Rekha had pleaded with dad for toilet

Inter student had said she felt ashamed of going out in the open

“Izzat Pothondhi Nanna (I am feeling ashamed, daddy),” is what 17 year-old K. Rekha, an intermediate student of Jagruthi College in Gundala of Nalgonda district, has been been telling her father for the past seven months.

She had been insisting that her father construct a toilet as she had to walk with a water jug to the ‘jungle like grove’ near her house to attend nature’s call.

Even the place where she bathed was open with torn saris hung to cover one side.

Depressed because her parents could not build a toilet at home, Rekha committed suicide by immolat- ing herself on Monday.

The predicament of several other college and schoolgoing young girls and women is no different from that of Rekha as at least every two of four households in Gundala of Nalgonda do not have toilet facility.

The villages in other mandals in Nalgonda face a similar situation. In fact, 48 per cent of Telangana state households face a similar problem.

Narrating the pain that her daughter suffered Rekha’s mother K. Lalamma recalled that her daughter always showed the Unicef sanitation advertisement where actress Vidya Balan stresses on the need to have a toilet in every household.

She used to tell her parents: “Idanna chusi nerchukondi (learn from at least this TV ad)”.

While the nation celebrated Republic Day, Rekha’s family grieved a day after she immolated herself as her father expressed his inability due to lack of space and money to construct a toilet.

Breaking into tears Lalamma said, “Rekha use to say Nenu chaduvkune ammaini (I am an educated girl) I need to have self-respect. She stopped going to college after the Sankranti holidays stating that she is ashamed. On attaining puberty, she was more vocal.”

Belonging to washerman community, Lalamma and her husband K. Sattaih, residents of Chakalivada, eke out a living on daily wages. They funded the education of two daughters and a son. Rekha’s younger sister, Maheswari, said, “Akka used to weep on the toilet issue. She used to tell me at least by the time I grow up the family will have a toilet.”

College-going girls of Rekha’s age held similar views. B. Sravanthi, studying in second year intermediate, said, even “I have been asking my father to construct a toilet for the past two years. He has now constructed a new house and I will now ask him to have a toilet there.”

Sravanthi, who uses a latrine in the government college, claims several of her friends have the same problem.