After the alleged rape and gruesome murder of two sisters stirred the nation’s conscience, a country-wide “Toilet for Every House” campaign was launched on Sunday from the infamous Katra Sahadatgunj village in Budaun district where the two girls were targeted when they reportedly went out to relieve themselves in the absence of toilet in their home.
Marking the launch of the nation-wide campaign, 108 ‘sulabh (low-cost) toilets’ were thrown open to public at a function in the village, as a tribute to the two cousin sisters.
Moved by the plight of women in rural areas who wait for darkness to attend the call of nature, low-cost sanitation NGO Sulabh International took the initiative to change the civic amenities by building toilets for every household in the village – to being with.
“Absence of toilet in a house is responsible for incidents of rapes and sexual assaults in villages,” Sulabh Founder and noted social reformer Dr Bindeshwar Pathak noted while launching the nation-wide campaign.
Non-availability of toilets in the village made these two sisters go out in the open at night to attend the call of nature, when they were allegedly raped and murdered and the bodies hanged from a tree. Sulabh has already adopted the village in memory of the two girls, Dr Pathak said. These 108 toilets would be the “most fitting tribute” to the girls whose death triggered a national debate on women’s right to safe toilets, Dr Pathak said.
Referring to the situation in Uttar Pradesh, he said data showed that 77 per cent households in rural areas did not have toilets and women had to go for open air defecation. Similar was the case in 14 per cent households in the urban areas, he said, citing figures.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged parliamentarians and the corporate sector to help build separate toilets for girls in schools, Dr Pathak hoped India will become an open defecation free country soon.
As a long-term project, Dr Pathak said he planned to set up a vocational training institute here. “Perhaps, the institute will go a long way in improving the plight of women in the area and make them self-reliant,” he said. “Perhaps the vocational training centre will go a long way in improving the plight of women in the area and making them self-reliant,” he said.