At protest site: Toilets too few, too filthy, farmers stare at health crisis
In the afternoon, a group of women farmers, aged around 45-50, walked towards a mall near the Singhu border. One of them said that women have it toughest here when they are on their periods. “We have no washroom to take a bath and wash our clothes Updated: December 12, 2020 8:24:24 am
Temporary toilets for men and women at the Singhu border protest site. (Photo: Abhinav Saha)
“We can’t take a shower. There’s no place for women to take a bath or change their clothes. It’s been two weeks here and most of the toilets can’t be used. People are compelled to use the fields and footpaths. It is unhygienic but the farmers don’t have an option.” Gurmeet Singh, a property dealer from Amritsar who has joined the protest at Singhu border along with his family, summed up what many have been struggling with at Singhu and Ghazipur borders, where thousands are gather
Near the camp, there is a makeshift gym set up by professional weightlifters and sportsmen. Aman (25), a transporter from Amritsar, bought dumbbells and weight training bars from Punjab for the protesters.
A group of them have installed solar plates on their trucks to charge phones and light bulbs. Gurpinder Singh (40), who brought two solar plates from Karnal in Haryana, said: “We mainly use the electricity generated to charge the bulbs because the langar service runs late into the night. My friends also charge their phones using the solar plates.”
The langar also has roti maker, brought from a gurdwara in Haryana, which makes more than 1,000 rotis in an hour. The farmers put balls of dough inside the machine and fresh rotis pop out in 5-10 minutes. Farmers said it runs on batteries stored in trucks or charged by the solar plates.