In 1960, the fawwara on the premises of then Rajendra Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) was like a fountain of hope for the ailing and their concerned kin. A canopy of trees around the water spout offered both shade and solace, besides giving the hospital campus a verdant look.
Cut to 2016. More than a decade after RMCH in Ranchi was upgraded into Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), the fountain park serves a more significant purpose. It is an improvised public toilet.
Though not maintained for years, the fawwara still jets water, but its tree cover is now scraggly. OPD visitors - mostly men, sometimes women - find it a more convenient place to answer nature's call than the twin toilets inside RIMS that they have access to.
The designated washroom near the emergency ward of RIMS has two toilets, one each marked for ladies and gents. However, these are cleaned only once a day, usually in the morning, even though some 1,000 people visit the dozen-odd OPD chambers every day and wait for hours to see specialists. The choice is obvious between a dirty, stinking toilet and an open space.
If sources are to be believed, the open urinal also invites outsiders while gamblers and tipplers make the fountain area their den after sundown. And, the RIMS administration, which hasn't bothered to stem the life-threatening menace of syringe reuse for years in hospital wards, perhaps couldn't care less.
Anita Devi, a resident of Tamar, 58km away, who was at RIMS on Tuesday with her husband and their ailing daughter, said it was a shame that a premier hospital couldn't offer patients a clean toilet.
"Our 12-year-old daughter has been suffering from high fever for a week. We were waiting to meet the paediatrician at RIMS when she wanted to go to the toilet. But it is so dirty here that my husband decided to take her to the Sulabh Sauchalaya outside the premises. She had to pay and use (the toilet there), but cleanliness matters. Moreover, there is always a long queue outside the RIMS toilets," the 32-year-old homemaker said.
Sixty-year-old Parvati Devi from Dumka, whose son needs attention for his fractured leg, said they took a train to Ranchi and were in desperate need to relieve themselves after the overnight journey.
"My son met with an accident two months ago. He was treated in Dumka, but his leg hasn't healed properly. So, we have come to RIMS. I had refused to use the station toilets, hoping the hospital one would be cleaner. Forget freshening up, you can't even step inside the ladies' loo at RIMS. I went outside near the fountain, where it is shaded by trees," the elderly woman confessed.
A security guard near the hospital emergency was unfazed when asked why he was allowing people to use the fountain park as a urinal.
" Fawwara ke paas to har koi karta hai; chahe woh RIMS mein doctor dikhane aaya ho, chahe baahri aadmi. Ab ye maintain thode hi na hota hai. Andar baithke log to sharab bhi pita hai (Everyone pees near the fountain; be it a patient or an outsider. The fountain is no longer maintained, so no one cares. Many booze in that area too)," the guard was candid.
RIMS director Dr B.L. Sherwal, who had pledged cleanliness when he had joined office last year, feigned ignorance about unclean toilets and the open loo at the fountain.
Dr Raghunath Singh, medical officer of RIMS, conceded that toilets were a problem at the OPD. "They choke frequently and engineers can't fix the glitch once and for all because this part of RIMS is old. We are mulling new toilets," he said.