One toilet for 1,440 people at Dharavi
November 19, 2006
Dharavi, Mumbai: Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum township, sits bang in the middle of mega-city Mumbai. It’s a city aspiring to be Shanghai.One-third of its population has no access to clean drinking water and two-thirds of its denizens, who live in slums, attend to nature’s call in such a way that has become a matter of life and death or perhaps survival against diseases. For an average Dharavi resident like Daaya Bhai, the day begins with a mad race to the community loo, where the queue is endless and the odds of deliverance are 800 to 1.
For the Daaya Bhais of Dharavi, it’s a matter of practice, gut and some pure luck to make a head start to their day. But for those who lack this instinct, there is the choice between the banks of Mithi river and the railway tracks, with slum dwellers hoping that the undergrowth will hide their helplessness and shame.
“There are no loos that work. So we head for the tracks. If you get hit by a train, the authorities demand Rs 500 to give the body,” Lalita Metkar, another Dharavi resident, claims.“There are a lot of problems due to gutter water in our homes,” Mohan, another resident, points out. “A pass system has never got implemented here, everyone here has to pay Re 1 to use the loos,” says Hansmukhwala.
In fact, these voices only corroborate the findings of the recent United Nations Development Programme report, which is raising one big stink on the issue. It says one in every three Indian has no access to toilets. In Dharavi, 1,440 dwellers share one toilet every day and an average of 15 families in every slum share one tap that supplies them water for two hours per day.
The Brihan-Mumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC claim of 90 per cent of Mumbai getting safe drinking water is an exaggeration. In fact, the Dharavi slums witness the highest incidence of diarrhoea and gastro deaths every year.
But none of this has changed Daaya Bhai’s options over the last 10 years, or for that matter that of other Dharavi residents. In a city that overlooks this kingdom of shanties and its life chances, the death rate due to diseases that go unreported is only headed skyward. “All the development work is held up because they want to turn Dharavi into Shanghai. But they can’t provide a basic toilet and sewer line. How can they think of creating a Shanghai, I can’t understand,” Arputham Jokin, president of National Slumdwellers Federation and Magsaysay Award winner, says.
On their part, the authorities have their own reasons. “I don’t want to go into the controversy of figures regarding the number of toilet blocks in Dharavi if it’s 1,500 per toilet or whatever. But I will say that the high congestion and overpopulation of the area prevents us from constructing any toilets in the area,” Dr S S Kudalkar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner of Zone II, says.
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