Ranchi: It took the suicide of a college for the Jharkhand government to address the lack of toilets in the eastern Indian state.

Khusboo Kumari ended her life on July 3 after her parents refused to build a toilet at their home in Dumka.

The 17-year-old girl’s tragic end prompted the Jharkhand State Commission for Women to seek actual numbers of toilets in each district.

According to the 2011 Census, Jharkhand has the lowest number of toilets among Indian states, reports The Telegraph.

Despite the Narendra Modi government’s push to build toilets as part of Swach Bharat Abhiyan (clean India campaign), Kumari’s four-roomed house at Gaushala Road was among Jharkhand’s 77 percent homes without a toilet.

The national average of homes without toilet is 53.1 percent.

Kumari killed herself unable to cope with the daily mortification of going to defecate in fields. Her parents refused to build a toilet at home to allegedly save money for her marriage.

State women’s commission chairperson Mahua Maji stressed the need to find out the exact numbers of toilets in panchayats and homes. “I will immediately write to Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Drinking Water and Sanitation Department Minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary on the need to ensure building toilets gets impetus in view of the Dumka tragedy. It’s a question of female safety, dignity and hygiene,” she said.

State drinking water and sanitation department data in 2014 says that only 2,432 of the 32,000 villages in the state have toilets, including household and public. Of 4,431 panchayats in the state, only 35 are officially open-defecation free, a number that the current minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary wants to push to 600 by the end of 2015-2016.

Reacting over Kumari’s suicide, the minister said: “It is pathetic. I will seek information on the current status of open-defecation free panchayats and toilets from my officials on Monday.”

“Absence of toilets is a big reason behind crime in rural and suburban areas. Sincere implementation of government schemes under Swach Bharat Abhiyan is the need of the hour,” Maji added.

On Khusboo’s suicide, Maji said: “It is not bizarre but horribly tragic. Many educated women and girls want toilets at homes. They hate the humiliating and unsanitary process of open defecation.”