By Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN
October 29, 2009
Pic caption To meet its sanitation goal by 2012, India
must build 112,000 toilets a day.
New Delhi, India (CNN) -- Most
Indian mothers want their daughters to marry decent men who make a good living.
Now, in parts of rural India, women have a new -- and rather unusual -- demand
for matrimony: a toilet.
"No toilet, no
bride," has become a rallying cry for women raising a stink about the lack
of a basic amenity.
They see it as a human rights
issue, especially in villages where plumbing can be nonexistent.
It was that way in Sunariyan
Kalan in the northern state of Haryana. Sumitra Rathi said village women had no
choice but to relieve themselves without privacy.
They would go before sunrise
or hold it in until darkness fell once again to avoid being seen. Or they would
walk out to the fields and endure embarrassment. They don't want their
daughters to face the same indignity.
"Many of them do make
serious inquiries from the families of grooms about latrines," she said.
As a member of the local
council, Rathi has helped build toilets in 250 houses in Sunariyan Kalan since
1996.
Still, about five dozen homes
lack covered bathrooms.
The problem is so big in India
that the country would need to construct 112,000 toilets every day if it wants
to meet its sanitation goal by 2012, according to the Ministry of Rural
Development.
Even as India emerges as a
global economic power, millions of its citizens still live in poverty. The
government estimates that less than 30 percent of villagers have access to
latrines, which poses serious health risks and increases the threat of deadly
diseases like typhoid and malaria.
To help overcome the enormity
of the sanitation challenge, the government is offering incentives to encourage
villagers to build bathrooms. The poorest
of the poor in Haryana stands
to receive Rs. 2,200 ($48) for each toilet they install, said P.S. Yadav, a
state coordinator for the sanitation campaign.
The incentives are especially
attractive to women, for whom the problem transcends health issues.
Local women, often illiterate,
have taken a keen interest in bathroom construction, said Roshni Devi, the
council chief in Haryana's Kothal Khurd village.
And through it, they have
gained a sense of self, making the lowly toilet seat feel more like a lofty
throne.
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Please comment and suggest how people who prefer open fields for defecation be persuaded to build and utilize latrines.