Lucknow: Moved by the gruesome gang-rape of two cousins at Katara village in western Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district, Sulabh International, a social service organisation constructing low-cost sanitation, on Sunday announced to build a toilet in each and every house in the small village.
Sulabh Founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak today said the NGO will ensure toilet for each family in this particular village at the earliest.
His announcement came in wake of the recent gang rape and killing of two girls when they had gone to attend the call of nature in the open.
Dr Pathak, a pioneer of the Sulabh sanitation movement, said a team of sanitation workers and engineers from his organisation will visit the village to start toilet construction work from tomorrow itself. We have ask our team to construct toilets with highest pace.
“We are just setting an example by adopting this village as the issue of toilet was the main reason behind both the deaths,” he remarked.
Dr Pathak urged top business houses to adopt at least one village to end the practice of open defecation at the earliest.
“Any woman defecating in the open is vulnerable and the Indian government must acknowledge the issue. Resources will only pour in then,” say Sulabh Chief.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman Stephane Dujjaric called the killings a ‘horrendous crime’. The incident underscores the wave of violence that is being seen against women whether in India, Pakistan or gender-based violence in general, Dujjaric said.
The two women, in their teens, were forcibly taken away by four men while on their way to the public loo, gang-raped, strangulated and then hung by a mango tree in impoverished Katra Shahadatganj village in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh in northern India.
Dr Pathak has also vowed to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for toilets at every home so that the problem of open defecation can be solved.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman Stephane Dujjaric called the killings a ‘horrendous crime’. The incident underscores the wave of violence that is being seen against women whether in India, Pakistan or gender-based violence in general, Dujjaric said. UNI JAS
‘The central government should direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to speedily investigate the sensitive issue so that the guilty people get capital punishment,’ Ms Mayawati told reporters earlier in the day in Lucknow.
Chiding the Akhilesh Yadav government in the state for the deteriorating law and order, the BSP president said it was only after announcement of her visit to the bereaved families in Badaun, that the CM recommended a CBI probe.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav said that Uttar Pradesh government has done its work by arresting five accused within 72 hours and now the ball is in the Centre’s court. (PTI)