Bengaluru-based N.V. Vasudeva Sharma has started an online petition urging the Ministry of Transport and Highways to consider providing clean toilets along the highway roads.

In the petition, Sharma stated that he started the petition after witnessing the ordeal faced by women in his family during long journeys. “Toilets along the roads are either unavailable or so filthy that they cannot be used.

It is a torture for women to travel for more than 12 hours in buses anywhere in India,” Sharma said.

“Most Indians prefer travelling by bus during nights,” he said adding “the situation of senior citizen women is nightmarish.”

“The Government needs to address the problem with the Indian transport system. What is the point of futuristic highways and smart cities if women can’t use these highways?” the petition read.

The petition has also reminisced of the paid toilets that are available but in a unusable condition. “Even in those toilets, women and children are forced to Rs. 5 whereas men pay Rs. 1-2.

Reacting to the petition, R. Geethanjali, a Coimbatore-based business woman claimed that toilets in highways were the need of the hour. “Every travel becomes a nightmare for us and sometimes, we have to fight with the bus driver to stop at a spot where there was a toilet available,” she added.

As many as 1,65,793 persons have signed the petition as on August 20.