Letter to IITK, 10th April 2011
To
Dr. S.G. Dhande, Director
Dr. Manindra Agarwal, Dean RPG
Mr. Rakesh Pandey, President Alumni Association
Mr. Ram B. Misra, Chairman, IITK Foundation
Mr. Abhay Bhushan,President IITK Foundation
Dear Gentlemen,
We would like to bring to your attention the problem of lack of toilet
for female workers at IITK. I know as men, we never think from woman's
perspective what kind of problems they may encounter if adequate toilet
facilities are not provided. The situation become even more pitiable when
the women in question are contract workers who do not even have the right
to complain let alone permission to use toilets during long working hours.
A report has been prepared by Hamara Manch* and IIT Kanpur Citizens'
Forum** and is attached here for your consideration.
The issue of lack of toilets for the dignity of females workers was also
recently brought out in a NY Times story: Improving Women's Status, One
Bathroom at a Time
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16iht-letter16.html?scp=1&sq=women%20toilet&st=cse
We would like to request that alumni, institute, and contractors
should work on providing adequate number of toilets (with special
emphasis on women users) in the campus that can be used by workers
(cleaning, construction, domestic...). It would be the most humane thing
to do and would help restore certain dignity to women workers.
Thank you for your consideration. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Ashok Gupta
Raj Sahai
Sushil Handa
Amit Singh