(Image source from: Six Indian brides desert in-laws' house due to lack of toilets})
India's rural areas are infamous for lack of toilets at home. But what caught media attention was the act of six newly wed brides in a particular village in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The six newlyweds protested the lack of a proper toilet in their in-laws home and left for their parental homes. The six women, cutting across communities, were asserting their right to a dignified life which is a basic right.
Interestingly all six newlyweds belong to the same village.
The action of these six newlyweds compelled villagers to change their mindset about defecating in the open, considering it to be "natural and normal".
The six deserters include Sakina, Sita, Gudiya, Neelam, Kalawati and Niranjan. All belong to Khesiya village in Kushinagar district. Though they deserted their in-laws home, they are willing to return to their marital home if proper toilets are built for them.
The newlyweds consider toilets at home a matter of dignity and not just an issue of sanitation.
Sakina, one of the newlyweds, says a toilet is a question of dignity. When Sakina demanded to be provided with a toilet her mother-in-law pleaded helplessness due to economic compulsion.
Gudiya, another newlywed, says going back to her parents was a difficult step but she had to take it as it was a matter of human dignity.
This is not the first time that brides have deserted their marital home due to lack of toilets at home in Kushinagar district. Earlier in April 2012, a bride had deserted her marital home in the district.
After the desertation villagers promised that each household would have a toilet. The rebellion, which took place within a month prompted Sulabh International ( that provides low-cost toilet to rural homes) founder Bindeshwar Pathak to build toilets at the marital houses of the six newly wed brides.
Sulabh is also constructing toilets in each house at Katra Sadatganj village in Badaun district, notorious for the death of two girls who were found hanging from a tree after rape. The Badaun girls had gone out in the evening to attend to nature's call. Their homes didn't have toilets.
India's rural households lack in toilets and has been found to be the cause of many crimes in various states. Studies reveal that victims of rape in rural areas had to go out of their homes to relieve themselves.
(AW: Pratima Tigga)
