Meet The 22 year old leading a toilet revolution in India

22 year old Komal Hadala from India spent her whole life using a toilet, but many other women in India aren’t so lucky. After her wedding, Komal realized her new home in Nithora village, Uttar Pradesh had no toilets. So what did the women do? How did they use the bathroom? change too. She realized, why don’t we just build toilets? Her grandmother-in-law Athri told the Guardian:

“We never knew anything else. This is how it has always been. We had no choice but to go out in the fields. It was hell – getting up so early, the freezing cold in the winters, the fog, the fear that some man will stumble across you. The worst was – oh my god – when I used to have a bad stomach.”

Now imagine having to do that pregnant or for anyone who is sick and has a hard time moving around. After speaking to her family, they approached Chahat Ram, who is the village council head, to find out if they were any funds available to build toilets.Thankfully, there were and immediately the work began. First she persuaded her husband to build a toilet, then she persuaded 250 families to as well. The Indian government has a campaign called Clean India, that has a mission to end open defecation. Since Prime minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, more than 90 million toilets have been built. 

Sources:

Government of India

The Guardian