The district administration scurried for cover after a 17-year-old girl committed suicide on Friday in Dumka after her parents allegedly refused to construct toilet at their home.
Deputy Commissioner Rahul Kumar Sinha, though ordered an enquiry, said it was beyond his understanding that a girl would ever end her life for being denied a toilet by her parents.
“According to the girl’s mother, the argument started on the issue of her marriage where they expressed inability to construct the toilet as they were saving money to marry her off,” said the DC.
Khushboo Kumari, a Class XII student, hanged herself from the ceiling of her room on Friday, after her parents allegedly turned down her request to construct a toilet at home as they were saving money for her marriage.
Apparently refusing to buy the ‘suicide for toilet’ theory, Sinha said it was an irony that those people who were living in a well built concrete house were not able to construct a toilet for the family.
“As it appears to be a well- off family, all aspects will be taken into consideration during the investigation,” he said.
“We are more focusing on the criminal angle as there is a maximum possibility of covering up the case by diverting it towards the issue of toilet. The reports are expected to come within a day or two,” the DC said.
“Moreover, the family belongs to an APl which could have easily afforded to construct a toilet at their home,” the DC said. “Monetary assistance under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan for constructing toilets could be given only to the BPl families,” he added.
However, the incident prompted the DC to tell the DWSD Engineers to prepare a report of the households, both urban and rural, which still lack toilets at their homes after doing an intensive investigation. The DC also directed the officials to get toilets constructed soon in those households under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan, which still lack it.
Those people not coming under the scheme, should also be mobilised to ensure that each and every household should have a toilet in their homes, added the DC.
Police, on the other hand, blamed the media for ‘misrepresenting’ the facts and registered a case of unnatural death, where the girl had an argument with her parents after they turned down her persistence of constructing a toilet on the pretext of saving money to marry her off.
“It’s a case of unnatural death...Toilet was definitely an issue...but the girl committed suicide because she got a feeling after the argument that her parents were not able to construct a toilet because of her and simply ended her life so that they do not have to suffer any more,” said Dumka SP Vipul Shukla.
Khushbu’s parents also stated that their daughter repeatedly tried to convince them to build a toilet, but they didn’t give her plea a priority, as they wanted to save money for her marriage. Her relatives also claimed that the class XII student used to feel ashamed to defecate in the open.
Remarkably, there have been several instances of women refusing to marry into families who did not have toilets in their homes, which officials attribute to growing public awareness about the health hazards of open defecation.
According to 2011 census, 92.4 per cent of the rural population in Jharkhand did not have toilets.