Bhopal will soon have separate toilets for transgender people. The mayor of Bhopal Municipal Corporation Alok Sharma announced the decision while touring Mangalwara, an area inhabited by a large number of transgender people. A report carried in Catch News said that land where the toilets will be constructed has already been identified, and it is expected that the toilets will come up in three months.
“Kinnars (as the transgender community is referred to) have to struggle for things that we take for granted. I have spent my childhood in the walled city and I am aware of their problems. Constructing a separate toilet for them also concurs with the directives of the Supreme Court which accorded them the third gender status,” Sharma reportedly told journalists in Bhopal. “BMC will construct separate public toilets for the transgender community, beginning in areas where it is most needed, including near hospitals. Depending on the response to these toilets a decision will be made to create more such spaces in the future,” he said.