COIMBATORE: Just like in the Hindi movie Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, more than 50 brides married to grooms living on Vincent Road of Kottaimedu here have returned to their maternal homes in the last year due to lack of toilets in their marital homes. And it’s supposed to be an open defecation free area.
“Without having access to toilets, the bride does not want to live in our house,” says a 50-year-old mother, whose daughter-in-law left a few months ago. Despite several requests, the bride refused to move in unless they found a way to build toilets.
It is not just the brides, even their daughters refuse to return and stay even for a day. Residents say there have been instances when prospective brides’ families refused to settle for marriage after learning that the man resides in the toilet-less region.
While the government continues to concentrate on rural India to eradicate open defecation, we, living in the heart of the city, which has been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), are forced to defecate in the open, say the residents.
In early 2017, when Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation was declared ODF under the Swacch Bharat Mission by the Quality Council of India, as many as 64 toilets were being used by thousands of families here. But the Corporation reportedly demolished them citing poor stability of the building.
After the toilet building had been demolished completely overnight, the residents took to several protests and submission of petitions to officials to get it back. The Corporation finally started constructing toilets about six months back.“They have only laid foundation for 14 toilets so far,” the residents say, adding that the completion of construction work will take at least a year or more.
“Unlike in the movie, we cannot afford to construct our own toilet as we live in a small room, where we do not even have sufficient space to stretch without hitting,” says S Nadira (29), a resident.Most women walk down to use public toilets in Town Hall or Ukkadam during their leisure time, while other women visit their relatives’ house on a daily basis.
“Children and men are left with no other option but to defecate in the open either by the lake behind or within their locality,” they add.The residents got together to build a toilet with their own money. But it clogs at least two times a month and they have to judiciously save money to get it cleared.
When contacted, officials at the Corporation say that the construction of 14 toilets, in which the roofs have been raised, would be completed with in a period of 15 days.Citing the demand for sand as the reason for the delay in commencing the construction work on loos in the area, the Corporation officials assured to complete the work on toilets at the earliest.