Pertinent to build toilets than temples or mosques: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Ahmedabad: Bollywood filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra today said that building toilets is more important than constructing temples and mosques.

"For me, though politically I am not a strong person or a right person, it's more important to make toilets than making temples and mosques," said Mehra, who has directed "Rang De Basanti", "Delhi-6" and "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag".

He was talking to reporters at an event organised by a local NGO 'Yuva Unstoppable' to launch a drive for the education of the girl child and to provide sanitation facilities in schools in different parts of the state.

Mehra blamed absence of toilet facilities in schools as the cause behind students quitting education.

"Child dropout ratio is due to the lack of toilet facilities... "Why will our children go to such schools where there are no toilet facilities. Cleanliness is much more important than education," he said.

Mehra said the issue of "roti, kapda aur makan" (bread, clothes and shelter) has remained dominant for the last fifty years.
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"We don't have the ability of thinking about other issues. We are enslaved... Our masses are deprived of their ability to think and to have understanding (about other issues)," he added.