Jharkhand: Brother gifts toilet, not sweets to sister on Raksha Bandhan

Ramgarh: The sibling festival of Raksha Bandhan was observed recently and as is the norm, a brother gives sweets and money to his sister once she ties the sacred thread of love.

However, In Ramgarh, Jharkhand, there was a departure from this traditional norm. Pintu Saw gifted his sister Rekha Devi a lavatory instead of sweets.

Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Mission', Saw constructed a lavatory for his sister at a cost of Rs. 30,000.

"I heard in the news about the Prime Minister's Swachh Bharat Mission. I thought of building a toilet as my family member use to defecate in the open. One should not defecate in the open, so, I built this toilet and gifted it to my sister on Raksha Bandhan. The head of the Jawahar Nagar panchayat also inspired me to do this," Pintu said.

Rekha said she is very happy with this unusual present of her brother.

"The people of Jawahar Nagar are defecating in the open which creates a lot of problems. The Prime Minister Swachh Bharat Mission under which everybody has to construct a toilet., we are trying to make out block free from open defecation," said the head of the Jawahar Nagar Panchayat, Pradeep Manjhi.

Building toilets in rural India is one of the prime objectives of Prime Minister Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Mission'. It's main aim is to make India 'open defecation-free' by October 2019 by constructing 12 crore toilets in rural India.

Over 1.09 crore toilets were built across the country in the first 11 months of 2015-16.