Delhi civic body bans acid for toilet cleaning after women’s panel's notice

A notification by the DCW stated that agencies trusted with maintaining public toilets must ensure an alternative toilet cleaning material is used.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has prohibited the use of acid to clean civic body-run toilets, days after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) issued a notice to the MCD commissioner, flagging its potential risks. The development follows over a month after DCW chief Swati Maliwal’s inspection of a public toilet in Daryaganj area, where 50 litres of acid were found kept in the open.

A 50-litre can of acid was found inside a women’s public toilet outside the GB Pant Hospital in Delhi’s Daryaganj (Twitter/Screengrab)

An MCD notification released on Friday stated agencies trusted with maintaining public toilets must ensure an alternative toilet cleaning material is used in place of acid. “The provision for penalty for not using acid for the cleaning purpose of toilets is hereby abolished,” the civic body’s statement read, citing the 2013 Supreme Court judgment in the ‘Laxmi vs Union of India’ - a landmark case which prohibited over the counter sale of acid across India.

Following the Daryaganj visit in the first week of April, it was found that the agency staff- Shri Ram Institute of Rural Development (given the contract by the MCD for maintaining and operating the toilet complex), purchase acid every month to clean the toilets. In a bid to prevent potential acid attack crimes due to the easy availability of the chemicals in the public toilets, Maliwal had sought action in the matter by the MCD commissioner.

"The Commission was shocked to find acid, in such a huge quantity, lying in the open in the MCD toilet. This is illegal and extremely dangerous as anyone could have accessed this acid and used it for causing an acid attack," Maliwal had said, noting that the acid was immediately confiscated by Delhi Police. The DCW also said that upon enquiry it was found that 308 community toilets/public toilets are outsourced to private agencies for maintenance.

As per the commission's enquiry, the MCD had not issued any guidelines to prevent the use of acid for cleaning public toilets. "They also informed that toilets are cleaned (by the agency) as per terms and conditions imposed upon them in the contract agreement by MCD. Further, they provided a copy of the contract agreement between MCD and the agency (Shri Ram Institute of Rural Development) for maintaining and operating the toilet," stated an official release.

It was found in the contract agreement that the MCD had, in fact, stated that a penalty of ₹1,000 per day shall be imposed on the agency, if acid is not used to clean the toilets weekly, a provision which has now been withdrawn.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, there were 102 cases of acid attacks reported in India in 2022. Delhi is among the states where the majority of these cases were reported, the data said.

(With ANI, PTI inputs)