NDMC sets up Delhi’s first free public toilet for transpersons

The facility, built in the parking lot of the Press Club of India complex, was inaugurated by transpersons and civic body officials, and has installed a device that allows users to register complaints.

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Monday inaugurated the Capital’s first free public toilet exclusively for transpersons at Raisina Road, said officials, the first in a line of facilities that will be set up across the Lutyens’ Delhi area in the coming months.

NDMC’s annual 2021-22 budget, tabled in January, laid out plans to build such toilets in the locality. (Twitter/@tweetndmc)

The facility, built in the parking lot of the Press Club of India complex, was inaugurated by transpersons and civic body officials, and has installed a device that allows users to register complaints.

NDMC’s annual 2021-22 budget, tabled in January, laid out plans to build such toilets in the locality.

“The facility is Delhi’s first free public toilet service for transpersons. The toilet will remain open between 6am and 10pm every day. The NDMC is also planning to construct more such toilets in the near future after observing challenges and issues with this first one,” said an official who asked not to be named.

“The users can give reviews and file complaints using the touchscreen interface there as well as at a register. Whatever issues we will encounter there will be rectified when new such toilets are constructed,” the official added.

The Delhi government in February this year made it mandatory for all its departments, offices, district authorities, municipal corporations, state-run companies, as well as the Delhi Police to have separate and exclusive washrooms for transpersons.

Transpersons welcomed the initiative.

Twenty-year-old Manpreet said, “It has been a big challenge for transpersons to use public toilets. We encounter so many issues, including personal slurs. More such toilets should be constructed across the city. In fact, at all toilet complexes in Delhi, one toilet should be designated for the trans community.”