Toilets of Madras: a scatological past Premium

Explore the history of everyday services in Chennai, from public toilets to water supply, in a fascinating walk.

Grand edifices, stories of leaders and rulers, old ruins are all very well. But, what about the history of everyday services? Public transport, water supply, electricity, drainage and above all, what are known as ‘public conveniences’ so that people don’t commit ‘public nuisance’? The above, particularly the last named, has been a topic that I frequently ponder over. And about sources of information, there are very few.

All of this came to me when representatives of the NGO WASHlab (Water Sanitation And Hygiene) met me. Through June and early July, they are planning to conduct a toilet festival in Chennai city and wanted me to lead a walk in connection with it. I realise I am up against a wall (oh God, I did not mean it that way) but have anyway decided to take up the challenge. And so, on June 14, at 6 a.m., I will be doing a walk titled ‘The S***t History of Madras’. I don’t know if I can do justice to the topic but let us see what emerges (no, no pun intended).

For centuries, we did our business in the open and Madras was no different. What is amazing is that the British and other colonials did nothing to rectify the situation; they merely adjusted to the existing practice of manual scavenging and found nothing objectionable in it. It was only in the second half of the 19th century that the issue of providing public toilets was even addressed. And the progress was not rapid after that.

It is from 1867 that we find the Corporation of Madras embarking on campaigns for residents to install toilets in houses and also ponder over facilities for the public. A model latrine was put up on the north bank of the River Cooum at Pudupet as a first. Thereafter, 160 latrines were constructed within a few years.

Households were encouraged to install dry toilets, from where nightsoil, stored in covered pails provided by the Corporation was cleared by scavengers every morning and deposited in carts from where they were taken to a vast Night Soil Depot in Korukkupet. Other collection points were at Otteri and Saidapet. After some processing, the accumulated waste was sold as garden manure! With flushable toilets becoming possible early in the 20th century, households were encouraged to install them and the Corporation even extended loans to facilitate this. Many refused, claiming that was what scavengers were for anyway. But, matters progressed.

There was a mistaken notion in the Corporation that with private toilets coming up, the public equivalents could be brought down in number. By 1942, there were only 33 of them for a population of 7 lakhs! In the meanwhile, conveniently overlooking the falling number of public toilets and the poor maintenance of the remaining, the Corporation and the police embarked on prosecuting those who committed public nuisance. But this was given up in 1954 as the numbers far exceeded the available police vans! However, even in the 1940s, some sane voices like those of Commissioner JPL Shenoy were heard. The Corporation began constructing public toilets which in 1967 reached 403 in number and ten years later, there were 476 of them. Even today, there are just around 1,500 of these facilities, in a city of our size. And I wonder how many of these are accessible by women.

Much of what I have quoted above comes from an excellent tract on conservancy that Shobha Menon of Nizhal NGO fame, wrote for the Madras Gazetteer brought by S. Muthiah and published by the Association of British Scholars.