No toilet at home akin to 'cruelty', Rajasthan court says while granting divorce to woman

A 24-year-old woman was granted a divorce by a family court in Bhilwara in Rajasthan, on Friday, on the grounds that her husband had refused to construct a toilet despite repeated requests.

While observing that the absence of a toilet amounts to "cruelty", the court allowed for the marriage to be dissolved stating that it amounts to "outraging the modesty of a woman".

The woman who was married in 2011, had approached the court in 2015,  The Times of India reported. Stating that her husband's refusal to build a toilet compelled her to bathe and defecate in the open, something that she said, hurt her dignity.

The husband, the TOI report states, did not take his wife's request seriously since a majority of women in their village also did not have any access to toilets.

Calling it a "mental torture", Hindustan Times reports, the court asked, "Has it ever pained us that our mothers and sisters have to go to defecate in the open? Women in villages have to wait for dark to venture out in order to relieve and as a result has to bear with physical pain."

"It is an irony that people who spend a lot of money on alcohol, tobacco and mobile phones, don’t have toilets in their homes," it added.