Telangana: Saying it with a toilet this Raksha Bandhan

Hyderabad: Reshma,  a young widow, has a special Rakhi gift this year. Her Rakhi brother, G. Sripal Reddy, has gifted her a toilet, costing Rs 20, 000. Its work will be completed by Monday. 

Reshma, 28, along with her four-member family, has been living in a single room sans toilet in Bharathnagar at Kowkoor under the GHMC  Division 133 of Macha Bolarum. The bushes next to her tiny room serve as their toilet.  

Her family cannot afford to build a toilet, as her father, Shaik Shabeer, who worked with the electricity department, was electrocuted and forced to quit the job. Her brother is a school dropout. Her parents married her off into a house which did not have a toilet. She turned a widow at a young age and now lives with her father.

“Every morning, I had to find a safe spot away from strangers. Not a single day I felt comfortable. It was all the more tough during my monthly menstrual cycle. I had to wake up before dawn to attend to nature calls. Even my three-year-old daughter is forced to follow this ordeal,” she said.   

For a woman, defecating in the open is a hard task to master. With unclean surroundings, chances of contracting infections are high. 

The toilet, however, does not have a water connection due to the absence of a pipeline network. However, it has been provided with a sewage outlet.

 Sripal Reddy, who tours the slums, understood the need for a toilet for the family. “Now, the family can answer nature’s call in a dignified manner,” said Sripal Reddy.