Gold medalist's toilet woes to end soon

PALANPUR: A day after TOI highlighted the sanitation woes of Special Olympics gold medalist Maya Devipujak, the Mehsana district administration swung into action and started the process of providing toilets in the slum locality where she lives.Mehsana collector Lochan Sehra directed municipality chief officer R P Joshi to solve the issue at the earliest. "Within a fortnight, the toilet problem will be solved," Joshi told TOI.Maya, who is mentally challenged, was the only girl from Gujarat in the Indian floor hockey team that won gold medal at the Special Olympics held in South Korea in January last year. Her mother, who is the sole earner, sells vegetables on a hand cart and earns Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 month. However, the six-member family is forced to shell out Rs 30 daily for the 'pay-and-use' toilet facility.Municipality officers rushed to Magpura slum locality on Thursday and began the initial study for finalizing the location for building toilets.Meanwhile, a team of Ahmedabad-based Adani Foundation also visited Maya's family on Thursday and promised to build toilet for the locality.Priti Adani, managing trustee of the foundation said, "Women suffer a lot because of lack of sanitation in rural areas. Our aim is to address this immediate concern. Depending on the availability of space, we will do everything possible to bring Maya's family out of this misery."Besides Maya's family, 50 other families living in the area are forced to defecate in the open or pay for using the toilet. "In the long term, we will identify a place and build a toilet complex for all the people living in the vicinity. Our team will work out on the necessary permissions required and other legalities," she added.Adani Foundation started the total sanitation project in 2008 and provided support for individual household toilets in villages of Mundra block through rigorous social mobilization. The foundation has helped construct 3,643 toilets in 26 villages of the Mundra block."We have also ensured that all government schools and anganwadis have adequate number of toilets, especially for girls in Mundra. We also constructed drainage system in 15 villages," she said.