She is a lone fighter. A widow and daily wage earner in a non-descript village in Bahraich set an example to the society when she donated her only piece of land to the government for construction of public toilet complex in her village.

Manorani Yadav, mother of six, was moved by the plight of women who had to go in the open for defecation in her village Bhabhanipu, 125 km from Bahraich district headquarter. "It was pity to see young women to wait for dusk to answer nature’s call. They have to weather rains, heat wave or cold wave and walk almost half a km to defecate," she told a group of reporters.

But what to do they had no other option. The men were not that helpful.    Manorani first mobilised all the women in her village to construct toilets and then led these women to meet District Magistrate Kinjal Singh and requested to construct public toilet complex in her village. The DM took this issue seriously and arranged funds to build eight toilets in the village. But nobody came forward to give land for the toilets. Even some government agencies including Forest Department did not show much enthusiasm. Seeing no help coming, Manorani offered her land to construct toilets for the villagers.

She donated 10,000 sq ft land for construction of eight toilets on that land that would be exclusively used by the women. Recognising her noble gesture, low cost sanitation NGO Sulabh International has decided to honour by giving her cash reward of Rs Two lakh besides a dole of Rs. 10,000 per month and appointing as a sanitation campaigner in the region.

Congratulating Manorani for her extraordinary step, Sulabh Founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak said for a person who is solely dependent on daily wages, taking such an initiative is highly commendable. "Now, this one step has changed the situation and solved the problem of open defecation in entire village...India needs such women in each and every villages that lacks basic sanitation facilities," he said.