Youth Fellows: Karan Kamble, Nandlal Bind, Shaheen Shaikh, Shivnarayan Sharma, Shivshankar C. Velayudhan, Shubham Dubey
Methodology
Survey
200
100 Male and 100 Female. Almost all the homes were covered under the survey by getting at least one respondent from each household. majority of the respondents were between 18 to 37.
Why did the group chose this topic?
Residents living in Jay Bhim Nagar have faced Problems like no proper sanitation facilities; unhygienic environment, high malnutrition rate, low literacy rate, no drainage and sewage system, non-functional toilets, exploitation by contractors, etc. Due to all the above atrocities the entire community has been going through, we decided to do research in this community and find sustainable solutions to it one of the basic problem i.e. Sanitation.
Introduce the research topic in one sentence
Research throws light on how Sanitation affects people, what problems they face when there is a limited or almost no access to proper toilets, how open defecation plays a role in lives of residents and analyzing solutions to their issues.
Summarise 3-5 key findings
-90.5% said that they are not having any proper functional toilets in the community and those which are available out of them 98.5% of the people said that the condition of toilets is bad.
-Majority of the respondents said that the condition of the public toilets in Jai Bhim Nagar is Bad i.e. 98.5% and the people who said that the condition is Good accounts for merely 1.5% of the total respondents.
-87% residents don’t feel safe to use public toilets in Jai Bhim Nagar during night time.
-95.7% respondents said they have to stand in a queue to use the public toilet and majority of them said it takes even upto 30 minutes.
-99.5% respondents said that there is no separate toilet facility available for differently-abled people.
- 70% population have stated that people of Jai Bhim Nagar defecate in open area. 55.6% of them said problems faced by them are diseases, 35.8% of them stated dirtiness & bad smell, 16.6% said Mosquitoes and 9.9% highlighted bad effect on environment.
Action/advocacy work
- Online campaigns like signing petitions on Change.org to raise issues among the public at large.
- Conducting online awareness sessions for residents to raise awareness about maintain public toiltes, keeping hygiene,etc.
- Physically meeting every house and making them aware about their rights, importance of sanitation & Garbage segregation.
- Online fundraising and collaboration with some NGOs led to successful construction of 10 Public Toilets.
Recommendations
- Sensitizing and creating awareness in the community on various issues like cleanliness, personal hygiene, sanitation, healthy lifestyle, bad effects of open defecation, malnourishment, etc through various mediums like street play, workshops, lectures, competitions, etc.
- NGOs working in the field of Labour rights can help the labourers in Jai Bhim Nagar Community knowing their rights and fighting for it.
- Government and NGOs should take proactive measures in encouraging and ensuring equal educational opportunities for children in Jai Bhim Nagar.
- BMC garbage collectors should collect the community garbage strictly on a regular basis.
-BMC can help in renovating the old existing cement constructed toilets in Jai Bhim Nagar by fixing the sewage problem and making it available for the residents. - Private Companies can play an important role by taking an initiative to build/ setup toilets in this community under CSR Activity.
- The residents of Jai Bhim Nagar should form a Community Based Organization (CBO) for looking after the maintenance of community toilets.
Locality name
Jai bhim nagar, Powai, Mumbai.
Please share four keywords that relate to your research
Sanitation Open Defecation Public Toilet JaiBhim Nagar