Woman seeks police help to construct toilet

patna — In what is surely a rarity, a woman in Bihar has lodged a complaint against her father-in-law for not constructing a toilet in their house and sought help police help in this matter, police said on Friday.

After her father-in-law ignored repeated requests to construct a toilet in their house, Sanju Devi (name changed) — a resident of Jian Khurd village within Karja Police Station in Muzaffarpur district — surprised officials of a women police station as she reached there with a written complaint.

“A woman has lodged a written complaint against her father-in-law that he is not constructing a toilet in their house,” said Jyoti Kumari, Officer-in-Charge of the Women’s Police Station in Muzaffarpur, about 70 km from here.

Sanju Devi told Joyti Kumari that her husband had been working outside Bihar to earn a livelihood and sent money twice to his father to construct a toilet, but he spent that money on other things and did not get the toilet constructed.

“In her complaint, Sanju has alleged that her father-in-law is not in a mood to construct toilet in their house and hardly pays attention to her demand.”

Taking the complaint seriously, Joyti Kumari called her father-inlaw to police station to know his side of the story.

Sanju’s father-in-law, however, downplayed the issue and said it was their personal matter and he would solve it. “But I told him that it is a rare case that a woman has lodged a written complaint that her father-in-law is not constructing a toilet despite repeated requests,” she said.

Jyoti Kumari has directed the man to construct a toilet within a month and submit a report with the picture of constructed toilet at the women police station. “Sanju’s father-in-law has given an undertaking that he will construct a toilet,” she said.

In fact, Sanju was not ready to withdraw her complaint and return to his father-in-law’s house unless a toilet was constructed. “But after we persuaded her, she agreed to return to her in-laws’ house.”

Sanju said her husband had been promising and assuring of a toilet for the last five years but it was yet to be built. —