The situation invariably ends up in a quarrel,” says 45-year-old resident Satyabhama Pawar.ĭefecating on the roadside is also dangerous. The husband, who has already returned home from work tired and hungry, gets irritated waiting.
“If a woman cannot find a suitable spot for squatting, or has to stand up repeatedly, it is very likely that she will return home late. The problem has led to domestic unrest as well. This is not just embarrassing but also causes great physical discomfort. Women are forced to abruptly stand up while defecating, at times repeatedly. “It is terribly embarrassing.”Ĭonstant movement of vehicles worsens the problem. “Men and women use the same roadside for defecation,” says SheelabaiChavan, one of the most active protestors. In the absence of toilets, the only place they are left to squat is this very roadside. The road has ushered urbanisation in the village, but it has also taken away the village commons. The men fear they may not be able to complete the work soon enough to prevent a second agitation which the women threaten to stage.Īmgaon, or a village connected by road in local parlance, boasts a tar road and is hardly 100 metres from the Nagpur-Wardha highway. The cost of constructing workable toilets is much higher than the subsidy, though. Appreciating the effort, the district administration offered the village subsidy to construct toilets. Construction of toilets has started in 80 per cent of the village, which comprises tribals and other disadvantaged sections.
Within three days of agitation, their partners buckled. On June 24, they staged a choolband, or no-cooking protest, forcing their partners to not just start constructing toilets but also giving them a taste of the hard work they put in to feed families. Yet, the women of Amgaon, a tiny village in Wardha district of Maharashtra, did just that. And when it comes to women agitating against husbands, it may well be an unprecedented situation.
TOILETS ARE not an issue over which one sees agitations every day.