Is Mumbai open defecation free?

Mumbai: The Centre has revalidated its claims of Mumbai being a open defecation free (ODF) city barely a week after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) fined 63 people for defecating openly. The Quality Council of India (QCI), a Union government-affiliated agency that had declared Mumbai an ODF city in January, revalidated the city as an ODF on July 6 after holding another assessment.

However, the ubiquitous sight of people defecating in the open continues to repulse Mumbaikars, who feel the city has a long way to go before it can be called defecation-free.

The civic body has made a large number of public toilets available at places where people tend to defecate in the open. On June 30, for the first time in its history, the BMC inaugurated 31 community toilets, 10 pay-and-use toilets and 42 temporary toilets at one go in all open defecation spots.

Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, told The Asian Age, “In order to make the city ODF, the BMC has constructed public toilets where people were seen defecating in public on a daily basis. Fines were also imposed on violators to make them wary about losing their money.” He added, “The BMC has also run several awareness campaigns including street plays and short films that were screened in multiplexes to create awareness.”

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had taken to Twitter and tweeted about the QCI’s certification of the city, congratulating Mumbaikars and the BMC on Friday.

Mumtaz Shaikh, an activist associated with the Right to Pee movement, told The Asian Age that the BMC should not let the praise go to its head. “The facilities in existing toilets are way less than average, which makes them very unhygienic to use. The Centre claimed that the city is free from open defecation, but one can see that there are children below the age of 12 who defecate in the open below the bridges and flyovers,” Ms Shaikh said.