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And Now For Something Completely Different

Indian Woman Leaves Marriage For Lack Of Toilet, Gets $10,000

by Jill Pantozzi | 12:34 pm, February 16th, 2012


A woman in India left her marital home just days after being wed because the house she and her husband were living in did not have a toilet. Her decision and vocal opinion on the matter got her $10,000 from a non-profit group. Not bad for taking a stand on squatting, wouldn’t you say? And yes, that is a photo of a house shaped like a toilet, thank you for asking. 

According to the report, “Anita Narre was handed $10,000 by Sulabh International, a non-profit group, for refusing to defecate in the open and sparking a ‘toilet revolution’ in her village in central Madhya Pradesh, according to the district magistrate.”

Narre left the home she shared with her new husband Shivram in May of last year because she was forced to “go” outside for lack of a toilet. ”Narre motivated other women of her village to coax their partners to build toilets. The village is transformed today, thanks to her bold act,” B. Chadrasekhar told AFP, ”Narre’s story is changing mindsets and our sanitation drive is back on track.”

A sanitation campaign in the area had offered to install toilets for free but most villagers thought it “dirty” to have one in their homes. “Lack of toilets and other proper sanitation facilities costs India nearly $54 billion a year through hygiene-related illnesses, lost productivity and other factors stemming from poor sanitation, a World Bank study has found.” The UN found that 366 million people in India, about a third of the population, had access to proper sanitation.

With help from district officials, Narre’s husband was able to install a toilet in the house, which she then returned to. ”Lots of people from nearby villages have also followed suit and requested us to build latrines,” said Chadrasekhar, “We have moved a proposal to make use of Narre’s good example and take her help to motivate others to use toilets.”

Insert standard joke about keeping the toilet seat down here.

(via Yahoo)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kristin-Frederickson/852880113 Kristin Frederickson

    Ditching your husband because his house isn’t up to your standards is hardly a “bold act”.

  • Anonymous

     Are you very familiar with Indian culture? What she did is VERY bold in that context.

  • http://wpmututorials.com Andrea_R

    I was just joking that my husband bought me a toilet for Valentine’s day….

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XNRZRBA7BYI5Q2SEYZM7FHC5KI Kat

     Women have virtually no power in Indian culture (or they have what power their husbands/fathers allow them to have). Moreover, you clearly don’t appreciate your basic modern amenities. I would never live in a house without a toilet.

  • Anonymous

    India has a big problem with sanitation as a result of lack of toilets in rural areas. As an attempted fix there’s been a big push from the government to encourage women to pass up marriage to a man who doesn’t have an indoor toilet. A watered-down Lysistrata, if you will. It’s not a matter of ditching a man because his “house isn’t up to your standards,” but rather, a basic health and human rights issue, and you really shouldn’t trivialize it like that.

    CNN has an article about it, and there’s lots more you can find through Google: http://articles.cnn.com/2009-10-28/world/intl.india.toilet.bride_1_toilet-villages-bathrooms?_s=PM:WORLD

  • Anonymous

    What’s equally strange about this story to me is that I thought the home in the picture was a TOILET!

  • Muthuvel Subbarayan

    There are around 150 million tribal people in india, not everybody lives in a medieval male dominated open air pooping society. Please do not generalise, you would be in for a very rude shock when you meet an indian person at work.

  • Anonymous

    Why is their or  the house shaped  like a toliet? or is it just an accident that it looks like one?

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