At one hand our government is trying their best to convince people to use and build toilets in rural India. The government started Swachh Bharat Campaign, a national campaign covering 4,041 statutory cities and towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.
As a part of the campaign the Union Ministry of Urban Development has even launched three videos to promote the use of toilets in a humorous and educational way. These ads can be seen on television or heard on radio stations, but still people in many parts of rural India prefer to defecate in the open.
Lata Devi Diwakar, a woman from Kanpur, who was inspired from the campaign and decided to build a toilet in her house. Lata Devi Diwakar didn’t receive any monetary help from the government under the Swachh Bharat Scheme. As a result she had to sold her mangalsutra to construct a toilet in her house.
The cost of building a toilet is Rs 25,000. When she realized that she’s short of funds, the only option she had was to sell her mangalsutra for Rs 17,000.
Lata Devi sold her sacred piece of jewellery because for her the construction of toilet was more important. She spoke to ANI, she said,
There were a lot of problems. After I had heard about the Swachh Bharat Campaign, I felt inspired and decided to build a toilet in the house. The toilet is a basic necessity, and it is more important than jewellery.
Lata Devi didn’t receive any monetary help from the government for the toilet construction under the Swachh Bharat Scheme, in which every household can avail Rs 4,000 for building a toilet in their house. Modi government has taken an initiative to make India open-defecation free by 2019.
Another similar incident occurred a few days ago in Bihar, where young girls boycotted gold jewellery to put pressure on parents to construct toilets in their houses.
