More than 400 girls at Smt. Durgabai Deshmukh Government Women’s Technical Training Institute, Hyderabad, are forced to urinate in the open and in empty classrooms, since the college does not have usable toilets. The 40-year-old establishment has only one toilet for 462 students, which poses serious hygiene and sanitation issues for women.

When PaGaLGuY spoke to the principal of the institute, Mr Suresh Janga, he said, “The institute will soon shift to a new campus building. In the meantime, we cannot invest funds in constructing toilets in the existing building as it’s going to be demolished.” Mr Janga further added that the construction of the new building is delayed due to insufficient funds sanctioned by the government.

When PaGaLGuY tried bringing the issue to the notice of Sri Kadiyam Srihari, the Education Minister of Telangana, his officials claimed that this is not a concern of his department, but of Telangana DTE.

Mr.U.V.S.N. Murthy, the Joint Director of Telangana DTE said, “The Department has received several complaints about the lack of sanitation facilities in the institute. In a meeting held with the Commissioner of Telangana DTE last week, a decision was taken to build toilets in the institute within a week.”

Smt. Viziendira Boyi, Director of Women Development and Child Welfare, Hyderabad, assured prompt action in this matter, “Women hygiene is a prioritised issue. The department will look into the problems faced by girls in this college and take measures to bring them relief.”

The relocation of college campus, according to Mr Janga, will take place in the month of May. While initially, he blamed the lack of funds for not maintaining cleanliness in the campus, further pursuance forced him to come up with a rapid action plan, “We will clean the toilet within two days. Also, we will build toilets on a temporary basis for the girls until we move to the new building.”