In Kunjila Mascillamani’s Asanghadithar (The Unorganised), part of Jeo Baby’s anthology film Freedom Fight, the women are engaged in a battle that amuses the men around them. They are fighting for a toilet because their workplace, SM Street, does not have one, and none of the women employed in the small shops on the street can relieve themselves when they want to. Why can’t they hold their bladders until it’s the end of the work day? Why can’t they use the toilet at a restaurant nearby? Why can’t they find a discreet place to urinate like the men? Why can’t they take a membership with a union and then figure out a way? The unhelpful suggestions from the men only go to prove their complete lack of empathy towards what’s seen as a ‘women’s problem’.
The film is based on a real life story, and also features some women who were part of the Penkootu group that led the fight a decade ago, including tailor and activist Viji who was featured on the BBC’s ‘100 Women of 2018’ list. Actor Srindaa plays one of the important roles in the film; she’s required to be the ‘mugaprasadam’ (sweet faced) saleswoman no matter what, even if her bladder is bursting or if she has developed a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). We also meet other women characters who face a range of issues, including sexual harassment, because of the lack of a toilet. From the humiliation of having to pee into a bottle in the storeroom to having to pay for tea and snacks at a restaurant each time they have to use the toilet, Asanghadithar packs a number of small stories within the larger framework. The film also shows trans women as part of Penkootu’s efforts.
The film uses an interesting technique, mixing documentary with fiction. As Kunjila told TNM, her crowd-funded documentary on Penkootu was stuck, and it was then that she received a call from Jeo Baby, asking her if she would like to be part of the Freedom Fight anthology. The film mixes documentary-style footage and fictional scenes shot for the anthology.
In all the discussions happening around the Karnataka hijab row, the practice of veiling in Islam and how it originated has also come up. Journalist Ghazala Wahab writes that the practice initially began in Medina because women were at risk of abuse by bandits when they went to relieve themselves: “Islam lays down no requirements for physical identity. Of the three verses that talk about appearance, only the last addresses women exclusively. It asks women to cover themselves with an outer garment so that they are recognisable as Muslims and are not harassed. The important aspect of this verse is its timing. The Muslim community in Medina then was living in an area infested by bandits who used to abuse women when they went out to relieve themselves at night. Hence, if they were recognised as Muslims, the bandits would stay away, fearing reprisal by Muslim soldiers.”
It is astounding that centuries later, when human civilization is capable of building brick and mortar toilets with piped water, women still confront the same problem. There have been several instances in India where women going to relieve themselves in the open have been sexually assaulted or attacked by wild animals. According to a 2016 study, open defecation was linked to twice the risk of sexual assault by non-partners in India. The Modi government’s Swachh Bharat Mission, launched in 2014, aimed to improve sanitation facilities across the country and make it an ‘open defecation-free’ nation by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi. But while there certainly has been an improvement in rural and urban areas when it comes to toilet access, there are also several discrepancies between the official figures and the situation on ground, raising the question of how much women’s lives have actually changed in this respect.
The issue is not limited to rural areas. In 2017, ActionAid’s report stated that 35% of 229 toilets surveyed in Delhi did not have a separate section for women. Lack of hygiene is a major deterrent for using toilets, and 53% of the toilets that were surveyed did not have running water. 45% also could not be locked from inside, leading to privacy and safety concerns.
The 2016 Tamil film Joker, directed by Raju Murugan, is among the few films to acknowledge the issue on screen in a significant way. It is about a man’s mission to build his wife a toilet since their village has none, and the tragic end to their hopes. The film is also a scathing indictment of the government’s failure to provide access to sanitation facilities. Shree Narayan Singh’s Hindi film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha with Askhay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead, also has a similar premise, except it has a happy ending.
Kunjila’s film is different from Joker and Toilet in the sense that the women fight for their right to have a toilet as employees at the workplace. The shops are required to construct a toilet on their premises according to labour laws, but they choose to circumvent this requirement and use the space for storage instead. Though Kerala is known to be a worker-friendly state, it is still a patriarchal society where women’s needs are trampled upon and dismissed as ‘unimportant’. It’s only when the women organise themselves and take the legal route that their male employers sit up and take notice. The humiliating walk to the restaurant and the complaints about ‘too many breaks’ in Asanghadithar are reminiscent of Hidden Figures in which Katherine Johnson had to walk nearly a kilometre to access the ‘colored’ women’s restroom in 1960s America. She’s part of the Space Task Group at NASA but doesn’t have an easily accessible toilet because these spaces were not built to be inclusive.
Similarly, though the workforce in India includes women, employers do not think it’s important to cater to their needs because they are still in the minority or are usually not in positions of authority as much as men. For instance, the Malayalam film industry in which Asanghadithar was made, has also been hostile towards women’s demands for sanitation facilities. Among the Women in Cinema Collective’s (WCC) demands is sanitation facilities for women on film sets. The WCC was set up following the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent woman actor in 2017. While the organisation has been in the news mainly for speaking out against sexual harassment, it has also been fighting for other labour rights including gender pay equity and toilets in the film industry. In fact, actor Parvathy has said that she was mocked as ‘Bathroom Parvathy’ for repeatedly raising the issue.
It is not only private employers who are remiss. In December 2020, a 24-year-old woman named Saranya who worked at a government office in Tamil Nadu fell into a septic tank and died. There was no toilet for women at the state agricultural depot at Kalakattur where she worked, and the women employees were forced to go to nearby buildings to relieve themselves. That’s how Saranya accidentally fell into the partially constructed septic tank that had been covered with a thin sheet, and lost her life.
The battle in Asanghadithar is from a decade ago, but it remains relevant to this day. The film presents a serious issue with plenty of humour and empathy; it speaks of the need for political mobilisation among women if they’re to access their rights. But the very fact that women have to struggle this hard for a basic human need points to how entrenched in patriarchy our workspaces are, and how resistant to change this makes them. It is this that truly stinks.
Freedom Fight is now streaming on SonyLiv.