Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, July 16: The lack of toilets in government offices is causing inconveniences for female employees in Jammu and Kashmir.
An official said that female government employees complained several times about lack of toilets in government offices.
"There shall be separate lavatories for females in government offices.
The lack of toilets is bringing huge inconvenience to women employees," a female employee at DC office Srinagar said, wishing not to be quoted by name.
Another female employee of School Education Department said, "People suffering from diabetes have to go for natures call frequently thus are the worst sufferers of this inconvenience."
"Sometime we feel very offended when we are inside the washroom and a male colleague knocks on the door. We have approached our boss many times about this, but as usual the authorities don't pay any heed to our issues," said a female employee at old secretariat Srinagar. The official said that situation is no more different in Jammu.
The situation in schools and colleges is even worse, mostly in those run by the government and located outside Srinagar. "Most schools don't have proper toilet facilities," a teacher at School, Safa Kadal said. "And the ones that have toilets don't have separate ones for boys and girls."
An employees leader said that government should build separate washrooms for the convenience of employees. "This issue has already been raised with the government," he said.
Last month, the female employees had an interaction with the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti where they raised the issue that "proper segregated toilets facilities for female employees in the offices are not available".
She had expressed her concern, following which several departments issued directives to concerned officials to build separate toilets for employees.
As per the data of the state's Unified District Information System for Education survey, there are around 6,351 schools, which lack toilets for girls and 8,098 schools, which lack toilets for boys.
More than 71 per cent schools do not even have basins or taps to wash hands near toilets and urinals. There are around 28,000 government schools in J&K, as per the survey.
The lack of toilets in government offices is in contrary to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who launched the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014, aiming to make India "open defecation free" by 2019. The scheme has been divided into two parts- Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin and the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban.
The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has found J&K one among the worst performing states in India in implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission for rural in the last three years. |
