Medium
Mixed Media
Year
2009
Title
How long can you stand it?

How about an experiment?

Fill up your bladder, walk around the maze and then see if you can find a toilet to relieve yourself. Not a wall. Not a corner. But a toilet.

Did you find one? No? We Mumbaikars face this problem everyday of our life! Nearly 65% of Mumbai’s population i.e. 8 million people live in slums of which 50% are ‘authorised’ slums with some toilet facilities. The other 50% relieve themselves in the open creating 1000-1400 tons of excreta.

Mumbai needs 40,000 more public toilet blocks to meet its needs. For example, are you aware that Mumbai’s plush office district - steel and glass speed over an area of approximately 170 cricket grounds and home to the National Stock Exchange, multinational banks, a diamond bourse and big league international schools - does not have a single public toilet!!! Anyone who does not have entry to the district’s plush buildings, whether it is a taxi driver or a construction worker, has to use a wall. Similarly, other popular areas like Priyadarshini Park, Marine Drive, Carter Road and Juhu Beach lack sufficient amenities.

And so a booming Mumbai must endure its age-old defining feature:
ITS GREAT STINK.

Public toilets: 1300, People: 14 million, One toilet: 10,769 desperate users.