Festival vs. Toilet

According to census 2011, 59.6% of the rural population and 43.8% of the total population in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu, defecate in the open. According to a study conducted by LEAF Society, an NGO involved in constructing toilets in the rural localities, each family spends about `8, 000 a year for religious festivals. But, they are not ready to invest the same amount for a toilet. Here, toilets that have been built after consulting astrologers and are located close to wells, affecting the quality of the ground water.