Sulabh helps woman seeking divorce for toilet

Moved by the plight of a woman who has been waging a war within her family and threatening to divorce her husband for a toilet, Sulabh International has decided to build a modern toilet for the family at their residence in Sadeshopur in Patna district and give her cash award.

The woman has been at war with her husband Alakh Niranjan for a toilet since 2009. Now, she has dialled women helpline seeking help for divorce over the issue, Sulabh said in a release today.

Appreciating the bold stand of the young woman, Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak said they would build a toilet for the couple as "we'll not allow them to divorce".

Pathak also announced a cash reward of Rs one lakh for her saying such bold step would certainly help in highlighting this often-neglected civic issue in the society.

Earlier a tribal woman, who revolted against her husband over the issue of toilet and almost endangered her marital status in Madhya Pradesh, was honoured with Rs five lakh by Sulabh about three years ago.

Sulabh had also honoured another tribal woman Anita Narre, who too had revolted against her in-laws soon after her marriage protesting the lack of a proper toilet in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh.

Another bride of Maharajgunj district in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Bharti, was honoured for taking bold steps for construction of a toilet in her in-law's house. Now she works as a Sulabh motivator and also appeared with Bollywood actress Vidya Balan in a sanitation advertisement, the release said.