The upper house of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature today saw a demand for discussion on the lack of toilets for women police personnel in the state.
Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Vijay Bahadur Pathak gave notice under Rule 110 of the House, which allows for motions without prior notice.
In the notice, the member has brought attention to the fact that while the government has appointed women police personnel in all thanas, toilets for them are either non-existent or in very poor condition. It also states that at many places women are forced to use the toilets meant for their male colleagues. Except for mahila thanas this is the prevalent condition in all police stations, the member said.
The notice also draws attention to the fact that while non-governmental organizations are big on talking about sanitation and ‘taking photographs’, none of these bodies has taken any initiative to address this problem.
Under the Lucknow commissionairate, there are 24 police stations which do not have toilets for women. Even the police station located close to the state legislature does not have a women’s toilet. The notice also underscores that women—both police personnel and complainants—are often forced to go outdoors for toilets.
The state government had set a target of October 2, 2018 to make the state free of open defecation. As per the Swachh Bharat website maintained by the state government, the objective of this mission was to "eliminate the ‘bad practice of open defecation', modern and scientific management of urban solid waste, capacity building for urban local bodies, etc".
The mission aimed at building household toilets, community toilets, public toilets and solid waste management, and also to create public awareness.
