GHAZIPUR: In February this year, Dhananjay Chaudhary of Karkatpur Village in Ghazipur qualified to get a toilet, or izzat ghar, under the Centre's ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). The toilet came up right outside Chaudhary's home, an inch away from the handpump that the family depends on for its water needs. While this could have posed a massive threat to their health in the coming days, ironically it is the Chaudhary family's rejection of this toilet that might save them. They, like many others in his village, continue to use the nearby fields and not the new toilets."The pradhan got the construction done and we do not know how much was spent on it," said Chaudhary's daughter Pooja, when asked how much of the Rs 12,000 that has been sanctioned for construction of toilets to each family was spent. "We were not asked where it should be built or how. The pradhan just got it done on his own. The structure gets so hot from inside that we prefer to use the fields. In any case, we will probably have this broken down and build a new one inside the house with our own money," said Pooja.In the small settlement of Chandipur, an hour from Ghazipur, Sanjay Khirwar and his three brothers are excited about their new toilets. Their village pradhan got four toilets constructed on their premises about two months ago. As he proudly shows his toilet, built about a feet away from the lone handpump that supplies water to the four families, Khirwar says: "I do not know how much was spent on construction of these toilets. The pradhan got them made. They are a little close to the hand pump but we had no say in selecting the sites," he said.Sandeep Pandey, a Magsaysay Award winner and an RTI activist, surveyed toilets on ground and reported that several of them that were being built under SBM were found to be violating norms.

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