Goregaon residents curb open defecation on neighbouring plot within 45 days

MUMBAI: Visitors to Mumbai dread landing at the airport during the morning hours. They are appalled at the sight and stench caused by rows of slum dwellers who are seen defecating in the open.
Most Mumbaikars dismiss it as an inevitable fallout of mass migration.
However, women residents of Ankur housing society in Goregaon West have showed rare determination and managed to stop neighbouring slum dwellers from open defecation on a nearby ground.They achieved their goal within a span of 45 days.
Blogger Pulkit Mathur spearheaded the initiative. She said, "Ours is a society of 80 flats located near Hypercity Mall. It overlooks a vast ground that was used as a virtual open air toilet by the slumdwellers of Prem Nagar. For 15 years we could not open our windows in the morning. One day in April we saw some civic workers conducting a Swachh Bharat awareness drive at the spot with posters and banners against open defecation. We realised this campaign could provide the solution to our problem."
Ankur residents quickly founded what they call the Swachh Ankur Group. "Every morning from 6.00-8.30am we began to maintain vigil upon the ground by rotation in groups of two and three. We did so for 45 days, pleading with men who came with buckets and pails to use public toilets instead," Mathur said.
Civic authorities also posted women from their affiliate mahila mandals to guard the site alongside residents. It was these social workers who noticed that the men were embarrassed by the pleas of women. "Had male residents or officers confronted them, they would have turned combative," they said.
Interestingly, the group found support from women of the slum who had to endure indignity as well. Children of Prem Nagar were impressed by a powerpoint presentation on the llifecycle of flies that the Ankur Group prepared. Young upwardly mobile slumdwellers who work as salesmen in neighbouring malls also agreed that open defecation was wrong.
BMC officials and the local corporator helped by freeing up ten women's toilets for men during morning hours. Prem Nagar has a large population of single males who are migrants working as rickshaw drivers and handymen. Earlier, long queues would form outside men's washrooms while those for women were near vacant. This small step of conversion allowed more men to access this utility.
Residents also approached the high court for help since the ownership of the plot is under dispute. The BMC added its voice by making a similar plea.
Lalit Talekar, assistant engineer of the BMC's solid waste management department said, "We have also built new toilet blocks and closed access to the ground by installing barbed wire fencing."
Talekar is working towards making his P South ward 'OD (open defecation) free' just like Mulund has managed to do. "Prem Nagar was the biggest plot and that challenge has been surmounted. Women of Ashok Nagar slum near the highway would make their children squat on the footpath. We succeeded in stopping that also," he said.
Local corporator Lochana Chavan of the Shiv Sena was of immense help. "Together with the authorities we have fenced off the ground and also made more toilet units available to men. I have planted saplings to revitalise the ground," she said.