What kept Babynithya from building her toilet

We were wrapping up our day’s visit to the town of Musiri. The last borrower we interviewed for the day happened to be Babynithya. She is part of a JLG (Joint Liability Group) that is headed by Kanagavalli. We were unable to meet Kanagavalli as she was not present at home at the time of our visit but meeting Babynithya fulfilled our intention to meet someone from the group.

It was early in the evening and Babynithya was washing the kitchen utensils outside her home when we arrived. As is customary with all interactions with borrowers, we explained the purpose of our visit and asked her if she had used the loan to construct a toilet. Visibly moved with a sense of unease she replied that she hadn’t. Interested to understand why she hadn’t constructed the toilet yet, I sought an explanation. “We had just begun constructing our house when we had borrowed the loan,” she said. “The costs of construction and labour increased dramatically and we spent the loan amount on the house,” she explained. Though her family had constructed a bathroom, they ran out of funds when the time came to construct the toilet. The cost of the septic tank, which is the costliest part of constructing a toilet, made them shelve their plans for the moment. A toilet is typically the last item to be constructed when building a house as most toilets are built outdoors and do not form an integral part of the house’s main structure. Babynithya’s toilet seemed to be a casualty of a combination of inflation, poor planning and improper resource allocation.

With no toilet in her home, she and her family continue to use the public toilet that is located about 300 metres from her house. Babynithya’s family includes her husband, who works as a daily wage labourer, and her young son who is studying in the 6th standard. “I really wanted to build the toilet for a healthy future for my family but it was unfortunate that we ran out of funds,” she said. As soon as her family’s financial position improves, Babynithya wants to start work on her toilet. Given her experience this time, I hoped that she would be in a better position to plan the construction of her toilet.

Interested to know if the others in her group had constructed their toilets, I asked Babynithya about the other borrowers. She confirmed that all the other members of the group had constructed their toilets. As they already lived in independent houses, they did not face any diversion of resources for home improvements. In fact, they contributed some of their savings towards building a toilet.