‘Lack of loos to blame for 40% of Bihar rapes’

Patna: At least 400 women in Bihar would have escaped rape in 2012 had the state government provided toilets to all the households under the Centre-sponsored Total Sanitation Scheme (TSC), police data shows.      According to the records, there were 980-odd rape cases every year in Bihar from 2006-2011. In 2012, 872 cases of rape were reported till November. "About 40- 45% of incidents took place when the women went out of their homes to answer nature's call," Bihar police IG (weaker sections) Arwind Pandey told TOI.      "In Kishanganj, Araria and Purnia districts, 61 rape incidents were reported between January and July last year. Of these, 26 incidents took place when the victims were relieving themselves in the open," Pandey said, adding thatthe police HQ was waiting for the figures to come from the state's remaining 35 districts. This revelation may be just the tip of the iceberg as a huge number of rape cases go unreported. "The figures will go up if a survey is commissioned and the surveyors are women," said Shantwana Bharti of Mahila Samakhya, a Bihar government organization.      "In our meetings, 10 among 20 women participants confide in us about being raped when they go to the field after sundown to relieve themselves," Bharti added.      The targets are mostly newlyweds and unmarried girls. "The newlyweds fear being threatened with divorce while parents of unmarried girls are worried about their daughter's marriage prospects," said Sangita Dutta, another Mahila Samakhya functionary.      Under TSC, the state government has to provide toilets in 1.11 crore households. . However, the public health engineering department (PHED) could provide toilets to only 43.75 lakh households till January 15 this year, according to the department's website.      PHED's chief engineer Arun Kumar says: "The state can provide toilets in 100% households by 2022," Till then, it's a daily struggle for the vulnerable women, not just against the humiliation of having to answer nature's call in the open, but also of keeping themselves and their daughters safe. Toilets at homes could have prevented 400 rapes in the state last year, say police records