Wide angle focus on a pee problem

N Prasanth, the collector of Kozhikode district, has found an innovative strategy to tackle the issue of people urinating in the open—a ‘photo contest’ to catch and shame such offenders. He announced on his Facebook page that the three best images of people urinating around a bus stand that was recently cleaned up by the collective efforts of people would be given a prize. The move was widely welcomed in the district, but came in for some criticism as well.

“Before announcing such a photo contest, the collector should have ensured that people have sufficient clean and healthy public toilets,” says Civic Chandran, a local social activist. The collector, though, finds no substance in this argument. “There are public toilets at the bus stand. There is no justification for urinating in places adjacent to them,” says Prasanth. He argues that, despite a lack of public toilets in general, women do not relieve themselves in public. “As long as men are allowed to publicly urinate, no social pressure is formed for creating public toilets. Neither political parties nor social organisations press for [them] because men do not actually require public toilets,” he says.

Filmmaker and activist Deedi Damodaran, who lives in Kozhikode, is pleased to hear of the initiative. “Nobody is concerned about the health hazards of urinating and spitting in public. I think urinating in public will be banned by law if women start doing the same. Till then, society takes it as normal practice,” says Damodaran. A passenger at the bus stand says that public toilets often remain closed there. “There might be people who have health problems and are not able to control their urine till they find a toilet,” he says. Though his Facebook post on the contest was shared widely, the collector has not received a single photograph yet. No matter. “I think the post has achieved its objective,” he declares.

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Shahina KK