New Bollywood film highlights the dangers behind a lack of toilets in India

  • 22/07/2017

One of Bollywood's biggest and most glamorous stars is bringing out a film that's far from sophisticated subject matter.

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar's attempt to highlight the lack of sanitation in large swathes of India, and how this has a direct link to the rape and sexual abuse of many women.

In a culture where defecating outside is normal for millions, and half of India's population has no access to a lavatory, India's most bankable star will use his box office weight to highlight the dangers women face.

Predatory men are known to take the opportunity to assault women when they are forced to go outside for this reason.

While it's an all-singing love story, it's a comedy with a heavy message - the heroine in his film leaves her husband because he has no toilet in the house.

Kumar says while Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is just a film, in India, cinema connects all sectors of society, so it is better than any government initiative.

It is about keeping women safe from attacks, but also hygiene - halting the spread of diseases and, for women, the necessity of holding their bladders until dark for safety against attackers.

"Toilets are being built, particularly in rural areas, as part of a government programme to improve sanitation, but it can't come soon enough," he says.

He says with a rise in reported sexual crimes against women, UNICEF estimates half of all rapes could be prevented if there were better access to toilets. 

"As in so many shocking cases, Saroj, with no access to an indoor toilet, was set upon when she was forced to go outside", he says.

Saroj, a woman from a village in Northern India, was grabbed by two men from behind, but she kicked and shouted as they tried to pin her down. Villagers were altered to her screams and she fought off her attackers.

But women can't go too far from home, she says, because of children and household tasks.

"We have no choice but to sit shamelessly on the road, even though men are passing by," she says.

ITV reports that even when the toilets are erected, there is reluctance to use them, because communities are so entrenched in the practice of using the outdoors.

While the filmmakers says they know building lavatories alone is not a guarantee of success in a country where it's estimated 600 million people use the toilet outdoors, it's hoped the reach of Bollywood will translate the message to millions of people.

ITV News / Newshub.