Today, November 19, the world marks Toilet Day. That the world needs a Toilet Day may seem ludicrous to some, but it highlights the importance of hygiene and throws the spotlight on how so much of the world still has no access to this most basic of sanitation facilities.

The world is a broad canvas, but when one narrows down the focus to Mumbai, the importance of marking a day for toilets becomes a subject of vital importance here. A city that is bursting at the seams but simply has too few toilets in public places. Newspapers regularly carry reports about the unsanitary conditions of toilets on railway platforms, for instance. There have also reports about how women’s toilets on several railway platforms had been locked without anybody attributing a reason for this. This effectively cut off access to the toilets, depriving women of a fundamental right.