Khushboo Kumari a 17 year old girl committed suicide for failing to persuade her parents to build a toilet in their house. Khushboo Kumari, who is a first year BA student in A N College, Dumka, hanged herself at her Gaushala Road home on 3rd July 2015 (Friday).

Khushboo Kumar abashed for going out to the fields for daily toilet. “If Khushboo Kumari would demand forcefully to have a toilet we build a toilet inside the house. We built a boundary wall instead,” said the teen’s mother Sanjhu Devi, adding, “She’d often go to her grandfather’s home nearby to relieve herself.” The family owns a puce four-room house with a courtyard but a toilet was never precedence.

The tragedy underlined a growing awareness on sanitation among the younger generation in the state which has country’s highest rate of open defecation. The 2011 census had said that 92.4% people in Jharkhand’s rural areas do not have toilets. In recent times, there have been several instances of women denying marrying into families who don’t have toilets in their homes, which officials attribute to growing public awareness about the health hazards of open defecation. Dumka police, recite Khushbu’s family-members, said that she was pressurising her parents for a toilet in her home as she was fed up and ashamed of defecating in open fields.

Khushboo Kumar’s parents told her that they couldn’t build a toilet as they were saving money for her (Khushboo Kumari ) marriage,” said investigating officer Manoj Mishra.  Khushboo Kumari father Shripati Yadav is a driver. “For us marriage was more important than build a toilet at home. She was demanding a toilet and on Friday we had a heated argument. She was stubborn and ended her life,” said a tearful Sanju Devi, Khushbu’s mother.  Police said that Khushboo Kumar committed sucide when her parents were not at home. “It is a tragic incident as girl’s parents were unaware of the importance of toilets,” said Dumka SP Bipul Shukla.

A government official said that under a government scheme, every individuals are provided Rs 4,600 for household toilet construction.