Patna: A senior official in Bihar has kicked up a major storm by suggesting villagers should sell their wives if they can’t afford to build toilets at home.
The suggestion came from a young Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official, Kanwal Tanuj, now posted as the executive head of Aurangabad, a southern district some 170km south of Patna.
Sanitation
Reports said the official was addressing a function at Jamhore village in the district on Sunday informing the villagers about the importance of sanitation and asking them to invest only Rs12,000 (Dh684) to build a toilet at home — when a poor villager interrupted.
Highlighting its importance, he also explained how they can check incidents of rape if they could build toilets at home.
But a local villager who hailed from the Dalit community complained he didn’t have that amount of money to construct toilets.
Interruption
Irked at his interruption, the official asked him to sell his wife if he can’t afford to have one, leaving the audience shocked.
“Due to lack of toilets, women get raped and harassed. It only costs Rs12,000 for the construction of the toilet. Is that amount more than the dignity of one’s wife? Who can let his wife get raped in return of that little amount?” asked the official.
The official didn’t stop there.
“If that is your mentality then go and sell your wife. Those who cannot build toilets should sell or auction their wives,” he said.
According to an official report, around 16.5 million households in Bihar currently do not have toilets in their homes, forcing people to defecate in the open.
Only about 3,000 villages out of a total of more than 44,000 in Bihar have been declared free from open defecation.
