Bihar DM denies saying ‘sell wife if you cannot build toilet’
The district magistrate of Bihar’s Aurangabad Kanwal Tanuj has denied he made comments that those who cannot build a toilet should sell their wives, saying he was trying to appeal to the “self-respect of the people” during a drive to promote the Swacch Bharat or Clean India campaign.
A news agency reported that while addressing a public gathering on Saturday in Jamhore village, Tanuj said women are sexually assaulted as they go out to relieve themselves due to the lack of toilets at home and it only costs ₹12,000 to build a toilet
“Is ₹12,000 more than anyone’s wife’s dignity? Who can let his wife get raped in return of ₹12,000? If this is your mentality then go and sell your wife. Those who cannot build toilet should sell or auction his wife,” he was quoted as saying.
Tanuj accused the news agency of “totally distorting the issue” and said it was not playing the entire speech but only but a 20-second clip from his 25-minute address.
“We were trying to appeal to the self-respect of the people there. Many times we have said that if you defecate in the open then you will spread diseases and you will become the transmitter of the diseases ... But what we wanted to focus upon was the selfrespect of the individual and selfrespect associated with the female counterpart,” Tanuj told Hindustan Times over the phone.