Anita Narre, the newlywed wife of a daily wage laborer from Betul district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, took the bold decision to leave her husband's home, as it had no toilets.

The decision was a tough one to make but it worked. The husband was forced to build a toilet in his house.

According to local news reports, Narre was shocked to realise that she had to depend on open space for her primary needs. She left the home after two days putting a condition on her husband that she will return only after a toilet is built.

Her husband Shivaram had no money to construct one. But the village authorities came to learn about the incident and helped him solve the issue. Along with a local NGO, the village officials lent him the money required for the construction of the toilet.

Narre is now back at her husband's home and is proud of her decision. The incident also brought the nation's attention to the poor sanitary facilities in the country. An NGO has now awarded a cash prize to Narre for her brave decision.

The lack of basic sanitation is a big problem in India especially in rural areas. In several rural villages and urban slums, people still depend on open spaces for their primary needs.

For women, it is more difficult as they have to wait till the sunset for the purpose, and this leads to increased health risks.

Now the Indian government is implementing several projects under its Sanitation for all programs, which create awareness among the people besides giving monetary aid for the construction of toilets to the underprivileged people. Some of the states have made it mandatory for local body representatives to build toilet facility in their homes within a year of their assuming the post.

But despite the introduction of such measures and awareness programs, people still perform their basic needs in open spaces as many of them are still unable to construct toilets or they lack the land to build one. This also leads to grave health risks quite often.

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