Sanitation poor at Delhi protest sites

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, January 11

Farmers camping on different borders of the national capital in protest against the recently enacted agriculture laws are also facing lack of basic amenities and challenges like poor sanitation, water stagnation, inadequate disposal of solid waste, insufficient lighting and shortage of warm clothes etc.

“Inadequate number and poor maintenance of mobile toilets have rendered these dirty and unusable, pushing a considerable number of protesters to resort to open defecation. Almost three in every five respondents — 57.5 per cent — have to resort to open sites for defecation,” reveals the report of the survey released today.

The survey has been conducted at five sites of the farmers’ agitation on Delhi borders, including Singhu, Tikri, Shahjahanpur, Gazipur and Palwal, between December 19 and 22, by the Delhi and Haryana chapters of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), a countrywide movement on health and healthcare comprising 21 national networks and more than 150 organisations and state-level JSA platforms.

“Only 10.5 per cent respondents said these toilets were clean with proper water supply and 47 per cent said they were located at far-off places, creating difficulties in accessing them. There is no provision of lighting near the toilets, making it difficult to use them in the dark. Women are facing added troubles as they do not want to defecate in the open. Many women protesters reported that they were eating less and consuming less water to avoid using toilets,” the report says, adding that inadequate provisioning of mobile toilets is leading to compromised health, nutrition and hygiene for the protesters, especially women.

“There is also a growing threat of mental-health problems among the protesters with depression and suicidal tendencies, with some suicides and suicide attempts having taken place. No mental-health support measures are available at the protest sites to prevent these,” said Satnam Singh, state coordinator, JSA (Haryana) and a member of the survey team.

As per the survey, non-governmental organisations and volunteers are making efforts to maintain cleanliness.