Residents of Ramasamy Street in Mahalingapuram, located near Vellalore in Coimbatore, have made a desperate appeal to the district administration. They are demanding the construction of public toilets, highlighting a severe lack of basic facilities that has led to critical health and safety concerns for the community.
A Two-Decade Long Struggle for Basic Sanitation
More than 250 families, predominantly from the Scheduled Caste (Arunthathiyar) community, have been living in this area for over twenty years. While the government allotted them land parcels of one cent each with proper pattas, the residents say the plots were too small to build houses with attached toilets. This fundamental constraint has forced them into the practice of open defecation in nearby bushy and abandoned lands for generations.
T Surya, a 35-year-old resident, shared her family's ordeal. "For the last 20 years, my family has been forced to practise open defecation in nearby abandoned land full of uncleared bushes," she said. The situation worsened recently when the government cleared those very bushes, removing the only semblance of privacy they had. "The state government should build public toilets for us," Surya insisted.
Safety Risks and Health Hazards Compound the Crisis
The dangers of this practice are particularly acute for women and children. Balamani M, a 31-year-old mother of two, explained the nightly peril. She must accompany her 11-year-old daughter into the dark bushes, using only the light from a phone or torch. "Young girls like my daughter face difficulties, especially during periods. Anything can happen to us and the children, creating a completely unsafe situation at night," Balamani stated.
The community also lives under the constant threat of snake bites, with frequent sightings reported both inside their homes and in the surrounding areas. Furthermore, they raised alarms about contaminated drinking water and the persistent foul smell emanating from the nearby Vellalore dump yard. They allege that chicken and meat waste continues to be buried there, exacerbating the environmental and health risks.
Administrative Hurdles and Land Issues
When approached for a solution, Vellalore town panchayat president V U Maruthachalam pointed to a significant logistical hurdle. "There is no land available in the town panchayat limits; so we have to acquire land from the Coimbatore corporation," he explained. "Only then we will be able to construct public toilets for them. But despite multiple requests, there has been no response from the corporation."
This bureaucratic impasse leaves the 250+ families in a continued state of vulnerability, their two-decade-long wait for a basic human right—safe and dignified sanitation—stretching further with no clear resolution in sight.
