The Jharkhand government is working to make the state Open Defecation Free by 2018.
A man in Jharkhand has refused to visit his in-laws because they do not have a toilet in their house.
Pramod Kumar, who hails from Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, was married in April this year at Jogtiyabad village in Girididh district. The morning after the wedding, when he asked his in-laws where the toilet was situated, they handed him a pot and showed him the way to the field.
Mr. Kumar was embarrassed by the incident, and forbade his wife visiting her parents until they constructed a toilet. He also refused to visit them himself.
"My son-in-law is unhappy with us as there is no toilet in our house," said Mr. Kumar's father-in-law Jageshwar Paswan. "I have made up my mind to construct a toilet so that he can come to my house."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swaccha Bharat mission aims to make India open defecation free by October 2, 2019, in time for Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary. In the lead up to Gandhi Jayanti last year, PM Modi claimed that 67% of the population now has access to toilets. The Jharkhand government is aiming for an earlier deadline, working towards making the state open defecation free by 2018.
Campaigns by celebrities like Vidya Balan and movies like Akshay Kumar's
Toilet: Ek Prem Katha have also drawn attention to the importance indoor toilets hold for women. They have also inspired action, with some women refusing to marry men who did not have toilets in their homes.
The case of a man refusing to go to a house without a toilet, however, seems unique so far.