BBC has come out with a list of 100 most inspirational women for 2015, and there is one Indian who really stands out on the list, for what she did. Meet Mumbaikar Mumtaz Shaikh who started a campaign for the Right to Pee!
The Right to Pee campaign is a simple mantra that fights to give basic sanitation facilities to women.
“Men in the city have 3,000 free public urinals and women do not have a single one! Do planners of towns think we are less human?” she asks. “I want the basic dignity for all my sisters in the city who go out in fear every day, wondering how they will relieve themselves if the need arises.”
This is something many of us have taken for granted but never thought much about – there aren’t any sanitation facilities for women that come for free, never mind decent and clean ones. Commuting in the city and travelling across the country is fraught with discomfort. And lack of proper sanitation facilities gives rise to other dangers.
“Women end up going to railway tracks or the fields to go to the bathroom,” said Mumtaz, in an interview with BBC. “But that’s not safe. Women going to out of the way places to urinate have been raped.”
Mumtaz has fought a long battle to get free facilities for women through the Right to Pee network. She got 96 toilets built for women in Mumbai, which can be used for free, while also ensuring that the government set aside Rs 50 million (US$770) to build female-only urinals around the city.
This realisation came to Mumtaz because she grew up in similarly impoverished conditions. She came from a poor family with a troubled childhood where she and her mum lived with a local goon, who forced her mother to co-habit with him. Abuse and beating was a regular feature of her childhood. She was sent away to her uncle’s place, where he had too many mouths to feed and Mumtaz often went without a square meal.
Her problems did not end when she grew up and was married off to a man who was as violent and abusive as the ‘father figure’ from her childhood. Mumtaz wasn’t even allowed to look out of an open window without his consent, let alone step out. Mumtaz realised that her new-born girl child will have the same fate as hers and her mother’s if she did not empower herself.
The opportunity came in the form of an NGO, Committee of Resource Organizations (CORO), which held afternoon meetings in her slum. Mumtaz often slipped away in her husband’s absence to attend the meetings.
Pretty soon, she found herself participating actively in designing small interventions to prevent episodes of violence in her immediate environment.With the strength that she gained from her group, Mumtaz fought for a divorce and was able to walk out of her marriage. She also reclaimed the accommodation that her mother had bequeathed her, and put a firm roof over her head. There were no chains binding her feet after this.
She helped in setting up over 75 self-help groups within her community to fight domestic violence and spread awareness about the issue in the area.
Right to Pee came because she strongly believed that all issues of sanitation, violence and illiteracy plaguing her community could only be resolved by the people living there. “It is our mess and we have to clean it.”
With government sanction for building women-only toilets came social approval. The very community that pointed fingers at Mumtaz for her activism, now deeply respects her for standing up for women’s rights and gender equality. Her efforts were widely recognised and Mumtaz was awarded the title ‘Daughter of Maharashtra’ by her state.
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