God gave us men and men gave the rest of the world toilets – to do your business in private. So perhaps it is not as funny to have two of these events fall on the same day. I did not even know till yesterday that today is International Men’s Day and only this noon was I informed that it is also World Toilet Day.
A lot of people think it is funny to have a “World Toilet Day”, but honestly, I do not understand why we have an “International Men’s Day”! And yes, I must admit, I do not see the point of any day for that matter, be it Women’s Day, Teacher’s Day, World AIDS Day or Valentine’s Day! Oh and I especially hate the dreaded week before Valentines, where you have god knows every kind of day related with mush and romance. Hug day, Kiss day, what not.
But we do not live in a utopian society where everything is hunky dory, so we need to mark a special day for important causes to raise awareness. So I do not have a very big problem with most of these “days”. It’s safe to say that I am indifferent because I know the importance of things in life and do not need a special day to remind me of my responsibilities as a citizen.
If you go the U.N site, you will come to know that a staggering 2.5 billion people across the globe do not have access to a toilet and thus are forced to defecate in the open, a problem that makes them vulnerable to a lot of diseases. Not just that, this also makes women vulnerable to assault and rape, leave alone the fact that it is extremely embarrassing for women and kids to attend to their nature calls in the fields late at night. Exposing them to all sort of possible dangers which are very real.
As far as men are concerned, there is a video that has gone viral on the media, which explains why we need to celebrate Men’s day. The video is very juvenile but since it is in a lighter vein, it is not meant to be taken seriously. The video begins with random guys singing how every other day is made a big deal of, but no one says anything on Men’s day, and then they all chorus “so not fair, show men some love”. And then they go on to list the important things they do for women – like shooing away a lizard, cradling the baby in the middle of the night (wow!), remembering the date of their first kiss (I think even most women do not remember the exact date!) and other such stuff.
As far as history is concerned, the basic agenda of the idea behind Men’s Day is to promote gender equality and appreciate the roles taken up by men in the society. And despite all the positive material online on the day, it more or less appears to be that the International Men’s Day is just about “you women have a day, we need a day too”. And honestly, despite all the man hating that happens around, we all love you men any way. Just like we love women. So sure, we will celebrate a day for men while at the same day we try to address the issue of hygiene and the need to address the world’s sanitation problems.
In closing I would like to say – Let’s celebrate Men and Toilets!