Rajasthan: No toilet at home, court grants divorce to woman

New Delhi: Ten days after the release of Akshay Kumar's 'Toilet - Ek prem katha', a 24-year-old woman in Rajasthan has divorced her husband for not constructing a toilet at home.

As per a family court, the absence of toilet inside home constituted to 'cruelty' against the wife. This permitted the marriage to get dissolved, reported leading daily The Times of India.

The woman who tied the knot in 2011, filed a divorce petition in 2015.

According to her, she was compelled to bath and defecate in the open. In spite of her repeated requests, her husband refused to build a toilet at home.

She had to wait for the entire day to pass so that she could go to the fields when it was dark. To her opinion, such an act was harming her dignity.

However, most of the village women defecating in the open, her husband found his wife's request unusual.

Also, he defended himself saying that the woman's family did not raise any issue related to toilet building during the marriage.

The court considered the absence of toilet at home similar to 'outraging the modesty of a woman'. Following which, it approved the divorce petition filed by the 24-year-old.

The court observed, "We spend money on buying tobacco, liquor and mobile phones, but are unwilling to construct toilets to protect the dignity of our family. In villages, women have to wait until sunset to answer nature's call. This is not only physical cruelty but also outraging the modesty of a woman."

The incident is certainly an instance of the film Toilet - Ek prem katha inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan', aims at highlighting the importance of hygienic sanitation facility in rural households.