Dear Minister, I thank you for peeing in public
If you’ve been following the news on social media then you might have guessed which ‘Peeing Minister’ I’m referring to. A few days back the Rashtriya Janata Dal tweeted a couple of undated snapshots of Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh urinating in public, flanked by securitymen.
The photos of Singh who belongs to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was accompanied by a post in Hindi, which read, “Surrounded by heavy security, Union minister for agriculture inaugurating the irrigation scheme. He also gave a boost to the Swachh Bharat Mission”. The tweet has gone viral and other opposition parties haven’t wasted this stinky opportunity to criticise the ruling BJP.
The minister, however, defended himself, saying there was no urinal for long distances on National Highway 28 near Pipara when he wanted to relieve himself. A spokesman for the BJP, also defended the minister and told the Hindustan Times: “There is absolutely nothing wrong in what the minister did.” He added: “One cannot suppress nature’s call for long. What do you do if you are travelling long distances and there are no public urinals on the way?”
And he is so damn right. What do you do? What do you do when you are travelling for hours and can’t find a toilet on the highway?
For men, it’s simple. Pee by the roadside. And the minister did just that. Frankly, in my experience, I haven’t found a man who hasn’t done this at least once in his adult life.
But, what about women? Very few women among my friends and family would pee in the open like men. The reasons for are many from safety issues to societal taboos surrounding the female body.
One of the reasons, I chose to work in the sanitation sector was because of a painful road trip across three states –Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand- where I couldn’t find a toilet for hours while the men didn’t have to bother. Contrary to popular notion that “women can hold’, female bladders are in fact smaller than that of men. We CANNOT physically hold for long.
Netizens have trolled the minister for his act, saying it shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swacch Bharat Mission in poor light because his own party people are creating filth.
I admit peeing in public is a nuisance, but in this case I will consciously take a different stance. I am happy the minister urinated by the side of National Highway 28.
In fact, I’m elated.
This incident shows that there is a dire need of good toilets on our country’s highways, especially in poorer states such as Bihar and Jharkhand. Men suffer, but women suffer more. There has been a long-standing petition on Change.org to Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways for “Safe and Clean Highway Toilets for Women’. This petition has 176,889 supporters till date and the National Highways Authority of India has admitted that this is a critical issue and they planning to build more facilities.
Recently, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has ruled that public convenience facilities along highways are a fundamental right of passengers and tourists. The court is right. Right to sanitation or in simple words the Right to a decent Toilet is a human right. (Even the United Nations says so.)
As citizens let’s take advantage of this peeing controversy.
Instead of creating another meme trolling the minister, let’s tell our politicians to build more highway toilets. I would say the opposition parties should also be constructive and take the initiative to build highway toilets in the constituencies they rule.
It’s the best time to renew the demand for safe and clean highway toilets, because from now on it will be a tad difficult to find a minister relieving himself by the roadside.
