Noida: Every morning, Prerna sets out on her bicycle before the city fully wakes, tracing 15 to 20 kilometers along Noida Stadium Road in the quiet before the traffic thickens. For years, she used a public washroom on her return route. But for the past several weeks, she has just had to “hold it” as the facility has been locked.“By the time I return, it becomes very uncomfortable. But there are hardly any alternatives,” she said.She is not alone. For over a month, more than 100 public washrooms across the city have been off-limits as the Noida Authority’s maintenance contracts expired without a timely renewal. What remains is a city of nearly three million people having to navigate the roads without access to the most basic infrastructure.The facilities that have been shuttered span sectors 11, 12, 15, 16, 21 and several of the 70x sectors, neighborhoods that pulse with market life, office clusters, bus stops and busy intersections where vendors, delivery riders, domestic helps and gig workers spend the better part of their waking hours outdoors.Over 300 public washrooms were built by the Noida Authority ahead of Swachh Survekshan 2022. The promise was sanitation access every few kilometres. Within months, several of the new facilities were already flagged for broken doors and tiles, non-functioning flushes and lights, absent water and soap, and a pervasive foul smell. Now, many are simply locked.
Public toilet in Sector 12 has a flowerpot blocking the entrance
For women, the problem is harder still. Pink toilets are few and poorly spaced, and many close after 8 pm when the women guards leave, cutting off access precisely when late-evening commuters and workers finishing long shifts need it most.Public toilets, said Pinky, who works across several households as a domestic help in Sector 12, are not a convenience, they are the only option. “In many of the homes where I work, I’m not permitted to use the washroom. Closing them all of a sudden is very problematic. We have to walk long distances or simply wait for hours till we reach home to relieve ourselves.”Brajesh Singh, a resident of Sector 15, is diabetic. So he is typically aware of the availability of washrooms anywhere he goes. The public toilet near Mansarovar park in the area has always been accessible, he said. But a couple of weeks ago, that changed, he said.“Access to a washroom is not a luxury for me. It is a necessity,” he said. “It makes me anxious. Sometimes I have to cut my walk short.”For the city’s growing army of gig workers, those who occupy designated street zones between app-dispatched orders, with no offices, no break rooms, no amenities, the locked washrooms have removed the one option they had.A Snabbit worker posted near a commercial stretch in Sector 62 said she does not have access to office facilities. “We don’t have dedicated offices. We sit in designated zones on streets and wait for orders. Public washrooms are the only way out for us. With the one facility next to the commercial stretch closed, I either have to request shopkeepers or travel further to access the next nearest facility, which affects our work,” she said.Ram, a Blinkit delivery rider, said the closures stretch what are already punishing shifts. “We are on the road for 8 to 10 hours. Earlier, we knew where we could stop. Now, most of those places are shut. Finding a washroom means losing time and sometimes orders.”Officials at the Noida Authority said the closures were due to a procedural delay in the tendering process for operation and maintenance. “The tender has been passed. Within one or two weeks, the public washrooms will be opened,” said RK Sharma, general manager for health and sanitation.
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