New Delhi: Whether it is normal circumstances or extraordinary ones, the going is never easy for women when it comes to sanitation. The lack of toilets for women, both public and private, is already a national issue. A trailer of the problems women face when they don’t have access to toilets is playing at Singhu border, one of the protesting sites of farmers.
Women farmers protesting here are struggling to access toilets after the recent barricading by the Delhi Police. Delhi borders were fortified after January 26. Now, sanitation has become a serious problem for women who have been protesting for over two months. The concrete walls have made it difficult for the farmers to use the portable and bio-toilets.
“I am 55 years old. I have to hold the urge to go all day and wait for it to be dark so that we can find a place to defecate. The toilets that we used earlier are on the other side of the barricade. After 26 January, it is as if they will take away our food also,” Anita, a protestor, told ‘thequint’.
Elderly women find it difficult to walk long distances in this cold to use the toilets that are there on the highways. “We have to walk afar. How can an old lady like me, 60-70 years of age, walk as much? Despite these troubles, we are sitting here for our rights,” one of them was quoted as saying.
Regular power cuts and interrupted water supply are also big issues. But such hindrances have not dampened the spirit of the farmers, some of whom have been camping with little children in tow.
“They may shut off power and water supply but we are farmers who till fields even if hungry or thirsty. Even if we don’t eat food or drink water for a day while in the field, we are fine. They (the government) are just doing what they feel like, and so be it. We won’t move till we take back our rights,” a protestor told ‘thequint’.
