Toilet at home? I'll marry you!
Something unusual happened on this 13th May in the Sehore village of Madhya Pradesh. One hundred and eighty four couples took part in a mass marriage ceremony and while such mass marriages are not uncommon in several villages of India, this initiative here had a unique criteria- the grooms had to have a toilet at home!
While urban people like us would laugh at this basic amenity of life which we take for granted, in this village of Madhya Pradesh till date 68% households don’t have toilet facilities within their homes. It has also been seen that a lot of young girls drop out of schools simply because there is no toilet. Also in extreme weathers, at night, the risks involved are high and not to mention the improper sanitation risks.
As per a research conducted by WHO, India accounts for 59% of the 1.1 billion people in the world who do not have toilets. And this is a good move where having a toilet is the decisive factor for marriage. Hopefully other states would also have such initiatives and end this shame for millions of Indians.