No toilet at home: Bihar woman divorces husband

Patna, May 12: A woman in a Bihar village has divorced her husband for not constructing a toilet at their house, officials said Tuesday. Sunita Devi, a resident of Paharpur village in Vaishali district, divorced her husband in village panchayat after he failed to build a toilet despite repeated assurances. Interestingly, Paharpur village was declared a 'nirmal-gram' by the government. "I was fed up with my husband for not building a toilet and was forced to leave him," Sunita told IANS by telephone. "I was upset over being forced to make way to an open field every day under the cover of darkness to defecate. Even owner of the land used to abuse and humiliate me repeatedly," Sunita said. "For the last four years, I have been requesting my husband to construct the toilet. But he always ignored it and advised me to seek help of my parents for it," Sunita said. Bihar has a population of over 105 million, of which 21.9 million lack toilet facilities.