There is no point in all the advertisements and campaigns undertaken all over the City to promote condom usage if it is not available when the user needs them. A classic example of this is the City railway station which has all the infrastructure in place in the form of sleek condom vending machines. Unfortunately, most of them do not function. 

The red coloured attractive machines are installed at the entrance of most of the bathrooms inside the station. Outside each bathroom wall is a smiling sticker urging the public to make use of the condoms from the machines. Metrolife checked out all the machines at the station on Monday evening with the generous assistance of a few men around. We learnt to our shock that the ones which work are the exceptions. 

Those unfamiliar with these machines must know that their operation is as simple as the age-old body weighing machine. Dropping in a one-rupee at the latter’s coin slot will give your weight on a chit while dropping in a five-rupee coin inside the coin slot of the condom vending machines will deliver a condom.

Here’s what we found—the joint platform of seven and eight which had new bathrooms is the worst. In the ‘Ladies’ section, the condom machine in a state of disuse is found dumped in a corner of the floor near the brooms while the ‘Gents’ section does not have the machine at all.

Coming to toilets near the auto and taxi parking lot inside the station, the machines in both the ‘Gents’ and ‘Ladies’ section have conked off. Drop in a five-rupee coin and it comes back to you. This as well as many bathrooms inside the station are manned by the Akhil Bharatiya Paryavaran Evam Gramin Vikas Sansthan.  When their man collecting change at the entrance  was asked about the malfunctioning, he said, “It was not working some time ago. A technician came and set it right two days ago. However, it is not working again.” 

Platform four too has new bathrooms. The ‘Ladies’ section does not have the machine. When the staff at the entrance was asked if the machine on the ‘Gents’ side works, he got defensive and said, “Who said it is not working?” Taking the five-rupee coin offered, he rushed inside and returned soon saying, “I don’t know how it is not working. It was working till afternoon!”  Unlike other machines which at least returned the coin, this machine swallowed it up.

At platform one, the machine in the ‘Gents’ section alone works. Similar was the case in the bathrooms on the joint platform of two and three. As platforms two, three, nine and ten do not have bathrooms, there was no room for complaint here. 

On these machines, it is boldly imprinted that they are promoted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Hindustan Latex Limited. No one around knows who has to be contacted in the case of malfunctioning.  A few said “it was the government’s responsibility.” There is a small box on the machine which says that in case of complaints contact this number but there is no number given. A couple of machines had a mobile number scribbled on the place but it was indecipherable. 

So, who is going to take responsibility and ensure the machines get back to a working condition?