Bhopal To Have Toilets For Transgenders

Bhopal: Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to build toilets exclusively for eunuchs under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

“To start with we are going to build a toilet for kinnars (eunuchs) at Mangalwara area in the middle of the city. For this, a detailed project report (DPR) is being charted out,” BMC Mayor Alok Sharma told PTI.

After this, the civic body will construct similar toilets in other parts of the city also, he said. “The construction of these toilets with all modern amenities will cost Rs 25-30 lakh,” he said.

Mr Sharma said he got the idea as he had been corporator of an area which has a dense population of eunuchs.

“The eunuchs face lot of hardships in the absence of toilets for them. When males and females have separate toilets, why can’t they,” the BJP leader said.

Earlier, Madhya Pradesh government had roped-in more than 200 members of the community, including an ex-MLA and a former mayor, in the Swachh Bharat Mission, an official from the Panchayat and Rural Development Department said.

The eunuchs are not charging a penny from the government and voluntarily working to make the state clean. In some villages, the problem of open defecation has been resolved after they campaigned against it, he further said.

Besides, the community is glad that they are being approached for a good social cause, the official said.

A eunuch has been assigned 15 villages to spread the message of cleanliness, sanitation and hygiene, he added.

Meanwhile, Sagar’s former mayor Kamla Bua, a transgender, welcomed the civic body’s move.

Kamla, who had earlier contested the election as an independent, also demanded that a commission be constituted fort he overall welfare of their community.