Women, elderly protesters face the brunt of inaccessible toilets, water shortage

New Delhi: Farmers at various borders have been sitting firm despite the difficulties they are facing when it comes to hygiene, washroom and water facilities. After the Republic Day violence, when barricading was intensified at all border protest sites, many portable washrooms were cut off from the farmers.

The first stage at the Singhu border, which witnesses a large crowd almost every day, has a lot of women who are part of the protest. For them, the barricading has meant no access to washrooms. Speaking to Millennium Post, Jaspreet Kaur from Pathankot said that they have been using the petrol pump washroom to relieve themselves.

However, there is only one petrol pump that is available. "We have to manage as protest is more important. The washroom at the petrol pump is dirty and as the barricading has blocked us from having access to other washrooms, we just have nowhere else to go," she said.

The majority of the protesting farmers have been either going to the other protesting sites, where they have to walk close to 20 minutes to use the facilities or have to do it in the open.

"We have some washrooms at this site as well, however as more people have joined in, they are not enough but we are still managing," a farmer at the protest said.

Meanwhile, like Jaspreet, other women, who are mostly old, have been trying to limit their use of washroom facilities as much as possible. "It's not like we can control whatever is natural but because accessing the washroom is difficult, we try to go once or twice the whole day," Jaspreet said.

While the barricading has blocked the whole protesting area at the Singhu border, Ghazipur was facing acute water shortage after the Uttar Pradesh government cut water and electricity services at the protesting site. However, the Delhi government has started providing water at the protest while villagers from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have also started bringing their own water.

The electricity meanwhile was also restored. However, many villagers had to face the brunt of the water shortage.

Harvinder Singh used to go back to his village and come back to join the protest at Ghazipur just so that protesters can have access to some water for basic utilities like using the facilities or for cooking.

The 70-year-old who lives in a nearby village said that he used to leave for his home in the morning and come back at the protest in the afternoon. "I then go back to my village at night as well and use water. We also brought water from our homes here," he said.

While the protesters are saying that they are somehow making do with whatever water is made available to them, most of their utilities are coming from locals from nearby villages, who are lugging water to the protest sites. In addition to this, the water tankers set up by the Delhi government are providing much-needed relief for the protesters.