Indian women want mobiles, not toilets: Ramesh

''Women want mobile phones, they are not demanding toilets," rural development, drinking water and sanitation minister Jairam Ramesh rued while calling for making India an open-defecation free country in 10 years.

"Sanitation is a much more difficult issue [than the spread of mobiles]. This is the mindset we have … we are talking of behavioural changes,'' the often outspoken Ramesh said after launching the Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals prepared by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The minister's remarks raised some unease among the delegates. An ESCAP official reminded the minister that a tribal woman from Madhya Pradesh was recently honoured for her insistence on toilet facilities at her marital home, which inspired surrounding villagers to take up the issue in their area.

Ramesh said that India is a land of paradox - the country accounts for almost 60 per cent of those relieving themselves openly in the world at a time when it has 700 million mobile phones. ''We build toilets but the toilets are not used," the minister sweepingly claimed.

Ramesh promised improvements soon. "Both funding and management in water supply and sanitation is something very much on the cards. In next couple of months we will see more and more evidence of changes in these areas," he said.

Ramesh asked local officials to scale down the numerical targets for toilets and have a re-look at the funds allocated per toilet in rural areas, which is now at an unrealistically low Rs3,000.