She used to share a toilet, now she has her own

The village of T.Puthupatty is home to Rajalakshmi, a homemaker who had seized the opportunity to avail a loan and build a toilet. She is also the leader of a joint liability group that had obtained microloans to construct toilets in their houses. Rajalakshmi welcomed us warmly to her house after we informed her that we were there to assess the impact of constructing a toilet in her home. As she ushered us a small courtyard at the rear end of her home, I caught an insight into a traditional home, complete with wooden rafters, low door frames and iron oxide floors. “We built the toilet when we expanded our home,” she said. As her family grew, so did the need for more space. There were nine members living in one large joint family that included her parents-in-law, her husband and her two children in the 3rd and 6th standards. “Prior to building our own toilet we were using the neighbour’s toilet,” Rajalakshmi informed me.

The toilet was located just under the staircase that led to the roof of her house. Building it under the staircase meant that Rajalakshmi was able to utilize the space well. It also meant that the toilet easily accessible to her aging parents. “We used the septic tank model for the toilet as we didn’t have the space to construct a pit,” she said. The septic tank was built just under the toilet.

While Rajalakshmi is a housewife and takes care of her young children, attending to their educational and developmental needs in the house, her husband owns and operates a small photo studio that helps support their large family. Before leaving, Rajalakshmi expressed her gratitude for the opportunity of obtaining a microloan for building a toilet.

Correction: Due to a data entry error by our field partner, the wrong photo of the group borrowers was uploaded at the time of funding the loan on our website. We are working closely with our field partner to eliminate such errors in the future.