I love to travel, I love to visit new places, I love the long journeys in Train rather than flight. It’s good to sit on the window side of a bus and watch the trees, lakes, houses, people, kids, vehicles all go behind you. Any time of the year, the wind blowing through the windows when you are on the move is so refreshing. But still off late I have avoided traveling to as much as possible. I travel to long distances only if it is absolutely necessary.  Do you know why? It’s because of the stinking toilets. Whether we travel in ultra luxury bus, private owned bus, own car or 1 AC coach in Train the toilets you come across does stink.

Forget all these I even left my job at UCO Bank because of no separate toilet for ladies, and the toilet did not have a proper door and wasn’t kept clean. Sounds weird does it? No its the truth. Being an officer I was expected to be in bank by 10 am and stay till 8pm. Sometimes beyond that as the Branch had a currency chest and I had to wait until all the currency came. In my one week at UCO Bank I never stayed till 10pm but I did stay till 7pm almost everyday and had to use the toilet at least once in a day. Other ladies did not use it at all. Because they were in the designation of clerk, hence they came at 10.30 left at sharp 5.30 and somehow controlled during day time. But for me long hours, coming from long distance made it impossible not to use toilet. But using it was a torture. I told the manager, he said you take the initiative you get it cleaned. But the person who was appointed for cleaning the same hardly obeyed me, as I was a new employee, and I did not have any power to punish him!!

So I knew that even if I apply for transfer or if I take this matter up to higher levels I do have to use this toilet until the problem is resolved and that was not possible. So I just quit the job!!!

Ok coming back to the story of traveling, so if the situation is so worse at a nationalized bank, imagine situations at road side hotels!! Rarely we come across clean toilets. During my travel I have observed three types of people,

1. Those who practice cleanliness, they want clean toilets and also they do pour enough water even when they use public toilets
2. Those who want to use clean toilets but are not bothered to keep it clean for the next person
3. those who are ok with stinking toilets, that is how it is at their home also anyway.

Thus even if a Hotel is keeping Toilets clean for travellers, by the time 10 people use it, among them there will be few people belonging to second and third category who will not bother about keeping it clean. That is why I hate travelling. The path is more important than the destination. So even before I could dream of the destination, I am lost in the worries of Toilet!!!!

Situation in villages is much more worse. Here I am only bothered about stinking toilet and because of stinking toilets no wonder few people would prefer attending nature’s call in the lap of nature itself. But that is so unsafe specially for the female folk. So many incidents happened in India which make us feel ashamed of our self and our people. Reminds of my childhood when I often visited my grandpa’s place in Somavarasanthe village of Shimoga. we had to walk some 200 feet backside the house to reach the toilet which was in the open, two wooden slabs placed on a gutter which was dug from bathroom till the farms. It was comparatively cleaner than the paternal  grandfather’s village where we had to just walk a lot of distance and fart in open lands. At my maternal grandfather’s place this arrangement was done in the boundary of the house, it had a fence around it, and thus others would not walk there. But still I was always uncomfortable as I could hear the voices of people visiting the house and talking with others. Somewhere I used to feel, then can see me!! And I never went there after the dark. I would wait till morning!!

Thanks to my uncle who build one proper toilet by the time we came to High School and he had a wife and kids. Hope every villager thinks like him and build a toilet in their house. And because of this reason we mostly spent our childhood holidays in maternal grandfather’s place than paternal because of toilet issues. The love for them was no less.

But here is a good news. Looks like I do not have to bother about Toilets anymore. Domex is taking the initiative of building toilets. Hope Things are changing for the good you can help by clicking the contribute link in Domex webpage.

You can bring about the change in the lives of millions of kids, thereby showing your support for the Domex Initiative. All you need to do is “click” on the “Contribute Tab” on www.domex.in and Domex will contribute Rs.5 on your behalf to eradicate open defecation, thereby helping kids like Babli live a dignified life.

About The Domex Toilet Academy
Domex, HUL’s flagship sanitation brand, currently runs the Domex Toilet Academy (DTA) programme. Domex Toilet Academy was launched on 19th November 2013. It aims to become a sustainable and long-term solution to provide sanitation that benefits the local community and helps stimulate the local economy. The Toilet Academy makes toilets accessible and affordable, while promoting the benefits of clean toilets & good hygiene. Our effort has resulted in bringing the change in the villages of Maharashtra and Orissa and we aim to build 24000 toilets by 2015 in rural areas faced with the problem of open defecation.