At last there’s some solace in sight for women and girls. The Kerala
State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) is all set to introduce
the first of its kind ‘she-toilets’ in the city.

The facilities will come up at important locations in the city by June, this year.

The state of the art toilets are meant exclusively for women.

Apart
from being eco-friendly, these women-friendly toilets will be mobile.
They will be equipped with  diaper-changing stations for babies,
sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators along with
self-washing and sterilization functions.

Kochi is the second city
in the state where the project is being implemented by the KSWDC. It is
supported by the Department of Social Justice. Thiruvananthapuram
boasts of 23 such she-toilets installed at tourist sites and bus stands.

According
to officials with the KSWDC, the she-toilet at Napier Museum is a big
hit in the Capital city. “The Napier Museum sees hundreds of visitors on
a daily basis, the majority of whom are women. Since there were many
complaints regarding the dearth of adequate toilet facilities for the
women along with the staff, we decided to set up one on the museum
premises. It has also proved to be successful at other locations,” said a
KSWDC spokesperson.

In Kochi, the she-toilets are expected to
come up at Marine Drive and the KSRTC complexes. If proved successful,
it will be installed in many other locations. The waste decomposing will
be through bio enzymes and the used water will be recycled for future
use.

The toilets have common facilities such as automatic payment
collection, automatic door opening, ‘busy’ and ‘free’ display boards and
an automatic platform cleaning system.

The technology-driven toilets will be more comfortable as it will not be prone to human errors, the officials said.

The operations of the toilets would be controlled and monitored from a remote location using GPRS technology.

The
control room will receive automatic SMS alerts in case of emergencies
such as exhaustion of water tank or filling-up of septic tank. Security
aspects will also be taken care of.

Currently, the Kochi
Corporation has installed bio-toilets in Kacheripaddy, Fort Kochi and
the Town Hall. Also, bio-toilets have been installed at the Ernakulam
KSRTC stand, using the MLA funds.

If the project proves succesful in the city, it will be implemented in other parts of the district.

The
KSWDC has also plans to set up such toilets in  Kozhikode, Malappuram,
Pala and Pathanapuram as part of the second phase of the project.