Yerawada - PuneMarathi settlement near a main street market

Community Composition: Mostly Maharashtrians, but we met some Haryanvis and Sindhis while talking to people.

General Description: This slum is located off of a main road where there are several shops and merchants in the busy Yerawada Market area. This community is comprised mainly of general laborers and drivers. Most of the women are housewives. Within less than a kilometer of this location is both a government-run hospital and a government school, which provide free and subsidized services to the local community.

Sanitation Situation: There are two community toilets located in close proximity to this community one built by SPARC and the other belongs to the PMC. One toilet is right off of the main road, near several shops and merchants. This toilet has 30 stalls, 15 on the men’s side and 15 on the women’s side. There are also 12 toilets for children, in a specially-dedicated, brightly painted area in the front of the building. The other toilet is nearer to the center of the community, off the main road. This one has twenty toilets, with separate sides for men and women. Both toilets have caretakers, but were generally unclean (feces in toilets, dirt on floor, dogs inside the building) when we viewed them.

Top Reasons to Choose This Location/Unique Aspects:

1. This is one of the only locations we saw with a dedicated children’s toilet (which looked like it was unused)

2. This is one of the area/toilets that was glorified by SPARC as one of their best toilets in Pune - but we found it in a pretty objectionable condition. It would interesting to get their opinions on its success/failure and what reasons they think are behind it.

3. Pune is an area that receives a lot of rainfall - it would be interesting to probe why there seems to be no thought in designing/ building community keeping torrential rains in mind. It would also be interesting to see what issues people face (slippery floors/dripping ceilings/etc.) during those particular months.

4. Yerawada is an out-and-out commercial market/bazaar area. It will be interesting to understand the dynamics of community toilets when it is being shared by a residential and floating population in almost equal measures.

5. This is the only place we have seen tin sheet and tarpaulin houses/juggi jhopdis and properly constructed houses in proximity to each other.