The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) recently directed all restaurants under its jurisdiction to make their washrooms accessible to the public. The restaurants have agreed to do so, on a trial basis, for women and children. Neetu Devi, who collects scrap and sells it to a dealer, says the SDMC move offers her little hope. How long have you been working here? I have been coming here since I was five. I make around Rs 150-Rs 200 a day by selling scrap. My four children and I live in Goutampuri (near Shahdara, east Delhi) in a rented house. One of my daughters lost her leg in an accident and stays in a hostel run by an NGO in Dwarka. You have worked here for so long. Have you stepped into any of these restaurants? How can we go? They don’t even let us stand near the restaurants. If we ask for water, the guards tell us to stand at a distance and place a bottle before us. They chase away the children too if they happen to go too close to the restaurants. The municipal authorities say you can now use the washrooms of these restaurants. They don’t let us stand near the doors, they chase us away if we ask for some cold water during the summers. And you are telling us they will let us use their toilets? That’s impossible! So where do you go when you need to use the toilet? We use the public toilet at the market. They usually charge Rs 5, but since they know me well, they don’t ask for money. They keep the toilet clean, unlike the toilets near my home in Goutampuri. Have your children ever asked you to take them to these restaurants? When they were young, they would. But now, four of my children have grown up and the youngest is eight. They now understand that they can’t go there. But once in a while, I buy a half plate of chicken fry for Rs 70 or a kg of biryani for Rs 180 and we have a good meal.
