Parwati Devi had walked out of her marriage over the issue.
A Bihar woman has done what is considered nearly impossible in these parts; she has won a hard-fought battle for the construction of a toilet at her home in a village nearly 40 km away from Bihar's capital Patna.
Parwati Devi, who fought for years with her husband and in-laws urging them to build a toilet in their home, finally walked out of her marriage in 2012 over the issue.
The situation was resolved only after the NGO Sulabh International stepped in and paid for the construction of the toilet.
"In villages, women get used to going out in the open, but I could not," says Parwati, adding,
"I had the guts to confront my husband and in-laws. I hope other women are inspired by me".
Her case is a grim reminder of the abysmal lack of toilets in many homes in rural India.
The recent rape and killing of two sisters in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun has highlighted the issue; the teenaged girls were abducted by the culprits when they had stepped out of their home to relieve themselves in the night. (
Why No Toilets at Home Means Women at Risk)
According to latest census figures, 92 per cent of rural households in Jharkhand, 82 per cent in Bihar and 78 per cent in Uttar Pradesh don't have toilets.
The situation is equally dismal in many other states; in Odisha, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, over 85 percent of rural households do not have toilets.
IC Kumar, President of Sulabh International, says, "Without these basic facilities, there is a great threat to the safety and security of women. Building toilets should be treated as a movement and not just as a government programme."
Parwati's husband, a newspaper vendor, refused to meet this correspondent. But her in-laws pointed out that the family had not built a toilet earlier as they could not afford to do so.
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan -- a 15-year-old government scheme -- mandates that each rural household is entitled to nearly Rs. 10000 to build a toilet.
But in most cases, neither is the money enough, nor can it be tracked, nor does it reach the intended user.