Bengaluru: A survey by civic NGO Janaagraha has revealed that Bengaluru's public toilets, parks and playgrounds fall woefully short of the required standard.
The survey, conducted over two months accessed 2838 public toilets in Bengaluru, found that the city fell short by 1,100 toilet seats.
According to the national guidelines set by the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) for public toilets, cities with a floating population of 5 lakh should have one toilet seat per 100 male and two per 100 female.
The SBM guidelines also indicate that the city should have one toilet complex every seven km. The survey revealed that Bengaluru has only one public toilet in every 24 km.
The Ichangemycity survey also points out to the fact that 64 wards under the BBMP didn't have a single public toilet within its limits. Public toilets were given a score on a scale of 10 by looking at different parameters, namely usability, functional flushes, adequate lighting, whether equipped with wash basins and dustbins, and basic clean floors.
The findings showed that merely 10 percent of the male toilets and six percent of the female toilets had functional flushes. On an average, 13 percent of the toilets had dustbins. And, of all the toilets surveyed, only three male toilets and two female toilets scored a 10.203.
The scores for parks and playgrounds were abysmal too. Bengaluru has only 2.2 sq m of open space per capita as compared to the prescribed standard of 10 sq m per capita as recommended by the guidelines by the Ministry of Urban Development.
The survey looked into 1115 parks and 192 playgrounds to find that only three percent of the parks and one percent of playgrounds had drinking water facilities. Apart from this, six percent parks and four percent playgrounds had public toilets in close proximity. In fact, 21 percent of the parks remained closed to the general public.
It was found that seven parks in the city scored a 10/10 rating whereas only two playgrounds fit the bill for a score of eight with none getting a 10. Barely 30% of the playgrounds in the inner wards has installed playing equipment and 54% had garbage and debris thrown over the place. 44% didn't have adequate lighting facilities either. These could be some of the reason why these parks and playgrounds aren't frequented by the public.
The survey has been forwarded to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). "If the BBMP can simply use this data and take it up as a challenge that within a specified time they will try to achieve a 10/10 score then this whole exercise will be useful,” said Sapna Karim, head, civic participation, Janaagraha.
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