On Sunday afternoon, a group of women teased each other over who would be the first to use the new toilets constructed in their village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. They picked on Neetu after the 15-year-old declared that she would "never again" have to defecate in the fields.

"I’m going to use the toilet in the evening," she said.

The women burst out laughing when Gita, 25, a neighbour, pointed out that no one had to wait until it was dark. "We can go anytime in our own toilets," she said.

The group nodded sympathetically as Gita recalled the painful experience of wanting to relieve herself after every few hours during her pregnancy. "My baby girls will grow up without this humiliation," she said.

They live in the village of Katra Saadatganj, where the threat posed to women by the lack of toilets was starkly exposed after two young girls were found hanging from a tree on the morning of May 27.

The narrative, at the time, was that the two cousins had gone missing when they went to relieve themselves in the evening. Three brothers, accused of gang-rape and murder, were arrested.

Reacting to the tragedy in the Indian village, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in June, "I was especially appalled by the brutal rape and gruesome murder of two teenage women in India who had ventured out because they did not have access to a toilet," he said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes 100 days in office on Tuesday, however, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's promise to build five million toilets during the first three months of its rule has not materialised.

The World Bank has found that over 600 million people - 53 percent of households - in India, which has a population of 1.2 billion, defecate in the open.

Concerns about the scarcity of toilets have largely focused on the health hazards linked to the lack of sanitation. For instance, open defecation is one of the leading causes of diarrhoea, a disease, which kills 334,000 under-five-year-olds every year in India.

But it is now being connected to the widespread problem of sexual violence in the country. Women and girls are especially vulnerable to being attacked when they go to relieve themselves before sunrise or after sunset in isolated spots in the countryside as well as urban areas.

Over the weekend, Sulabh International, a social service organisation, made 108 "two pit" toilets, which cost Rs 40,000 ($661) each, available for free in Katra Sadaatganj.

The organisation, which plans to build 250 more toilets in the village of 750 households, used funds from its pay-for-use public toilet service to finance the project.

"One toilet can transform the entire life of a woman by making her safer and healthier, and then women have the power to transform their families," Bindeshwar Pathak, chief of Sulabh International, told Al Jazeera.

One blue toilet booth stands outside the home of Sohan Lal, the father of younger deceased girl.

"I'm happy that these toilets will prevent other girls from the same fate as my daughter," he said.

But his elderly mother, whose eyes brimmed with tears, said, "Nothing will bring back our daughters."

(Aljazeera)