Women at Jantar Mantar protest struggle for toilets, water as basic facilities remain out of reach

For many women camping at Jantar Mantar, the biggest challenge is no longer spending long hours under the blazing sun or navigating the crowds, it is finding a clean and accessible washroom.

With water supply at the protest site cut and access to nearby toilets becoming increasingly difficult, women protesters and volunteer doctors say even meeting basic hygiene needs has become a daily struggle, forcing some to leave the site and disrupting medical services.

Harishma, a protester from Bengaluru, said accessing a washroom has become one of the hardest parts of staying at the protest.

“It is so difficult. I have to go back to my hostel to relieve myself, especially as a woman,” she said, adding that the lack of basic facilities has made it difficult to remain at the protest for long hours. A volunteer doctor, who has been stationed at the protest site for several days, recalled her own experience.

“Water in Jantar Mantar was cut from the beginning. I had to use the washroom on my first day at the protest site when I got my period. It was horrible. Unbearable,” she said. The doctor said volunteers are also struggling to receive food because of restrictions around the protest site.

“We haven’t even received food that people have donated for us. The delivery person isn’t able to come to the place. My partner also isn’t able to bring us food because the checking is strict and they aren’t allowing people to come to the protest site,” she said.

Volunteer doctors said they had earlier managed by walking to Janpath Metro station to use washrooms at restaurants outside the protest area.

“We doctors used to walk till Janpath Metro and use some restaurant outside. Today shops around the area closed by 6.30. When our doctors or medical staff want to use the washroom, we have no option anywhere. We even asked a hotel to let us book a room to use the washroom. They denied us,” another volunteer doctor said.

The shortage of facilities has also affected the functioning of medical camps treating protesters suffering from dehydration, exhaustion, cuts and minor injuries.

“The medical staff inside are facing various issues. Every time someone needs to use the restroom, they have to leave a camp unmanned, navigate through huge crowds and then walk nearly two kilometres to the nearest gurudwara,” a volunteer doctor said.

While the gurudwara has remained one of the few places where protesters are able to access washrooms, volunteers said the distance makes repeated trips impractical, particularly for medical teams responding to emergencies.

Some volunteers said they were exploring the possibility of arranging portable toilets closer to the protest site, but coordinating permissions has proved difficult. Women protesters also complained about the condition of the existing toilets inside the protest area. “There was a pretty strong smell when we came here. It is unbearable now,” one protester said.

Another volunteer alleged that civic sanitation workers were not entering the protest site regularly, leaving protesters to clean the area themselves as best as they could. Doctors said the issue goes beyond convenience and has become a matter of public health.

“We are here to provide medical care, but we are struggling to meet our own basic needs. Safe drinking water, clean toilets and basic sanitation are essential, especially for women, elderly protesters and children who are spending entire days here,” a volunteer doctor said.

As the protest enters another day with fresh groups continuing to arrive from different parts of the country, women protesters say access to clean toilets and water has become as pressing a concern as the cause that brought them to Jantar Mantar.