Woman denies marrying in ‘Open Defecation Free’ Lucknow

NPnews24Online LUCKNOW:    In 2017, Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar presented a movie Toilet-Ek Prem Katha which depicted a real-life story where after marriage, the wife demanded for a toilet in the house as it is unhygienic for urinating in open air.

Similar to that an incident took place in Lucknow, a woman recently called off her wedding which was scheduled on February 9 after she came to know that the two-room house of her husband-to-be did not have a toilet.

The groom-to-be, Noor Ali, is a zardozi artisan who lives in Branch road Daliganj. Ali pleaded with the bride’s family to not call off the wedding as all preparations were done; however, his attempts were futile. Ali’s mother died after being hit by a train when she went outside to attend to nature’s call. Ali tried to construct a toilet in his house after his mother’s decease. However, the in-charge of Daliganj Kabristan objected to his request saying that the land belonged to the graveyard. He said that some other people were given permission to build toilets in their houses.

There are about 22 houses around the Daliganj Kabristan area and most of them do not have toilets as they were not allowed to construct them. These houses are inhabited by lower income groups of Muslim zardozi artisans. The residents of the colony had earlier approached Lucknow Municipal Corporation officials for construction of sewer lines and toilets but nothing happened. Depressed, Ali plans to move out of the area.

Amit Kumar, additional municipal commissioner, on the other hand, claimed that Lucknow was Open Defection Free. There are over 360 community toilets with 3,500 seats in 350 square kilometre city area. The LMC has constructed 15,000 toilets inside the city. Kumar said that the authorities would visit Ali’s house and look into the problem. Calling the incident “unfortunate”, Kumar added that it was good to see that people, especially women and girls, are becoming aware of hygiene.