Of an uncivilised habit and public toilet

The city corporation of Ahmedabad, India has taken an ingenuous step towards encouraging its people to use public toilet instead of responding to nature's short call anywhere of their choice. Usually, one has to pay a very negligible amount for using such public facilities in cities and towns all across the world. In its new drive, the Ahmedabad city authority will reverse the process. It has been able to think out of the box. By doing so, the authority there has announced that it will reward all who use the toilet instead of urinating right at the street bend or any other place in full public view.
This is not only a problem with Ahmedabad alone but the entire South Asian region is lax to this public nuisance and unhygienic practice. To its credit, this south Indian city has constructed hundreds of public toilets. But not many cities like Dhaka can claim that their role has been appreciable in this regard. But this does not exonerates the city people of their guilt. After all, old habits die hard. Even in Dhaka where a public toilet is situated a few metres away, people are seen to relieve themselves on footpaths or in the corner of a park. On this count, the Dhakites and their counterparts in Ahmedabad share a common odious tradition and trait.
To say this is odious is an understatement. Why do men do this? No woman can think of such a shameful act. But they have to come across this awfully irreverence to their modesty when they walk on footpaths or cross roads. The embarrassment is theirs but not of those who shamelessly pull out their lungis or unfasten their zipper to empty their urinal bladder. True, long hours' traffic jam and other reasons are behind such emergency calls. But then people can avoid the embarrassment if they plan before getting out on the street. Where responding to such emergencies is unavoidable, the presence of toilet facilities at strategic points is so vital.
Ahmedabad has constructed hundreds of such facilities and its authorities have every right to take to task all who avoid using the facilities. Instead they have taken a different approach to tackle the problem. But Ahmedabad is not the pioneer. Kathmandu introduced this tactic with appreciable results. However Ahmedabad has done its homework well.  The same cannot be said about city authorities elsewhere in the sub-continent. For example, Dhaka city is not famous for setting up many public toilets. More importantly, maintenance of those matter so much. In this city they are ill-maintained and also not all the users are very prudent to use them carefully. Caretakers posted there are not of much help. They are busier realising the small fee charged for toilet use. What is needed is the arrangement of keeping the facilities in order and clean.
A welcome relief and an exception is a restaurant-cum-break of bus journey for a few minutes on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Four Seasons is the name of the resort where cleaners take care of the toilet round the clock. So spotless is the facility that it seems to have emerged from a world beyond. This much care cannot be expected in a public toilet in this city but at least the service can be improved to a large extent. But then there is a need for building toilets in adequate numbers.
Now that the Dhaka city has got two mayors, they can take a programme to get rid of this uncivilised practice. If they build toilets in adequate numbers and in convenient places, and encourage citizens to use those like the authorities in Ahmedabad, the situation will definitely improve. This programme should then be taken to other cities in order to root out the bad habit from the Bangalee lexicon.