attendant collects anywhere from 2 to 5 rupees from customers in need of said facilities. The hitch though is that while men need to pay for the privilege of using a proper toilet, they can use the urinals at no charge. The same is obviously not true for women. Every time a woman needs to urinate, she must pay for the dubious privilege.

While it may not seem like a big deal for many of you reading this blog, when you consider the fact that many of the poorest people in India survive on as little as 29 rupees a day, 2 to 5 rupees paid out every time one needs to take care of one's natural functions really adds up. The article goes on to say that although women in Mumbai comprise half the city's workforce, many of these women do not have access to a toilet in their workplace. Thus, they are forced to use these public toilets and are getting ripped off in the process.

According to a recent article from the BBC, 35 non-government NGOs have organized around a campaign called--quite appropriately--the Right to Pee that in Mumbai alone has already collected 50,000 signatures by activists who have gone door-to-door as part of a movement to raise awareness about this ludicrous double standard. But more than this, the Right to Pee organization is charged with bringing attention to the need for improved sanitation, more and cleaner toilets, and the hiring of female attendants to look after the women's bathrooms.  Mumbai city officials met with a select group of campaigners last week to discuss plans to build hundreds of new public toilets specifically for women all across the city. Whether this initiative reaches any sort of fruition in India's notoriously corrupt public sector remains to be seen. It is, however, a step (however small)  in the right direction.

If nothing else, it further raises the point that despite its miraculous economic growth, the disparity between India's rich and poor remains staggering. The infrastructure--or lack thereof--as it exists now simply cannot hold.

I have looked for a website address for this campaign and was unable to find anything. I recently joined an online organization called Change.org wherein members can write and file petitions for or against any cause that matters to them. The petitions are posted on the Change.org site and anyone can affix their signature to it. Over the course of the next few days, I will be lending my voice to this Right to Pee campaign by drafting a petition on Change.org addressed to the appropriate Indian civic authorities in charge of public sanitation. Any and every human being has the right to clean, safe, sanitary, and FREE toilet facilities regardless of gender.

I will post on here the moment my petition is live and I will encourage you to share this link with everyone you know so we can get at least 100,000 online signatures. The Indian government must be held accountable by its citizens. My petition is only a small step, but it is a step and part of a much larger campaign.

In the meantime, please click below for the New York Times article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/world/asia/in-mumbai-a-campaign-against-restroom-injustice.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Ciao.