Katara village to have toilet in every household

The two teens in Katara village in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaon district had allegedly been raped  and murdered, when they had gone out to answer the call of nature. Had there been a toilet at their home, they would have been alive.

Moved by the gruesome gang-rape of two cousins in Katara village, a social organization has decided to build a toilet in each and every house in the ‘infamous’ village.

Sulabh International – a pioneer in the field of low cost sanitation – announced on Sunday that it would build toilet in each household in the village.

“We will make ensure toilet for each family in this particular village at the earliest,” Sulabh founder director Bindeshwar Pathak said.

He said that a team of sanitation workers and engineers from his organisation would visit the village to start toilet construction work from Monday itself.

“We are just setting an example by adopting this village as the issue of toilet was the main reason behind both deaths,” he said.

Pathak also urged top business houses to adopt at least one village to end the practice of open defecation at the earliest.

“Any woman defecating in the open is vulnerable and the government must acknowledge the issue. Resources will only pour in then,” he added.

He said that he would also write to the Prime Minister for toilets at every home so that the problem of open defecation could be solved.

The father of one of the victims had said that his daughter and her cousin were attacked, when they went to the fields to relieve themselves as their house had no toilet.

Sanitation experts said India’s lack of toilets forces women to go outside to relieve themselves, “making them more vulnerable to violence”.

The NGO has been promoting sanitation schemes in the country for the past several decades.

It has build individual toilets in all homes in Hirmitla village in Rajasthan’s Mewat region. “Building toilet at every household could herald an effective social change in the society,” Pathak said.