[sustran] Re: Hyderabad : Peeing in the open

[Kanthi Kannan]

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/zip-pee-open-
<http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/zip-pee-open-%E2%80%98stripping%E2
%80%99-128> 'stripping'-128

 

 

Hyderabad, March 7: Relieving oneself in public places is equivalent to
stripping in public and should be made a punishable offence, a
Hyderabad-based NGO said in petitions submitted to the National Women's
Commission and the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission.

Ms Kanthi Kanan, founder of the Right to Walk Foundation that filed the
petition, further stated that urinating in public places - footpaths, near
bus stands and even main roads - is not only a public nuisance, it also
causes embarrassment and humiliation to women.

"Women have to turn their heads the other way or cover their faces with
their sari pallus or chunnis to avoid embarrassment...The Greater Hyderabad
Municipal Corporation has failed to check the menace," Ms Kannan told this
correspondent. Her petition to the human rights commission highlights a
citizen's right to walk unhindered on a clean footpath.

The failure of the GHMC to address the problem constitutes a violation of a
citizen's fundamental rights to education, work, an adequate standard of
living, and freedom of movement and residence, she said.

The president of the Progressive Organisation of Women, Ms V. Sandhya, said
that the onus is put on women to try and get past a man who is openly
urinating in public. "A law needs to be brought with stringent punishment to
put an end to the anti-social act," she said.

The GHMC commissioner, Dr Sameer Sharma, says fining people "did not work"
so "now we are identifying all roads where public toilets and urinals must
be constructed.