Krutika Jadhav | 20th August 2025
On a bustling campus like Mumbai University, students often dart between lectures, library sessions, and lunch breaks. But beneath all this liveliness lies a deeply uncomfortable problem for women: the struggle to find a safe and functioning washroom.
At Mumbai University’s campus, this problem is impossible to miss. “Most days, the lock is broken,” says Saishree Sande, a student from the Department of History. “You end up holding the door shut with one hand and hoping no one barges in.”
For Saishree and countless other women across institutions, this is far more than a minor inconvenience. Each visit raises the same anxious questions: “Should I use it? Is it safe? What if someone walks in?” It becomes a constant choice between necessity, safety, and dignity.
The Scale of the Problem
Mumbai University is no small institution. With over 549,000 students across numerous campuses and affiliated colleges, it is among the largest university systems in India. Yet the number of safely accessible, women-only washrooms is startlingly low.
In my own building, there are six washrooms: two on the ground floor (one male, one female, both labeled disability-friendly), one broken first-floor washroom abandoned to dust and pigeons, and three second-floor washrooms—two of which are co-ed—leaving just one female-only washroom.
Co-Ed Washrooms: An Awkward Compromise
In some newer public facilities, “co-ed” washrooms are promoted as a space-saving option. But for both men and women, they often cause discomfort rather than convenience.
Komal Jangle, a student from the Computer Science Department, recalls her experience: “I walked in only to find a male faculty member washing his hands. It was awkward. For women, using a washroom is not just about relieving yourself—it’s about feeling safe enough to do so.”
The Right to Pee movement’s field studies show that in cities like Mumbai, a single public toilet caters to hundreds of people daily, with women disproportionately affected because facilities either don’t exist or are unusable. According to their data, 45% of women’s toilets have no secure locks, and only 35% of public toilets are accessible to women.
The Mental Toll
It’s easy to dismiss the shortage of women’s toilets as merely an infrastructure issue. In reality, it is also a public health and gender equality problem.
Without clean, secure facilities, women risk urinary tract infections, dehydration, and other health complications. For menstruating women, the absence of running water is not just unhygienic—it’s dangerous. In co-ed settings, these shortcomings are magnified: a broken lock in a women’s toilet is bad enough, but a broken lock in a co-ed washroom is an open invitation to anxiety and distress.
A Discreet Fight for Privacy
Even when facilities exist, maintenance remains a hurdle. Broken locks stay unfixed for weeks. Lights flicker or fail. Pigeon infestations make washrooms dim and unsafe. Trash bins overflow from irregular cleaning—or are missing altogether.
Students often describe feeling exposed, even in what should be a private space. The absence of working sanitary pad dispensers and proper waste bins further deters women from using the washrooms at all, leading to silent suffering that rarely makes it into official complaints.
Why Gender-Specific Facilities Matter
Gender-specific washrooms are not about separation for its own sake—they address privacy, safety, and hygiene needs that uniquely affect women. Menstruation and other health issues make women’s use of washrooms fundamentally different from men’s.
While co-ed washrooms may be more accepted in some Western contexts, in India’s large public and institutional settings they often replicate, or worsen, the problems of traditional washrooms.
A Gender-Focused Call to Action
- Women students are not demanding lavish washrooms—just functional, safe, and private ones. Reforms could include:
- Guaranteeing at least one women-only washroom per floor in every academic or residential building.
- Ensuring menstrual hygiene products are available and well-maintained.
- Making washroom infrastructure truly accessible—not just labeled as such.
- Establishing a regular cleaning and maintenance schedule.
The Road Ahead
Policy promises must translate into real change. Walking through campus today highlights the gap between official commitments and on-ground reality. Accessibility, safety, and hygiene must work together for a washroom to be truly usable.
Some may dismiss this as a small issue in university life. But it is not. Basic needs should not be sidelined—they are essential rights. Until that is recognized, women students will continue to navigate their education while battling indignity in the most fundamental of spaces.
Krutika Jadhav is a media educator and storyteller who amplifies everyday struggles and gendered realities often overlooked in public discourse.
