Girl fasts to get toilet built at home in Karnataka, parents relent

KALABURAGI: A Class 8 girl from Udagi village of Sedam taluk adopted a novel approach to coax her parents to build a toilet in their house. When nothing else failed to move her parents, this spunky girl resorted to a two-day fast to get the job done.

The matter came to light when Chief Executive Officer of Kalaburagi ZP Hepsiba Rani Korlpati, who is also in-charge Commissioner of Public Instruction of Kalaburagi, held a radio phone-in programme for government schools on ‘Sanitation in Kalaburagi’ on September 22. In all, she received 11 phone calls.

In the programme, Puja Neelakanth of Government Primary School of Udagi village, told Korlapati that she had been on a fast since Thursday to pressure her parents to construct a toilet in their house and would continue the fast till her demand was met. Moved by this, Korlapati requested the girl to give up her fast and instead, she would start the fast for two days so that the toilet is built in Puja’s house. Korlapati spoke to Puja’s parents and convinced them to build the toilet. But even though her parents agreed to her demand, Puja said she would continue her fast till the construction was started.

Puja told Express that she ended her fast on Friday evening after the pit was dug for the construction of the toilet. Panchayat Development Officer of Udagi Omkar rushed to Sedam on Saturday to bring the construction material for the toilet. The girl said she was inspired by Mallamma, Class 10 student, of Danapur village of Koppal district who staged a hunger strike to force her parents to construct a toilet in their house. Puja’s father Neelakanth is an auto driver. She said: “Though I requested my parents many times to construct a toilet, they ignored it. Fasting was the only way.”