Yahoo – AFP,
August 20, 2017
 |
| An Indian urinates on a wall in front of a poster in Hyderabad for the Hindi film "Toilet", about one man's battle to build toilets in his village (AFP Photo/NOAH SEELAM) |
Jaipur
(India) (AFP) - An Indian court has given a woman permission to divorce her
husband because their home did not have a toilet, forcing her to seek relief
outdoors.
The family
court in the northwestern state of Rajasthan ruled on Friday in favour of the
woman, who argued that her husband's failure to provide an indoor toilet during
their five years of marriage amounted to cruelty.
Justice Rajendra
Kumar Sharma said women in villages often endured physical pain waiting until
darkness to relieve themselves outdoors.
The judge
labelled open defecation -- a major health problem in India -- disgraceful and
deemed it torture to deny women a safe environment for relief, the woman's
lawyer Rajesh Sharma told AFP.
Divorce is
only granted in India if proof such as cruelty, violence or undue financial
demands are shown in court.
It is not
the first time a marriage has been called off over a toilet.
Last year a
woman refused to tie the knot in Uttar Pradesh state after her fiancé refused
to build a toilet for the couple.
In June
another woman refused to return to the home of her in-laws until they
constructed a toilet.
Nearly half
of India's population -- almost 600 million people -- defecate in the open,
according to UNICEF.
Some 70
percent of Indian households do not have toilets, although 90 percent have
access to mobile phones.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has promised to build a toilet in every home by 2019 in
a bid to stamp out open defecation.
The
government says 20 million toilets have been constructed since the start of the
scheme in 2014.
But experts
say open defecation not only stems from poverty but a belief that toilets
inside the home are unclean.
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