Four toilet complexes for 10,000 homes: Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area wakes up to daily struggle

Twelve days after a 17-year-old boy was beaten up, allegedly for defecating in a field in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, Delhi Police have registered a case against the accused. The boy, who fractured his left hand, is on bedrest. While violence over open defecation may be rare, the issue has become a pressing concern in the area, with people who live in jhuggis saying that public toilets are absolutely unusable. In G and H blocks of Jahangirpuri’s ward number 16, there are four toilet complexes with 12 bathrooms each – six for men and six for women. These four complexes are meant to be used by more than 10,000 households.