The world celebrates ‘World Toilet Day’ on 19th of November, an initiative towards inspiring people to wake up and work against the global sanitation crisis. However, sanitation and hygiene remains one of the major hurdles in fulfilling the agenda of sustainable development goals. In a country like India, whose population contributes to about 17.74% of the total world population, poor sanitation remains a constant challenge. It is true that the nation, has embraced Prime Minister’s initiative of “Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan” with open arms. The citizens of the country have taken it upon themselves to create a cleaner and healthier tomorrow for themselves, but maintaining the sanitation of these newly built toilets is a debate in itself. The nation is still under the threat of diseases, spreading from the dirty toilets, specifically in public spaces.
The median age of the nation is 27 years, which shows that India is a very young nation. Most of the young population is seen in colleges, universities trying to give a direction to their life in their most productive period. When an attempt was made to encapsulate the voice of the youth, on the issue of sanitation, availability of a toilet and dirty toilets, the response that came from the male population was in many ways different from the opinion and experiences of the female population. Women reported scarcity of female washrooms, dirty toilets, poor sanitation and a lot more.
It has not been long since women have realized their worth and have spread their wings to fly high in the sky. However, this obstruction of unhealthy, unclean washrooms shackles the flight of women. The enthusiastic young minds, and the roving spirit gets handicapped due the inhibitions posed because of the sanitation issues. According to the word of the street, women in spite of going to these dirty, filthy toilets, tend to hold their pee inside, which in turn makes them very uncomfortable, and also tend to damage their internal organs, which can prove fatal in the long run.
According to the male population, they easily find urinals and toilets and in the worse case scenarios, they can easily find a dark nook where they can openly relieve themselves. However, in case of women, the scarce toilets that they find for themselves end up being smeared with feces, and heinous insects and sometimes even blood and sanitary napkins, choking the drainage. These dirty toilets run the risk of contaminating the environment and any kind of physical contact with the toilet can prove to be costly for the person.
Women development is often a neglected issue and comes into focus only when it comes to adding it to the election manifesto of a political party. The health of the young college going, working women gets compromised. Women, for the lack of facility, end up dehydrating themselves, under the dread of not having to use the public washrooms.
It is a relief that the youth of today is no more a naïve creature, they understand their responsibility and they know how to assert their rights. Ideas and innovation are synonymous to the nation, and the ability with which this generation of young minds has taken it up upon themselves to find the solutions to the problems of the society.
A peeing device, which gives women the freedom to stand and pee, is one such innovation. To be able to stand and pee is one common dream of many women. As it not just facilitates women, but also gives them the privilege, that men have been gifted with.