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This 25-Year-Old Student Is Making Squatting Easy With His Unique Toilet Design!

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For those who generally struggle to squat on Indian toilets, one 25-year-old student from MIT School of Design has come to your rescue.

Sanjay Mittal has designed what he calls the first ever unidirectional toilet in the world, reported the Hindustan Times.

From the design point of view, the footrest of the regular toilet has seen an ergonomic development. It is elevated at an angle which makes it easier for the user to squat on. Besides, the toilet also has a universal demarcation to help the visually impaired access it.

Indian Toilet - SquatEase - Design
Representational Image only. Source: Flickr

The student came up with the unique idea to redesign the footrest while designing a problem-solving product for one of his courses at the institute called Special Needs. It was also at the time that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and large-scale toilet construction were in full swing.

This piqued Sanjay’s curiosity about the state of sanitation in the country. He wanted to narrow down on one problem that was unresolved and tackle it with a smart design. While he initially started off designing a toilet for women, it was during the course of his research that he decided otherwise.

While clicking photographs of persons squatting from an inclined angle, he observed that a majority of people squat on their toes with their heels in the air. He discussed the physical consequences of this behavioural pattern with physiotherapists, following which he designed a new footrest for squat toilets.


Read more: Tired of Dirty Toilets at Stations? You Can Send Feedback With a Click of Your Phone!


Called SquatEase, this toilet design comes as a relief to several toe-squatters who don’t touch their heels to balance themselves on a toilet, which can put immense pressure on their back, knees and ankles.

“It is a very uncomfortable situation and to aid them, I have included the squat toilet with an angle of elevation, more surface area to keep heel and the toes so that the centre of gravity is maintained constantly. This will help them balance better. Due to the added surface, the weight distribution in the back, toes and knees is equal, reducing pain and making it easier to squat,” he told the publication.

Sanjay’s pet project is in its prototype phase at the moment and has attracted the attention of the Nidhi Prayas Centre, Science and Technology Park in Pune who offered the design student a Rs 10 lakh Nidhi Prayas Innovation Grant, also promoted by National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Government of India.

Feature Image credit: HT

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This New, Fully Automated ‘Smart She Toilet’ in Kerala Is an Example to the Rest of India!

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With different sanitary initiatives and projects focusing on Open Defecation Free (ODF) being launched on World Toilet Day across the country on Sunday, Thiruvananthapuram Zoo too observed the day in an amazing manner with the launch of the first-ever ‘Smart She’ toilet on its premises.

Inaugurated by deputy mayor Rakhi Ravikumar, the automated woman-friendly toilet is a flagship product of Eram Scientific Solutions designed to ensure safety and cleanliness.

The installation of a Smart She toilet in the city zoo is a much-needed move for the convenience of scores of families who flock to the menagerie on a daily basis.

Smart She toilet at the city Zoo. Source: Twitter.

What makes the unmanned toilet a standout is its fully automated pre-flushing and flushing system along with modular features like a sanitary napkin vending machine and a napkin incinerator.

According to Dr Siddeek Ahmed, who is the chairman and managing director of Eram, his product was the first of its kind in India, reports Manorama, a local daily.


You may also like: Searching for a Toilet in Thiruvanathapuram? Mobile Toilets Are Coming to Your Aid


Made of prefabricated steel, the toilet is furnished with amenities like a chair, fan, and mirror along with baby feeding and diaper changing stations for the convenience of mothers amidst the visitors. One can avail the facility by simply inserting a coin.

During the launch of the toilet at the zoo, the deputy mayor also mentioned that more smart toilets will be set up in different locations across the city soon.

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When Tradition Triumphs Modernity: Ladakh’s Dry Toilets

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Ladakh opened itself to the world in 1974 when the Government of India first allowed foreign tourists into this high-altitude region of the Himalayas flanked on either side by China and Pakistan. Since then, however, a lot has changed, and not necessarily for the better. For one, there has been a tremendous surge in the volume of tourists, both Indian and foreign.

Until the 1990s, the region did not see a major footfall in Indian tourists, and that demographic was primarily limited to families and relatives of Indian armed forces personnel stationed there.

That changed when Bollywood began to shoot their motion pictures with greater regularity in the region, notably Dil Se, and more recently 3 Idiots. However, the first Indian motion film to be shot in Ladakh was ‘Haqeeqat’, starring Balraj Sahni and Dharmendra. The 1964 motion picture was based on the Sino-Indian War of 1962.

In addition to those who visit the place to fulfil their ‘bucket list’ and click ceremonial selfies, the region attracts tourists for its religious monuments, adventure sports, rough biking routes and unique fauna.

The main Leh bazaar. (Source: Namgyal Wangchuk)
The main Leh bazaar. (Source: Namgyal Wangchuk)

The tourism season ostensibly begins in May. The influx, however, sees a sudden rush in June and peaks in July and August. By the end of September/first week of October, the tourist season comes to an end. Beyond October, fewer tourists visit the region in the winter months with attractions limited to the Chadar Trek over the frozen Zanskar river.

In addition to tourists, town like Leh have grown exceedingly congested with people from far flung areas migrating to it for better employment opportunities. In addition to migrants from other parts of Ladakh, in the summer months, the town also witnesses a massive inflow of migrant labourers too.

To service this influx of tourists and other migrants, the town and surrounding areas have come to witness an unhealthy surge in construction of concrete buildings, especially hotels, guesthouses, cafes and restaurants. This mushrooming of concrete structures is having a debilitating effect on water levels in the region.

There was a time when the water needs of the local population were serviced by water melting from glaciers perched in the upper reaches that would collect in streams traditionally called ‘tokpos’ or rivulets called ‘yuras’.

From 527 tourists in 1974, the number of tourists has surged to 2,35,482 in 2016. This is an exponential surge in tourist inflow anyway which one looks at it. And the resulting change in infrastructure, especially in and around Leh town, is having a devastating impact on the region’s delicate ecosystem. Scroll down the list of hotels and guest houses released by Ladakh’s tourism department for 2016, and one can gauge the sheer number of establishments in just Leh town.

Each room is attached with modern toilets and bathrooms, where water is expected to flow 24×7. To service them, owners have constructed deep borewells to extract groundwater. With minimal precipitation (50-100 mm annually), recharging groundwater is a real concern.

Read also: Water Scarcity? Ladakh Villages Are Building Artificial Glaciers to Fix the Issue!

This infrastructure explosion has further established a need for a full-fledged sewage system and treatment plants that will require more water. “Making matters worse is the absence of a Master Plan for major towns like Leh, which has witnessed a massive expansion in the past two decades,” says Nawang Tsering, a leading academic on the region and concerned citizen. “This is indeed a serious lapse on the part of authorities.”

Evidently, there are serious concerns over the lack of urban planning. However, in response to this looming water crisis, one potential solution is a return to tradition. Harking back to a time before the explosion of tourists, all households had a traditional dry toilet that requires little or no water. Many households still have them, but this is usually limited to family members.

“Each house has composting latrines consisting of a small room with a hole in the floor built above a vertical chute, usually one floor high. Earth and ash from the kitchen stove are added, thus aiding chemical decomposition, producing better fertiliser, and eliminating smells. Once a year the latrine is emptied at ground level and the contents used on the fields,” writes Helena-Norberg Hodge, a Swedish linguist, who has researched extensively about Ladakh, in her book Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh.

The process of emptying out these latrines is a communal affair. Households and their neighbours are involved in the process, and the waste that has decomposed is usually dry.

A traditional Ladakhi dry toilet (Source: Kunzum)
A traditional Ladakhi dry toilet (Source: Kunzum)

The waste is then transported to the fields, where it is used as fertiliser for the upcoming sowing season, which is usually around March-April. These dry toilets are especially useful in winter months when temperatures drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius, and water freezes.

Standing in front of the Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre, Leh, and one can see a poster that reads: “Traditional Ladakhi toilets do not waste or pollute water like water toilets, and they also produce useful manure for fields and trees. Please throw a shovelful of earth down the hole after each use.” These dry toilets are essentially both water-saving and useful in the winters.

Water-flush toilets, meanwhile, go against the very ecological fabric of the region, which anyway has very little water. Residents have begun pushing for dry toilets. In fact, changing travel patterns could also further this change, with tourists preferring to reside in homestays outside Leh town, seeking a more authentic local Ladakhi experience. A lot of these establishments have traditional dry toilets.

As per a recent study by Ladakh Ecological Development Group, the average tourist consumes about 75 litres a day, compared to 21 litres for locals. As a result of global warming, Ladakh’s glaciers are melting fast, posing a serious threat to the availability of water. The region has limited reservoirs of groundwater, and there is only so much people can extract from its rivers and streams. A return to tradition not just seems like a sensible idea but also a necessity in these times.

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Solar-Powered & Self-Cleaning, These are The Toilets India Needs!

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When nature calls, you have to answer. But finding a clean public restroom in India, irrespective of whether it’s a city or a village is no mean feat. You either end up having an experience horrific enough to feature in ‘Public Restroom Horror Stories’, or you are forced just to hold it in till you are bursting at the seams.

This is especially true for women, who face not only physical and sexual threats but also an increased risk of urinary tract infections due to an absence of clean public toilets. Moreover, besides relieving themselves, they also require restrooms for attending to small children and for changing sanitary napkins during menstruation.

Fatehpur Sikri, India

Photo Source

However, female visitors to Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram Zoo will no longer have to fret about locating a clean public toilet. Recently, on World Toilet Day 2017, the zoo launched the first-ever ‘Smart She’ toilet on its premise.

Equipped with a sanitary napkin vending machine and a napkin incinerator, the unmanned self-cleaning toilet also has baby feeding and diaper changing stations. The user has to insert a coin to open the door, and its sensor-based light system is automatically turned on once you enter the toilet.

This unique toilet design is the brainchild of Thiruvananthapuram-based Eram Scientific Solutions, an R&D social enterprise that works on innovative solutions that can provide better sanitation for the nearly 600 million Indians who still defecate in the open.

Self-cleaning and solar-powered toilets by Eram Scientific

Photo Source

Inadequate sanitation and open defecation substantially increase the risk of groundwater contamination. Diarrhoea — one of the most common diseases caused by this contamination — is the reason that, in spite of rising incomes and better diets, the rates of child malnutrition in India do not improve faster.

According to World Health Organisation’s May 2017 fact sheet, at least 50% malnutrition in India is associated with repeated diarrhoea or intestinal worm infections from unsafe water or poor sanitation.

In fact, diarrhoea remains the second leading cause of death in Indian children under age five, killing an estimated 321 children every day and leaving millions more malnourished!

Photo Source

Another underappreciated aspect of India’s sanitation crisis is public safety. Open defecation poses a serious threat to the safety of women by exposing them to dangers like snake bites, sexual harassment and physical assaults. In fact, attacks on young women forced to relieve themselves under cover of dark are distressingly common.

Furthermore, it’s not just public health and safety. Inadequate sanitation is also an affront to human dignity. Lack of access to toilets leads to acute shame, embarrassment and fear that many Indian women and girls must deal with at least once a day, every day. This is also the reason girls commonly miss out on an education if school sanitation facilities are inadequate.

And the problem is not restricted just to rural India. The 2011 Census says that nearly 12% of urban India does not have access to toilets, a number that rises to 22% for small cities with population less than 100,000.

In fact, the people hardest hit by the lack of sanitation are the marginalized poor living in India’s densely populated cities.

Photo Source

However, while building toilets across the country are the need of the hour, it is also important to pay attention to their environment-friendliness, public utility and easy maintenance — a vast majority of Indians do not use existing public toilets due to their ramshackle state and unhygienic conditions.

Another issue of utmost concern is the proper collection, transportation and treatment of fecal sludge (septage) from pit latrines and septic tanks. Absence of efficacious fecal sludge management — a consequence of the “flush and forget” approach — is presently more the norm than the exception in all of India’s cities, leading to rampant water pollution and pervasive spread of diseases caused by pathogen-laden sludge.

In fact, according to a survey of 75 cities by the Centre for Science and Environment, between 70-90% of India’s human waste goes untreated into the environment. This is especially true of congested urban areas, where many residents are often not connected to conventional sewer networks.

These were the significant challenges that Eram Scientific set out to address.

Started in 2008, its core philosophy was driven by the basic premise that sanitation, especially public sanitation, had remained untouched by innovation in the past century or so.

Thus, Eram’s approach was to come up with innovative, easy-to-operate alternatives that could change the way traditional public sanitation worked in India. And the solution it found was e-toilets — a sleek steel cubicle equipped with a multitude of electronics to help it function as an automated, solar-powered and self-cleaning toilet.

Eram’s e-toilet flushes itself before, and after every use, with a minimum amount of water, that is determined through sensors: On an average, each flush uses 1.5 litres of water, compared to the 8-10 litres used by a normal flush. Its floor is automatically washed after every tenth use.

The lights also turn on automatically and draw power from a built-in solar panel. Everything is monitored through GPRS telemetry: the frequency and volume of usage, and water and electricity consumption. Also, there are provisions for waste treatment using anaerobic biodegradation.

All these provisions help ensure that these energy-efficient toilets can be installed in locations where access to electricity and common sanitation methods is difficult, if not impossible.

Furthermore, they are pretty cost-effective — a toilet with similar technology in Europe costs nearly ten times more.

e-Toilets at Mysore Railway Station

Photo Source

Also, while e-toilets may be more expensive than public toilets as they are built now in India, but most of the latter become defunct within months because of the lack of maintenance. Maintaining them also requires a lot of manpower.

Another great thing about e-toilets is the fact that facilities can be stacked on to their basic framework. This is important because even the best technology will not work in the long run unless it takes into considerations the specific needs and concerns of the people who are going to use them.

For example, when the Kerala State Women’s Development Corp. Ltd wanted a coin-operated sanitary napkin vending machine inside the toilets they ordered, the e-toilet was customized to include the same.

She Toilets are female-friendly toilets that cater to the needs of young girls during their menstrual cycle.

Till date, Eram Scientific Solutions has established over 2,100 e-toilet units across 20 states in India. This includes variants like She-Toilets for women, D-lite toilets for school kids and disabled-friendly toilets. It has also developed an app through which one can search for and locate the nearest e-toilet.

A full-fledged commercial e-toilet model that can recycle waste to make fertilizers, regenerate water and produce energy is next on the cards.

A prototype of this fully off-grid e-toilet has been installed at Leo XIII Higher Secondary School in Thiruvananthpuram’s Pulluvila locality and is already receiving positive reviews from the locals.


This article is a part of The Better India’s attempt to drive conversation around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and where India stands with regards to meeting these goals. Many organisations across the country are helping India proceed towards fulfilment of these goals and this series is dedicated to recognising their efforts and the kind of impact they have created so far.


Also Read: How the Simple Act of Eating Together Is Tackling Malnutrition in Rural India


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A Woman from Nagaland is Cleaning Varanasi, One Ghat at a Time

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Varanasi (or Benaras), the spiritual capital of India, hosts millions of tourists every year. A majority of these tourists visit the city to bathe in the Ganges. Ironically, the river that is considered holy is a polluted health hazard. The ghats (or wide steps on river banks) of Ganges are also highly polluted with plastic, myriad offerings, flowers, and even excreta!

Temsutula Imsong decided to get the matter into her own hands. Imsong, 34, hails from Nagaland and is the co-founder of Sakaar Sewa Samiti. She pursued a solid waste management course in 2016 and has been actively cleaning up the Varanasi ghats since 2013.

One of the objectives of her NGO Sakaar is to ensure all-round development of rural areas. Keeping this target in mind and affected by the filth she witnessed in Varanasi, Imsong decided to clean up the ghats.

Imsong told Live Mint, “We called it Mission Prabhu Ghat, and it took us three days to clean it up. We did a lot of crowdsourcing too, asking locals, be it, students or residents, to join us — and they did.”

Picture Source: Facebook

The work in Varanasi began in 2013, one ghat at a time. But the beginning wasn’t as smooth as the support they received later.
“One day, these boys and girls appeared and started cleaning the ghats. They met a lot of resistance from local people, but they persisted. We remember this girl, especially since she looked different from the rest. We were told she is from Nagaland. People who live in Benaras did not care about the ghats, so it warmed our hearts to see people from other cities clean them” Babua, from Babua Pandey Ghat, told the Times of India.


You may also like: Green Crematoriums Are Set to Come up Along the Ganga – What Are They and Why Are They Needed?


The responsibility of the ghats has now shifted to the Municipal Corporation, but the efforts that Imsong and her team put in in these three years are not lost on the locals. Prime Minister Modi met Imsong twice when she began the cleaning and has applauded her work at Varanasi.

Gunjan, whose boat is anchored near the ghat, told TOI, “We have never seen the ghats this clean. People would not even walk by earlier, let alone sit there. Now it is so clean that people come and sit around…”

“In all these years in Benaras, I have seen massive and positive changes,” Imsong tells TOI. She has now shifted her stream of work, and conducts workshops with students from class 6 to 12 in two schools, teaching them about waste generation and recycling. She is also working on enlisting families who compost at home and within a year itself, she aims at engaging 2,000 homes.

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Slums Can Be Clean, and Pune Shows Us How It’s Done

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Rajni Vaidyanath Salunke lives in the Kishkinda Nagar slum of Pune. She is one of the over 14 lakh people who live in the 500 slum pockets of Pune and who make do with homes that have often been described as squalid, deprived, small, ill-ventilated spaces with no sanitation and as hotbeds of ill health and infections.

“The gutters would get choked with all sorts of garbage. Even if we dumped the garbage in the container provided for it, animals and vermin would rummage through it and scatter it all over. In the rains it would be a nightmare as even the drains within the house would get flooded and we would get awful blackish sludge across our floors. My little one had no place to play or sit. Everything would be damp, stinking and we would fall sick”, she says, describing how mismanaged waste sets off several chain reactions.

Over the last year though, the pile of garbage is no longer sitting in the filthy container. SWaCH, (Solid Waste collection and Handling services), a waste picker’s cooperative and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have started a ‘Door-to-door’ waste collection system.

For a minuscule user fee of just over a Re. 1 a day, waste collectors come six days a week to your doorstep and take the wet and dry waste away.

“The garbage gets collected every morning and taken away by waste pickers authorized by the PMC. In an effort to make slums cleaner, the PMC and SWaCH have gone on a war footing, and the gullies are certainly cleaner, and there are fewer flies, filth, vermin and disease.”

As per the Swachh Bharat urban government norms and the Union government’s 2016 SWM Rules, Urban Local Bodies in all cities are expected to select a suitable operator who will be eligible to undertake ‘door-to-door collection’ (DTDC) and transportation of municipal solid waste up to secondary collection points. DTDC is universally accepted as a highly efficient way of managing waste.

It enables better segregation at source and in turn better recycling and less landfilling. It also provides equitable services to all, contributing towards the health and sanitation of slum dwellers. Plus it ensures living wages to waste pickers who provide an essential service to the city in under difficult working conditions.

The first step in the implementation is awareness, says Sandhya Dhamale, a Zone coordinator for SWaCH.

Pune city has been distributed into administrative zones and wards for easier monitoring of waste, and her role is to ensure that the zones which are her responsibility are waste–aware.

“The educated middle class and elite have some idea about waste and the need to dispose of it in an environmentally safe manner. But in slums, the day-to-day issues like jobs and lack of employment obscure issues like waste management, though it impacts them the most. We have to start with education which itself is an uphill task as it is often not possible to get everyone together at one time.

We have had several rallies, street plays and door-to-door engagements. All this has lead to a measurable impact wherein slum residents have commenced segregation and stopped littering”.

Plus there is the low fee, in this case, Rs 35 a month, or a rupee a day. “The benefits of having better surroundings and a cleaner, more sanitary environment with fewer chances of debilitating illnesses like dengue, malaria and diarrhoea etc. should be obvious. The money spent on medical bills would warrant them paying much more than a rupee a day,” says Suman More, who has been waste picking all her life and currently is the president of SWaCH.

A detailed study from 2011 shows that 32.5% residents of Pune live in slums – amounting to almost 2,11,423 families. In the past year, concerted efforts have led to over a third of this population, some 70,000 homes, being covered.

If public health benefits from the containing and reducing spread of infection were to be calculated, it would turn out to be a considerable saving to the exchequer.

Mr Jayant Bhosekar, the PMC Assistant commissioner/Ward officer in Kothrud where recognised slums have been covered entirely, admits that it is a difficult task that requires a mix of education, awareness, cooperation, some strict measures and penalties.

“It is a tough job, but it has to be done. Waste pickers need to earn a living and slum dwellers not just reticent but often irregular about paying the user fee. Waste has to be picked up on a regular basis to have an impact.”

With a mix of the carrot and the threat of a penalty stick, he motivates his team at the municipality and works with the door-to-door collection agency, SWaCH to ensure the system works.

Sanitation Inspector Santosh Tatkar, who has been extremely efficient at removing all bins from the areas he supervises, says that the secret to success is having just one waste collection agency and one representative from the municipality who work in tandem.

“Not only have we succeeded in removing the bins in Jai Bhavani Nagar which had over 1800 homes, but we have also been able to provide a sorting and material recovery shed to waste pickers in that very same spot where the messy overflowing bin used to be. SWaCH helped create awareness and swiftly set up a system of waste collection, which we as municipal authority enforced.

If requests and reasoning did not work, we named and shamed some people and told others we would do the same to all offenders. Today, every home hands over their waste to waste pickers who work in close concert with the ghantagadi trucks of the municipality and remove the waste. There should be no parallel systems. Even the most stubborn naysayers realise they have no recourse, and respond to the clear message from the municipal authorities. The PMC sanitation workers are also less burdened.” he says.

On the list of smart cities, Pune has proven that it is ahead in the game by making a difference to several issues with just one strike against unsanitary slum conditions.

Through its door-to-door collection waste management system, it has provided livelihoods to waste pickers, bettered recycling and ensured better public health.

“I worry a little less about my family and me falling prey to diseases and losing wages to sick days. I see fewer stray animals and insects as they have nothing to scavenge from. The waste collector in our basti is from among us so understands what we go through and as interested in keeping our surroundings clean. We also feel pride in knowing that we contribute to keeping our surroundings clean,” says Rajni Salunke.

There may be a reason to be even more proud soon, says Suman More of SWaCH. Assigned the task of providing door-to-door waste collection services to all the slum homes in Pune, SWaCH, which is wholly owned by waste pickers themselves, is putting its entire might to complete the task in another year.


This article is a part of The Better India’s attempt to drive conversation around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and where India stands with regards to meeting these goals. Many organisations across the country are helping India proceed towards fulfilment of these goals and this series is dedicated to recognising their efforts and the kind of impact they have created so far.


Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Micro-Financing a Toilet Is Not Just Four Walls and a Hardware, It Is a Life-Changer!

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One of the most vivid images of the state of sanitation in India was depicted in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, in which the young protagonist was shown going to his ‘toilet’. If you have seen the movie, you will never be able to forget it. And that was in the heart of urban India – in a slum in Mumbai. One can only imagine what the situation is like in rural India.

A toilet is defined as a ‘fixed receptacle into which a person may urinate or defecate, typically consisting of a large bowl connected to a system for flushing away the waste into a sewer.’

Representational image

However, after reading this article, you will understand that a toilet is a lot more than just four walls and the hardware inside it.

It is indeed an irony that a civilisation that once boasted of the most advanced sewage system globally is struggling to achieve basic sanitation standards. There are reports which suggest that the history of toilets in India is as old as the Indus Valley Civilization, which had grown in and around Harappa and Mohenjodaro.

The archaeological remains of the Indus Valley Civilization bear evidence to the use of water-borne toilets by the Harappan people living at Lothal, which is only 62 km from Ahmedabad.

Water well in Lothal
Photo Source

Each house in Harappa had a private toilet with a link to the covered drains outside. The architects of the Indus Valley were in the know of sanitary engineering science, which it seems has been buried along with the Indus Valley Civilization, thereby leaving a large section of the population to practice open defecation.

You would think that having access to sanitation is a fundamental human right, yet almost a third of the world’s population suffers on a daily basis from lack of access to a clean and functioning toilet. In the absence of toilets, untreated human waste can impact a whole community, affecting many aspects of daily life and ultimately posing a severe risk to health.

Very often, we also come across stories of young girls dropping out of school upon the onset of menstruation due to lack of toilets and privacy.

A young girl happy to have a toilet in her village

The fear of being attacked, leered at, and in some cases even raped, stops women from leaving their houses after dusk even in situations where they need to use the toilets rather desperately.

It is also reported that every year more children die from diarrhoea-related diseases than from HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. As many as 2,75,000 children who are under-5 years of age in India die every year from dehydration and malnutrition linked to diarrhoea, which in turn is caused by contaminated water, inadequate sanitation, and hygiene.

As per the most recent Swachhta Status Report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), in 2015, more than half of the rural population (52.1 percent) of the country still defecates in the open —which as mentioned earlier is a major public health and sanitation problem.

India’s aim is to eliminate open defecation by 2nd October 2019, the year that commemorates the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Building one toilet at a time

Would it surprise you to read that a family court judge in the state of Rajasthan decided that failure to provide a bathroom is an act of cruelty and can be considered as a ground for divorce? The court declared that the fact that women have to wait until sunset to relieve themselves is not just physical cruelty but also amounts to outraging the modesty of a woman.

An organisation called Gramalaya established three decades ago has come up with some novel ideas to ensure that sanitation and hygiene conditions of those living in the rural areas of India becomes a priority. In 2004, Gramalaya began its micro­loan program for water and sanitation improvements. When one thinks of micro-finance; the assumption is that the loan is being given for a small-scale business venture. Using microfinance to building toilets is not typical.

Gramalaya provides loans to Women Self Help Groups (SHG), and SHG members, distributed the loans among borrowers with all members sharing joint liability.

The women directly pay for the construction work while Gramalaya monitors the construction.

Women taking charge

SHG members are key program planners and community organisers that help stir community demand for safe water and toilets. These loans are usually given out for 24 months with a nominal interest rate and are used to construct latrines, toilets, bathing facilities, and water connections.

Before the introduction of this program, loans for water and sanitation were not available in the formal market, and the loans available came with an alarmingly high interest rate.

Asma, a resident of Uthandapuram, speaks about how her life has changed for the better since the construction of the toilets. She says, “Earlier we could only go out into the fields early in the morning before the household was even awake. If during the day we felt the urge to relieve ourselves, it was not possible. Not only did open defecation lead to many diseases but not visiting the toilet when the urge was there also led to many societal problems for us women. With the construction of toilets, a huge problem has been solved for us.”

For many of us reading this, the thought of not being able to use a toilet when the need arises is not something that we can fathom.

Mahadevi, who is a primary school teacher from Raichur district in Karnataka, says, “Until recently, the women of my village had to take our lotta (mug) and walk for almost a kilometre each day to find trees and bushes to hide and defecate.

“This was especially difficult for disabled, elderly, and pregnant women. Having access to toilets within our homes has helped us in so many ways.”

Building toilets has made life easier

The assumption that the villagers would be welcoming of building toilets in their villages is incorrect. S. Damodaran, Founder and Director of Gramalaya, speaks about the various stages that villagers go through before accepting these toilets and help build them.

He says, “We need to work on making the villagers aware of the problems that are caused due to the lack of toilets — we term that as the pre-contemplative stage. Once this is done they move to the contemplative stage where they are aware of the problem on hand and understand what needs to be done to bring about the change. Post this, begins the preparation stage, where we work with the villagers to build systems that will work best for them. This is followed up by the action stage – where we actually help or get down to building the toilets. Once the toilets are built the last stage is of ensuring that they are maintained well – and so comes in the maintenance stage.”

Organisations like these have helped by not just building toilets but creating an eco-system around it, and ensuring that end-users are made aware of the problems that that arise because of a lack of proper toilets.

Coming back to Slumdog Millionaire, the rather stomach-churning ‘toilet’ scene in the movie is played off for laughs. But the reality is anything but a joke. As a country, we need to make sure such moments are relegated firmly into the realm of fiction, never to return to the real world.


This article is a part of The Better India’s attempt to drive conversation around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and where India stands with regards to meeting these goals. Many organisations across the country are helping India proceed towards fulfilment of these goals and this series is dedicated to recognising their efforts and the kind of impact they have created so far.


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You Can Now Ensure That Public Toilets Are Well-Maintained! Here’s How.

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In a bid to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) cities and towns across the country, the government has come up with a plan that will assign unique identification numbers to public and community toilets in urban areas to ensure their upkeep.

Part of the Swachh Bharat mission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has issued an official document that mandates all state mission directors and municipal commissioners to identify public and community toilets in their jurisdiction and allocate these with unique IDs that have to be ‘prominently’ displayed on their entrances hereafter.

“You are requested to identify all public access toilets and community toilets in your city, provide each of these with unique identification numbers,” the document stated.

For representational purposes. Source: Flickr.

Each of these toilets will also have to offer citizens with a grievance redressal mechanism along with necessary details such as the pertaining local body, maintenance authorities and name and contact number of supervisor or in-charge.

“To ensure that the drive is effective, citizens must have access to grievance redressal mechanism as well as be aware of basic information about the toilets they wish to use,” it added.


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The new initiative aims to reach out to 4,302 cities, and over 2.34 lakh community and public toilets that have been reportedly constructed in the country under the mission. The underlying idea behind the new initiative is that if the toilets remain in usable conditions at all times, one wouldn’t have to resort to open spaces for defecation.

As further stated in the document, their cleanliness plays a vital role in ensuring that areas near them remain open defecation-free, which is an essential component of the mission.

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Not Just Padman, Here Are the Many Heroes Making Menstruation Easier for Women

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Akshay Kumar’s next biopic, Padman, showcases the story of Arunachalam Muruganantham. Muruganantham is from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and was affected by the struggles the women in his family faced, during their menstrual cycles.

Since menstruation is a taboo subject, especially in the rural parts of India, the women were not comfortable discussing products which could help them. Imagine the reaction Muruganantham got when a man suggested products which could help them be more comfortable when they were on their periods!

Even with the lack of support from the women in his family, Muruganantham endured and developed thin pads that were more effective and hygienic than the rags that the women in his villages used during menstruation.

Today, he is an inspirational figure and a well-known social entrepreneur.

His low-cost sanitary pad making machine has been widely praised as a critical step in changing women’s lives in India.

Arunachalam Muruganantham. Source: YouTube.

Here is a list of a five such people and organisations, who have worked to make periods more comfortable for women, across different parts of India:

1. EcoFemme (Tamil Nadu): Providing washable and reusable pads to girls.

Ecofemme works in Tamil Nadu and has been teaching girls in government schools about the process of menstruation in an interactive way. The girls are informed about the functions of reproductive organs, why women get periods etc. The girls take an oath to pass on this knowledge to at least one more person.

They even produce, sell and distribute pads that can be washed and reused, with a hope to significantly reducing carbon footprints.

Washable and reusable sanitary pads. Source: EcoFemme

2. Saathi (Hyderabad): Producing sanitary napkins that decompose in six months.

This start-up uses the readily available banana tree fibre to make sanitary napkins. The company used the trial-and-error method in a control group of 600 women and successfully manufactures pads that are thin, chemical-free and 50% more absorbent than typical pads available in the market.

These pads decompose in just six months, as compared to the 500 years that typical pads take.

Eco-friendly sanitary pads. Source: Saathi.

3. Amani Dabriwala (Mumbai): Dedicated her gap year to school girls.

Amani is 19 and has just passed out of Class 12. She is on a gap year and is dedicating this free time to educate girls studying in Class 7-11, on menstrual hygiene. Amani gives talks through presentations in various government schools in Mumbai. She has also successfully installed two pad disposal machines in schools, sponsored through crowdfunding.

4. Kanika (Thrissur, Kerala): Making eco-friendly, affordable pads.

Kanika is an NGO in Kerala, which makes organic pads called “Soukhyam.”

Team Members of Kanika. (Source)

The inspiration for their work comes from Arunachalam Muruganantham, who helped Kanika get the low-cost machinery to produce sanitary pads.

Around 50 people work in the NGO and make 200 packets of pads every month. Each packet consists of 10 pads and out of the total 200 packets manufactured, 50 are distributed at a girls’ home. The rest are sold at a minimal price of ₹43.

5. Sanitary Pad Bank (Mumbai): Crowdfunding pads for the needy.

The TEE Foundation has set up sanitary pad banks in various places in Mumbai. These banks make use of crowdfunding to bring together donors, volunteers, and the beneficiaries. You can donate funds or sanitary napkins to the banks which are then sold at a price of ₹7 for ten pads. The initiative helps the needy while also encouraging people to contribute for the benefit of society.

Featured Image Source.

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Brothers Invent Unique Machine to Improve the Lives of Sanitation Workers

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Diptanshu and Mukul Malviya, former students of the St Paul’s Secondary School in Sirohi, Rajasthan, were at a bus station one day when they happened to see a sweeper working. The middle-aged man worker was picking up litter, and it moved the brothers enough to brainstorm a brilliant idea.

They got to work and built a wrapper picker machine, in an effort to help sanitation workers across the country. The machine can also be used by municipality corporations, housing colonies, schools, offices and other public and private spaces.

Sweepers often pick up trash, requiring them to bend frequently, a tedious process.Representative image only.Image Courtesy:Max Pixel.
Sweepers often pick up trash, requiring them to bend frequently, a tedious process.Representative image only.Image Courtesy:Max Pixel.

Easy to operate and maintain, the machine is flexible. Roller combs attached to a rolling base, pick up trash, like paper plates, napkins, cups, and collects them in a bin. The brushes are just a few millimetres above the ground level to ensure that dust and grit are not picked up.

Once the innovation went public, many awards and accolades came their way. These include the prestigious IGNITE award, a Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Innovation Scholar in Residence programme selection in 2015, and acknowledgements from the National Innovation Foundation who helped the brothers develop their product and its design.


You may also like: You Can Now Ensure That Public Toilets Are Well-Maintained! Here’s How.


Just last year, the invention won them a national award from the National Innovation Foundation—an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). NIF provides institutional support to grassroots innovations across India and is helping the brothers reach potential buyers, and assisting them to scale up their production, amongst other things.

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This IAS Officer’s Unique Initiative Deserves Your Help; Donate a Toilet Today!

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Books, clothes, food, money; are usually are donated. Ever thought of donating a toilet?

Virendra Mittal, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Jorhat, Assam, has initiated a unique concept called Daan Toilet, wherein toilets can be donated to those households that still follow open defecation.

We, at The Better India, spoke to DC Virendra to understand this initiative better.

“Gone are the days of Public-Private Partnerships, now we must start relying on Government-Public Partnerships,” says Virendra Mittal.

Daan Toilet

Virendra Mittal, a 2007 batch IAS officer, hails from Jaipur, Rajasthan. He has been posted in Jorhat since July 2016. When asked why he chose to be a part of the services, he said, “The motivation was to serve society. Contrary to popular belief, the role and responsibility that one is entrusted with require tremendous hard work. Many youngsters believe that affixing the three letters to your name is what it means. However, all that authority goes hand-in-hand with responsibility.”

Launched on October 2, 2016, the Swachh Bharat Mission is India’s first mass movement for a clean nation. The endeavour is to make the country open defecation free by October 2, 2019, as a fitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.


You may also like: Micro-Financing a Toilet is Not Just Four Walls and a Hardware, It is a Life-Changer.


Virendra Mittal took upon himself the onus of ensuring that every family in his district (who were excluded from the 2012 Baseline Survey of the Swachh Bharat Mission) had access to a toilet and understood the importance of ‘cleanliness’.

“Unfortunately the survey in my district was conducted in 2012-2013, and that meant that these families did not fall under the beneficiary list. My initiative was to ensure that every household gets its own latrines.”

Emphasising the importance of building toilets in every home, the Daan Toilet initiative has managed to donate more than 250 toilets, by raising close to Rs 32 lakh.

DC Virendra Mittal

While the initial phase – convincing people – was difficult, once they understood the importance of maintaining good personal hygiene, the process became simpler.

Virendra Mittal says, “Whenever I met people who needed convincing I told them about the connection between Devalaya and Shauchalaya. The two words are similar in more ways than one can imagine. If a Devalaya ensures purity of soul, a Shauchalaya ensures purity of the body. And both of them are required for a person to lead a meaningful life. So donating a toilet to a person in need, to a person who cannot afford this basic necessity, is one of the greatest offerings that can be given.”


You may also like: When Tradition Triumphs Modernity: Ladakh’s Dry Toilets


One of the beneficiaries of this scheme, Janmoni Bora has this to say, “Earlier it was difficult. We had to go far and bring water from far, which was all the more difficult at night. We used to go to the bamboo forest behind our house. Now that we have this, it has become convenient for the children and me. If someone can think so much about the health and future of my children by donating from their hard earned money, we can start changing our ways.”

While various corporates were approached, average citizens gave most of the support. They not only took ownership of their ‘donations’ but also ensured more work was done towards the goal.

Beneficiaries of Daan Toilet

Virendra Mittal began by donating a toilet himself for a widow of his district. Soon this became a norm, and many of the officers from the district not only donated toilets but also started urging their immediate family members to do so.

“We now get donations on birthdays and other special occasions that people celebrate,” said Virendra Mittal. The aim is to ensure that 1000 toilets are donated by June 2018.

Aamir Hazarika, the citizen who brought this wonderful initiative to our notice, says, “Most IAS officers come and go, but none of them stands apart like Virendra Mittal. He is extremely people friendly and has won the hearts of all by taking that extra step.”

The district administration of Jorhat welcomes donations from our readers as well. If you would like to understand some more about this initiative or make a donation, you could reach out to the Swachh Jorhat Abhiyan at 7005205142.

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Kerala to End the Horror of Manual Scavenging With These Robots

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39 deaths were recorded in a period of 100 days in 2017. Cause of death – manual scavenging.

Despite the ongoing heated debates about the need to eliminate manual scavenging and adopt mechanised methods over the years, not much of what was written on paper has been translated into action.

As a result, the working conditions of sanitary workers remains unchanged across the country.

Often a derogatory practice confined to people belonging to the most backward castes, manual scavenging provides no precautionary or safety measures for its workers and poses health hazards that outweigh the meagre wages these workers get.

manual scavenging Kerala robots
Representational Image only. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Despite passing laws like the Employment of Manual Scavenging and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act in 1993 (which was revised two decades later in 2013), manual scavenging continues to dig its claws into the social ecosystem of different parts of India.

But Kerala has decided to put an end to the inhuman practice for good. Soon, robots will be seen replacing humans in cleaning sewers in Kerala.

Developed by Genrobotics, Bandicoot is a low-cost robot with four limbs that comes with a bucket attached to a spider web-like extension. This robot will make its way into a manhole, scoop out waste and collect it in a bucket. It comes with a screen, a camera, WiFi and Bluetooth.

The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) and Kerala Startup Mission(KSUM) have signed a MoU on Thursday for transfer of technology and products, to use the robots, reported The Times of India.

The MoU was signed between Kerala Water Innovation Zone at the chief minister’s office, the report said.

The Bandicoots will start their operations by cleaning sewer holes in Thiruvananthapuram in March during the Attukal Pongala festival.

manual scavenging Kerala robots
Representational Image only. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Genrobotics’ project, funded by KSUM, through its innovation aims to put an end to manual scavenging.

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This Indian-Origin Girl Is Battling Against ‘Period Poverty’ in the UK

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Some time back, the news of girls as young as 10-years-old in the northern English city of Leeds missing a week of school every month had surfaced.

The reason? Their families couldn’t afford to buy them sanitary napkins.

When 17-year-old Amika George, who is based in North London and originally hails Kerala, heard about it – she was shocked. She was convinced she had to do something about.

The story is not unusual. Millions of girls around the world drop out of school or miss classes every month for not being able to afford menstrual products.

Amika decided this ‘period poverty’ had to end.

Amika George. Source: Twitter

This is how her campaign ‘#FreePeriods’ came into existence in London. She started a petition in which she asks the UK government to provide free menstrual products to all children on free school meals.

1,39,458 people have so far signed her petition.

“Children as young as 11 suffer the shame of using socks or taping tissue to underwear. It is not only unacceptable but can seriously jeopardise their health,” she writes in the petition.

According to The Hindu, thousands of protesters, which included politicians, activists and models, had gathered outside Downing Street last month to protest against ‘period poverty’ in the UK. They wanted free sanitary napkins to be provided to the poorest students.

Amika is actively involved with this campaign and has received support from the world over. She wants to expand the campaign beyond the UK so that it reaches out to lawmakers globally.

“I’d really like to connect with campaigners in India to work to end the taboo and campaign to ensure all girls can access menstrual products. It’s staggering that we haven’t really moved away from the taboos our grandmothers faced back in their days, but it horrifies me that there are thousands of girls in India who drop out of school altogether and feel ashamed to go back because they have their period,” she told The Hindu.

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6 Steps to Make a Village Open Defecation Free

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The Swachh Bharat Mission was initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 October 2014, with a resolution to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2 October 2019.

The task was not just to build toilets, but to bring about the necessary behavioural change among the community towards open defecation.

Given the stipulated time frame, various Zila Swachh Bharat Prerak (#ZSBP) measures, activities, systems and processes were implemented in the districts of Agra & Kanpur Nagar of Uttar Pradesh.

1. Efficient Fund Flow System- Direct Beneficiary Transfer (DBT)

In DBT, the toilet incentive fund of Rs 12000 was directly transferred to the beneficiary’s account in two equal instalments of Rs. 6000 for the construction of IHHL (Individual Household Latrines), where the first disbursement happened on the construction of twin pits with a Swikriti Patra (Agreement Letter) to the District Panchayat Raj Office.

Maang Patra Format.

The second instalment is paid when the toilet is fully constructed, painted and LGD (Local Government Directory, code to uniquely identify a toilet) has been marked with a “Karya Purti Patra” (Work Completion Form) to the same.

For Fund Transfer, the list of beneficiaries is sent to the bank in the bank’s desired format. The bank sends back various status reports such as failure and liquidation report etc.

This helped smoothen the flow of funds, avoiding any financial discrepancies.

Below is the fund flow process adopted in District Agra.

Fund Flow Process- Demand Generation to Fund Disbursement.

2. Capacity Building:

This has several sections, such as –

Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Workshops: Training was conducted to train ground level motivators, who were further deployed in villages to sensitise the community towards sanitation.

Training and Capacity Building of Stakeholders & Community.

Swachhta Doot Training: This was given to Safaikarmis, Rozgar Sevaks and SHG’s on various aspects of SBM. The aim is to involve a larger workforce for the mission as ‘Swachhta Doot’/’Swachhagrahi’.

Mason Trainings: On-site mason training increased the numbers of Twin-Pit Technology-trained masons. They were further deployed at each GP, where these masons trained other masons to create a large force of trained masons. On an average, a single mason can build one toilet in five days.

On-ground Mason Training.

3. Monitoring through ‘War Rooms’:

An ODF ‘war room’ is a fully functional room for coordinating, implementing and real-time monitoring of daily activities of the SBM at the district and block level.

Block war rooms were initiated in Kanpur and Agra to decentralise information sharing and to monitor ground-level activities. It includes daily calls to the stakeholders and status updates on Whatsapp groups via photos of ground activities.

For regular monitoring of stakeholder & activities, war room was established as Control Units for the Mission.

4. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Approach:

The mission was efficiently implemented by empowering people in the community. A model of that incentivised and appreciated helped create a motivated workforce to work for the task.

Here are some of the methods of a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach-

Nigrani Samiti: This is a 30-member team of children, women and men from each village were asked to keep an eye on places where people usually go for open defecation.

They are given a proper vigilance tool-kit which has a whistle, torch, cap and a jacket.

Empowered, Incentivised, Motivated & Active Nigrani Samiti with President Ramnath Kovind and Bhumi Pednekar, Actress- Toilet Ek Prem Katha.

Swachhagrahi: One person, the Swachhagrahi, who is usually the one who leads the Nigrani Samiti in a village, is trained on CLTS and given ownership to make their village ODF.

Their progress was reviewed at the block and district level through the ODF war rooms. They are awarded a sum of Rs 10000 in two equal instalments – Rs 5000 when the village is declared ODF and a further Rs 5000 after six months of ODF sustenance.

5. Weekly Review Meeting of Different Stakeholders by the District Magistrate:

For implementing a scheme like SBM, it is crucial to involve the highest order of District Administration extensively. Hence, a weekly review meeting of Pradhans, Secretaries and the Swachhagrahi of each village with the ADO (P) & BDOs was initiated – headed by the District Magistrate.

6. High Impact Campaigns and Information Education Communication (IEC) Activities

IEC activities and campaigns are very impactful. They ensure sustainability by triggering the emotions of people. This brings about a sense of competition – which leads to behavioural change, which is the soul of the mission. Media coverage also helps increase awareness in the community.

The following IEC activities were carried out:

a. Husbands who gifted toilets to their wives under the campaign were awarded by the DM

Husband’s Gift Toilets to Wives on the Occasion.

b. Sanitation as a subject in primary schools by introducing a book on sanitation, which was included in the examinations as well.

c. Painting, film-making, essay writing competitions were organised in all govt. schools and selected students were awarded by PM Narendra Modi on 2nd October 2017.

d. Wall painting on toilets and public infrastructure proved to be effective and helped create a long-lasting impact on the community.

Examples of Wall Paintings.

e. Motivational audio and visual content on sanitation played on LED screens of a van along with street plays in each Gram Panchayat.

(Written by Abhinav Tyagi)

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What Can You Buy in Rs. 183? A Year Worth of Sanitary Pads for a Rural Girl!

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The jarring menstrual hygiene crisis in rural India is no secret. But the Maharashtra state government, through a unique scheme, is giving you a chance to sponsor a year worth of sanitary pads for rural school girls for a meagre contribution.

All you have to do is visit the state women and children development department’s ‘Asmita scheme’ portal here and pay Rs 182.40!

sanitary pads maharashtra
Representational Image only. Source: Facebook/Wikimedia Commons

The Asmita scheme portal was launched by the women and child development department after the state cabinet approved it this month, on Thursday reports the Hindustan Times.

The motivation to launch the scheme was the low penetration rate of sanitary pads in rural Maharashtra which is 17%.

“I found that school girls in Maharashtra miss up to 40 days a year because of a lack of access and money to buy sanitary napkins. This had to change,” state women and child development minister, Pankaja Munde told HT.

This will encourage individuals to promote menstrual hygiene among rural school students while impacting change on the ground through sponsoring a child online.

As per the scheme, rural Maharashtra schoolgirls will be provided ‘Asmita’ sanitary napkins. Global agencies produced these napkins and they were acquired through the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission, UMED.

Distributed and sold by self-help groups, these packs will cost Rs 5 for a pack of eight pads for rural school girls with the government bearing the cost of Rs 15.29 for every pack.

Depending on the size, sanitary pad packs of eight will cost between Rs 24 or Rs 29 for rural women.


Read more: Women in a Goa Village Are Making Eco-Friendly Sanitary Pads That Decompose in 8 Days


All women and girls covered under the scheme will be given Asmita cards reported the publication.

The scheme is expected to be officially launched by the state government on March 8, on the event of Women’s Day at the hands of actor Akshay Kumar, who portrayed the role of menstrual hero, social entrepreneur and activist Arunachalam Muruganantham in ‘Padman.’

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Child Actor Turns Real-Life Sanitation Hero, Offers Movie Fee To Build Toilets

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You may remember 15-year-old Mallama. She is the same Danapura girl who fasted for three days to convince her family to build a toilet at home.

This is the story of a child artist who will portray the role of Mallamma in an upcoming Kannada film based upon the toilet crusader’s life called Sandaas (Latrine).

14-year-old Prathyaksha, who will step into Mallama’s shoes, has done what most actors wouldn’t. She has decided to offer her entire movie fee, expected to be around Rs 1 lakh, to build more toilets in Mallamma’s village.

toilet crusader actor
The actual Mallamma being felicitated. Source: Facebook

“I’m not just inspired by Mallamma’s efforts but am determined to do something concrete for the cause. I’ll dedicate my fee to build toilets in Mallamma’s village,” Prathyaksha told the Times of India.

The class 9 student from Bengaluru, spent 40 days in Danapura for the film shooting which made her realise the gravity of the issue.

The problem of open defecation in Danapura is jarring. Over 80% of the existing 300 households in the village have no toilet. Young women and girls are at the mercy of the darkness in the night to defecate in a quiet and isolated place.

“The government offers Rs 10,000 to people after constructing toilets. But Danapura residents need money to build them,” a crew member told the publication.


Read more: No More Tareek Pe Tareek: Bombay HC Judge Imposes Fine On Case Adjournments!


Inspired by the young girl’s move the entire film crew joined in the effort and had planned to build 100 toilets in the village.

“We want to join her in the cause. We’ll chip in to construct toilets,” film director Ajay Kumar A J told TOI.

We wish Prathyaksha the very best and hope her initiative in association with her entire film crew brings relief to the villagers of Danapura and makes Mallama proud!

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6.3 Cr Indian Girls Lack a Private Toilet. One Organisation is Trying to Change That!

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Amid numerous social issues in the country, open defecation and the lack of sanitary facilities for urban and rural poor continues to be a persistent evil that does not always receive the attention it gravely deserves.

In India, close to 32 crore people defecate in the open—which amounts to a staggering 24 percent of the country’s population. Naturally, concerns about hygiene are important, but a bigger concern is the plight of countless women and girls, who have to wade through unsafe routes every single day to answer nature’s call.

About 6.3 crore girls in India lack access to a private toilet, of whom 23 percent drop out of school after attaining puberty because their educational institutions lack basic sanitary infrastructure.

Lack of basic sanitary facilities.

Archaic societal constructs, lack of actual physical constructions and the stigmatisation of their natural bodily functions mean the female population is left with no other option than to defecate in the open, stripping them of privacy and dignity while dealing with human biological processes.

This issue isn’t just limited to rural sections. It is also a major issue in peri-urban regions (where urban and rural zone mix) in the country, thanks to limited sanitary spaces. None of us is far from the problem. Have you ever wondered if your domestic house help has a toilet in their home? Or does her daughter go to school?

Addressing this crucial failing, a global organisation is working on creating safer sanitation models for women in India.

The goal is to give countless, faceless women across the country the right to proper and hygienic sanitation.

Wading through unsafe horizons for defecation.

Through smart, odourless and affordable toilet solutions, SATO Technology aims to take on the sanitation challenge head-on and is helping women take action for their right.

The first-of-its-kind innovative technology is crucial for the Indian scenario. It can reduce water consumption per flush by up to 80 percent and address concerns like clogging and bad odour.

The organisation has already installed 30,000 units since its launch in October 2017 and is finally helping women in both rural and urban communities break free from unsafe and undignified sanitary practices.

Besides India, SATO has been employing its novel technology in 13 other countries across the globe.

Installing a smart toilet.

On a broader level, SATO intends to spark a dialogue on the need for sanitation amid all sections of society and bring about the understanding that safe, clean toilets are a prerequisite for every household across the country.

So this Women’s Day, let us do our part and talk about toilets. Let’s give women the right to privacy, dignity and safety! Know all about it here:

You can follow SATO’s work here and here.

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This Actress Single-Handedly Transformed a Drought-Hit Maharashtra Village!

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Recently India witnessed one of the biggest farmer agitations ever in Mumbai. Farmers walked for 180 kms to demand their rights and make several other demands. Among the demands was a request to waive off farm loans.

But is waiving off loans year after year a solution to farming woes? Aren’t we pushing farmers in loan traps by just waiving off the previous one? Aren’t we responsible enough to give them a permanent and sustainable solution for their problems?

These were the questions that haunted actor and activist Rajshri Deshpande when she heard about the constant farmer suicides in Maharashtra in 2015.

 
Rajshri, who was born and brought up in a farmers’ family in Aurangabad, couldn’t take this.
“My ancestors were farmers. Even though my father was a government employee, he farmed too. I have seen all the ups and downs of farming. We were cotton growers in Bhokardan near Aurangabad. But then water scarcity and drought made it difficult to farm. So my father sold our land and shifted to Aurangabad for work. My parents worked hard to educate their three daughters. I have seen their struggle,” she says, speaking to The Better India.
“I watched my parents sacrificing all the goodness of life because of their limited earnings, and that made me believe that money is everything.”
By 2003 Rajshri owned an advertising company, ‘Czar Content’ and had earned enough to buy all the luxuries of life.
“I was doing everything I ever wanted to do. But then there was something that was missing. I was not able to feel happy anymore,” she says.
With the support of her husband and parents, Rajshri quit her business and moved to Mumbai in 2009 to pursue a career in cinema and the arts. At the same time, she also began travelling to various parts of the country to explore and began social activities through friends.
“I never said no to anyone who asked for help. I have worked for Dharavi Dairy, Boodhnoor Vaidyashala and SOS Papa – with whom I went to Nepal after the second massive earthquake.”
But when in 2015, when Rajshri visited a small village known as Pandhri in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, the villagers took her suggestions lightly, saying that many people come and suggest many things but no one works for them.
This hit Rajshri hard and she decided to start working in this tiny village with a population of 2000.
“Drought was the major issue there. I noticed that everyone in the village has a borewell. The water table was going down with every passing year!” she notes.
Rajshri had a saving of Rs 1 lakh, with which she could have arranged for water tankers for the villagers. However, she was not there to make a temporary settlement.
For her, a sustainable solution for these villages was essential. She took help from her friends in the film industry and raised some money. Her friend Makrand Anaspure helped her with a Pokland machine (an earth mover), and this fiery lady went all alone to do rainwater harvesting in Pandhri.
“It took me months to earn the trust of the villagers. All I did was to sit and listen to them. When you listen, only then can you understand and only when you understand you can come out with a solution.”
After months of regular visits to the village and constant counselling, Rajshri had 50 villagers by her side who started working on rainwater conservation.

Today the village has enough water for the entire village for the whole year!

“I can’t tell you how happy I was when the well filled with water after the second rain. People didn’t realise its importance after the first rains, but when they had enough drinking water for the entire year, they were overwhelmed.”
The next task was even more difficult. The village hardly had any toilets, and the villagers were used to open defecation. Rajshri took up this task too and encouraged each villager to finish up the paperwork to get a subsidy for toilets. She then asked them to build their own toilets.
“I could have raised funds to build the toilets. But when you make something with your own hands, you value that more. Hence I asked them to build their own toilets.”
Once the toilets were built, she even went door-to-door to ask villagers to use the toilets and not to defecate in the open! 
“Change is possible! Just go and talk to the person who needs you – that is also a huge work. Just doing your work in a village and going away will not transform them from the inside. Spend time with them, educate them, make them beautiful inside out.”
After working in villages for more years, Rajshri realized that more villages need her and thus she has registered her NGO recently, naming it ‘Nabhangan’, which means The courtyard of Sky.
“One person can do a lot. You can just sit at your place and make a difference if you do your work right.”
Currently, Nabhangan foundation’s focus will be on the work being done in Pandhari and Math Jalgaon villages.
Their immediate activities are as follows:
1) Pandhari village:
– Rainwater harvesting for a five-km patch.
– Construction of four rooms and six toilets for the school.
2) Mathjalgaon village:
– Rainwater harvesting for a seven km patch.
– ZP school needs fencing and eight toilets
– Banjara (Tanda area school ) needs six toilets and work on the existing building (roof repair for two rooms, building a new room, painting, windows & doors )
If you wish to help, you can donate through the details below –
Nabhangan Foundation
Union Bank of India – Mumbai
Nabhangan Foundation
A/c : 728301010050104
IFSC : UBIN0572837
Nabhangan Foundation is now a Section 8 Not For Profit company.
You can write to nabhanganfoundation5@gmail.com if you would like to be part of Nabhangan Foundation.
Watch Rajshri’s journey here

 Edited By Vinayak Hegde

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This Student’s Tireless Effort Is Making A Karnataka Village Open-Defecation Free!

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28-year-old Vimala Kadam clearly remembers that day in August 2016, when one sight rattled her.

She watched in complete horror as a host of elderly citizens formed a serpentine queue. They waited eagerly on one side of the Mudhol-Nippani state highway near Umarani village to cross over to an open-field to defecate.

Vimala rushed to the village and started interacting with the locals. She also met the panchayat development officer to kickstart a campaign to build in-home toilets for the residents.

open defecation free toilets - crusader- karnataka (1)
Representational Image only. Source: Flickr/Ignas Kukenys

Today Vimala is just 100 toilets short of making Umarani open-defecation free (ODF) reports the Times of India.

In 2016, Umrani, that falls in the Chikkodi taluk, had toilets in only 20% of the households. Today this village, with its strength of 4,500 people, has 800 toilets, thanks to Vimala’s efforts.

Vimala was academically inclined but was forced to quit her studies before her marriage. So she decided to continue her education post marriage and enrolled herself at the AAPatil Women’s Degree College in Chikkodi taluk to complete her graduation. Since then, she has been tirelessly working to further the cause of sanitation in the village as a toilet crusader.

Vimala’s on-ground efforts in the village revealed a struggle similar to what viewers saw in the acclaimed Hindi film, ‘Toilet‘, starring Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar.

Despite the gram panchayat’s eagerness to provide funds for construction of toilets under the Swachh Bharat mission, it was a mental block among villagers that was the root of the open-defecation problem.

Many families refused to build toilets in their homes, which housed the divine deities they worshipped. And so the open-fields on the outskirts of the village became the place they would travel to relieve themselves.

But Vimala was not deterred. She mobilised 25 of her classmates and sought guidance from her college lecturers, Visakha Chitare and Jayashri Nagarale. She also sought help from the LEAD foundation, to begin awareness and construction of toilets in the village.

Going door-to-door, and understanding people’s perception in 10-15 visits, she managed to convince them to build toilets in their homes. It was difficult, but she managed to open their minds to the idea.

“It was difficult to convince the villagers. I used to visit the village after college hours as I was distressed about the troubles they faced due to lack of toilets…There was a direct link to increasing rape cases, incidents of snakebite and filth polluting their living environment,” Kadam told TOI

Soon after, she collected identity documents from these families and applied at the panchayat office seeking funds to build toilets in their homes.

Looking at how other families received a financial help of Rs 12,500 to Rs 15,000 for the construction of these toilets, other families in the villager decided to join in too.


Read more: A Little Kindness Transformed This Tea-Stall & the Life of Widow Who Runs It!


With her project almost nearing its end, she is now being approached by the taluk panchayat officer to create awareness in six other villages too.

“I will start work in the other villages once exams are over,” she told TOI.

We salute Vimala for not giving up in the face of opposition and striving to transform this Karnataka village!

We hope the state takes notice of this toilet crusader and helps replicate her work in the other six villages too.

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Dedicated Woman Forest Officer Singlehandedly Built 497 Toilets in Tribal Colonies!

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Unlike people living in urban, rurban and even rural areas of the country, sensitising isolated tribal communities about the importance and need of proper sanitary facilities can be more or less equated to an overhaul of norms and practices that have been handed down from generation to generation.

To think of it, those who have been living isolated and unacquainted with the ways of modern living would naturally find any new mannerism preposterous—for example, eating food with spoon or fork.

In that case, wouldn’t it be very complicated to convince Adivasis to stop defecating in the open and build a toilet in their settlements?

However, sectional forest officer PG Sudha did it and managed to singlehandedly supervise and facilitate the building of not one or two but 497 toilets across nine tribal colonies in Kuttampuzha Range in Kerala’s Ernakulam district and that too within a record time of three months.

Having joined the state forest department 16 years ago, Sudha herself hails from one of the tribal communities in Kuttampuzha who have more or less adapted to modern culture and lifestyle in comparison to their isolated brethren in the deep woods.

The stalwart forest officer. Source: Facebook.

The daring woman was conferred the Best Forest Guard Award by Kerala Chief Minister in 2006, for her exemplary services to the state forest department.

In 2016, when every district in Kerala was working towards making the state Open Defecation Free (ODF), K Mohammed Y Safirull, the district collector of Ernakulam, had a brainwave.

With the belief that Sudha’s deep-rooted knowledge about her roots could make her more suitable to approach the tribals, he entrusted the sole responsibility of the task, to the 51-year-old forest officer.

“It wasn’t an easy task at all. In fact, every contractor I approached for the project had point blank refused to take the responsibility, as it was logistically hard to take materials and manpower to such remote forested regions. These are areas that had no connectivity whatsoever, and the closest settlement takes a minimum of 3 hours to reach by foot. Also, they were quoting prices that were multiple times higher than usual charges. Finally, I came up with the idea of involving local masons from the tribal settlements, which finally worked to our benefit,” says Sudha to The Better India.

That was probably the easiest part. There was still the need to involve at least some experienced workers.


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“I had to go all the way to Ernakulam city and quite literally had to beg people to come on board. The remaining workforce had been people from the department as I realised we knew better of the region and the tribal communities,” she remembers of the herculean task.

Now that a workforce had been established, the logistical aspect of carrying all the construction materials through extremely dense forests full of wild elephants was a significant obstacle. The connectivity problem remained for Sudha and her team as well.

Rivers and streams are indispensable facets of any forested region, and they worked out a plan to use the waterways to their advantage.

Navigating through the waterways. Source: Facebook.

“With the help of rafts, we managed to navigate all the materials to the designated locations near the tribal colonies. Since there aren’t proper roads or even a pathway in these regions, we had to move all the workers in jeeps. The monetary requirements of the project were mobilised through Panchayat funds. Because I could figure out an economical alternative for every step, the overall expenses fell quite well within the allocated budget, and we managed to accomplish what I had envisioned way ahead of time,” Sudha proudly mentions.


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Sudha and other forest officials also took a personal interest in raising awareness about the perils of open defecation alongside the necessity for healthy sanitation, to the tribal communities, who were receptive and quite involved in the process.

In fact, it has almost been two years since the toilets were set up and Sudha explains that the Adivasis have maintained it very well.

Because of her determination to make the tribal pockets of Kerala open defecation free, Sudha received yet another award from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan during the ODF declaration event on November 1, 2016, followed by Nari Shakti Puraskar from the then President Pranab Mukherjee.

Sudha has three sons, of which one works with the forest department, one is a police personnel and one works as a driver.

One of the toilets built by Sudha. Source: Facebook.

In a time when women still face gender disparity in workplaces and professional spheres, sectional forest officer PG Sudha has steadfastly proved that there is no job which is only a man’s forte and if one is willing to go the extra mile, anything can be achieved.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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