Dr Smita Yadav argues that “inside toilets may not suit Indian villagers” for a variety reasons (Letters, 29 December). What she fails to mention is that, with sewerage disposal facilities nonexistent in the countryside, inside toilets are mere boreholes in the ground, enclosed by shabbily built structures, because that is all most villagers can afford. They are not easy to keep in a clean and hygienic state. No wonder people use these as a last resort. However, residents with properly built modern toilet facilities in their houses are happy, indeed proud to use them.
Dr Dev Sharma
Ilford, Essex
• Thirty years ago, in a village in Tamil Nadu, the organisation for which I was doing voluntary work built an outside toilet block for women hoping, among other things, that it would improve their lives. But the toilets were not used, mainly because the women would have had to fetch extra water to flush them, but also because the women valued their time in the early hours in the defecation fields as it was the only time in the day that they could talk to each other before having to work.
Irene Blessitt
Bristol
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