She chose to get rid of poverty over open defecation

Being a Milaap fellow in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, I visited Sandhanapatty village intended to meet the leader of a JLG, Angammal. Since she had not got a leave from her private job at a restaurant; I met Tamilrasi, another woman of the same JLG. She had availed a microloan of Rs. 10,000 in order to construct a toilet at home.
 
Tamilrasi, 47, came out of her thatched mud house, when I knocked at her door. She greeted me arranging a cot in her small lawn. And we sat on it for further words. She told that she was married, with three children (one elder daughter and two sons). Three of them are also married. The daughter lives with her in-laws’ at Mannachanallur and both the sons live at Thuraiyur town with their families. Calling a seven year old young girl near to her, she said, “I and my husband live in this house, however, my granddaughter (daughter’s daughter) has also come to stay with us for some days as she has leaves in her school.”
 
Informing about the utilization of loan amount she said, “Those days, we were going through extreme financial crisis at home. My husband used to work as a daily wage laborer. He had not received any contract of work since three weeks.” Most of their savings had been spent on the marriages of their children. Her husband had no other way than to switch his profession. Since, he had already worked as a carpenter at a few places; he decided to formally choose carpentry. Lowering her voice, she said, “The only thing he needed that time was some amount to purchase woodworking tools. We decided to invest the loan amount to buy them.” Her husband bought a wood carving machine and some other tools worth Rs. 9,000. She told that soon after getting new tools, he had begun to get new contracts at Mannachanallur and Mohanur. She informed that earlier their total household income was just Rs. 6,000 a month which had just doubled now.
 
When asked about any plan of constructing a toilet in future, she said, “From our childhoods, we’ve only defecated in open. It doesn’t seem to be a burden or strenuous practice to us anyhow. In fact, it has become the part of our daily life. So, we don’t feel any need of toilet.” After quick gaze at her granddaughter, she said, “Yes, young age people need a toilet, the way my daughter-in-law had, for which we had applied for this loan.” Tamilrasi said that her sons had decided to live separately with their wives when they had seen the deteriorating economic conditions of her house. It was the spark of courage that twinkled in her eyes and she said, “We never expected a single penny from anyone, not even from our sons.” Dragging her granddaughter closer, she said, “Today, everything is stable, we earn, spend and save too. We save for her, for our daughter. And if she demands a toilet, we’ll surely install it here.” Her eyes got filled with love and care and I could equally feel its warmth around me.