Public spaces provide a glimpse into the lives in their towns — who’re those constructed for, who they have the get admission to, and who can experience a sense of consolation and protection. Public sanitation services might as nicely be a microcosm of equal sentiments. This piece derives from my enjoyment during the instruction of a version of City Sanitation Plans in two cities along the Ganga basin. Preliminary studies between overdue 2017 and early 2018 in Bijnor (Uttar Pradesh) and Bodhgaya (Bihar) showed the functional status and customary utilization of Public Toilets (PTs), Community Toilets (CTs), and urinals in these cities.
Interviews with relevant authorities officers, avenue carriers, families, centered institution discussions with self-help businesses, and a survey of the public sanitation services brought us finally in on forty-seven attributes under five middle additives to classify these offerings as sanitary or no longer—location, signage, presence of ramps and dustbins, amenities like water, lighting fixtures, hand-wash.
The status of the flush tanks, presence of open defecation (OD) and urination (OU) in/across the premises, and connection to containment tanks were some of the attributes considered. Along with insufficient or dysfunctional bathroom systems, and the presence of OD and OU, a critical problem changed into the fundamental method to these public sanitation offerings: designed in the main to be used by adult men.