No toilet facilities at resettled slums
Express News Service
First Published : 28 Apr 2011 09:09:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 28 Apr 2011 12:32:04 PM IST
BHUBANESWAR: Orissa seems to have a scant regard for the National Slum Policy enacted a decade back.
The state of the basic services even after two decades in the resettled slums indicates the total collapse of the policy in the State. The Slum Policy is very specific on women living in the slums in the urban centres. There is no ambiguity in the policy - “Women’s particular needs and constraints must be specifically addressed by the State”. Bhudevi, an inhabitant of Sikharchandi slum, narrates the ordeal she has to live with daily.
There is no toilet facility in the slum, mainly due to lack of space and water. Men and children do so on the open space behind the primary school but for the women folk, it is not feasible. “We are compelled to finish by the sunrise near a big natural drain at the back of our habitation,” added Bhudevi.
The problem is the same everywhere in the State. Official data say only one in seven households in the slums in the State has access to flush or pit toilet. This is so when the density per square foot is quite high. When a non-poor urban household in the State has one sleeping room for around three members, a far more compact room space is available for over four members in a resettled slum in the State.
According to M Padhy, CFAR official, lack of space for construction of toilets in slums is proving a major roadblock in achieving the goal of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).
He said the National Slum Policy advocates provisioning of adequate land for resettlement of slum-dwellers. It states that all resettlement sites should be adequately serviced and even provision should be made for public transportation prior to the settlement.
But the basic services are not available in resettled colonies even after 20 years, said Padhy. According to Pankajini Pradhan, member of Agrani Mahila Samiti of Ragunathnagar Slum, the toilet facilities created for each individual household with the help of civil society organisations have been rendered useless in the area due to non-availability of water for flushing. Despite repeated petitions, the civic authorities failed to ensure water supply to the colony, she added.
