Located about 42 km away from the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu lies the Musiri Panchayat town. Being situated on the banks of the Kaveri river, the abundance of water makes the land fertile and well suited for agriculture.

Due to high groundwater levels in the region, regular toilets do more harm than good. If the sewage is not disposed of properly, this can severely contaminate the water. This observation is what made the Society for Community Organisation and People’s Education (SCOPE) introduce Musiri to Ecosan toilets.

In this system, there is no flush or a piped connection to a sewage system, meaning that there is no way for any water body or groundwater to get polluted.

The first ever Ecosan toilet in Kalipalayam village was built in 2000. By 2005, they had perfected their techniques, building the first community toilet system which had seven toilets each for men and women, and another for the old and infirm.

In Tamil Nadu alone, SCOPE has installed about 20,000+ toilets in Tiruchirapalli. The organisation was founded in 1986 by Marachi Subburaman with a focus on rural development.

Once SCOPE came into existence and started engaging with villagers at a grassroots level, they found that open defecation was a huge issue in the region. This was when they started constructing toilets.

So far, SCOPE has constructed over one lakh toilets across 26 states in the country and carried out bigger projects in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Assam.

What’s special about SCOPE’s toilets

Subburaman explains that Ecosan toilet systems are suitable for areas with rocky terrain where the construction of septic tanks has challenges. “Even in areas where water is scarce, these toilets work well as there’s no involvement of water,” explains the 70-year-old.

The entire toilet unit has two pans with one cavity each–one to defecate, another to urinate. The pans also have a space for washing. Each of these cavities connects to different pits at the bottom of the structure. The toilet is built above the ground, and the units are connected to a pit which collects the waste.

The base is made up of concrete to prevent any contact with groundwater. Moreover, urine and excreta are collected in separate chambers in the pit through pipes connected from the toilet unit, and are treated to be used as urea and manure for agriculture.

Once the cavity for excreta is used, ash is sprinkled.

“In Musiri, you find these grasses which are used for sowing mats. These are sometimes burnt and sprinkled across the cavity which connects to the faecal chamber. This ash not only has antibacterial properties, but also speeds up the preparation of manure as it absorbs all the moisture,” explains Subburaman.

“Since the moisture content in the region is very high, we wait for 6-12 months before opening it, so that the compost is ready,” explains Subburaman.

Per year, each toilet unit produces about 400 kg of manure, while the community toilets produce 1,177 kg of manure, which is given to farmers for free.

Several farmers from Musiri say that they previously spent about Rs 20,000 a year on manure and urea, but the free agricultural inputs have helped them cut costs.

Each of these cost about Rs 30,000. In case of the community toilets, the cost is higher. “When we first started, we were charging about Rs 8 lakh for the community toilets. Currently, we charge Rs 15 lakh due to an increase in the cost of construction materials. This amount can go up, depending on the number of toilet units and the size of the structure,” says Subburaman.

All of these toilets are installed through different rural development projects in collaboration with other NGOs, organisations and CSR projects.

About the founder

Subburaman pursued a BSc degree in Chemistry from Periyar E.V.R College in Tiruchirappalli in 1975. The following year, he enrolled for a B.Ed from Siddhartha College of Education in Tumkur. In 1976, he joined Village Reconstruction Organisation (VRO), an NGO in Guntur, which works towards the construction of cost-effective homes in rural areas.

“I worked with VRO for ten years until 1986. Father Michael Windey, the founder, inspired me to work in rural areas. That is how I went on to found SCOPE in 1986,” says Subburaman.

When SCOPE first began, it carried out all kinds of activities. They helped different village communities earn an income through modes other than farming, like promoting weaving, tailoring, and animal husbandry. They also closely worked with foreign-based NGOs like Action For Food Production (Afpro) to improve agricultural productivity.

Their foray in sanitation began with the construction of leach pit toilets across different villages in Tiruchirappalli. These toilets are water-less, with circular pits being dug on the ground. These were first introduced to reduce the negative impacts of open-defecation.

However, Subburaman heard of Ecosan toilets when he attended a sanitation workshop in Chennai and met Paul Calvert, an engineer from Belgium.

“Paul was living in Thiruvananthapuram at the time and studying the fishing community in the area. At the workshop, he spoke about the benefits of Ecosan toilets. This is how I came across them in 2000,” says Subburaman.

He started developing these toilets, and finally, the first Ecosan toilet in the Kalipalayam village was installed.

Challenges and plans

Although SCOPE’s work across the country is commendable, they faced a lot of challenges in their journey.

“People were reluctant to use the toilets, regardless of the fact that they were free. Most said they were more comfortable defecating outside. They did not want to believe the negative impact on health and environment that open defecation entailed,” explains Subburaman.

To counter this challenge, SCOPE started paying the users. For each day that they used the toilet, they were paid Re 1.

They continued this for four years until they saw an improvement in the number of users. “Every year, we would end up spending about Rs 12,000 while paying the users. In four years, we spent about Rs 48,000 and WASTE, an NGO based in The Netherlands, helped us finance this,” says Subburaman.

They also conducted workshops and awareness camps about the hazardous impact of open defecation so that villagers would willingly use the toilets.

Despite these challenges, SCOPE has worked with organisations like UNICEF in several states.

“UNICEF was working with us to implement several rural development programmes. When they heard that we were starting work in the sanitation sector, they worked with us on projects in Assam, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu among other states,” he says.

In Kerala, they constructed about 100 Ecosan toilets in the aftermath of the 2018 floods. In total, they have built over 28,000 Ecosan toilets with UNICEF alone!

Now, what does Subburaman hope to achieve?

“In our country, the disposal of faecal sludge is abysmal. When it is time for people to clear the septic tanks, they dispose of all the waste either in the open or in water bodies, causing severe environmental damage,” he points out.

He hopes that the waste management authorities across the country set up treatment plants for faecal sludge. This would reduce environmental degradation and contamination of resources. ”

I see great merit in water-less Ecosan toilets. They achieve the twin goals of reducing open defecation and contamination of resources. In the end, I hope to contribute to making the country 100 per cent free from open defecation,” he signs off.

You May Also Like: Pune Duo Convert Old Buses Into Ladies’ Toilets That Have Been Used Over 1 Lakh Times

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Growing up in Dakshinpuri, Delhi, Komal Hadala had never imagined in her wildest dreams that a house without a toilet could exist.

However, when fate brought her to Nithora, Uttar Pradesh after marriage, she was right in the middle of that very situation. There were no toilets, and the 21-year-old city-bred woman now had to wake up in the wee hours of dawn every day and rush outside to relieve herself. 

Be it in the freezing winters or pouring rains, the women of the village had no option but to venture out in the pitch darkness. 

“We would walk in groups for kilometres to find a secluded place. Men would jeer at us, and sometimes, farmers would shoo us away from near their lands. It was extremely embarrassing,” recalls Komal. 

Building a toilet in her home

Much like the character Jaya in the movie ‘Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, Komal soon became disgruntled with the sanitary scenario and pleaded her husband and in-laws to construct a toilet in the house.

“Initially, everyone—especially the older generation—was reluctant to do so. The idea of an in-house toilet conflicted with their orthodox views. Being the only literate person in the family, I took my time to explain to them about the diseases spread through open defecation and how a toilet can save health and time both. Finally, they came around and built a toilet in the house,” reveals Komal. 

However, this was the beginning of a long struggle for Komal—convincing the entire village about toilets. Her family, who now realised the benefits of the toilet, now supported her whole-heartedly. 

Together, they requested the village Pradhan Chahat Ram to construct toilets in the village, as mandated by the government directives under Swachh Bharat. 

Convincing the villagers about the need for toilets

Komal, her mother-in-law and other women of her family, joined hands with a few other women who had toilets in their homes, to set up the Nigrani Samiti. 

“Our mission was to convince the village women. I painstakingly elaborated to each woman how a toilet can protect their dignity, health and time simultaneously. Initially, they were unwilling to even listen to us. Gradually, I broke it down to them how open defecation is the leading cause of health hazards like typhoid, cholera, and diarrhoea,” she shares. 

Meanwhile, Komal’s husband and other men in her family went around to convince the menfolk in the village. 

“The task was inherently difficult,” Komal reiterates. “Sometimes the people would scold us. Sometimes they would scoff and scorn at us for being ‘jobless’. Often they would misbehave and taunt us as well.”

It took her more than a year, but eventually, the hard efforts paid off. By 2019, 250 new toilets were constructed in Nithora and subsequently led to the village attaining the ODF (Open Defecation Free) status. And it was all possible due to a young woman’s persistent efforts. 

Meeting with the Norwegian PM

However, even after the construction of the toilets, the habits did not die in a day. So, Komal and her members of the Nigrani Samiti would also venture out at 4 AM to monitor the women and bar them from open defecation. 

“Today, I can confidently say that each and everyone in Nithora uses toilets,” she states.

In 2019, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg paid a visit to Nithora during her India tour and personally congratulated Komal for her incredible achievement. “I felt so proud that day. I will never forget the meeting with her,” Komal shares ecstatically. 

At present, Komal is invested in bringing forth more changes in her village. She educates young girls about menstrual hygiene and distributes sanitary napkins. Increasing the safety and security of women features at the top of her priority list as well. 

Also Read: 70-YO Trichy Man Helps Install 1 Lakh Water-Less Toilets, Provides Manure For Free

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Representational Featured Image (Right)
Credits: Swachh Bharat Grameen

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

In the early 50s, thanks to his aggressive efforts towards eradicating the problem of Open Defecation (OD) in Dehu, a village in Pune’s Maharashtra’s district, Dr Suhas Vitthal Mapuskar was called ‘ Dr Sandas’ (Sandas is toilet in Marathi) by the residents.

While he is no more, the residents still refer to him by the same name—except that now, it is out of respect.

His solution to build biogas toilets that generate methane gas from human waste not only made the town free of open defecation but also slashed people’s Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) bills by half.

The success in the toilet building mission resulted in the formation of an NGO named Appa Patwardhan Safai Wa Paryawaran Tantraniketan in 1981. Through the NGO, Dr Mapuskar helped people across Maharashtra build similar bio-toilets till 2015—the year he passed away.

For his stellar efforts, Dr Mapuskar and the NGO received several accolades including the prestigious Padma Shri in 2017 and Nirmal Gram Award from President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2006.

Today, his daughter Dr Shilpa Narayanan has stepped into his shoes and is carrying forward his legacy by continuing the NGO’s sanitation work.

The father-duo together have constructed over a thousand toilets that produce cooking fuel in individual households and institutions like orphanages, schools and child care homes.

“I grew up visiting rural areas of Maharashtra with my father where he would assess and solve the hygiene-related issues of people. He helped people build bio-toilets and install biogas plants to tackle the waste crisis. Joining his NGO was a very organic process for me,” she informs The Better India.

How It All Started

It was 1959, and Dr Mapuskar had been posted as a Medical Officer in the Dehu Primary Health Centre

There, he observed that none of the 1200 families owned a toilet; they defecated by the river. This practice did not just cause rampant pollution, but the human waste accumulated in the drains was rarely cleared, and it became a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Finally, people frequently got water-borne diseases caused due to the lack of hygiene and poor sanitary practices.

Appalled by the situation, Dr Mapuskar decided that he needed to tackle fundamental health issues through preventive measures.

Knowing that it would be tough to break the ingrained custom of defecating in the open, he first collected the stool of people to validate their unhygienic habits. Most of the samples contained parasitic eggs that are transmitted by the soil and infect the gastrointestinal tract. The eye-opening results were enough to convince people to build toilets.

If sensitising people was an arduous task, designing a toilet that suited the local conditions was a bigger challenge.

“He believed that the concept of rural sanitation was very different than cities. Unlike urban areas, villages cannot afford sewage treatment plants. Thus biogas toilets that treat human waste on-site worked well,” says Dr Narayanan.

Dr Mapuskar was first introduced to biogas toilets through Sitaram Patwardhan (fondly known as Appasaheb) who built a bio-toilet in the Sindhudurg district for a girl’s school. He studied the model and modified it according to the needs of Dehu village.

From Human Waste to Cooking Fuel

The bio-toilet comprises of a lavatory which comes with a biogas tank that is placed underground in an 8×8 space. It has three compartments. In the first compartment, human waste decays and methane gas is released. Once it is pathogen-free it is transported to the kitchen through a pipe.

In the second and third chamber, the wastewater that comes out in the process is recycled and used as an organic fertiliser in farms or gardens.

It takes approximately 45 days to convert human waste into cooking fuel. The toilets are completely maintenance-free except for the need to change the burner regularly.

“The gas coming from human waste is the same as any regular cooking fuel. The only difference is that the stove has bigger holes (in diameter) as you need more oxygen needed to burn methane.”

The current cost of toilets with biogas tanks is around Rs 50,000.

In the first year, 100 maintenance-free toilets were constructed in Dehu from people’s money. From the next year onwards, the doctor used the Central Rural Sanitation Programme to acquire subsidies.

Ramchandra Chavan was one of the first beneficiaries in Dehu.

“We order 3-4 cylinders every year as against 8. The biogas toilet meets half of our gas needs. So many generations in my family defecated in the open without realising its health repercussions. This toilet has benefited us in more ways than one,” Chavan tells The Better India.

Rooting for Dr Mapuskar’s biogas plant, Prakash Kothavle, the Manager of Maher, a children’s home near Pune, says, “We have been using the biogas for the last 20 years, and our bill costs have been 50 per cent less since then.”

Prakash now hopes to install a similar plant in its Jharkhand branch.

The NGO also provides other waste management solutions in the form of biogas plants, and so far it has provided 200 of them to individuals and organisations. Priced at Rs 60,000 the smallest plant can produce one cubic metre of biogas, and it is suitable for a family of ten.

In addition to this work, Dr Narayanan has been working on other preventive health issues across Maharashtra, something that she inherited from her father.

For instance, recently, she worked with UNICEF to study the water, sanitation and hygiene in 20 district hospitals.

“We took awareness sessions with patients, doctors and nurses to impart basic knowledge on hygiene steps. We heard about their problems and provided solutions accordingly.”

Her efforts also extend to Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Tuljapur.

The post-graduation curriculum on sanitation was modified by Dr Mapuskar making rural sanitation an integral part. Now Dr Narayanan is a lecturer at the university who often takes students on the field to help them understand the on-ground reality of hygiene in villages.

Shouldering the responsibilities of a man who went beyond his call of duty and was a pioneer of sanitation in a rural area, is no easy task. Still, a determined Dr Narayanan not only gracefully took over the activities but also expanded it in other regions of the country.

“More than accolades, it is the gratitude of people that adds richness to his legacy. My father touched many lives, and that motivates me to perform better each day,” she signs off.

Also Read: Despite Dad’s Illness & Money Crunch, A Mom Shares How Both Her Kids Cracked UPSC

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

When co-founders of Bengaluru-based Ontrack, a bike rental company, Harshit Sonthalia and Vansh Jain started sanitising their company bikes, they couldn’t help but think of the hundreds of vehicles on the roads.

Whether a car or bike, the vehicle is probably the first and the last thing an owner touches while stepping outside for groceries or other essential work.

Unsure if owners sanitise their vehicles regularly, the duo decided to offer free sanitisation services at petrol bunks in some parts of the city.

“Being a bike rental company, we have to sanitise each two-wheeler before and after every use. That led us to think about how people must be managing. The global pandemic has put all of us through testing times, and maintaining basic hygiene should be our priority. We already had sanitising machines for our company use, so we decided to procure more,” Harshit tells The Better India.

The company uses a bio-organic certified disinfectant Multiplex Shuddi. It has been approved by the Institute for Industrial Research and Toxicology and is safe for humans, animals, and the environment.

The duo approached Indian Oil Corporation Limited for permission and managed to get access to 40 petrol pumps, including the ones at Koramangala, Indiranagar, HSR Layout, Marathahalli, and Bellandur.

So, if you live in Bengaluru, head to any of these locations to get your vehicle sanitised for free.

For a two-wheeler, the owner has to step away from the vehicle. Meanwhile, a car owner can remain seated inside during the cleaning process, “It takes 30 seconds for a bike and up to two minutes for a car to get sanitised,” adds Harshit.

The sanitising machines, each costing up to Rs 3,000, are kept at petrol pumps on a rotational basis. If a petrol pump does not get more than 500 vehicles daily, the machine is shifted to another pump.

What makes this initiative noble is that the organisation has hired workers who lost their jobs during the lockdown.

“We have hired around 30 workers, and each of them earns up to Rs 500 daily. We have provided personal protective gear, including face masks, shields, and gloves. Each of them is trained such that they don’t come in contact with the owner and the vehicle, except when they wipe a few areas of the vehicle,” shares Harshit.

Madan is one of the thousands who have suffered repercussions of the lockdown by losing his job, “I used to be a Maintenance Engineer at an IT firm. I lost my job, and nobody is hiring right now. Here, at Swacch Vahan, I get paid daily and can sustain myself more easily. I am also glad that I can help people at a difficult time with this service,” he tells The Better India.

In the 15 days that Ontrack started this service, they have sanitised around 18,000 vehicles.

Here’s the list of petrol pumps where Ontrack is serviceable:

1. 80 ft Main Road, KHB Village Games, Koramangala
2. Old Madras Road/Swami Vivekananda Road, Indiranagar
3. Opp CCD, Jeevan Bhima Nagar, Indiranagar
4. Sector 4, HSR Layout Ring Road
5. Sector 2, HSR Layout
6. HAL – Varthur Road, Marathahalli
7. Palm Ave, Green Glen Layout, Bellandur
8. 5th Cross, Vijaya Bank Layout, Bilekahalli, Vijaya Bank Layout

Want This Service In Your City Too? Here’s What You Can Do

Harshit is more than happy to assist people if they want to replicate this project in their cities.

“The best part about initiating Swacch Vahan is the cost-effectiveness. With the capacity to store nearly 500 litres of sanitiser, each machine costs around Rs 3,000 and can sanitise up to 2,500 vehicles every day. This means that we spend anything between Rs 10-15 per vehicle, including the labour charges. Despite the low cost, people have been kind enough to drop in money in our contribution. So, our project is sustaining on its own.”

He adds that the machine can be procured from any agriculture hardware store.

If you wish to undertake the vehicle sanitisation service, get in touch with Ontrack at harshit@on-track.in.

Please note: The sanitisation service works just like a sanitiser, i.e., it can prevent viruses but is not meant to be treated as a treatment against any disease or illness.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Hot, extended summers are typical in many parts of India. In the hottest parts of the country, one can find interesting and funny expressions for the summer heat — ‘summer, more-summer and most-summer’!

The difficulty to access safe, potable water is no laughing matter, however. It is so severe that it impacts the communities’ health, takes time away from other priorities, such as family time and education, and is a detriment to the overall quality of life.

No one knows this better than Myathari Padma in Pulkal village, in Medak district of Telangana. She was all too familiar with this challenge until a safe kiosk was set up in her village.

This proved to be a blessing during COVID-19, as the station limits outside exposure while providing safe water for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene such as handwashing.

‘The Better Home’ brought to you by ‘The Better India’

We created ‘The Better Home’ because you shouldn’t have to choose between non-toxic ingredients and effective cleaning. Our cleaners are safe for babies, pets, skin and our oceans.

Explore our range of powerful, earth-friendly cleaners here.

Myathari is vociferous in her appreciation. She says, “The quality is very good and affordable at Rs 5 for 20 Liters . Our drinking water problem has been resolved to a great extent. Even during the COVID-19 lockdown, there was no effect on water availability.”

Twenty states in India are served by these purification plants, which bring affordable and safe water to the doorsteps of villagers. Several organisations under the collective umbrella of the Small Water Enterprise Alliance, [SWEA] are striving to keep water flowing in nearly 90 per cent of the country’s geography, knowing how important this is in the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

P Laxmi, in Fasalwadi, 24 kilometers from Pulkal, also regularly consumes water from the station. Even during “normal” times, quick and easy access to drinking water was a luxury for her family until the station was set up.

“Our village gets the piped water at home but we are used to getting our treated drinking water from the neighbouring village for drinking and cooking. It cost us Rs 15 or Rs 20 per can. We also had to wait for the delivery man whose delivery was unpredictable. So it is good to have a plant for us in our village that gives affordable water at much less price of Rs 5/20 litres.”

Role of technology to enable social distancing and cashless transactions

For Safe Water Network, one of the Alliance members, the onset of COVID-19 meant rapid adaptation. How to keep the stations running amidst the lockdown? How to ensure the support services, so that the individual entrepreneurs can keep operations going?

Srinivas, who runs the station in Pulkal village, is proud of his social enterprise. Through social entrepreneurs, Safe Water Network sets up treatment plants equipped with remote monitoring systems for improving public health. The entrepreneur is trained in operations and maintenance, bookkeeping etc and the community buys their daily drinking water through 24×7 automatic ATMs, using their smart RFID cards.

He says, “I’ve been the plant operator since day one,” adding, “The drinking water problem in the village has been addressed. I need back-end logistics support like chemicals for cleaning and new RFID cards, but the team has continued to provide these, even during these tough times. I now earn Rs 6,000-7,000 per month.”

During setup, the Safe Water Network stations are fitted with remote-monitoring systems. About 15 parameters related to the enterprise (such as consumption, volume, and quality) can be monitored remotely with a smartphone.

Following the lockdown, organisations have begun to strengthen their strategies, using technologies such as cashless digital payments, touchless transactions, remote monitoring systems for increased visibility of operations, handwashing stations at ATM sites, and community education on individual and collective safety, as prescribed by the government.

Physical distancing procedures have been implemented at all stations for customers waiting in line. Personal contact between station operators and customers has been eliminated, thanks to these measures.

Focus on awareness-building and behaviour change

The communities where kiosks are set up are aware of the hazards of contaminated drinking water. For years, they have been witnessing the impact on their lives through water-borne diseases such as fluorosis, arsenicosis, blue baby syndrome, diarrhea, jaundice, and typhoid.

There were other collateral impacts, such as the loss of livelihoods due to sick days, time spent by women on caring for the sick, girls missing school, and the general drudgery of collection.

Research has shown that the women and girls in the community bear the disproportionate brunt when safe water access is lacking. Interestingly, once kiosks begin operations, the “burden” of retrieving water transfers to the men of the household, with nearly 92 per cent of water collection activities taken up by men on their bicycles or two-wheelers.

With the threat of the pandemic, the need for safe water and hygienic practices have compounded. Posters in various languages promoting safety measures such as handwashing, social distancing, and personal protection, have been disseminated by the government. With support from Safe Water Network’s corporate partner, Honeywell, foot pedals for handwashing will be installed at many stations. Currently. communities are using basic handwash with soap and water from bucket.

Transferring the lessons to water-stressed cities

As was witnessed by Chennai and Shimla in recent years, urban India is severely water-stressed. It is a major public health imperative and an economic one as well.

According to Government of India’s ejalshakti portal, 756 Urban Local Bodies have been identified as water-stressed. The SWE Alliance has embarked on replicating its success in other parts of India and applying them in urban India.

Pilots in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, and others are already showing promise, implementing kiosks near busy metro stations and other arterial junctions. They provide affordable water to the ‘Consumer on the Go’. This prevents the scourge of plastic waste and helps to save money. These kiosks provide safe quality water at the fraction of the cost of bottled water.

Small enterprise implementers have banded together to transform the urban water landscape in cities and are currently present in over 50 cities. “As more people move into the urban areas of the country, there is an urgent need to look at how cities are preparing to meet the safe drinking water needs of their growing populations,” says H Subramaniam of Earth Water Limited.

The Small Water Enterprise Alliance will engage city municipalities, urban planners, civic organisations, youth groups, local corporates, and others to take a more in-depth look at the challenges facing a city, and develop a roadmap to tackle those challenges.

“We have been able to transfer our technical as well as community engagement experience to help the urban context,” said Divya Yachamaneni of Naandi Community Waters.

The goal is to transform the drinking water scenario with pilots in 25 cities, learn from these experiences, and take the approach to dozens of other cities across the country.

In the immediate future, the Alliance is actively raising public awareness and involvement. An extensive outreach will be kicked off once the lockdowns are lifted. While there are too many fragmented approaches, this Alliance is a convergence of knowledge, resources, and ideas, and a collective approach to bargaining with policymakers.

Back in Telangana, in the village of Fasalwadi, Nani Goud makes his routine trip to the kiosk. He says, “Earlier, I had to rely on water can supply from a tempo from Sangareddy town to get my drinking water. It was more than double the cost of the kiosk in my village. I am no longer worried about the delivery delay or cancellation! I worry about my fellow villagers’ health without 24×7 clean water provided by the kiosk.”

(Written by Poonam Sewak and Venky Raghavendra. Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Poonam Sewak and Venky Raghavendra are with Safe Water Network. They work with communities and like-minded organisations around the country in enabling better access to safe water to underserved populations.

OThe National Institute of Technology, Warangal recently launched the prototype model of a chemical-free sterilisation system named OzoNIT. The device is a reassembled refrigerator, fitted with an Ozone gas generator on top.

With the click of a button, the device produces 500 milligram of ozone gas, and can disinfect vegetables, fruits, packaged items, shoes, clothes, and your wallet within 25 minutes.

“Exposure of these articles under ozone gas for about 25 minutes will kill viruses, fungi and bacteria up to 99.99 per cent without the use of any sterilising chemicals. Once the articles are sanitised, the ozone is vented out automatically,” says Dr D Haranath, Associate Professor in the Physics Department, who developed the system. He also stresses that the design of the chamber is airtight, and ensures no leakage takes place while it is being operated.

Inspiration

Dr Haranath got the idea to develop OzoNIT, late in May, after he saw that many companies were launching disinfection devices that work on UV light.

“While UV rays are being widely used for disinfection purposes, they are not the most effective method. Additionally, these devices are expensive, and the light can only target visible surfaces. If there are any shadow areas or folds, that does not get disinfected. Ozone gas can be produced easily, and there are many artificial ways to generate it. So, I wanted to work on a low-cost device which would use ozone gas, in safe amounts, to disinfect all household items.”

With the support of NIT Warangal, and the help of Chandar Rao, a part-time PhD scholar, he developed OzoNIT within a week.

About the Device

The body of the device is a reassembled refrigerator that Haranth purchased locally from a waste collector. He cleaned it, removed all its parts, and fitted it with an ozone generator on top.

“The ozone generator works on the concept of electrical discharge. Where, a small CFL tube is supplied with high voltage, and air is made to pass through it. When it does, the oxygen is converted into ozone gas. This then passes through the entire system, and is finally let out through an outlet. The ozone which passes out is converted back to oxygen once it interacts with the surrounding air,” says Haranath.

The device works on residential electricity units, and consumes only 13 watts of power per use. It has a separate compartment at the bottom which is to disinfect footwear, and a provision to place fruits and vegetables in water during the sanitation process.

“Ozone is highly reactive with water, and keeping the vegetables and fruits in that, helps to remove chemicals, pesticides, and harmful colours, The O3 moves around the system in such a way that it starts with disinfecting the top half, then moves to the footwear, and finally through the outlet,” says Haranath.

Once the disinfection process is over, he suggests to wash the vegetables under regular water before consumption.

What is ozone gas?

Ozone gas (O3) is an unstable gas which is produced when oxygen (O2 ) molecules are dissociated by an energy source into oxygen atoms. When these atoms collide with a third oxygen molecule, it forms O3.

While this is commonly used for the disinfection of waste-water, it is also used in devices which disinfect reusable medical equipment.

“This method is not popularly used for disinfecting household items because it has not been tested with. It has to be used in the right way to get best results, and these scientists have done that. The device can be placed outside the house, so that when you come after venturing outside, you can drop all your things inside the fridge, including your shoes. This chemical-free sterilisation process is harmless and the process leaves no odour on food,” says Professor Ramana Rao, the Director of NIT Warangal.

When will it be available for purchase?

While the prototype model has been successfully launched, Dr Haranth is depending on external investors and manufacturers to purchase the technology from him to develop production models.

“If there are any manufacturers interested in developing the product, I am willing to teach them how to make the technology, and explain how it works, so that they can produce it in large quantities. The prototype version is a basic model, and further modifications and upgrades like a digital screen can be added. The device’s size can also be modified, which will also impact the time taken to disinfect the items,” he mentions.

If you wish to get in touch with Dr Haranath, you can email him at haranath@nitw.ac.in

Image courtesy: Dr. D Haranath

Did you know that 353 million women and adolescents in India use sanitary pads, which, in turn, generates up to 125 kgs or more of waste through their menstruating years?

Sanitary pads are typically disposed of in two ways — they are either buried in landfills, and that takes 500-800 years for them to decompose each — or are burned in incinerators that release toxic fumes like dioxins, phuron, and other carcinogenic compounds into the atmosphere.

To address this problem and introduce an eco-friendly sanitary waste disposal system, Pad Care Labs, a Pune-based startup, has launched a waste collection, and disposal system called ‘SaniBin’ and ‘SanEco.’ Through this system, sanitary pads can be converted into two residual compounds such as cellulose and plastic pellets.

About the Startup

In 2017, Ajinkya Dhariya, a student of mechanical engineering from Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute, Pune, was working on a project in the waste management sector. First, he conducted market research to understand what were the sustainable solutions for disposing of sanitary waste and biomedical waste.

“In India, there are two methods used for the disposal of these two categories of waste — burying in landfills, or incineration. But neither of them are eco-friendly,” says Ajinkya.

After graduating, he briefly worked as a part of a Research and Development team with a manufacturing company in Aurangabad, which gave him the experience, and knowledge to develop technology and build solutions. In 2018, while Ajinkya was still working in the manufacturing company, he got the opportunity to submit a business idea about how to tackle and dispose of sanitary waste, in a competition conducted by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

“My paper was among the top 10 entries, and this prompted me to start my venture –Pad Care Labs — and work towards developing solutions to tackle hazardous waste. Along with a team of six members, we started to work on a machine that could help dispose of sanitary waste without harming the cleaning staff, and the environment. The startup was incubated by Venture Center, Pune, and Unlimited India that nurtures early-stage startups.”

Ground Research

In 2018, to offer a disposal solution at the source, the team started conducting ground research to understand the problems women face during disposal of sanitary waste. They started by speaking to Ajinkya’s mother, and then their own family members, friends, and eventually with educational institutes at the school and university-level.

After gathering responses from more than 1000 women in educational institutes, Ajinkya identified several problems faced by users trying to dispose of sanitary products and the cleaning staff that handle them later.

“Most users mentioned that they felt uncomfortable carrying a sanitary napkin outside the toilet cubicle and disposing of it in a common dustbin. In the absence of a dustbin inside the cubicle, many opted to flush it down the toilet, which led to clogged drains. Even if there was a dustbin to throw the waste within the cubicle, many would throw the pads without wrapping them in the newspaper which led to bad odour, and an unhygienic environment. The cleaning staff complained of the smell, and skin irritation they faced from handling open pads,” says Ajinkya, adding that an educational institution generates a minimum of 25 to 30 pads every day and a minimum of 100 sanitary napkins in office spaces.

As already mentioned at the start of this article, these are either sent to landfills or to incinerators that burn these pads and in turn release carbon dioxide, and other carcinogenic compounds into the atmosphere.

“Some large offices have installed their incinerators to dispose of sanitary pads, but many women are not comfortable carrying their used pads outside the bathroom. So the solution proved ineffective,” says Ajinkya.

A Safe Disposal Solution for Sanitary Pads

To provide a solution that would act as a waste collection, and disposal system, Ajinkya and his team built- ‘SaniBin’ and ‘SanEco’.

SanEco is a one-of-a-kind waste management system that works on a chemical and mechanical disintegration method.

First, the sanitary pads which are disposed of by users are collected in the ‘SaniBin’ which are placed inside toilet cubicles.

“SaniBins have individual liners inside which collect up to 30 sanitary pads over 3 weeks. Each liner is equipped with a patent-pending disinfection system that acts as a bacteria lock, and prevents producing any bad odour.”

Then, the liners holding the sanitary pads are fed into ‘SanEco’. In this system, the pads are disintegrated into smaller bits through a mechanical shredder.

The shredded pieces undergo a disinfection, decolourisation, deodorization process before it is finally deactivated. This process involves using sodium polycarbonate to deactivate the super-absorbent chemical from the sanitary pads.

Finally, it is broken down and separated into cellulose, and plastic pellets. Ajinkya claims that the cellulose can be used to make paper, and the plastic pellets can be used to manufacture packaging material or construction material. The blood and other body fluids are also broken down in the same process and removed through a separate outlet as sewage.

Ajinkya says, “This sewage was tested by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), and the bacterial load was within the limits prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). So this liquid can be directed into regular sewer lines. The other residual compounds – Cellulose and Plastic pellets can be used to manufacture products like packaging material, construction material, and paper.”

Pilot Testing

In 2019, the team began testing their product and installed ‘SaniBin’ boxes in public toilets across Pune, and educational institutes such as Cummins College for Women and Indian Institute of Science Education Research (IISER), Pune, to collect the sanitary pads.

Ulka Sadalkar, the co-founder of Saraplast Pvt Ltd, a company that launched pink buses converted into toilets for women in Pune, says, “There were three bins set up in different toilets on the buses. It was such a good system as it produced no odour, and blended well with the rest of the bathroom. It did not occupy much space, and women found it very comfortable to drop their sanitary pads discreetly. Ajinkya and his team would collect the sanitary pads in regular intervals, and continued to do the same until the lockdown was announced.”

Ajinkya says, to date, these bins have been accessed by more than 950 women and 20 waste collectors. More than 2400 pads have been disposed of in the system which has prevented 4 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

While the centralised devices are still in the pre-commercial stage, the manufacturing of the final version is in process and will be completed by October. Ajinkya is also working on solutions to set this up in metropolitan areas and rural areas across the country. He had to put a hold on manufacturing new units owing to the lockdown. But, if you wish to know more you can visit his website, or email him at ajinkya.dhariya@padcarelabs.com.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Amidst the glitz of the corporate offices, pubs, malls and multiplexes, that are found abundantly in the southern city of Hyderabad in Telangana lies Rasoolpura, one of the city’s biggest slums. With a population of 1.3 lakh residents, they face a daily struggle to get clean drinking water.

“We had to go to a community tap, wait for an hour and fill water which was often unclean as it was mixed with sewage water. We had to use a cloth to filter the water before drinking or using it and we would still fall sick frequently,” says Zubair, a resident of Rasoolpura with a family of five.

Learning of the atrocities citizens like Zubair were facing only to get a cup of clean drinking water, 16-year-old Jayant Manghnani, and his group of friends started SHUDH, a scheme to provide clean drinking water to the slum dwellers.

Combating a water crisis

According to UNICEF, less than 50% of the population in India have access to clean drinking water and the residents of Rasoolpura fall within this category. The water received by the slum dwellers in Rasoolpura is often contaminated as the sewage pipe lines run parallel to the water pipes and huge amounts of chlorine is added in order to treat the water. Jayant Manghnani, a class 11 student at Chirec International School, took note of the water crisis and decided to do something about it. “Residents of the slum get water only once in four to five days. This water is unsafe for drinking as it is contaminated by sewage water. Moreover, the residents store the water they get in dirty utensils, making it unsafe for drinking,” says Jayant.

Jayant along with his four family friends — Antara Agarwal, Nandini Agarwal, Dev Ravi and Eshaan Agarwal, came together to start SHUDH. The team has members from different age groups with the youngest being a class 9 student and the oldest a class 11 student. The project was launched under the NayaNirmaan initiative with the aim of providing slum dwellers with water filters. Initially, Jayant thought he would make his own water filter, but his innovation cleaned only a limited amount of water and faced leakage issues. This is when he decided to raise funds to purchase water filters.

After running a crowdfunding campaign on social media, he raised Rs 1.5 lakhs in a period of 10 days. The team was able to purchase 100 filters with a capacity of 16 liters that can provide safe drinking water to a family of five for up to two days.

In addition, these water filters were effective, unbreakable, easy to maintain and did not require electricity.

“The filter can easily be maintained as it can purify 5000 litres of water, almost 1 year’s requirement, after which it just needs a change of the cartridge which costs only Rs 350 and is easily available in the market,” says Jayant.

Earlier this month, SHUDH was able to distribute the water filters to 100 households, impacting almost 500 people in the process.

“Now we have pure clean water because of the water filters which have made our lives better,” adds Zubair.

Building a sustainable future

SHUDH is not the first project that Jayant has undertaken. A year and a half ago, Jayant caught sight of the workers at a construction site who were using plastic as protection for their hands and legs which resulted in small injuries. He decided to distribute gloves and gumboots to the construction site workers and educate them on how they should be used. This was the start of NayaNirmaan, an initiative aimed at building a sustainable future.

Since 2019, under the NayaNirmaan initiative, Jayant has undertaken various projects to help the less privileged who have been struck by crisis. During the floods in Hyderabad he distributed food and necessities. He has also been creating awareness and distributing masks, sanitizers and hand wash to construction site workers during the ongoing pandemic. He says, “I wanted to understand how difficult it would be to make a difference to the lives of others by myself. This is why I decided to start my own initiative.” Jayant has had the full support of his family who have helped him raise funds for his initiative.

As for SHUDH, Jayant plans to scale up the initiative to reach more people. A Hyderabad-based NGO, Inner Circle is teaming up with SHUDH to distribute 1,000 or more water filters in the coming months.

“Many people feel they don’t have the money to make a difference and so they don’t try, but through methods like crowdfunding I feel that people can make a lot of difference simply by contributing whatever little they can,” says Jayant.

He signs off with an inspiring message for everyone, “People think that one person can’t make a difference but I think anyone can, they just have to take the right step forward.”

Edited by Yoshita Rao

Ever been struck by the sickening stench when you pass a public washroom? Well, that is because of the uric salt present in human urine. When it comes in contact with water, it reacts and leads to the formation of ammonia, which causes a stench.

As a possible solution, biotechnology graduate Kedar Kulkarni (27) from Pune has developed a technology that not only reduces the odour but also saves water. He co-founded Rutu Biosystems — a startup that provides odour control, sanitation and water conservation.

“The way the urinals are built in itself is a problem. The uric salt in urine gets deposited in the drain line, which then comes in contact with water. It reacts and releases ammonia gas. This can be treated using our products that not only cancel out odour but also conserve water,” Kedar Kulkarni tells The Better India.

According to an IIT Delhi research, on average four litres of water is used to flush urinals and the figure might go up to 10 litres depending on the toilet. If an average person urinates 4–5 times a day, total water consumption can go up to 20-40 litres of water a day.

Since urine is already in liquid form, it does not actually require water to flow down the drainage lines.

“Water mostly just adds to the odour problem,” explains Kedar. “Water moves the waste away from one point to another, and because of the oxidation reaction, odour-forming gases are released.”

Odourless and waterless urinals

What started as a company to cater to odour control and waste management has led to the development of a technology that has saved millions of gallons of water.

When Kedar’s father Mohan Kulkarni started Rutu Biosystems in 2007, their aim was simple — to focus on odour management and sanitation. This area of biotechnology intrigued his father so much that he left his electrical engineering career to explore the world of biotechnology.

Watching his father work relentlessly, Kedar knew from a very early age that he wanted to be in the same field. Soon after graduating, he joined his family business to take it further.

Rutu Biosystem now has a range of products, and it runs programmes focused on achieving odourless and waterless urinals.

“Our technology consists of three solutions that work together — a washroom cleaner, a urinal screen and bio block, and an odour controller. The basic components of these products are bacteria and enzymes. These bacteria typically belonging to the bacillus family are found everywhere in nature. We extract and use them in our products,” says Kedar.

The bacteria and active enzymes present in the bio block and cleaner react with the uric salts and produce nitrogen instead of ammonia, which causes no stench in the urinals. This not only helps to maintain cleanliness and sanitation but also saves water.

Kedar adds, “What makes our technology different is its ease of installation. Once the products are installed in a public place, we provide training to janitors to familiarise them with the technology. Apart from that, there is no need for extra assistance. The bio blocks are simply placed on the urinals. We transform the existing urinals into eco-friendly ones, just by replacing their products with our patented products. So, our customers don’t spend much to make this change.”

Why waterless urinals? 

• They do not require any plumbing accessories, hence optimising the cost of operating them.
• Up to 20 litres of water per person can be saved by using waterless urinals.
• There is no need to touch the flush mechanism after installing bio blocks in urinals, hence minimising the spread of bacteria and diseases.
• The enzymes and bacteria in the bio block remove the odour issue at the source itself.
• The bio block for waterless urinals also solves the problem of drain and pipe blockages by breaking down uric salts at the source.

An environmentally responsible business

Kedar says that the hygiene industry in the country is very fragmented and that there is a lack of awareness.

“Hygiene and sanitation come with their own set of problems due to lack of awareness among the consumers. Many don’t know that there are foolproof environment-friendly solutions available in the market for odour management,” he says.

Kedar shares that the conventional products we use today are superficial, and they only tackle the problem on the surface.

“We did many awareness campaigns to tell the consumers that there are better and greener solutions,” he says. “Fortunately, people are now more aware of the environmental changes and the water decline in the world and are looking out for sustainable solutions.”

He adds, “All our products are biodegradable and eco-friendly. They are completely non-toxic and harmless to the environment. By removing water from the whole equation and using bacteria gives a green spin to our products.”

Kedar shares that Rutu Biosystems has saved 700 metric tons of carbon emission, which is equivalent to planting 30,000 trees. They aim to build more sustainable and eco-friendly products in the future.

“We have saved more than 55 crore litres of water by installing bio blocks and other products in more than 15,000 public washrooms in the country. The components used in the bio block are all plant-based materials, and a block can last for up to 3,000 uses,” he says.

Kedar shares that their target is to convert 50,000 more urinals to waterless urinals by the end of 2023. “We always aim to dig deeper into the problem and provide a solution instead of just masking it.”

“Unfortunately households do not have urinals and so our products can’t be used at homes yet,” he says, adding that they hope to find a solution using their water-saving technology soon.

For more information, you can visit their website or contact  1800 209 9650.

Edited by Pranita Bhat

Born and raised in Pune, Amol Bhinge has been living in the United States for the past 22 years. He currently works for a global multinational company as an engineer, designing electronic chips, in Austin, Texas. But being an American citizen now never deterred his desire to visit his family back in India every six months, particularly during important festivals.

Five years ago, while on a similar visit to Pune for Diwali, he had taken his wife and other family members out for jewellery shopping at a famous store on Laxmi Road, located in the heart of the city.

What happened during this time left a deep imprint on him.

“Jewellery shopping takes a couple of hours. In the midst of buying jewellery, we were served multiple cups of tea and coffee. Naturally, there came a time when I had to visit the washroom. What I found was a really dirty, smelly, unhygienic and unsafe washroom with a slippery floor. It was impossible to relieve myself there. This was completely at odds with the clean store with fancy air conditioning,” recalls Amol while speaking to The Better India.

So, he went to the manager and politely asked him to get the washroom cleaned. The manager told him to wait for 30 minutes, but even after the stipulated time, there was no progress despite constant reminders. Naturally, he was upset and asked the manager why they had left the store’s washroom so filthy. The manager’s response was that only Amol had this problem and no one else had complained about it.

“What shocked me was the manager’s apathetic attitude towards the filthy state of the washroom on the store’s premises where customers spend lots of money buying their jewellery. I left there angry. Eventually, I found another jewellery shop nearby which had a cleaner washroom and relieved myself there,” he recalls.

Instead of narrating this incident time and again to others, Amol wondered if he could find a solution. Even though he lived in the US, his heart was keen on finding a solution to accessing clean and hygienic washrooms for Indians living in India.

ToiletSeva app

“I thought, ‘Can I develop a platform where users can find a list of all public toilets and washroom facilities of privately owned commercial establishments in a given area, submit comments, rate these facilities, and give them a choice to visit the best-rated one from a washroom experience point of view?’ I wasn’t advocating that privately owned commercial establishments must open up their washrooms to the general public, but at least maintain one for their customers,” he says.

So, in June 2022, Amol launched the ToiletSeva app, a one-stop platform for government-run and privately owned toilets. The objective of the app is to allow users to quickly access clean, hygienic, and safe toilets in their vicinity. It displays features and facilities at each toilet and encourages them to voice their opinion about it with customer feedback and interaction.

“Currently available in Hindi, English and Marathi, you can find the app on iOS and Google Play Store. All you need to do is to install it on your phone and with a few taps on the screen, you can be a pro-ToiletSeva User. Through this app, you can also become a ToiletSeva Host and list the access to your clean and safe toilet on the ToiletSeva App to let people access it,” he notes.

Amol began working on this app in 2019 alongside his friend (wishing to remain anonymous) who also works in Austin. Due to the pandemic and the fact that Amol and his friend have their own day jobs, it took them more than three years to launch this app. Since its launch, ToiletSeva has listed more than 1,28,546 washrooms across 129 different locations in India. 

Gathering data for toilets in different cities

Initially, the plan was to create a platform, and then people would add the toilets they visited into their database. However, Amol and his friend realised that this was not going to work in the beginning. They had to furnish their own data to get users on board.

Besides public toilets, what Amol and his friend had to understand is, ‘What are some of the commercial establishments in India which probably have washrooms?’

“In terms of commercial establishments, you have petrol pumps, coffee shop chains, fast food chains, shopping malls, multiplexes, banks and others. After hiring a data collection firm, we requested them to collect data for public toilets and washrooms in commercial establishments in Pune, Mumbai, and a few other major cities and uploaded that onto the app to get started. Upon launching the app, we provided a list of 108 probable washrooms,” he recalls.

“Initially, we had marked them all as ‘probable’. We weren’t sure whether these facilities were fully operational, and that’s why we tagged them as ‘probable’. But whenever people visit these washrooms and review them, we change their status on the app with additional information about the amenities available there — like functional locks, wash basins, liquid soap, lights, sanitary napkins, diaper-changing tables and much more,” he adds.

Following this, ToiletSeva added a feature which allowed users to add washrooms to their database. On the app, they have a feature called ‘Add New Toilet’, where users will add a toilet they visited in a local restaurant, cafe, etc.

“It’s taking a little time to furnish this database, but that’s okay. We are relying on people to contribute to it,” he says, adding, “Data will get better as long as people contribute to it. That’s how it’s going to work out. As the app matures, we will pursue other avenues to strengthen our database. Right now, our approach is to depend on people.”

He says that there is also an option called ‘Report Issue’ on the app to report any discrepancies regarding the available amenities listed on the app for a washroom.

The goal is to scale up this app and make improvements. “The app is currently available in English, Hindi and Marathi as well. As time goes by, we will add other languages,” says Amol.

Different from other toilet-finding apps

Amol has met people who told him that Google can give them the information that his app provides about the nearest toilet available. However, he argues that the manner in which Google disseminates information and reviews whether it’s about electronic equipment, doctors, shops or restroom facilities is the same. He believes that there are some challenges associated with the format they use to put up such information and rate toilets.

Challenge 1: “Suppose a particular toilet facility is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Google. The problem is that if the toilet was rated a year back, that rating has no relevance today because as a user, I want to understand the status of the toilet today. Google offers an overall rating, but this rating system is sufficient for electronic equipment, but not a toilet,” argues Amol.

Solution: Although the ToiletSeva app has an overall rating feature, they also have ratings for the last two weeks, three months, six months and the past year.

“With this feature, you can at least understand which way the toilet is trending. Going by our research, I believe none of these toilet apps in India has this feature,” he says.

Challenge 2: “Another key challenge is the authenticity of these Google reviews. Some of these reviews are paid for, fake or written by those known to the business or people who have a vendetta against them. In other words, there is a growing lack of trust in these reviews,” he shares.

Solution: “To address fake reviews, we have come up with a system whereby you can see the reviews and ratings given by your Level 1 network which includes your phone contacts. These are real people that you can possibly trust. These are not bots or dummies. You will see the ratings given for toilets on our app by people in your phone contact list, but you won’t know who specifically has given that rating. Their identity is kept anonymous,” he claims.

Challenge 3: Google reviews don’t tell you what amenities are available.

Solution: “The pandemic heightened our collective sense of hygiene. Take the example of liquid soap, which everyone now considers important. I believe it’s an integral part of any washroom. As a user, I would like to know if a particular washroom has a bottle of liquid soap, a wash basin, a mirror, a dustbin, etc. Is it a western-style toilet or an Indian-style one? How many urinals or toilets does a given facility have? These features need to be mentioned,” he notes.

“We want to list down each and every aspect of a hygienic toilet. Besides amenities, we list down the location. For example, users are able to search for a jewellery shop on Laxmi Road with a western toilet which has a liquid shop, etc. I can find unique locations which match my search criteria. After my visit to a jewellery shop, I want to eat out at a cafe in the same area, and again zero in one which has decent toilet facilities,” he adds.

Challenge 4: There are some apps engaged in the certification of toilets. They’re subscription-based services. They will certify only a limited number of toilets, spread across a few cities.

Solution: “Our goal has always been to scale for all of India. We want the app to be free for users,” he says.

Another interesting feature that ToiletSeva is developing is QR codes for public toilets.

“On our app, our aim is to ensure that every public toilet location has a QR code. People can just scan that QR code and rate them. In a project we are currently working on with the Pune Municipal Corporation, we found that they had built toilets but had no IDs for them. They have no mechanism to collect feedback for the toilets built. By virtue of our app, we create a QR code for every public toilet which means every toilet has a unique ID,” he says.

Looking ahead

So far, Amol hasn’t received any funding for the app. He and his friend have invested their personal savings into it. However, they are looking for funding and sponsorship.

“In the future, we would appreciate funding or sponsorship for the app, especially from businesses that believe that they have clean washrooms. We can promote these businesses not just for the sake of money but also convey a message to the larger community that there are commercial establishments willing to acknowledge the cleanliness of their washrooms,” he says.

For readers, meanwhile, his message is, “After downloading the app, if you visit a toilet (public or in a commercial establishment) and don’t see a rating, please contribute by reviewing and rating the facility. As more people contribute, our database will improve,” he adds.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat; Images courtesy Amol Bhinge)

What if we said you could take your toilet wherever you go? And that all it would take just two hours to build it?

Amused? Don’t be. Because one Swachh Bharat hero from Pune, Maharashtra built such a smart toilet made out of waste thermocol as early as 2007.

Pune-based industrialist Ramdas Mane is the founder of ‘The Mane Group of Industries’ which manufactures thermocol machines and also runs ‘Ready made toilets.’ Till date, Mane has supplied more than 22,000 toilets in more than 17 states across India.

One feather in the cap of this businessman with a golden heart is that he even donated 25 such toilets to newly-married underprivileged women who couldn’t afford buying one.

Humble Beginnings

Growing up, Mane, who hails from the Satara district of the state, was no stranger to the suffering of the women in his own family who faced the embarrassment of having to defecate in the open in the dark of the night or at early dawn.

Speaking to NDTV, he says, “I have grown in a family where there was no toilet culture. I have seen women of my house going out in the open to defecate, I have seen them suffering. This was not just the story of my house, but my entire village.”

Mane journey to success is nothing short of inspirational. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon. From working as a waiter to sweating it out at a construction site, he did it all. But in his heart he knew he wanted to embark on a journey that would help the people around him.

After finishing his Industrial training, he worked as an intern with Mahindra and Mahindra Companies in Pune. All he earned at the time was a stipend of Rs. 100. It was only when he cleared his internal exams successfully that he became a permanent employee in the company.

The year 1994, brought about a major turn in Mane’s life. Trusting his entrepreneurial spirit, he quit his job to begin a business of making thermocol machines. Mane’s company even made it to the Limca Book of records in 2007, for the biggest thermocol machine. It was incidentally the same year, Mane decided to venture into smart toilets.

For those who remember, 2007 was also the year in which the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, started a Swachh Abhiyan in the state. He announced a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh to the first village which would successfully construct toilets in each of its households.

It took Mane’s village nothing less than a year and half to construct 198 toilets. All it needed was two more toilets to claim the prize. The clock was ticking, as they had only eight days to achieve their target.

All the toilets Mane had helped construct in his village back then were made of bricks, cement and tiles and would take several days to finish.

“Making a toilet was a very big deal. We had to get bricks from one place, the door from another, cement from a different place. And it used to take days just construct one toilet. As days were passing and our chances of losing emerged as an eminent reality, I was pressured by my village people and officers. They said, “Sir, you are a big industrialist, why don’t you research more on making a smart toilet that can be made in few days?” Mane recalls in his interview with NDTV.

It was at the time, Mane made two toilets out of thermocol. These toilets served as prototypes for his business ‘Ready made Toilets.’

How are these thermocol toilets made?

The innovation works on a simple model. As Mane runs a business of thermocol machines, all waste thermocol is collected and recycled. The end result of this recycling process are differently shaped thermocol components which are used in toilet construction. For e.g. big rectangles to create slabs, small bricks called ‘thermocol sandwich bricks’ for laying walls etc.

Once the entire thermocol structure is put into place as per the required design, it is coated with concrete cement and left to dry. Here it is important to note that while the toilet takes only two hours to build, the cement coating and drying process takes an additional four hours.

If you visit the website, you see the four toilet models that Mane’s company supplies. The basic toilet model costs about Rs. 13,000. This comes in stark contrast to the existing costs required to build a conventional toilet which will cost anywhere between Rs 35,000 to 40,000 a piece.

This 7.3 ft x 4ft model is a low cost portable and executive toilet which you can install and use within two hours. It is can also be moved from one place of another place as per your convenience. Apart from saving construction time, it has the capacity to carry a 300 litre water tank.

The construction time for this basic model is two hours, and that is without any plumbing facilities. This model therefore, is useful in rural areas where many people carry water buckets to the toilets. It is extremely useful for laborers on construction sites too.

The price range for the other models keeps increasing as they come additional facilities, for eg. one model with tiles costs Rs. 15,000, another with European seating and a wash basin costs Rs. 22,000 and the last one which is a light-weight portable toilet costs about Rs. 35,000.

While the basic construction for other models also require two hours, additional facilities like using tiles, adding a flush tank, wash basin, or setting up water facility takes additional time. Each toilet requires an average of three people for set up.

READ MORE: Rs 0 to Anything: Now Pay Any Amount to Use Western Railways’ Station Toilets

What once started as an experiment with scrap thermocol and an idea to merely help his village win the Swachh Abhiyan has today transformed into a successful company with an annual turnover of Rs. 40 crore with 70 employees.

Needless to say, the man behind the innovation has been felicitated with a host of awards by different organisations and governments, not just in India, but abroad too.

“Every individual can contribute towards a swachh nation cause like I am. It is simply about the efforts and innovations,” says the innovator.

Know more about Ready Made Toilets here.

(Edited By Vinayak Hegde)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

With India’s urban population all set to touch 600 million in the next 15 years, it is imperative that our cities develop the necessary infrastructure for their residents. A critical component of urban infrastructure is its sewage system.

However, more than 70% of urban India’s sewage goes untreated, and our cities dump nearly 40 billion litres of untreated sewage into water bodies every year. The discharge of untreated sewage, especially into our water bodies, has a nasty effect on our health and environment.

What is particularly of great concern is that most of our cities are not bound by a complete sewage network. Even cities that have a partial sewage network do not have the requisite treatment plants, which defeats the very purpose of having a sewage system.

Policy advocates have argued that this is because massive centralised treatment plants require high capital investment to build pipelines, pumping stations and treatment plants.

Besides the cost of constructing and operating them, these sewage networks require extensive digging and can take anywhere between 3-10 years to implement. Most existing sewage treatment plants do not function at optimum levels and fail to meet basic environmental standards for treating wastewater discharge.

Making matters worse is that when cities expand, it is difficult to expand the reach of a massive centralised system especially in peri-urban areas which often receive patchy service. There are also questions of constructing pipelines amidst land ownership and topographical concerns. Finally, there is the issue of regular power supply, required by these centralised systems.

Recent developments in Devanahalli, a town 40 km from Bengaluru, offers us hope that our urban centres can effectively address issues concerning sewage treatment. What the town witnessed was a collaborative effort by the local Town Municipal Corporation (TMC), the Consortium for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD) Society (a Bengaluru-based non-profit working on effective management of wastewater and faecal sludge), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and tech giants Oracle India.

In November 2015, in partnership with TMC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CDD Society commissioned India’s first city-wide and dedicated faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP) at Devanahalli. This FSTP has helped the town of just 30,000 people to move towards an open defection free environment.

At this moment, Devanahalli is an ODF+ town with all residents having access to a toilet, besides possessing the facility to regularly and safely collect, transport and treat all faecal matter. A large part of this effort is thanks to the tech giant Oracle India.

“Before setting up the FSTP at Devanahalli, we set up a pilot at our office campus. Faecal sludge characteristics vary greatly based on weather, containment system, desludging, frequency etc. So, at this pilot plant, we tested the technology before setting it up townscale at Devanahalli,” said a spokesperson for CDD Society, speaking to The Better India.

The technology was designed based on inputs from engineers at CDD and its partner, the Bremen Overseas Research and Development Agency (BORDA).

For the past 15 years, engineers from both organisations have gained vast experience working on the treatment of wastewater, primarily through Decentralised Waste Water Treatment Systems (DEWATS).

How does this FSTP work?

“Faecal sludge is collected in desludging vehicles (aka honeysuckers). These desludging vehicles bring the faecal sludge to the treatment plant. The solid stream goes into anaerobic digestion and biogas is produced. It is then further treated and stabilised in anaerobic reactors.

Finally, it is dried in a drying bed and ready for co-composting, where it is mixed with organic municipal waste and co-composted into useful soil manure or compost for farmers. This cycle balances the nutrient requirements of the soil that’s depleted through agriculture and overuse,” says Sasanka Velidandla, CEO of CDD Society.

The entire plant runs on gravity. It doesn’t use any electricity for its operations. Not only has it proven to be effective and cheap, but it also does not leave behind a significant carbon footprint. Moreover, it’s close to the source of faecal sludge.

Watch the video below to understand how the entire process works:

There are seven critical stages that this project has undergone.

1) It first conducted a study of the sanitation system in the town, i.e., how much faecal sludge did Devanahalli generate? Without any definitive answers, CDD Society and the TMC first conducted a survey.

Questions like the number of toilets, pits and septic tanks, whom to call for the desludging process and how often, were answered.

Over 15% of households in Devanahalli lack toilets; nearly two-thirds of households without toilets (600-700) engage in open defecation; for households without toilets, the main reason for not constructing one is lack of funds, with lack of space another obstacle; and approximately 7% of households (400-500) have toilets connected to an open drain (insanitary latrines).

After surveying the town, the team learnt three key things—households desludge after long intervals which makes the entire process a lot harder, while private desludging operators travel long distances before emptying their tanker/truck. However, the biggest issue here is the lack of a proper sewage disposal point. These private operators were found dumping untreated faecal sludge into water bodies and empty farmlands.

2) In consonance with Step 1, what CDD Society did was to work closely with the TMC. In fact, when CDD Society first shortlisted four towns for their FSTP project, it was officials from Devanahalli that showed great enthusiasm for the proposal in 2014.

“CDD Society came to Devanahalli and spoke to corporators from 23 wards about the plant. When we went into town to speak to people about the plant, they initially protested that it would be dirty. That is when CDD Society and corporators went door to door convincing the people of its benefits and ensuring that we had the necessary support to get the FSM resolutions passed,” says Narasimha Murthy, TMC President.

Besides workshops for these corporators on CDD Society’s FSM model, private desludging operators also underwent training about the use of septic tanks.

3) The next obvious step was to identify the site for this plant and acquire the land for it. It had to be near the source of faecal sludge, thus reducing transport time.

An erstwhile waste dumping site off the national highway running through the town was chosen. However, acquiring the land included seeking a whole host of approvals from organs of the state—from the pollution control board to planning and zoning authorities, among others.

After acquiring all approvals, in consonance with local authorities, land was cleared and levelled .

4) One of the fundamental aspects of any such project is to establish the regulatory framework for sustained faecal management operations.

The TMC passed four critical resolutions in this regard— “proper regulation of the containment systems that are going to be built for new houses; licensing and regulation of private operators working in the town for desludging; outsourcing the operations of the treatment plant to private operators; and raising property taxes to support the cost of the treatment plant,” says Velidandla.

5) To ensure practical implementation of policy, the team suggests:

“Calls coming in from households can be routed to a call centre. GPS devices and cameras can be placed on the trucks to monitor their desludging and disposal. This, in the long run, can also lead to regular desludging. The treatment plant can be monitored for input and output parameters, so it meets standards,” adds Velidandla.

6) Establishing a sustainable and low-cost model is critical. The total capital cost of this FSTP was Rs 70 lakh (Rs 300 per capita) with an operating cost of Rs 6 lakh per year. Most municipalities in India can afford it. Typically, the initial cost of a large centralised sewage system is in the range of Rs. 14,000-25,000 per citizen in a city.

Additionally, operating these systems can cost Rs. 3,000-5,000 per person per year for continuous power, skilled operators, chemicals etc.

A 2015 Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report says that only 64% of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) are working. In this case, the operating costs are low and take just a year to construct. The capital expenditure required for FSM lies in the range of Rs 500-Rs 2,000 per capita.

There is only one operator at the plant. The whole plant runs on gravity. It doesn’t use any electricity for operation and hence is effective, cheap and arrests pollution quickly, says CDD Society.

“We are raising money through selling manure, through advertisements, through property tax, and also through collecting fees for desludging,” says another senior town official.

7) Community engagement: Farmers today are seemingly reaping the benefits of using faecal sludge compost. “Initially we used to receive fertiliser from the government but using it was a big problem. It used to smell very bad, and the labourers were reluctant to work with it. When we started using it, even our labourers started working better. Now the yield is excellent, we are getting double the crop,” says Babu, a farmer.

With the FSTP up and running, in April 2017, CDD Society also got involved in the process of constructing toilets for the town of Devanahalli, which the TMC was already actively involved in through the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Also Read: 6 Steps to Make a Village Open Defecation Free

“We hired a local contractor to construct toilets; and a local non-profit SNEHA to conduct street plays in Kannada as part of information, education and communication (IEC) efforts to spread awareness about the plant, the importance of desludging and to motivate community members to construct and use toilets properly so that they stop practicing open defecation,” said Tarika Vaswani, a communications expert with CDD Society. They also worked with women’s self-help groups trying to build awareness around how to use a toilet.

What about the cost of building toilets?

In order to construct an individual household toilet, at least Rs. 15,000-20,000 is required. Most of the funds to build the 350-450 toilets that Devanahalli needed to go ODF came from the government’s Swachh Bharat Mission. To bridge the toilet gap, CDD Society reached out to tech giants Oracle India, who not only delivered the funds from their CSR kitty but also sent company volunteers, especially those who can speak the local vernacular, to help with the IEC campaigns.

“On one occasion, we had volunteers from Oracle spend an evening at Devanahalli helping with IEC activities. This involved airing a video as well as conducting a street play dedicated to spreading awareness about toilet use. Volunteers, who spoke Kannada, interacted with the locals, going door-to-door and calling them for the street play and video show. They also communicated the importance of desludging, and helped them apply for funds to construct toilets,” says Tarika.

Speaking to The Better India, Rajendra Tripathi, Senior Manager, Oracle Corporate Citizenship – India, talked about what attracted the tech giant to this project.

“We found the project, dedicated to the effective management of wastewater and faecal sludge of an entire township, very compelling. The project focuses on an urgent necessity at a time of growing urbanisation,” says Rajendra. The company intervened at a critical juncture, when the toilet building exercise was in need of an urgent injection of funds.

Why was it such a compelling project for the company?

“One single project offered us an opportunity to bring together the aspect of environmental protection and community outreach of our corporate citizenship policy. We had a chance to not only collaborate with non-profits, but also actively participate in serving society.

Also Read: Deep in the Sundarbans, India’s Best Gram Panchayat Is Driving Real Progress.

Open defection free missions aren’t part of our core business interests, but what it does is help us showcase our company’s citizenship values to our employees and in the process help them better engage with Oracle and society at large. This is seemingly a win-win situation for all stakeholders—governments, non-profits and corporations.” adds Rajendra.

This sort of collaborative effort between non-profits, multinationals, local government, big government and the citizens is what allowed Devanahalli to attain ODF+ status.

Having said that, CDD and Oracle are still working in the town to construct more toilets. Earlier this month, the multinational approved another grant of Rs. 38.4 lakhs to take the sanitation project further. The aim for Devanahalli is to attain ODF++ status.

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

India’s youth can be instrumental when it comes to implementing schemes on the ground. They have the energy and passion for learning new information, and in most cases, their enthusiasm is also fuelled by a strong sense of patriotism, and the need to better the conditions in the country.

It is equally essential for these youngsters to step out of their comfort zone, explore new environments and take up some social responsibility.

By opening up opportunities for a new internship programme dedicated to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan started by the Central Government in 2014, the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has devised the perfect way to channel this energy and social responsibility.

The internship promises great incentives to the students who undertake it. Here are all the details you need to know:

1. Students are required to apply for this internship by completing the application form online. They can request the authorities of their respective colleges to guide them.

2. The students need to undertake work in one or more villages in either their home state or the state where the parent institute is located. Candidates can make this decision with the help of their institution.

3. The volunteer work must be some form of activity undertaken by an individual or a group that focuses on sanitation. Candidates have to complete 100 hours in this work to be eligible for the incentives given by SPPU.

4. SPPU promises up to two credits for the entirety of work conducted in rural areas. Dr Muktaja Matkari, the principal of the Abasaheb Garware College of Arts and Science, told Pune Mirror, “The inclusion of such programmes in the syllabus will help students address existing social issues more seriously and gain experiential learning. We are awaiting guidelines from the varsity on how to work the credit system.”

5. In addition to credits, the university is also planning on giving out cash rewards for the best project at various stages—Rs 20,000 at the college level, and Rs 2 lakh at the national level.

6. The responsibilities of each candidate include the following:
a) Spreading awareness about sanitation and hygiene in rural areas and carrying out relevant activities.
b) The hours of work have to be reported, and once they reach the end of their internship, they have to draft a report.
c) This report needs to be submitted to and will be evaluated by the government.

You may also like: Swachh Bharat Summer Internship: Help Clean Villages & Win Up to Rs 2 Lakh

Dr RS Zunjarrao, the principal of Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce said, “I believe education should be divided into a 20 and 80 percent ratio—wherein the latter is geared towards bettering career prospects, but the former is about social responsibilities. Such initiatives can definitely help students become better citizens.”

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

Noor Nehar Begum who hails from the Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant community from Bhulukabari Pathar village in Assam’s Barpeta district is an independent woman. For the 1.5 years, she has been contributing to her family’s financial needs by working as a female mason. In the process, she has broken the notion that the women should stay at home to raise children and be dependent on the man.

Like Begum, scores of women from her community in Barpeta district have been working with fellow female masons from the Assamese, Bengali, Hindu and Bodo communities side-by-side, constructing toilets, and fostering a rare kind of social mobilisation, unity and female empowerment.

Begum shares, “Before working as a female mason, I had no money, and my husband used to overlook me. I couldn’t pay the tuition fees for my two sons. Now, I contribute financially to my family. There is respect for me in the house and the village. I have challenged the social convention norms that keep women constricted and tied to a particular role. When I was learning masonry, many men in the village asked my husband why I was doing a man’s job. Now, they don’t dare to tell me anything. I work with female masons from different communities and there is greater understanding between us. I am also learning Assamese now.”

The female masons started with a total number of 10 which increases to 22. In a short span of time, the number of female masons in Barpeta snowballed to 322.

Their work was appreciated, and the demand for their work increased. They braved chauvinism and challenging social barriers, across seven villages in and around Barpeta district.

Arpana Adhikary, the district water/sanitation consultant, conceptualised the idea of roping in female masons for the task at hand. She says, “The entire concept began in 2014 when the Swacch Bharat Mission was rolled in. We came to realise that male masons were not enthusiastic about doing quality work. I decided to rope in female wage earners as masons. Training was imparted to them, and soon they embarked on their mission.”

Through masonry, these women discovered financial independence. Once illiterate, the female masons now take orders, plan the design, implement and cut bank cheques.

“They are in demand for their expertise in masonry. They are much better than their male counterparts. They know intricate details, and their approach and perception towards building toilets is positive as they craft ideas which they implement,” added Adhikary.

Jalkara Village: Last December, a group of 112 village women from a nondescript, minority-dominated and low-lying Jalkara village in Barpeta district, began to seek training in masonry. They learnt about the female masons in the district and concerned about the pathetic sanitation conditions in their village, they decided to build toilets in their village.

With 369 households, Jalkara village comes under Paschim Paka Gaon Panchayat (GP), which remains inundated for the most of the year. Till December of 2017, there were only 17 households with pucca toilets, but the female masons constructed pucca toilets for 106 households.

Also Read: Govt. Didn’t Act, So UP Villager Sells Goats To Build a Toilet!

“In Jalkara, most of the men work outside the state as labourers. Open defecation is widely prevalent. During floods, sanitation is nil. Villagers here use kuchha toilets or resort to open defecation,” explains Adhikary.

The women then approached a team of female masons from Dakhin Pachim Bedbari which is another gaon panchayat. The team from this gaon panchayat (GP) had built hundreds of pucca toilets.

“It all started when some of the women from Jalkara came to our gaon panchayat. They met some of the female masons here and the word about their work spread. Jalkara is dry for three months and inundated for the rest of the year. It is so remote and low-lying that NGOs prefer to stay away from it,” said Adhikary.

There are now four self-help groups operating in the district which are solely dedicated to building and constructing toilets and creating awareness about cleanliness. The female masons also use technology in figuring out GPS coordinates during construction.

“After the construction of toilets, I have seen that stomach-related ailments have dropped in my village. As a mother and a wife, I now feel relieved,” shares Begum.

This is not all there is to the matter.

A two-day training was held in March for women in Dhakua Gaon who were interested in female masonry. Training was imparted on pit-digging and other toilet-constructing technicalities.

Dhakua Gaon: “I was surprised to see how the women in that village began to develop these skills in a short span of time. Training was given under the leadership of a master mason. Training was held from March 25 to 27. Since then, with the help of experienced masons, the female masons from Dhakua village have built close to 30 toilets,” notes Adhikary.

Under SBM, the government shells out Rs 12,000 for building a single pucca toilet unit.

The female masons, in the same manner, managed to save Rs 18,36,000 by motivating 153 households in Balarvitha to spend a portion of their income in building toilets instead of depending on the government.

According to the District Water Sanitation Department, these female masons work across 11 villages in the district, covering five gaon panchayats, constructing 1,423 toilets. They also engage in village cleanliness programmes, orientation of school students, school cleanliness and plantation of trees.

You May Also Like: 100% Sanitation in 1,000 Days: This AP Village Is Meticulously Working Towards Achieving the Unthinkable

Besides exemplifying female empowerment with their quality masonry work, these women have also saved lakhs of rupees of the state’s exchequer by motivating rural households with a decent income to build toilets.

(Written by Gaurav Das and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

We often take physically challenged people as somehow inferior, though there are unsung heroes around us who defy this myth. These people prove, time and again, that where there is a will, there is a way.

A case in point is Bihar’s 50-year-old visually impaired Musaharu Ram. He lives in the Rajeshwar Poorvi village in Supaul district. This hamlet is 300 km away from the state capital, Patna, with the district headquarters being at least 70 km away.

Musaharu Ram is a hero for the 7,000 inhabitants of this village. A local folk singer, he lost his eyesight due to glaucoma at the age of 22. He supports his three daughters and one son through singing and taking alms.

He says, “When people first came to talk about the toilet, I understood how important it was. Open defecation becomes very problematic during the rains. Our whole hamlet used to submerge.”

He adds, “Life went on like that, but I thought there should be at least a toilet for my daughters, considering their prestige and honour. And so I decided to build a toilet.”

Also Read: Shajapur’s Swachh Bharat Crusader – a Local School Teacher Who Has Helped Build over 1800 Toilets

Sarpanch Laxmi, says, “It all started five months ago when toilet construction started in the village under the Swachh Bharat Mission. Almost all villages built toilets. Our challenge was Tamua Tola, where mahadalits lived. Musaharu Ram proved to be a good motivator.”

After the construction of the toilet, Musaharu started to motivate the villagers of the hamlet for the sake of their children. Government officials rewarded him for his advocative work.

“I can’t see, but I feel the honour and respect given to me for this noble cause,” says Musaharu Ram.

Supaul’s Zilla Swachh Bharat motivator Abhishek Mali notes that recent statistics show a marked improvement with one lakh toilets built in the district, with nearly 20,000 toilets built from 1st April to 10th April, 2018. The district earlier stood at the 38th spot in Bihar, but it now stands at the 27th spot.

“There is evidence to suggest that water sanitation and hygiene practices are associated with child growth. Open defecation is also directly linked with stunting and malnutrition in children,” observes Rajeev Kumar, WASH Officer, UNICEF, Bihar.

He further notes that a toilet is not a status symbol but a basic daily requirement. If poor families could build an inexpensive two-pit toilet, then not only would they save themselves and their children from deadly diseases, but also produce manure from faeces which is a good fertiliser.

Visually-challenged Musaharu Ram is an example for the people who wait for government intervention. Proponents of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan also cite his example to other families to motivate them. Supaul’s DM has also felicitated him for his inspiring work.

You May Also Like: Govt. Didn’t Act, So UP Villager Sells Goats To Build a Toilet!

Sharing the achievement of the sanitation hero, District Development Commissioner of Supaul, Naveen Chaudhary, concludes, “People like Musaharu Ram are the real face of our sanitation campaign ‘Chikan Chunmum Supaul’. I believe that if he can make toilets, the last person of Supaul too can construct and use toilets.”

(Written by Avinash Ujjwal and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

What are the qualities of a hero?

My answer would be someone who puts the needs of others before their own and works relentlessly to make others’ lives a little better.

In that vein, let me introduce you to a hero – 45-year-old Manilal Rana from Savaniya of Banswada district in Rajasthan.

In 35 days, Manilal and his team of helpers have built 780 toilets in their village. It was not just the construction of these toilets that made him a hero but his patience and perseverance in persuading the villagers, who seemed to be against it.

While some days were difficult, Manilal kept going because of the support he got from some locals and the District Collector.

It was during his trips to cities like Ahmedabad and Mumbai that Manilal discovered that toilets were a given in most households as opposed to his village where it was a regular practice to head to an open space, with a lota (brass pot with water) in their hands each morning.

This sparked a thought in his mind, and he decided to find a way to make his village free from open defecation.

You May Also Like: Medak Collector Gets Into Toilet Pit, Empties Organic Manure with Bare Hands!

In a report published by NDTV SwachhIndia, Manilal speaks about the general mindset of the people in his village and says, “Our forefathers have been defecating in the open, why should we do things any differently? The villagers would also oppose the concept of having a toilet inside the premises of their house stating, ‘We cannot have a kitchen and toilet together.’”

So Manilal and his team of youth volunteers started spreading the message of toilets and the harms of open defecation to the lives of the villagers.

They explained how it could lead to the spread of various diseases.

Slowly and steadily, they started seeing a change in the attitude of the villagers. The idea was so well received that there have come to be watch committees that patrol the open fields, dissuading people from open defecation.

A lot of credit goes to this man who took it upon himself to bring about this change. Do watch this video, which encapsulates the work he has done for his village.

It was not easy for Manilal Rana of the Banswada district, #Rajasthan to drive behaviour change across communities. Using innovative techniques to make people realise the importance of #Swachhata did the trick. We salute him for his dedicated service. #SBM pic.twitter.com/UFT5wEr7Cd

— Swachh Bharat (@swachhbharat) September 7, 2018

To commemorate his work, he was honoured by Prime Minister Modi at the concluding ceremony of #ChaloChamparan on April 10. The initiative marked the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha and kickstarted the final leg of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Here’s saluting this true hero!

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

You May Also Like: This IAS Officer’s Unique Initiative Deserves Your Help; Donate a Toilet Today!

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

As four years of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) come to an end, it is time to reflect and take stock of how far we have come and what lies ahead.

As per the latest government figures, the overall sanitation coverage in India has now risen to more than 90% (SBM, 2018). However, the data also shows that the physical construction of a toilet does not guarantee its usage or a change in sanitation practices.

There are enough instances that show toilets constructed under SBM (G) are being used to store firewood or even as a cattle shed. It is also not uncommon for beneficiaries of SBM (G) to use toilets only at night or during the monsoons due to the misbelief that using it often would fill up the pit soon. Many men continue to resort to open defecation as they believe toilets are meant to be used only by women and children.

The journey of the Swachh Bharat Mission has brought forth many stories and lessons in sanitation that need to be recognised and taken forward.

The intervention of the Public Affairs Centre

In a recently completed project on ‘Improving Consumer Voices in Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)’, Public Affairs Centre (a leading think-tank based in Bengaluru) used its repertoire of social accountability tools to assess the experience of the beneficiaries from different aspects of the programme (selection, application, toilet construction, receipt of subsidy amount, usage) in Tamil Nadu.

The project deployed Community Score Cards (CSC)–a citizen-centric accountability tool for the assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery.

The CSC was used to gather feedback from communities of users and service implementers to improve communication between them, as scores on various indicators. The idea was to form Joint Action Committees (JAC), comprising beneficiaries and service providers that implemented mutually agreed upon Joint Action Plans (JAP), ensuring the smooth implementation of SBM in the six districts of Tamil Nadu (Dharmapuri, Kanyakumari, Krishnagiri, Perambalur, Tirunelveli and Tiruchirappalli).

Role of Women and the Importance of Community Participation

In the six districts, the main reason cited for the construction of toilets by more than 70% beneficiaries of SBM was to ensure the safety of women (Citizen Report Card Survey, PAC). During our interaction with district-level officials, nearly 60% of them reported that women helped in creating the demand and awareness for a toilet in the community.

The role of ‘Swachhata Doots’ as grassroots sanitation ambassadors to take forth the message on the importance of toilet construction and hygienic sanitation practices is also well acknowledged in the SBM policy.

During the project and fieldwork, the PAC research team realised that these districts already had an active base of foot soldiers – Village Poverty Reduction Committee (VPRC), Panchayat Level Federation (PLF) and Self Help Groups (SHG) – dominated by nearly 800 women in the study areas.
Further, it was found that the interest of these women could be leveraged to proceed with the planned intervention.

Also Read: 100% Sanitation in 1,000 Days: This AP Village Is Meticulously Working Towards Achieving the Unthinkable

Thus, identifying these women as change agents, PAC undertook the following activities:

• Screened films and documentaries on different aspects of sanitation (the ill effects of open defecation and hygiene practices).
• Conducted group discussions for VPRC, SHG and PLF members and district officials on learnings, problems and resolutions w.r.t implementation of SBM.
• Developed and distributed IEC material with a specific focus on the disadvantages of open defecation, the technical aspects of toilet construction and faecal sludge management among VPRC, SHG and PLF members.
• Trained VPRC, PLF and SHG members in every village to work closely with every household to ensure the community achieves and sustains its OPF status.

Such targeted interventions helped build capacities among these ‘sanitation ambassadors’, and they became our foot soldiers of change. They used their network to influence households to construct and use toilets within their communities.

Today, women in these groups have taken it upon themselves to spread the message of sanitation. They speak about the hazards of open defecation and convince households to construct and use toilets.

The villages where this intervention was made saw a significant increase in the demand for toilets as well as increased usage. Twelve of these villages have been declared open defecation free.

In Billanakupam Gram Panchayat alone, the number of toilets increased from 335 to 855 after the involvement of the women.

In Maharashtra, women who raised their voice against open defecation and highlighted their sanitation needs were named ‘Swachhata Doots’.

Even states such as Uttar Pradesh which had very high levels of open defecation, to begin with, have recognised the role women can play as ambassadors of sanitation. In the recently organised ‘Swachh Shakti’ Convention where 8,000 Women Sarpanches, 3,000 Women Swachhagrahis, 2,000 Mahila Samakhyas from the state were invited for their outstanding contribution towards open defecation free India.

In a recent event, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the contribution of India’s Nari Shakti (women power) in the Swachh Bharat Mission was immense.

As we celebrate Gandhi’s 149th birth anniversary this year and are just one year short of marking the ODF target of 2019, it is imperative to recollect what he said about the role women can play in any form of social progress. Gandhiji envisaged an important role for women vis-a-vis the power structure in society and the foundations of an equitable and non-violent social order.

You May Also Like: Meet the Ex-IAS Officer Who Left America to Head the Swachh Bharat Mission!

Thus, an important lesson to ensure the last mile delivery of the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ and the transformation of sanitation practices (from open defecation to toilet usage) is to recognise and leverage women-led groups and institutions within the communities.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com.
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

IAS officer Ayush Prasad, the Deputy Collector of Khed Taluka in Pune, had a persistent problem in the villages under his jurisdiction. Many villagers were not using the toilets built by the government; they preferred defecating in the open.

When some people did use the proper toilets, their pits would fill up, but there was no one to empty them. All the night soil collected in the pits would just go to waste even as it contained a high nutritional value.

It would have been a difficult task to approach these three problems separately. The issues were recurring and tackling them one at a time would demand triple the effort.

So, Prasad came up with a single solution to end all three issues–to empower the villagers with a regular income using toilet waste!

Speaking to Pune Mirror, the IAS officer said, “In some rural areas, there is an inertia towards using toilets.

Though the government has been funding their construction for years, some villagers still prefer going out in the open.

Moreover, with a ban on manual scavenging, getting toilets pits emptied is a task”

The project wouldn’t be successful unless the night soil was tested for its nutritional value, so Prasad approached the Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research (DOGR) earlier this year to test the collected night soil.

By May, the researchers came back with positive results. Not only was the night soil able to grow onions fit for consumption, but it also gave nine per cent more yield than chemical fertilisers and 47% more yield than organic manure!

Prasad added, “I realised that if we promoted the concept of commercially exploiting night soil, locals could be motivated to use toilets so that their pits would fill faster. Also, once the pits filled to the brim are left unused for a few months, clearing them does not fall under scavenging.”

With the success of these tests, the next challenge was to convince the villagers to clear their toilets. For this, he took the help of IAS officers Indira Aswar and Sonali Avchat.

Aswar is the Block Development Officer, and the head of the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission (MSRLM) and Avchat is the block co-ordinator of MSRLM.

The civil servants had to convince villagers to shed their inhibitions and start cleaning the pits so they could earn a living. Avchat shares, “The women were keen to earn a living, but the idea of handling human waste was a major mental block. This is where we took them to some toilet pits which had been lying unused and filled to the brim. We showed them that what lay inside was nothing but a tea powder-like substance. We also emptied the pits with our own hands to help build confidence.”

You may also like: How an IAS Officer Is Transforming a Community Notorious for a Host of Crimes!

Durga Nangre, the head of the self-help group working on the project that Prasad started says that there was internal opposition in the beginning. She says, “A lot of women felt that clearing toilets is a job for scavengers, not farmers. There were concerns about hygiene. But, over time, the government officials visiting us addressed all of them.”

The pits are not supposed to be cleared out for several months, one misconception that led to the reservations of the villagers.

Rather, each toilet has two pits, and when one of them fills up, it can be closed with a lid, while the other is to be used.

In the few months that it takes for the second pit to fill up, the components of the first pit have transformed from wet waste to night-soil of tea-powder consistency. Prasad arranged for this night soil from the villages to be bought by multi-national corporations like Mahindra & Mahindra.

You may also like: IAS Officer’s Initiative Decodes 750 Govt Schemes, Helps Thousands of Pune Farmers

With the MNCs demanding a substantial quantity of night soil for their gardens in Pune city, self-help groups in the villages engage in business. Each pit gives about 80 kg of night soil and is sold at Rs 20 per kilo.

“Our first order of 5,000 kg worth Rs 1 lakh from Mahindra & Mahindra has given us a boost, and all the groups are energised,” says Prasad.

Since the night soil is helping villagers earn a good amount of money, they now prefer using the toilet pits rather than defecating in the open. After observing the IAS officers, they also shed their inhibitions, and now their waste earns them lakhs!

IAS Officer Ayush Prasad is certainly showing how innovative thinking can lead to development and empowerment!

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Even though the Parliament enacted a law prohibiting manual scavenging nearly 25 years ago, this patently illegal practice (and a vile form of caste discrimination) continues to thrive in many cities, resulting in many excruciating deaths.

However, on World Toilet Day earlier this week, Sulabh International, a noted social service organisation famous for its work in environmental sanitation, unveiled the purchase of India’s “first sewage cleaning machine” which it hopes will end the practice of manual scavenging.

Developed by Pune-based firm Kam-Avida, this “jet-cum-rodding-cum-mechanical manhole desilting machine” called the “Hope Machine” will cost Rs 43 lakh per piece. According to InUth, this machine “works by injecting high pressure into the tunnels and tanks, and collects the waste with a mechanical bucket operated from ground level”.

The report goes onto state “it can de-choke sewer lines with steel rods that can bend, generates high-resolution images through a remote-controlled inspection camera and uses hydraulics to operate its systems.”

The product also comes with a “gas-detecting device” and protective gear. Speaking to the Times of India, Anupam Sukhija of Kam-Avida said, “Each unit is capable of executing diverse functions, including jetting through a high-pressure pump, desilting using the hydraulics-operated grabber (a hand-like attachment) and rodding using a detachable mini machine that runs on electric power.” Instead of bamboo sticks that manual scavengers use, this rodding unit will now do the job.

Also Read: How This Delhi DC’s Initiative Is Gifting a New Life To Manual Scavengers!

Ensuring that these machines can operate along small and narrow lanes, the manufacturers have developed one which is merely six feet in width. Speaking to the national publication, Kam-Avida has initially promised to the offer “a three-day training program” for sanitation workers in Delhi. Reports say one person has died every five days cleaning sewers and septic tanks across the country. A black mark that must be erased!

With this machine, the authorities hope to end this vicious practice. The Delhi Jal Board has placed an order for 200 such “Hope Machines,” although red-tape is reportedly delaying the process. However, they have promised to put 80 such machines to work by the end of the year.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

To solve India’s sanitation crisis, we need innovative solutions that are cost-effective and feasible for last-mile connectivity.

It was in 1986 when the Indian government launched the Central Rural Sanitation Programme—the first nationwide programme to improve the quality of life of citizens.

32 years down the line, while things have indeed changed radically with initiatives under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aggressively penetrating the rural sectors of the country in the last five years, India continues to fight one of its stickiest stigmas—Open Defecation.

If there are toilets in place, then there are issues of their usage, maintenance and most importantly, the availability of water and functional sewerage systems.

But imagine a solution that requires none of these and also keeps away the stench!

Tiger Toilets is an example of sustainable ingenuity at its best.

Founded in 2015, these unique toilets are popping up outside homes and schools around the country with over 4,000 units in place.

What’s so special about these?

Linked to no sewer systems or traditional flushing mechanisms, these toilets are modelled to look like any other pit latrines, but have biological agents to work the deed—tiger worms!

Tiger worms or Eisenia fetida are organisms that naturally breed on different types of faeces, including cow and horse dung.

The toilets have in-built compartments housing these worms that break down human waste efficiently, with a result comprising of a mixture of water, carbon dioxide, and a small quantity of “wormy compost”.

“These worms, they won’t escape on their own, because they won’t survive in just soil. They need our human waste to live,” Ajeet Oak, Director, Tiger Toilet, told Business Insider.

A typical unit costs about ₹25,000 to install and requires no connection to drainage pipes or a mainline sewer.

Once a person is done attending to nature’s call, they merely need to send their waste down to the worm-filled compartment with a little bucket of water.

The worms take care of everything after that—leaving behind no stench or breeding any mosquitoes or flies!

Removing 99 per cent of the pathogens, and leaving behind about 15 per cent of the original waste, Tiger Toilets kill two birds with one stone—that of sanitation as well as waste management.

The by-product, which is about 60-70 per cent water, acts as “an excellent fertiliser” for plants.

While the processed water isn’t fit enough for consumption, it can be released into the ground to be filtered naturally, without the need for wastewater treatment plants.

According to the company, these toilets need maintenance activities only once in eight or ten years, where the worm bin, which isn’t visible to toilet users, must be emptied.

“It’s not a terrible job – you don’t have to handle sludge. Simply remove the lid of the toilet, exposing the top layer of worm castings–their leftovers from years of hard work. Then shovel it out and use it in a garden as fertiliser. Then the worm population will be ready to work again,” explained Oak.

For initial testing across India, Myanmar and Uganda, Tiger Toilets had received ₹1.2 crore from USAID. And their efforts to make this technology reach the people who need it the most are finally being answered.

You May Also Like: Meet the Pune Duo Turning Old Buses into Clean Toilets for Women!

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded a grant of ₹34 crore to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to perfect this technology.

In a country that continues to have a high infant mortality rate owing to diarrhoeal diseases, these toilets project a great potential. While the dream of making India ODF is indeed a prerogative, providing a better quality of life to her citizens must begin with equitable access to sanitation.

To know more about Tiger Toilets, look up their website.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

When you relish an orange, what do you do with the peels?

Throw them in the dustbin, right?

But what if we told you that these peels are changing the face of community toilets in Jamshedpur?

Thanks to a low-cost innovative solution developed by alumnae from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Dhanbad.

Stinky toilets & fruit waste dumping grounds

A total of 58 community and public toilets in the steel city suffered the common issues of most toilets–unbearable stink. This led the city to resort to chemical cleaning agents.

Besides, the urban local body, Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (NNAC), was concerned about the area turning into a dumping spot where several fruit juice vendors would dump food waste.

The use of strong chemicals kept the toilets and the tiles clean, but it also helped reduce the bacterial growth in the septic tank or faecal sludge treatment facility.

This was a drawback since these microbes are crucial in the process of degradation of the faecal sludge.

And so, there was the jarring need for an eco-friendly solution that would not only keep the area clean but also keep the toilets clean and shiny, while not killing the important microbes.

This pushed the JNAC to brainstorm a solution with city-based start-up ToWaSo (which stands for TOWArds SOlution).

Founded by IIT (earlier known as Indian School of Mines) alumnus, Saurabh Kumar three years ago, ToWaSo works with municipalities under the Swachh Bharat Mission, as well as companies and residential complexes to develop and execute waste management solutions.

Saurabh adds how heeding the request of the committee, his team decided to kill two birds with one stone–harness the acetic acid content of the citrus fruit waste and develop a bio-toilet cleaning solution.

100 per cent chemical-free and eco-friendly, it is made from the waste of citrus fruits like orange, lime and lemon.

How did they do it?

The idea of turning waste into resources first came to Saurabh over three years ago. This was also the incident that inspired him to establish ToWaSo.

“I was a juice centre when I saw how the shopkeeper discarded the fruit waste, and a cow ate it. What the shopkeeper considered waste was a resource and source of food for the cow. And that was the point where I decided that I wanted to establish a start-up that would not only help minimise waste but also turn it into a resource,” Saurabh tells The Better India.

With help from JNAC, ToWaSo collected fruit waste from roadside juice vendors and centres and transport it to a unit they set up near the JNAC town hall.

At this unit, they placed ten big plastic drums, nine of which were filled with 200 ml of fruit waste. The last one was filled with microbes. The nine drums were later filled with water and the required microbes.

In three to four weeks, the combined process of hydrolysis and acidogenic resulted in an acetic solution.

This solution, now christened Bio-Enzyme, is a suitable cleaning solution, that can be used to clean the toilet pan as well as the floor and walls within the toilets.

Also Read: This Toilet Has No Flush & Runs on Worms! Here’s How ‘Tiger’ Can Transform India!

What are its benefits over chemical cleaning agents?

First off, the project is helping turn fruit waste into a useful bio-enzyme toilet cleaner. So in a way, it is breathing life into waste by turning it into something useful, instead of letting it clog dumping grounds and landfills.

In the process, it reduces the dependence on chemical agents.

Additionally, says Saurabh, it is microbe-friendly, so it helps enhance the bacterial process in the septic tanks or faecal sludge treatment facilities to help degrade human waste faster.

More than anything, it works its magic without harming the environment even while being produced. Fruit waste is locally available, and the process can be income-generating for those who undertake it.

What is the financial requirement?

While the space to set up the unit has its own cost, the crucial one-time investment to facilitate the process is Rs 20,000. Over the last three months, ToWaSo has been able to convert over 600 kg of fruit waste into 5,400 litres of eco-friendly toilet cleaning solution.

While the startup is supplying the cleaning agent to JNAC for free at the moment, it soon plans to commercially market it!

And we wish them the very best!

To know more about ToWaSo, check out their Facebook page here.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

When Chitransh was in school, he was just as curious as most boys his age, when he saw ads on TV about sanitary pads or when girls and women spoke in hushed whispers about the ‘P’ word.

And while the topic of menstruation often resulted in a wave of giggles among the boys in his class, Chitransh turned to his mother with a head full of questions and was courageous enough to voice them.

Chitransh’s mother, Sunita, thankfully did not brush them off, and decided to sit him down and explain the monthly phenomenon.

Cut to 2019 and 26-year-old Chitransh is helping make menstrual hygiene accessible to more than 148 women in rural and urban slums in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh through a ‘PadBank’ which is completely free of cost!

With more than 19 pad donation drives and 148 girls and women as beneficiaries, his team has distributed 1500 packets of pads (close to 12,000 pads) free of cost since June 2018!

The Better India got in touch with Chitransh to know about his journey.

It all began when the resident of Shastri Nagar came across families living on the pavement, during his commute to work.

“I wondered how they sustained themselves, because odd jobs hardly earned them Rs 15-20. I knew I wanted to do something for them. While several initiatives dealt with charity in food, clothes, and money, I decided to work in the  space of menstrual hygiene. The topic is often brushed under the carpet and treated as a taboo when it is a natural phenomenon, but I believe that every woman has the right to a safe period.”

The release of ‘PadMan‘ a film starring Akshay Kumar and Radhika Apte, which chronicled the story of menstruation warrior Arunachalam Muruganantham, was also a significant inspiration.

“It helped me realise that men could work towards breaking the period taboo, and gave me the confidence to talk about menstruation.”

He was aware the path would entail a few negative reactions or even humiliation, with people laughing at him, but he decided to go ahead, anyway.

To ensure that underprivileged women would be more comfortable, he spoke to his friend Ana Khan, who readily agreed to travel to Paharganj and interact with women.

“On June 27th, I bought my first Santali pad and brushed up on my knowledge about menstruation. When Ana and I visited the women in Paharganj, we gathered them in one place. They spoke to us about the unhygienic substitutes they used like use-and-throw cloth, polythene, cotton, and even jute bags. We educated them about how these alternatives could cause infections in the long run and distributed our first set of free pads to them.”

Was it easy? No.

Today, the initiative with more than 19 such donations has extended from the slums to schools, but the initial journey was full of roadblocks.

“When we would visit the slums to speak to women, their husbands would slam the doors on our faces or tell us, what is need to discuss menstruation? A few older women were also resistant to our work. Many women were also shy, thanks to the stigma around menstruation. But we slowly started easing them into conversations. This often happened in the noon when their husbands were at work. Today, every month, these women openly approach us, regardless of whether the team member is male or female and asking for pads. That is a big mindset change.”

How does it work?

PadBank, true to its name, works like a bank where every woman under the initiative has a passbook which has her photograph and ID in the front and the months mentioned on the back.

“Every month, we give them a pack of eight pads free of cost and tick the box against the respective month. We maintain the data for each of these women and girls with the dates of their period mentioned. We ensure that the packet reaches them before that. For some reason, if we don’t reach on time, we ensure that the women can get pads from the centers we have set up —like a medical one or a PadBank members’ home. While all the members have a stock at home to dispense to these women, we ensure that the centre that the women get the pads from during emergencies is paid. We also have a calling service, where women can get in touch with us, and we deliver it to them.”

You May Also Like: This Woman Was a Pavement Dweller, Today She Runs a Sanitary Pad Manufacturing Unit!

Family Support

“When I started, I did not tell anyone. I decided to wait until the first distribution to tell my parents. When I told them, their response was unexpected. They said, ‘Had you told us earlier, we would have helped you too!’”

And from then on, there has been no looking back. Both Sunita and Dinesh Saxena have been backing their son.

With more than 15 members, 19 distribution and eight menstruation awareness sessions and workshops in schools and public spaces, PadBank will complete a year on June 27.

While the pads are funded by the members who shell money from their own pockets and savings, a few good samaritans like their teachers, residents, etc. extend help in terms of sanitary napkin donation and financial support too.

They work in collaboration with a pad manufacturing unit in the vicinity which sells them the packet of eight pads at the low-cost of Rs 19, despite the fact that their distribution cost or MRP is Rs 30.

The team members include Chitransh, Utkarsh Saxena, Ana Khan, Shilpi Saxena, Saher Choudhary, Rashi Udit, Aishwarya Lal, Jennifer Lal, Ashesha Arora, Amaan Siddiqui, Anil K Raz, and Emmanuel Singh.

“We want to break the taboo around menstruation. It needs to be openly spoken about without any stigma shame attached to it. We want to empower young girls and women with the courage to not only turn to their mothers but even ask their fathers and brothers to buy a sanitary pad packet when in need. And it gives me immense joy to tell you, that from people who slammed the door in our faces and shamed us in the beginning to now them becoming a part of the bank, the journey has been a rewarding one” says Chitransh.

Chitransh believes that creating awareness among young boys and men is just as important, and want to conduct workshops exclusively for them.

“Under our Twitter and Instagram campaign ‘Let’s talk about period’ we are appealing to our followers to make 30-second videos and talk about menstrual hygiene, myths, sustainable practices, etc.,” he says.

He adds how often schools don’t agree to allow boys and girls to be educated in one room when talking about menstruation.

“But I think, it is crucial. Only when they are educated together, will girls not shy away from asking for help from their male counterparts in times of crisis. Even our boys need to learn that it is not something to make fun of but extend help.”

He ends with a message, “I want to tell everyone who comes across this story, that this is not rocket science. From gifting your house-help a sanitary pad every month to helping underprivileged women in the vicinity, it is a replicable model. We can all be a part of the PadBank. Today, only 18 per cent of women in India use sanitary pads. My vision is to help increase this number to 75 per cent by India’s 75th Independence Day in 2022.”

Want to help Chitransh Saxena and his team, get in touch with him on +91 84499 97778 or write to him at mypadbank@gmail.com

Visit their website here, donate to their cause via Paytm http://p-y.tm/LnT-W3B

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter

Though the Law prohibits manual scavenging, the practice continues unabated. For the most part, those working as manual scavengers remain undocumented, underpaid and exploited. This is a stigmatised occupation that operates from the underbelly of social negligence. Workers often receive no precautionary or safety equipment, resulting in serious health hazards and risk to life that far outweighs the meagre wages they get.

Earlier this week, two contractual workers in Gurugram died upon inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning a septic tank. In this poisonous environment, what one witnesses is semi-solid and semi-fluid human fecal material that makes up about two-thirds of the tank. Diving further, the fecal sludge actually starts solidifying into a clay-like substance and towards the bottom it gets rock-hard. While vacuum pumps can suck out the liquid and semisolid material like they do for sewer lines, what they can’t do is break down the hard sludge.

That’s where manual scavengers come into the picture. In most cases, the entire cleaning is done by them because it’s cheap.

Vacuum pumps are costlier than human alternatives.

“When safai karamcharis (sweepers/cleaners) actually showed us how manual scavengers carve the sludge and hammer it with their hands, we realised how difficult the environment is for them,” says Divanshu Kumar, a final year Mechanical Engineering student and part of IIT-Madras team led by Dr Prabhu Rajagopal, that is developing SEPoy – a Septic Tank Cleaning Robot.

Speaking to The Better India (TBI), Kumar argues that this robot has the potential to eradicate manual scavenging altogether. In close consultation with the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), this team of researchers at IIT-Madras are on the cusp of delivering a product that could prevent safai karamcharis (cleaners) from engaging in the debilitating practice of manual scavenging.

“My work includes understanding how the robot goes inside the septic tank and how the cutting mechanism will work out. We are developing a mechanism by which the cutter can enter through small openings and subsequently perform homogenization of the tank contents. Once the hardened sludge is broken down, it can eventually be sucked off using vacuum pumps,” explains Kumar.

The only limitation now is that the robot cannot move in multiple places across the tank.

Naturally, the next step is the development of the robot’s propulsion capabilities. Speaking to various media publications, Professor Rajagopal, an Associate of the Centre for Nondestructive Evaluation at IIT Madras, speaks of the serious challenges involved in propelling this robot. He has been involved with this project for four years.

“If you use a rotary propeller, like in an aircraft, the blades will get congested within this fluid. Hence, we opted for bio-inspired fins,” Professor Prabhu told The Hindu.

Essentially, the robot comprises bio-inspired propulsion whose motion is set to mimic the fin movements of a fish inside water. Prof. Rajagopal is also developing multi-fin standalone propellers in related research that can aid this work.

The initial developments on the SEPoy robot were done by ex-IIT Madras students Kranthi Chaitanya and Tanmay Mothe during their Masters project in collaboration with Prof. Rajagopal. Their work was based on the fundamental understanding of fin-based propulsion developed by Masters students R. Santhosh and D. Srikanth also working in the group.

“Our first task is to break down the sludge and homogenize it. Once we achieve that part following rigorous in-lab tests, the second part of the work will cater to inspection inside the tank as well, where we will use all the propulsion technology. Even though the technology could work, the structure needs to be much more robust because it cannot work in the present form. The septic tank environment is much nastier than sewage pipe, which is essentially dirty water with other material. Sludge in the septic tank is much more solid and viscous,” says Kumar, speaking to TBI.

This is why more work is required on the bio-propulsion. The engineering challenges are very real. For example, the IITM team has understood that it is not ideal to have electronic devices or wires protruding into the septic tank environment, in order to avoid the risk of explosion because of inflammable gases present.

“After rigorous in-lab testing, we are on the cusp of field testing. If all goes according to plan, this product could be ready for the market in about three to six months, probably costing somewhere between the range of Rs 10-30 lakh. However, for the moment it does seem too soon to comment on the price,” says Kumar.

“One of the biggest challenges that has stymied the development of this technology is the very limited data on human faeces sludge. It is a very complex material, and there can be a large variation in viscosity, shear strain response etc for such media. The route we have chosen is to do a lab study on materials that could simulate sludge behaviour. We are testing it in an environment that simulates conditions in a septic tank but instead of human faeces, we will use some other synthetic material,” informs Kumar.

The prototype is almost already.

“If we directly deploy the prototype in a real septic tank, there are high chances of failure. The stage we are in right now is to simulate a septic tank as much as possible in the laboratory, and to do that is a challenge,” he adds.

Unless you truly understand the material you have to cut, it’s hard to develop strength, shear endurance, and other facets of the robot. That is why this team at IIT-Madras has extensively consulted with members of the SKA.

“Since we can’t do any direct testing in the lab, whatever inputs we are getting about the environment, come from the SKA. They were the first ones to tell us that the sludge is very hard in the tank. Unfortunately, in-depth understanding of the septic tank and sludge behaviour is very limited in the scientific sphere,” says another researcher.

Also Read: How This Delhi DC’s Initiative Is Gifting a New Life To Manual Scavengers!

Another challenge is the variation in the size of the septic tanks. There is no set standard. Thus, these engineers really have to come up with a dynamic design that could address at least a major part of the septic tanks being developed in the country. This is the knowledge researchers also received from the SKA.

“Our effort is to ensure that these safai karamcharis can operate these machines and not enter septic tanks. Another fundamental aspect that I’m working on to reduce the complexity of using this machine as much as possible,” says Kumar.

If we want to save lives, these robots could one day be the way forward.

‘While the cleaning and maintenance of septic tanks and sewer lines is a serious social problem, a mechanisation of this process also offers serious engineering and technological challenges. We have taken one route to this through innovations in the type of propulsion and homogenisation, which we hope together with modular design will lead to a simple and cost-effective solution. Our work has reached the prototype stage and we are set to perform laboratory trials. The road from the laboratory to field deployment is long and tough, often dubbed ‘the valley of death’ – but we hope to cross this chasm and take this to the field in the coming year, thanks to the efforts by dedicated students such as Divanshu and others’,” says Professor Rajagopal, speaking to TBI.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Neena runs a copper utensils stall in Fancy Bazaar, a popular tourist market place in Guwahati, Assam bustling with local and traditional products like Assamese saris, bamboo pickles, tribal jewellery, souvenir shops, jaapi (a round bamboo cap) and gamcha (thin towel).

Having left her native town of Sualkuchi on the outskirts of Guwahati a decade ago in search of a better livelihood, Neena makes sure that there is someone manning the shop at all times, especially when she has to use the restroom for which she walks for nearly one kilometre.

Do you regularly find yourself in a filthy public toilet afraid of the infections you might pick up? Click here to check out these disposable toilet seat covers will help you answer the nature’s call in peace. 

In the largest city of Assam that covers an area of 328 square kilometres, this lack of access to basic necessities is not restricted to the Bazaar as there are only 11 public toilets and 33 bio toilets for a population of 9.57 lakhs!

As per the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), lack of space is the fundamental issue that Guwahati is facing.

Under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, there are enough funds allocated to construct individual household and public toilets but due to lack of space we have not been able to fulfill the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, GMC Municipal Commissioner Debeshwar Malakar tells The Better India.

To provide enough sanitation provisions to the residents and tourists, the municipal corporation has now directed hotel and restaurant owners to allow women and children to use toilets in their premises for free.

“The decision of opening toilets in restaurants and hotels was taken in a conference of Governors and Lieutenant Governors at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi on 5 June. Post the meeting, we have inserted the clause in trade license format of GMC,” he adds.

The corporation is presently identifying areas in the city to increase the number of public toilets and the construction of 12 such toilets has begun. Alongside this, GMC is also building 3,000 individual household latrines in the city.

For now, extending basic sanitation through hotels and restaurants is certainly an effective way to curb public urination and and help prevent the health implications that women may develop when forced to control their bladder.

Women, especially, often control their bladder for hours together and this has severe health implications. The guideline will hopefully resolve that and reduce cases of open defecation, says Malakar.

As for Neena, there is a restaurant right opposite her stall. She now has to walk a few steps every time she needs to use the restroom.

Though there is no punishment in place to ensure that the guideline is not violated, the GMC will soon come out with a penalty. For now, the GMC is visiting all the restaurants and hotels in the city and informing them about allowing the public to access the restroom without the need to order food.

Other steps taken by the corporation to maintain cleanliness in the city include introduction of six flying squads to penalise people for littering and spitting in public areas. As for managing the daily waste generated in the city, GMC installed a composting plant in 2010 that converts 50 tonnes of wet waste into five tonnes of compost daily.

Opening up the toilets in restaurants and hotels does seem like a welcome move. However, whether or not the hotel staff cooperates with the GMC and implements the order is something that all of us will have to wait for.

Featured Image Source: Pixabay

Also Read: 2000 Toilets, Education of Girls: This Woman’s Election Transformed a Bihar Village

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Padmanabha Arkalgudand and Venkatasubba Rao aged 83 years and 81 respectively, are not your usual retirees who are used to spending relaxing days at home. They are community activists who can give the armchair or social media activists a run for their money. The two have worked to save lakes, bring down the crime rate in their neighbourhood through community vigilantism and what’s more, build toilets for students in government schools.

In this conversation with The Better India, Padmanabha explains how their brand of fearless activism solves local issues and makes a real difference to the lives of people.

This Diwali, do something different. Why not send a gift to the National Association For The Welfare Of Physically Challenged. Click here.

A morning walk leads to building toilets in schools

Padmanabha and Rao have been friends for 60 years, since their law college days. Morning walks are a daily routine for the friends. And one of such walks turned interesting.

“We were on our regular walk, when a stench made us investigate its source. It was coming from a toilet opposite the government primary school in Byasandra,” he recalls.

They could have covered their noses and walked on, but this octogenarian duo decided to do work on the problem.

“Just imagine 150 students using those toilets without even a door. If one girl went in to use the toilet, one would stand outside guarding the place. Even inside the toilet was just terrible,” he says.

The friends reached out to friends, family, acquaintances via whatsapp and emails appealing for financial help. To drive the point home they also attached a picture to the messages.

Funds started flowing in after a local daily carried an article about their crowdsourcing. “We met several contractors and finally found one who said that the project could be completed in Rs 1.76 lakhs. We also got volunteer engineers on-board to help us out.”

What’s interesting is that they managed to raise almost double the amount that was actually needed. “Once the toilet was built, one of the biggest challenges was maintenance. That was when the Inner Wheel Club stepped in and said that they would help maintain it and took over the task,” Padmanabha informs.

Upon hearing about the work the duo had done, they received two more appeals from schools facing similar situation.

“We went there for inspection and realised that we would fall short of Rs 63,000. We sent out another set of appeals and we managed to raise the money. The project at Sarakki, JP Nagar, is complete. We inaugurated it on 14 October.”

Another one at Bandepalya is in progress.

The Team’s brand of fearless activism

Padmanabha who is the Founder President of Citizens Forum, Yelahanka New Town, Bengaluru says, “I decided to start this forum to find a solution to the serious crime rate this area was plagued with. We were able to bring down the crime rate, by organised night vigilance by residents, and subsequently went on to protect three lakes in Yelahanka New Town Area, including the Yelahanka Puttenahalli lake which has now been declared as the only bird sanctuary in Bengaluru.”

The most famous of the duo’s effort being, an attempt to help revive the Byasandra lake that had been allotted to a property developer. Rao took the case all the way up to the Supreme Court and won. The lake is being restored now.

So what challenges did they face?

“The biggest takeaway from all this for us is that building the toilets is not the problem. Its use and proper maintenance is of prime concern,” says Padmanabha. When they embarked on their toilet-building mission, they faced a lot of resistance from the locals.

On most days the locals used the classrooms and toilets after school hours for various illegal activities. “Rooms were free and toilets were available so it was free access for all,” he informs.

Knowing fully well that the local slum dwellers would try and enter the toilets, they built the toilets with steel doors and also installed steel barricades at almost every entry point.

They also conducted a session for the teachers explaining them to take education beyond books and teach students about basic hygienic practices. Padmanabha says, “Education is inclusive of behaviour and given how infections could spread with the use of bad toilets, the need to change that is imperative.”

How do they handle the funds that come in? The duo say, “We follow a very transparent process – the funds get deposited in a special joint Bank SB account in our names and once the money has been utilised for a particular project, we send out a detailed note to all the donors. That way everyone involved feels a part of the process as well.”

How can you help? While this dynamic duo continues to help wherever they can, they appeal to others to come forward and volunteer their time.

Padmanabha says, “This is physically taxing for the two of us, and while we continue to do it, it would help to have youngsters come forward and do some of the running around work.”

Padmanabha retired as a Senior Vice President from ITC Ltd. and Rao retired as General Manager from the Reserve Bank of India, Bangalore. He requests his ex-colleagues who may come across this article to come forward and help in their endeavours.

Reach out to Padmanabha at padmanabha.arkalgud@gmail.com and svsrao.blr.rbi@gmail.com.

Contact Numbers: Padmanabha—9448956783 & SVS Rao—9591987899.

Also Read: Made of 9,000 Plastic Bottles, This Toilet Doesn’t Smell Or Require Water to Clean!

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

When Group Captain (retd) Sharad Tewari and his wife Savita, a social activist, received news that their son, Squadron Leader Shishir Tewari, had lost his life in the Mi-17 V5 crash in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang district on 6 October 2017, they were devastated.

“Shishir was a committed man, who believed that every individual must contribute to make the nation better in their own capacity,” shares 55-year-old Savita with The Better India.

Looking to buy books for children? We have you covered! Head here for a wide range.

To continue their son’s dream of working for the country, the husband-wife duo, who are based in Ghaziabad, established a trust named ‘Shaheed Sqn Ldr Shishir Tewari Memorial Charitable Trust.’

Under its aegis, they began teaching around 100 impoverished children in Delhi’s Yamuna Khadar slum, from 15 August 2018 onwards.

“Children in slums have very few educational resources at their disposal and to worsen the situation, their parents often force them to drop out to take up menial jobs. Health is another area that is generally neglected in the slums. Taking our knowledge and whatever resources we had, we started working there,” Sharad (60) tells TBI.

It was not very difficult for the couple to mobilise the parents to send their kids to the informal school. “It was almost as if they were looking for a helping hand, we just had to extend it,” says Savita.

Seeing their efforts, the slum committee even allowed an open space inside the slum to take the classes.

Friends and family of Tewari’s also came forward to help in the initiative through donations in the form of stationery and money. Some offered their time and volunteering services to run the programme.

The informal school functions in two shifts, five days a week and is entirely free for slum children. Currently, 350 children from class one to twelve are a part of this initiative.

“Children of rickshaw-pullers, wagel labourers and domestic workers attend the classes after school hours. We have 25 volunteers who help them with their school homework and teach all subjects, including Maths Social Sciences and Science,” shares Savita.

The couple also assists children of class five and above to avail the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota in government schools.

For girls who prefer dropping out after eighth or tenth grade, volunteers have started vocational teaching, and for now, stitching training is imparted.

In the areas of health, hygiene and sanitation, the trust often conducts seminars and workshops inviting experts to sensitise children about the importance of living a healthy life.

“In the last one year, we have also focussed on non-academic teaching⁠— and focussed on imparting knowledge about basic hygiene and sanitation, the importance of clean surroundings, maintaining menstrual hygiene, and so on. The children have been fast learners and cooperative. A change can be noticed in their mannerisms and behaviour. There is a lot of respect coming from their way, and on some days they can be seen making their area litter-free,” says Savita.

Where there is a positive impact, the trust also faced backlash and threats from the locals on several occasions. “Some locals feel like we are intruding in their personal space, while some feel that education is not necessary as the goal is to earn money at the end of the day. We have embraced the goods but fought challenges with an honest intention,” she adds.

A few months ago, the trust expanded its activities to begin teaching 50 children more under a metro shed.

The couple has dedicated their time to this initiative and hope to expand it to other slums. They wish to see these kids become lawyers, engineers, pilots, soldiers, journalists, and so on one day and serve the country, just like their son did.

“It was Shishir’s valour and philosophy that inspired us to start this noble deed. This is the best way we can pay tribute to our son. Wherever he is, I am sure he will be happy and proud to see us doing this work,” concludes Savita.

If you wish to help the trust, which also works with old-age homes and orphanages in any form, click here.

You can also reach out to the Tewari’s at: tee_vee15@yahoo.co.in or +91 98911 95135

Also Read: After Losing Son to IAF MiG Crash, Pune Parents Ensure Safety of over 470 Pilots

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

According to UNICEF, the highest number of people in the world (around 620 million) who practice open defecation, reside in India. And the hazards of open defecation and poor sanitation facilities are numerous. Disease, poor hygiene, lack of privacy and women at increased risk of sexual assault, to name a few.

First Project brings to you a portable, disposable urination device that will help women urinate standing up! Whether in a public toilet, in a train or on highways, this device will protect you from stench-filled, unhygienic toilets!

Coming in with a solution which helps build a toilet in half the time it usually takes, are the engineers at AMMACHI Labs. The research centre at Amrita University (Kerala) has developed a new mould-based technique for toilet construction that makes constructing them easy, efficient and economically viable.

Developed by using 3D modelling, the key benefits of using this technique include reduction in time and cost for constructing toilets in remote rural settings. A semi-skilled group of four women can construct one unit in approximately 40 hours instead of the conventional 76 hours—cutting the total time by nearly half.

Moreover, they train rural women to construct these toilets. Thus far, they have trained more than 200 women to build these toilets across eight states. Innovations like these are crucial in developing scalable solutions to end open defecation.

The Innovation

“We do not just build toilets,” says AMMACHI Labs Director Dr. Bhavani Rao, speaking to The Better India. “The empowerment model we adopt for sanitation is that we teach the women to build and maintain their own toilets. After they master these construction skills, they can earn a living from it by building toilets for others in the village. It’s a win-win solution.”

In 2015, they made a sample mould-based toilet in the University and tested it for a year. After quality control checks, they rolled it out in the field across eight states—Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha.

Thus far, more than 400 such toilets have been built across 21 states.

How do they build toilets utilising your new mould-based technique?

“It’s a modular system with each piece numbered. The women assemble each piece by following and aligning the pieces, besides fixing the unit with nuts and bolts. There are only two sets of moulds — one for the foundation, and the other is the walls of the stall. There are a lot of benefits to this technique,” says S Harish Mohan, a mechanical design engineer with AMMACHI Labs, speaking to TBI.

Firstly, it needs less skill to make the toilet as it does not require to train masons to lay bricks or plaster them. The model for the toilet has been dubbed MTF Model, which translates into ‘Monday-Tuesday Finished’, and there are options to lay the hinges inside the stall. Furthermore, women don’t need to read instructions. They can follow an easy to learn video which shows the whole process of assembly and building and maintenance.

While the estimated cost of the mould is approximately Rs 55,000, the unit cost of building a toilet is anywhere between Rs 11,500 and Rs 14,000, compared to the conventional Rs 18,000-Rs 22,000.

Using mild steel for rural applications ensures long life in addition to cement, aggregate (gravel, crushed stone, etc) and sand. For the mould, they use waste motor-oil or cooking oil to grease the panels so that they easily come apart.

“The rural sector needs a concrete structure, so we went with this design. For the mould, we adopted a design which can be manufactured in sheet metal shops in rural areas. The design uses mild steel sheet for manufacturing. Once the concrete inside the mould is solidified, the mould can be unassembled and can be used to make another,” says Mohan.

The mould can be assembled in less than an hour and unassembled in the same fashion. Installation of the mould needs skills like checking the vertical and horizontal levels. Makers have to ensure the available gap in between the outer and inner mould is equal. Wall construction concrete mixture is used in the proportion of 1:3:5 of cement: sand: aggregate. The team conducted compressive strength test in the structural testing lab for which the results were positive.

AMMACHI Labs and other initiatives

AMMACHI Labs does not just build toilets. Through community mobilisation, capacity building, skill development, sustainability maintenance for a community-led total sanitation approach and utilising innovative e-Learning methods such as the tablet based Rural Toilet Builder (RBT) course, they empower rural women to build their own toilets. The RBT course uses videos in different local languages like Kannada and Odia, alongside 3D animations, to teach locals everything from site selection to maintenance.

One such beneficiary of their efforts is Renuka Nayak of Gupatapada village, which is located around 40 kilometers from Bhubaneswar. She was the first women mason involved in the making of the toilets under the AMMACHI Labs initiative.

“I feel so accomplished to have learned all these skills through the computer. We women are learn quick learners. In addition to housework, we also learn these skills and can do so much. Women have more attention to detail than men, and can do very precise work if given the opportunity,” she says.

For the time being, the project is self-funded. The objective now is to empower at least 5,000 women in rural Indian communities to champion sanitation and community development, eventually reaching their entire village, or 30,000 indirect beneficiaries.

“Participating women will receive continuous life skill training, while we will continue to conduct sanitation campaigns, organise and mobilise efforts to implement key community actions to access government programs, such as the Swachh Bharat Mission that specifically promotes sanitation,” shares Mohan.

This community mobilisation and training effort is designed to efficiently reach entire communities in a short amount of time. It will also provide strength and support to the women advocating and petitioning to their local governments to address social and environmental issues in their villages.

“Moreover, it is in line with the Government of India’s commitment to improving sanitation and rural development, as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” adds Mohan, while discussing his team’s future goals.

Empowering these women to build their own toilets is one method that not only addresses concerns about lack of toilets, but also helps them take ownership of these structures, maintain hygiene and take care of their health.

Also Read: Gun, Gods & Fines: How IAS Officers Ensured Everyone in Gwalior Dist. Has a Toilet!

Picture Courtesy: AMMACHI Labs

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Before the crack of dawn, Sonamani Devi, a resident of Dumdi village in Jharkhand, would venture out with her three daughters in the dark. She had no other choice. In the absence of toilets, they had to find a space to answer nature’s call before the men started arriving.

Click here to buy this cool water-saving shower head easily fits on to your shower to save upto 60% of the water

“Hume bahar hi baithna padta tha. Subah jaldi nikalte the hum kyuki jab roshni aa jaati thi, bohot sharam aati thi hume. Aadmi ghoorne lagte the,” says Sonamani. (We had to sit in the open. We had to venture out early because if it got bright, men would stare at us. We used to feel very embarrassed).

But things have changed for Sonamani Devi and several people like her. “Now, I can visit the toilet as many times as I want. We do not have to worry about the time. It’s safe and free,” she smiles.

This change has been brought about by Sanitation and Health Rights In India (SHRI) which is working towards making the country open defecation free. The organisation has constructed over nine sanitation facilities—five in Bihar and four in Jharkhand, positively impacting the lives of over 5,000 people living in these areas. SHRI claims that each facility is used at least 1000 times in a day!

Interestingly, SHRI’s model is not only meeting the sanitation and hygiene requirements of the country’s villages but also supplying the villagers with safe drinking water for just Rs. 50 paise per litre!

SHRI—Building Toilets and Changing Lives

SHRI was founded in 2014 by Anoop Jain, Prabin Kumar and Chandan Kumar. Prabin, a graduate in Social Work from Shree Bhuvan University in Nepal, met Chandan, 34, at Project Why, a Delhi-based organisation working towards children’s education.

Chandan has a degree in Political Science from the Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University in Madhepura, Bihar and had already been working at Project Why since 2001.

Wanting to make quality education accessible to rural children, both Prabin and Chandan quit their jobs in 2010 to set up an organisation called Deep Jyoti Charitable Trust in Bihar. It was while conducting the groundwork for their objective that they realised how the lack of proper sanitation facilities is a massive challenge across villages.

During this time, the duo met Anoop Jain who had gotten in touch with them as a volunteer. Anoop is a PhD scholar from the United States who had been volunteering with multiple organisations in the social sector in India. The three then sped up their research work and talked to villagers from Bihar in areas like Supaul, Ramdatpatti, and Basbitti among others, and finally conceptualised SHRI in 2014.

SHRI and its Solutions

“When we were looking for solutions, developing a sustainable model was a bigger challenge than constructing toilets,” says 35-year-old Prabin.

The founders got in touch with sanitation experts like Sulabh International to understand the basics and navigate through challenges related to sanitation. To develop a sustainable model, the founders not only spoke to community members but also government officials and other stakeholders.

“From our conversations with people on the ground in Bihar, where we first started, we also realised that access to drinking water was another big challenge,” explains Prabin. States like Jharkhand and Bihar come under the mineral belt of India and have a very high concentration of iron in the water, making it unfit for drinking.

“But this issue helped us develop a sustainable model that could solve both the toilets and the drinking water problem,” shares Prabin.

Drinking water has become extremely scarce with 70 per cent of the available water being contaminated. The Niti Ayog published a report which states that 600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress. The report further noted that at least three-fourths of the households in the country do not have access to drinking water.

SHRI tried to solve both these problems with a single solution. The organisation constructs a sanitation facility that comprises of 16 toilets, eight each for men and women. The facilities have a plumbing system along with hand-washing stations and biodigester.

The biodigester hygienically disposes of the human waste to produce methane gas. This methane gas is then used to power a generator which pumps and filters upto 1,000 litres of water in an hour. The management sells this purified water, and the revenue generated helps in the maintenance of the sanitation unit.

The founders developed the solution in collaboration with volunteers who came from abroad, and the research and consultation with different communities on the ground. Supaul district in Bihar was the first place where they successfully constructed their first sanitation unit.

SHRI also worked with the Bihar government’s Jeevika Bihar Rural livelihood Promotion Society to build a toilet in the Sahar district of Bihar.

Operations, Challenges and Impact

Despite having come up with a feasible solution, the road to progress hasn’t been easy for the trio. Initially, the founders had to construct these toilets with the money they had won in several innovation competitions. They built their first unit with the prize money of Rs. 21.28 Lakh that they had won at the Dell Social Innovation Competition.

“There was no government help when we first started. We had to purchase the land from people and construct these facilities. But once they saw the impact of our solution, district officials and gram panchayat officials got in touch with us, and the process became smoother from then on,” recalls Prabin.

Now, state governments clear the land for SHRI to build these facilities. Furthermore, SHRI gets help from corporate CSR funds too.

Another challenge that they encountered was convincing people to consume clean and safe drinking water so that they wouldn’t have to visit the doctor often.

“In villages, the whole concept of paying for water is an alien concept. We had to get doctors and medical experts to explain to the villagers the detrimental effect of unpurified water on their health. They finally realised that they were spending way more on getting treated than they would’ve by buying and drinking purified water. So, a lot of them made the switch,” says Prabin.

Moreover, SHRI employs five people for each of its facility. Take 24-year-old Pappu Kumar, from Dundibag Jhopadi in Bokaro, for example, who was working odd jobs in the construction sector until he started working in the water filtering section at the sanitation unit about three years ago.

“I found work only for 20 days in a month if I was lucky. I was only earning about Rs. 4,000 a month,” says the man with a family of six.

Now, he is happy that not only does he have a stable source of income, he also earns more than double of what he was making before. “I am also relieved that we are getting to drink clean water in our area now,” he smiles.

So, after having impacted so many lives, what’s in store for SHRI now?

“We are now planning to expand in the state of Assam and want to scale up operations in areas in need of such sanitation facilities. By 2022, we hope that the existing facilities are run independently by the communities without our intervention. We also hope for greater collaboration with government bodies so that we can ultimately reach the goal of safe sanitation for all,” signs off Prabin.

Also Read: Saving Lives, Repairing Roads & Building Homes: Meet Telangana’s ‘Police Anna’

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

We may not realise it, but water as a resource is slowly and steadily becoming elusive. Several states have faced back-to-back droughts, resulting in villages being declared ‘severely drought-affected,’ while major cities are on the brink of an acute water crisis.

J Chandrasekaran realised this while travelling across remote villages in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

A heritage enthusiast, he was one of the founders of the REACH Foundation at the time, an NGO working towards facilitating the restoration of heritage structures.

“Over the years, I visited almost 2,000 villages scouting for heritage structures that needed restoration and noticed that all the villagers had similar issues. First, drinking water was not potable and they had to depend on mineral water bottles, whose source and authenticity was unknown. Second, we noticed that there weren’t any good toilets anywhere. People would walk around with a mug when they had to defecate,” he says.

Struck by their situation, Chandrasekaran realised that he wanted to do something that would improve their lives. After five years of research and fine-tuning technology, he founded a social enterprise named WATSAN in 2013.

“WATSAN is made up of two words⁠—water and sanitation⁠—which are also the two facilities we want to make accessible to people,” says Chandrasekaran, who grew up in Madurai’s Thirunagar locality. He has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and a PG Diploma in Plastic Technology.

Affordable and Environment-Friendly Solutions

WATSAN manufactures and distributes Terafil water purifiers. These are low-cost, effective, electricity-free water purifiers that are being used by over 2.5 lakh households in the country!

“I was exploring electricity-free solutions to make drinking water more accessible when my mentor told me that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT) had come up with a clay candle with nanopores that could be used to purify water efficiently,” says Chandrasekaran.

Subsequently, he acquired the license to produce the candle and started manufacturing the purifiers at WATSAN’S unit in Kanchipuram’s Kidangarai Village.

Over the years, they also started manufacturing purifiers that could remove the concentration of fluoride and arsenic from water.

There are different variations that the purifiers come in and comprise of primarily two containers. The Terafil candle made from nano clay particles is placed in the first container. This top part of the purifier filters microbes like bacteria and virus, enabling the clean, potable water to percolate to the bottom container.

Currently, WATSAN has two units, the manufacturing unit in Kidangarai and the assembling unit in Chennai where about 28 women are involved in the manufacturing process. Among them is Sunanda Raja, 30, who has been working with WATSAN for the past one year.

“I was working as a house help earlier, but my salary wasn’t enough to keep the household going. I am raising my two boys by myself, and have to take care of all their needs. I am delighted that I switched to this job because I am being paid more, and the timings are very convenient. Once my children leave for school, I come and work. I am done by the time they reach home, and I get to spend more time with them,” she says.

She also loves working in an all-women environment. “I have learnt how to package and assemble these purifiers, along with keeping track of the inventory. I even use one of these purifiers at home. After having worked here, I truly feel empowered,” she states.

WATSAN has sold over 5000 purifiers to NGOs in Kerala, Odisha and Chennai during the floods in each of these places. They have about six NGO partners who get in touch with them and buy these purifiers, making it accessible to the masses. Jawans in the Wagah Border are also using these purifiers.

They are also working with a leading online food delivery platform that is using their water purifier in their cloud kitchen. WATSAN’s solutions have also impacted people beyond the boundaries of the country. They have pilots ongoing in Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

Building Toilets

In addition to the water purifiers, WATSAN has also built approximately 52 toilets by recycling discarded fibreglass.

“I noticed the large amount of fibreglass waste that was being generated by the windmill blade manufacturing industry. While windmills are a good source of renewable energy, the waste left behind is hard to dispose of as it cannot be incinerated,” says the founder. WATSAN found an innovative way to utilise this waste by constructing toilets using Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP),” he mentions.

These toilets are easier to make and erect than the conventional RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) toilets. They are also non-corrosive and lighter in weight.

Operations, Challenges and Impact

Despite the progress and change that WATSAN has brought about, there are several challenges they have faced.

“Although we devised the idea about constructing these toilets, the execution of it all took a long time because we needed approvals and sanctions,” says Chandrasekaran.

Once they got the approvals, they started making the toilet kit. This comprised of the roof, the doors, sidewalls, commode and the legs for the toilet which would keep the structure in place. They even conducted a pilot in Podaturpet near Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh border in a girl’s orphanage. They heard that one of the girls in the orphanage lost her life to scorpion bite when she had ventured out in the open to relieve herself. Here, they installed 15 of WATSAN’s toilets.

“However, we realised that transporting these toilets was a big challenge,” explains Chandrasekaran.

Following this realisation, they decided that instead of making the toilets and transporting them, they would make the raw materials available and teach people to make them. Last month, they finished the construction 40 toilets in Thiruthuraipoondi with the help of 12 women from SHGs.

Chandrasekaran explains how his idea has caught on and motivated others. “I had visited the Great Lakes Institute of Management as a guest of honour. Hearing me speak about the kind of work we do, the students in the institute raised money through crowdfunding, and I too paid a sum. Together, we helped in the construction of a toilet,” he recalls proudly.

So, what lies ahead for WATSAN now?

Chandrasekaran is currently developing ‘Water on Wheels,’ a portable water purifier, and has received a grant of Rs10 lakh from NASSCOM to work on this project.

In 2017, WATSAN received the best startup award by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). They also won the Waterpreneur Award by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in 2018.

“I don’t want any degree or qualifications for anyone to work with us and become a changemaker. I want to engage more women and provide them with skills and training in being able to test the water they use. I want to work with more people so that this solution is more accessible,” he says, signing off.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Used a public toilet recently? What was the experience like? One of the biggest issues that one faces while using public facilities is that more often than not, they are extremely dirty.

But what if there exist toilets that get cleaned automatically? Garv toilets do exactly that!

Powered by IOT and artificial intelligence, these toilets have been manufactured by Garv Toilets—a social enterprise started by Mayank Midha and Megha Midha in mid 2014.

With the introduction and implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission, Mayank Midha saw an opportunity of working in the sanitation sector.
He explains that his enterprise came into existence due to the growing issues related to public toilet maintenance in the country.

“We observed that public toilets made from brick and mortar with ceramic sanitary fittings faced constant problems of high operational expenditure, lack of water, electricity, and ventilation inside the toilets in addition to maintenance issues,” says Mayank.

Garv has tried to fill these gaps in the sanitation sector through their intelligent toilets. Today, Garv has installed about 798 toilets across the country which are being used at least 1.4 lakh times a day!

Impact

Garv has been able to install their toilets in schools, rural areas and in cities through their NGO partners. Through their vast network and association with NGO’s, CSR projects and foundations, about 18,000 children use Garv toilets everyday.

A case in point is the middle school in Ranipur in Patna’s Phulbari Sarif area. The middle school has 374 students between the ages of six to 14. About three years ago, the school only had one toilet that was in a usable condition.

“Because of this, a lot of the boys would venture out in the open. However, the girls would have to go all the way back home when we wanted to use the loo,” says 14-year-old Anchal Kumari.

Additionally, the toilet did not have proper water supply because of which one would have to carry water in mugs, says 50-year-old Nagendra Kumar, who is a teacher at the school.

However, things have changed now. The Aga Khan Foundation roped in Garv and got at least six of their toilets installed in the school’s premises. Nagendra Kumar informs that not only are the toilets separate for girls and boys, there is regular water supply with a proper basin in place for handwashing.

“With a clean toilet, there has also been an increase in the awareness levels of the children in terms of hygiene. We have introduced a system where every child and teacher adds soaps to a ‘soap bank’ instead of distributing sweets on their birthdays,” he says.

“Now, instead of going home just to use the toilets, we utilise our time in productive activities that is helping us. We have even founded a girl’s club called the, ‘Meena Manch’, where they talk about different subjects like menstrual health and hygiene. We also have a proper system for disposal of our sanitary napkins,” she explains.

How Garv’s toilets work

Garv’s toilets have been manufactured in such a way that the capital expenditure in constructing and maintaining them over the years is minimal. These toilets are essentially indestructible as they are made from metal enclosures and have been integrated with Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) and IoT technology.

They are self sustainable in terms of energy consumption and waste disposal. All the toilet units are solar powered which ensures that there is electricity at all times to keep the light and the automatic features in the toilet running.

These intelligent toilets can self flush in case someone hasn’t done that after using the toilet. The same is in the case of dirty floors where the sensors can detect how many people have used the toilets and trigger jets that automatically clean the floors.

Each of these toilets also has LED lights, an exhaust fan for ventilation, and sanitary pad vending machines. These toilets can also be customised for the differently-abled to include ramps and handrails.

“These prefabricated toilets give real-time updates on the use of toilets, hygiene behaviour of the users and have low-operating costs because intervention from maintenance team is minimal,” says Mayank.

Another interesting aspect about Garv toilets is the way waste is managed. Each of these toilets comes with a bio-digester unit. This unit treats sludge and sewage, where once all the pathogens are killed, the waste can be effectively used as organic fertilisers by farmers. “Currently, we are not selling the fertiliser as it is mass produced. We are giving it for free to farmers,” says Mayank.

The toilets are priced between Rs. 2.5 to 4.2 lakh depending on the features that are included in the toilet units as per the user’s requirements.

Meet the founders

Mayank and Megha graduated from M.S Dayanand University in Rohtak. While Mayank pursued a degree in Electronics Engineering, Megha studied Computer Science Engineering.

“I started working closely with Garv once they started in late 2014 after they began incorporating IoT in the toilet systems. I was also very eager to contribute to the cause,” says Megha.

Mayank went on to work with a multinational company for two years after graduating. Then he pursued an MBA degree in Rural Management after which he worked on several social welfare projects.

He later joined the family business—a manufacturing company selling metal enclosures used to store telecom electronic equipment. “This is when I realised that these enclosures would be perfect as toilet units as they would be sturdy and resistant to any kind of vandalism,” says Mayank.

It was from this idea that Garv was founded and over the course of a few months, they integrated artificial intelligence and IoT.

Challenges and future plans

Garv’s contribution in the sphere of sanitation has been recognised by several platforms. Last year, Garv received the Young Entrepreneurs Award in London. This year, they won the Global Maker Challenge and won 100,000 USD.

Despite this, there were a few challenges that the duo faced. “I think the biggest challenge for us was overcoming the stigma of working in the sanitation space. Then, there were other challenges where we had to convince people regarding the viability of our toilet systems,” says Mayank.

Slowly and steadily, the duo dealt with these challenges and delivered their promise of efficient and highly functional intelligent toilets. Today, Garv has signed an agreement with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation where they are planning to set up smart sanitation centres in the metro stations starting January 2020. They are also collaborating with the government of Turkey where they would be installing these sanitation units in refugee camps.

They are also currently working towards developing a grey-water treatment plant where the water from wash basins can be used for cleaning floors and in the flush tanks.

You May Also Read: Free Toilets & Drinking Water: This Trio’s Innovation Has Impacted 5000+ Lives

“The ultimate goal for us is basically to reach out to under-served communities and make hygienic sanitation units accessible to them. We want users to understand the importance of sanitation and thereby bring about a change in their sanitation habits,” says Mayank signing off.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

“Because we live close to the forest, defecating in the open can be very dangerous for us. There have been so many instances where someone’s been attacked by wild boars or cheetahs when they go out to defecate,” says 50-year-old Mahalingam, a farmer living in Ooty’s Nanjanadu village area.

A majority of the people in his village, including Mahalingam, did not have toilets in their homes forcing them to defecate in the open either in the dead of the night or at the crack of dawn. In fact, lack of toilets was a common issue in most of the villages in the Nilgiris and people had no other choice.

“People would sometimes defecate in the fields where children and others walked barefoot, exposing them to the risk of diseases,” add Mahalingam.

The situation has reversed now.

In 2018, the Nilgiris were declared open defecation free, all due to the efforts of one man and his organisation.

“When we first took up sanitation activities in 2010, Nilgiris was the second worst in terms of open defecation. But since 2018, the Nilgiris has been declared open defecation free and I believe our sanitation activities have been able to make a difference,” says NK Perumal the founder of Rural Development Organisation (RDO) Trust.

The Trust has been conducting social development programmes in the Nilgiris region, with sanitation being one of the areas they have excelled in.

Since its inception in 1980, RDO has helped construct 10 lakh toilets in total in homes and schools, in partnership with FINISH Society in 10 states like Rajasthan, UP, Gujarat, MP, Odisha, Maharashtra, among others!

The Formation of RDO

NK Perumal had seen poverty at a close range. Due to a horrible drought in his native village in the 1930s, his parents had to move to Sri Lanka to work in the tea plantations.

In 1971, the family decided to return to their native village, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu.

“I had not received any kind of college education but upon my return, I wanted to help families like mine which had also come back from Sri Lanka. Therefore, I started working with NGOs in the region and was deeply involved in the rehabilitation activities of these communities,” he explains.

The NGO that Perumal was working with helped him with college applications so that he could study further. In 1979, the founder received a scholarship from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to study Community Development.

Once he returned in 1980, he started RDO to carry out development programmes with his newly acquired knowledge.

Since 1980, RDO has worked on numerous developmental activities in the region including addressing high-school dropout rates, and built schools for immigrant children.

RDO’s Sanitation Work in individual houses

RDO started its sanitation related activities with greater emphasis in 2010. The need to address the problem of open defecation actually came from personal experience for NK Perumal.

“I was living in Namakkal and we did not have any toilets there. I saw that this was causing a lot of distress to the people. Not only were they falling sick but there were several others who would be attacked by wild animals,” explains Perumal.

This urged him to start the programme to build toilets in individual households. The first thing RDO did was to organise women into Self Help Groups (SHGs) that could build these toilets.

“I was sure that for the construction of toilets, I did not want to involve any contractors for the building activities. I wanted to generate employment for these women and also ensure that they pocket every penny for the hard work they were going to put in for the construction of these toilets,” says Perumal.

“When we started with the sanitation programmes in individual households, there was a lot of resistance from the masses. They were reluctant to accept that they were putting themselves at risk by practicing open defecation. They would often state examples of how their fathers and forefathers were fit and fine despite defecating in the open,” explains Perumal.

To address the subject without offending the masses, they tried to highlight how attacks from wild animals in the region was also a major threat when they defecate in public. “So, only through understanding people’s local issues were we able to scale our sanitation activities in the region,” says Perumal.

RDO helped each household secure a loan of Rs. 25,000 from the banks for construction of the toilets. However, this attempt was not as successful as the banks turned down a lot of applications except those women who belonged to the SHGs.

The organisation then formed a Joint Liability Group for extension of loans to non-SHG members who wanted these toilets to be built.

RDO’s sanitation drive spreads to schools

In 2014, the organisation also started working on sanitation programmes with schools in the Nilgiris district. They have worked in about 82 schools now and helped in the construction of 440 toilets. While the individual toilets are made from brick and mortar, the toilets in the schools are pre-fabricated and made from metal sheets.

“The idea for prefabricated toilets came to me when I was visiting Scotland. When I saw these toilets there, I took a video and showed it to a local welder and carpenter so that they could understand the structures,” says Perumal.

About three years ago, Perumal was returning from a village to his home. What he saw on the way shocked him. “I was shocked was shocked to see that about 4 tons of Faecal Sludge collected from septic tank was being dumped in Kundah river,” says Perumal.

Perumal immediately approached Netherlands based INGO WASTE. Subsequently, first time Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant was put up in the Nilgiris for safe disposal of sewage.

Sampath Rajkumar, 69, the CEO of the organisation has been overlooking the grey water and black water (sewage) recycling activities.

“The recycled greywater project that we are working on has helped farmers use the water in their fields for irrigation purposes. The black water recycling has helped us generate co-compost that is used as fertiliser in the farmer’s fields,” he explains.

RDO has about 10 greywater recycling units and three black water recycling units in the Nilgiris region.

The Impact of RDO

Regardless of these few hiccups, RDO has been successful in bringing about a positive change in the lives of the people.

Since 2010, they have built about 68,000 toilets in individual homes in the Nilgiris region alone. Additionally, they have also gone on to implement their sanitation programmes in schools where they have built about 440 toilets! Perumal adds that this feat wouldn’t have been possible without cooperation from the District authorities.

The greywater recycling project has helped about 384 farmers in the region who have used this to irrigate their fields. The organisation has so far recycled 41,869 cubic meters of greywater.

Furthermore, through their black water recycling project, they have generated about 543.5 tonnes of co-compost which is being used by 1403 farmers for farming.

“Initially when we started producing the co-compost, a lot of farmers were reluctant to use it thinking why should they be using sewage as fertilisers. This is when we explained to them that co-compost is 80 per cent biodegradable wet waste and only 20 per cent fecal sludge,” explains Rajkumar.

You May also read: How a Couple Installed 798 Self-Cleaning ‘Smart’ Toilets Across India

In addition to that, the NGO spends almost Rs. 44,000 every month in getting the co-compost samples tested. “The co-compost is analysed based on 22 parameters that we have decided upon. These parameters include composition of heavy metals, and for ensuring the absence of micro-biological components like E. Coli, fecal coliform, salmonella and Helminths,” informs Rajkumar.

“People’s participation is imperative to make any social development programme successful. If you involve people in schemes, there is very little scope for failure. I believe that with the right will and funds, we can make sanitation accessible to one and all,” says Perumal.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

How often have you had to hold in your pee in the absence of clean toilets? I have completely lost track of the times I have been in such a situation.

Sonam Nandawar, a resident of Baner in Pune, faced a similar predicament when returning home from work.

“As women, we face a lot of trouble when it comes to looking for a clean and hygienic toilet. Either the flush doesn’t work, or water isn’t available, making public toilets completely unusable,” says the 30-year-old administrator in a construction company.

She was looking for a clean toilet when she chanced upon a bright pink bus in Pune’s Aundh area. “I was surprised to see this pink bus and found that it was, in fact, a toilet that could be used by women. There were so many amazing features, and it was squeaky clean,” says Sonam.

The pink toilet buses that Sonam speaks about are the innovation of entrepreneurs Ulka Sadalkar and Rajeev Kher from Pune. The duo co-founded Saraplast Pvt Ltd, a company that has been working in the sanitation sector since 2006.

The first toilet bus was launched in October 2016 in the Shivajinagar area, in collaboration with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Now, there are 12 such buses in the city. These toilets are known as ‘Ti’ toilets, which in Marathi translates to ‘she’ or ‘her’.

Since beginning operations, the toilets have been used over one lakh times. “On good days, these toilets are used over 300 times in a day across all locations,” informs 43-year-old co-founder Ulka.

Unique features of the toilet buses

The features in the toilet buses show attention to women’s needs. There are wash basins with soaps and sanitary napkins for sale. For mothers, there is a diaper changing as well as a feeding station. There’s also a panic button in case of emergencies.

To ensure that there is no foul smell in the bus, a humidity and moisture chip, developed by MIT labs in the US, has been installed on the bus.

“Each of these buses has up to three to four western and Indian toilet units, depending on the size of the bus. There is also a temperature controller within the bus premises, lights, television and an attendant to manage the bus,” says Ulka.

The attendants also run a cafe within the bus where they sell packaged food items like biscuits and water. Some buses have sectioned off a place for local entrepreneurs to run their food cafes.

“When we were first brainstorming, we knew that there was a need for a sustainable revenue model for these toilets. We came up with about eight revenue models where we thought an area in the bus could be sectioned off to run a health centre, laundromat, training or an education centre, among others. Out of these, the cafe model came up in the discussions, and we thought it would be most viable,” explains Ulka.

The makers of the toilet buses have also kept sustainability in mind while designing them. Solar panels are installed over the roof of the bus, which powers all the gadgets, lights, and WiFi.

“Only during the four months of monsoon when there isn’t enough sunlight, we depend on the grid electricity which is supplied by the city’s electricity board,” points out Ulka.

Although the buses can be moved about the city, Ulka says that they will presently remain stationed at a particular place. “This would help women take notice of them and locate them easily when they need to,” says Ulka.

At Rs 13-15 lakh per bus, the duo has stationed these toilets across 12 areas in the city that include Shivajinagar, Baner, Vishrantwadi, Aundh, Anandnagar, and Phulenagar.

In most of these areas, the use of these toilets is free. While, in areas where the cost of running these toilets is high, they charge Rs 5 per use, mentions Ulka. This goes towards the monthly managing cost of approximately Rs 45,000 and salaries for the attendants who make between Rs 15,000-20,000 per month.

The founders and their work in sanitation

Ulka completed her degree in Production Engineering from Bharti Vidyapeeth College of Engineering in Pune in 1998. After that, she went on to work in the steel industry, finally joining and co-founding Saraplast in 2006.

Rajeev, 45, on the other hand, pursued his MBA from Symbiosis in Pune. After this, he was almost on his way to pursuing a career in the corporate sector when he gave it all up to bring in a change in the sanitation sector.

This led to the founding of Shramik Sanitation Systems in 1998, where the company was renting out portable toilets and continues to do so. “We mostly work with different stakeholders when it comes to providing toilets. We have provided them for events like concerts and pilgrimages,” Ulka explains.

In April 2016, Ulka read about an NGO in San Francisco which had converted old buses into toilets.

“This is the first time we realised this model could be easily replicated in India with old discarded buses. Around this time, the government wanted to innovate the sanitation sector and had launched the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’. This gave us a push, and we worked towards converting old, abandoned buses into public toilets,” says Ulka.

With her expertise in Production Engineering and Rajeev’s business acumen, they came up with the first toilet bus within five months.

Sailing through hurdles and plans for the future

The long years of contribution in the sanitation field have not been free of challenges.

“When we first launched, many women thought it was too fancy or expensive to use these toilets. While others thought the complete opposite and assumed that since these were public toilets, they would be dirty,” she explains.

However, once the toilet buses were in operation, all these concerns faded away.

“Finding attendants to work in the toilets was another challenge. Women did not want to work in the sanitation sphere as there was too much stigma. But, once they started working here and managing the cafes, they felt empowered and overcame their mental block,” she says.

Ulka mentions that attendants sometimes even bring their daughters to work.

So, what’s in store for the duo?

They are currently waiting to launch toilet buses in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Nagpur by the end of this year, in collaboration with government bodies and through CSR projects .

You May Also Like: Here’s How This NGO Helped Build 10 Lakh Toilets, Produce 543.5 Tonnes of Compost

“We truly believe that clean, public toilets should not be a distant dream. Every person, regardless of their income, should be able to access sanitation. Our dream is to launch 1,000 buses in the next five years,” she says, signing off.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

You may also like: Solar-Powered & Self-Cleaning, These are The Toilets India Needs!

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

2. Saathi (Ahmedabad): 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.

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.”

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

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

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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- ZSBP Agra and Aishwarya Mishra- ZSBP Kanpur Nagar.)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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!

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.’

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

“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!

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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

 

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.

“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.

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.

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

Rajshri, who is also playing the character of Savitribai Phule in the upcoming Marathi movie Satyashodhak, says she got the inspiration of transforming villages from the lady herself.

“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.”

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 make inside of them transform. Spend time with them, educate them, make them beautiful inside out. You need not even have to travel hundreds of kilometres to make a difference. Just see your surroundings. Help your house help, make the community workers feel good about their work. Don’t wait for a selfie zone or a beach cleaning drive, just make sure your building or your complex is clean,” she says passionately.

“One person can do a lot. You can just sit at your place and make a difference if you do your work right.”

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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.

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.

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

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 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.

You may also like: This IAS Officer’s Unique Initiative Deserves Your Help; Donate a Toilet Today!

“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.

“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.

You may also like: 6.3 Cr Indian Girls Lack a Private Toilet. One Organisation is Trying to Change That!

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.

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)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

Imagine if your toilet tank once filled, didn’t need refilling for the next 15 years!

The civil engineering department of IIT Kharagpur has built an award-winning bio-toilet with a giant flush capacity 500 litres of water, which recycles itself for a ‘lifetime’ use!

It is safe to say that this self-sustainable bio-toilet, the prototype of which also won the PM’s Swachh Bharat Award can cater to a family of five without needing refilling for over 15 years!

If this isn’t all, one feather in the cap of this innovation is that this bio-toilet can also help generate electricity using human waste.

The department is now in the process of replicating the model. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which is the civil engineering department’s first partner for the ambitious project has asked the innovators to build one such toilet in rural Noida for testing reported the Times of India.

Why is this innovation unique?

The toilet is self-sustainable. This means that it is not dependent on a constant supply of fresh water like its conventional counterparts.

While a conventional toilet uses an average 10-12 litres of fresh water supply per flush, this bio-toilet does not.

The bio-toilet has microbial fuel cell (MFC) reactors which work on the water being used in every flush and completely recycle it.

Once recycled and clean, this water is then sent to a reservoir on top of the toilet, where it is stored for reuse.

The MFC reactors are essentially bio-electrochemical devices that harness the power of respiring microbes to convert organic substrates directly into electrical energy. Therefore the septic tank of the bio-toilet has electrogenic bacteria which generate electricity out of human waste.

According to the TOI report, this bio-electric toilet has a six-chambered reactor which rotates waste water clockwise and anti-clockwise. It uses hypochlorite used in the final cathode chamber to reduce pathogenic contamination.

The six chambers are lined with a membrane that has proton-exchange property. Two PhD students at the department, Bikash Ranjan Tiwari and Md Tabish Noori, have been instrumental in inventing membrane separator, which is almost 11-times cheaper and efficient at treating wastewater as against the conventional Nafion membrane, thereby cutting down the price of the MFC drastically.

Why this bio-toilet is the need of the hour

“You can use this electricity to illuminate the toilet at night. During the day, the electricity can be used to charge mobile phones,” M Ghangrekar, a civil engineering professor who is spearheading the project told TOI.

Read More: 18-Year-Old Martials Arts Student Beats Up 3 Men Who Tried To Sexually Assault Her!

He expressed how this toilet is ideal for villages which struggle with open-defecation.

“The toilet is ideal for villages, where people still have to go out into the fields to relieve themselves. To meet the sanitation needs of the rural population, the government is funding toilets at home, but the problem is that they are dry and water crisis is a perennial issue. Our toilet solves all these problems,” he added.

The department of science and technology has funded the building of four such bio-toilets on the institute’s campus.

This innovation could go a long way in arid villages where the supply of water is meagre, and the problem of open defecation is jarring.

(Edited By Vinayak Hegde)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) promised to bring open defecation in India down to zero, and the government had also guaranteed that it would build enough toilets in every village and city to completely eradicate the problem of open defecation.

Many of us will agree that open defecation leads to the proliferation of diseases, and it is thus, advisable, to make India completely open-defecation free.

However, one man working for the Swachh Bharat Mission knows that the subject of open-defecation is not as black and white as it seems. For many, it is a part of their lifestyle, that they cannot change overnight. The problem of maintaining toilets that were built by the authorities also keeps people outside the washroom walls.

Meet Parameswaran Iyer, a former IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer who currently leads the Swachh Bharat Mission for the government.

Mr Iyer had worked with World Bank from April 1998 to September 2007 in Hanoi, Vietnam. From 2012 onwards he was the lead water and sanitation specialist for the World Bank and was instrumental in bringing two leading programmes on the ground there.

Before taking up a specialisation in Vietnam, Mr Iyer had also worked in Washington on Egypt and Lebanon and in the Bank’s Water Anchor.

When he realised that he had to accept that many people prefer to defecate in the open rather than in toilets, Mr Iyer brought his experience in Vietnam to practical use. In 2014, he had written about the need for behaviour change before a lifestyle change, on the World Bank’s site.

“The biggest lesson learned so far in Vietnam, and other countries is that eliminating open defecation is not driven by the construction of toilets.

It is driven by changing the behaviour at the community level based on quality, evidence-based interventions. What is also clear is that approaches must be tailored to be the specific context with careful consideration of local factors such as ethnicity,” he wrote.

Mr Iyer’s experience with the World Bank, across several countries, will certainly help India, to go a step further in the cleanliness mission.

You may also like: Low-Cost, Saves Water & Automatic: This Toilet Wants to Solve Our Sanitation Problem

This is a rare case of the Indian government appointing an IAS officer working with the World Bank for their initiative, and Mr Iyer has certainly upped the hopes of Indian citizens. He was appointed as Union Secretary for the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2017 on a two-year contract basis.

A senior government official told Livemint, “It is clear from the two-year fixed contract, that the government has decided to give him a free hand to steer the programme. It also gives a clear signal that if the government does not get the desired results from the internal talent pool, it will not hesitate in getting them from outside.”

With a combined experience of about two decades in this sector, Parameswaran is sure to be a beaming light of hope for the dream of a clean India!

Featured image source: Twitter.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Like this story? Or have something to share?
Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

In the heart of India’s social landscape stands a figure whose tireless efforts have transformed the lives of millions, transcending the barriers of caste, class, and tradition. Bindeshwar Pathak, a visionary and a social reformer, dedicated his life to the causes of sanitation, human dignity, and social equality. His remarkable journey from a small village to a global platform is a testament to the power of determination, compassion, and unwavering commitment.

Born on 2 April, 1943, in a modest home in Rampur, Bihar, Bindeshwar Pathak was exposed to the stark realities of social inequality from an early age. The pervasive practice of manual scavenging — where individuals from the so-called “lower castes” were forced to clean human waste — left an indelible mark on his young mind. This deeply ingrained injustice lit the spark that would ignite his life’s mission.

The journey of empathy and innovation

Pathak’s path to transformation was paved with empathy and innovation. Armed with a degree in sociology, he embarked on a mission to eradicate manual scavenging and uplift the marginalised. His groundbreaking idea of a two-pit pour-flush toilet not only eliminated the need for manual cleaning but also promoted safe waste disposal and biogas production.

In 1970, he established the Sulabh Sanitation Movement — a revolutionary step towards creating clean and hygienic sanitation facilities accessible to all. Through his tireless efforts, thousands of toilets were constructed across India, transforming the lives of countless families. The movement’s impact extended beyond sanitation, fostering a sense of dignity and empowerment among the marginalised sections of society.

Pathak’s work transcended bricks and mortar. By the year 2021, the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, under his leadership, had successfully constructed and maintained over 1.5 million household toilets in India. These facilities not only improved sanitation and hygiene but also created a massive ripple effect in terms of social and economic transformation.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Pathak’s initiatives is the employment opportunities they have generated. The Sulabh movement has employed over 50,000 people from marginalised communities, including former manual scavengers. These individuals were given a chance to break free from the cycle of social discrimination and embrace newfound dignity and self-reliance.

Pathak’s efforts led to a significant reduction in the practice of manual scavenging, liberating thousands from the shackles of caste-based discrimination. His pioneering work challenged societal norms and ignited conversations on untouchability and equality. His advocacy efforts also played a crucial role in the passing of legislations that criminalise manual scavenging, further cementing his impact on society.

Global impact and recognition

Pathak’s vision extended beyond Indian borders. The Sulabh International Social Service Organisation has championed sanitation and hygiene on a global scale. The organisation’s initiatives have reached countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Bhutan, and South Africa, promoting community toilets, waste management systems, and biogas plants.

His pioneering work has earned him international acclaim, including the Stockholm Water Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of water, in 2009. Pathak’s accolades serve as a reminder of the transformational impact of an individual’s dedication to a cause larger than themselves.

As Bindeshwar Pathak’s journey continues, his legacy remains etched in the annals of social reform. His life story is a testament to the power of compassion, innovation, and the unwavering belief that change is not only possible but imperative. Pathak’s work has transformed not just physical spaces, but also mindsets, demonstrating that a clean and equal society is achievable through determined action.

In an era where social change often seems daunting, Pathak stands as a living embodiment of the idea that one person’s passion can ignite a movement, transcending societal barriers and leaving an indelible mark on the world. His life serves as an inspiration, challenging each of us to ask ourselves, “What can I do to make a difference?”

This article was created using AI.

(Edited by Pranita Bhat)

One of the fondest stories the previous generation recounts is of the countless hours spent on the beach. Weekends, they would say, meant sunny skies and sandy shores. But what was once a cherished family outing has now become the contrary. The question begs to be asked, “What are we doing to the planet?” 

But even as we wonder, champions of change are steadily rising across India in unified action. Their sole aim is to turn the beaches of the country into the pieces of paradise they were meant to be. 

Call them activists, changemakers or simply individuals with a purpose, they are giving children their childhoods back.

If you’d like to channel your zeal for clean sands into something purposeful, here are some beach cleanups around Mumbai to check out. 

1. United Way Mumbai 

Through their Project Clean Shores Mumbai, the venture works with local authorities and community groups to breathe life back into the sands of the city. Their activities are concentrated in the seven beaches adopted in and around Mumbai — Chimbai beach, Versova beach, Daana Pani, Mahim beach, Chaityabhoomi, Suryavanshi and Mahim’s Reti Bunder. Their website claims they have managed to clear “137.76918 metric tonnes” of waste from Mumbai’s shores. 

Register here to make a difference. 

2. Mahim Beach Cleanup 

The platform has its roots in a beautiful story that started in 2017 when Mumbai couple Rabia Tewari and Indranil Sengupta first moved to a luxurious sea facing home in Mahim. They were in for a rude shock when they realised that all they were looking at were mounds of garbage along the beach. 

“We did not have any prior knowledge about cleaning up beaches. But we trusted our instincts and dived in,” Indranil had recounted in a previous interview with The Better India. 

A passion project that started with 15 volunteers and the couple at the helm is now a booming beach clean-up group that was felicitated by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2018. 

Register here to do your bit. 

3. Dadar Beach Cleanup 

In May 2018, a Mumbai Mirror headline read, “Dadar beach clean-up warrior Chinu Kwatra gets a pat from UN”. Kwatra had made headlines across newspapers in the city a year into his efforts and was applauded by Erik Solheim, then under-secretary and head of the United Nations Environment Programme. 

The venture’s most spoken-about cleanup was in 2018 when Kwatra put together a team of over 200 volunteers that cleared 200 tonnes of garbage off the beach. 

In an interview with The Better India, he reiterated, “Nobody is telling you to travel all the way to help us. Do it in your area. When you make a simple choice of not dumping your garbage in the gutters or on the beaches, you are helping us indirectly.” 

The group will be conducting a ‘Post Visarjan’ drive at the Dadar and Juhu beaches of Mumbai this weekend.

You can sign up here.

4. Versova Beach Cleanup 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Afroz Shah (@afrozshah_)

In contrast to those who crinkle their noses when they spot filth at a beach, lawyer Afroz Shah from Mumbai rolls up his sleeves. In the thrash, he sees an opportunity for transformation. In 2016, Shah was awarded the  UN’s top environmental accolade – Champions of the Earth award, the first of many accolades for his work.  

A scroll through his profile is a window into the various sides of his work. Pictures of filthy beaches are interspersed with shots of Shah addressing students on national and international platforms, advocating for a better planet. 

The movement that started out with Afroz and his neighbour is now an army of thousands. 

You can be one of them by signing up here.

5. Beach Please 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Malhar Kalambe (@kalambemalhar)

In 2017, when Mumbai’s Malhar Kalambe overheard his friend complaining about the littered beaches post Ganesh Chaturthi, his friend’s mother’s retort caused him to think, “If you have a problem with it, why don’t you do something about it?”

That was the inception of Kalambe’s ‘Beach Please’ — a cleanup movement that is giving the sands of Mumbai back their golden hue. 

According to an article in Forbes India, Malhar’s initiative has seen the support of “over 2,50,000 volunteers”. Just earlier this month, Kalambe’s team organised cleanups at Mumbai’s Mithi River and Airoli. 

You can register to be a part of the initiative here.

6. Change Is Us

“Beaches are fun only when they are clean,” reads the website of Change Is Us — a youth-led initiative with a vision to ensure cleaner beaches and a healthier marine ecosystem for future generations. To date, through the venture’s endeavours, 375+ tonnes of waste have been diverted from the beach front through the hard work of over 14,000 volunteers.

The team’s activities are concentrated in Mumbai’s Chowpatty beach where they also conduct webinars, ‘happiness drives’, art sessions, among others. 

Ensure your weekends are always purposeful by registering here.

7. For Future India

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Harshad Dhage (@imharshaddhage)

Every week since January 2020, the venture has attempted to revamp beaches into the wonderful microcosms of biodiversity they were meant to be. The efforts of their work is seen across Uttan Beach, Velankanni Beach, Gorai Beach, Manori Beach, Arnala Beach, Danapani Beach, Juhu Beach and Khardanda Beach. 

With 15,000+ volunteers, the team has removed “approximately 6,00,000 kg of waste and plastic materials”. Alongside this, they are also involved in mangrove conservation since July 2021. 

“If there were no mangrove forests, then the sea would have no meaning. It is like having a tree without roots, because mangroves are the roots of the sea,” is the motto that drives them.

You can make a change by registering here.

Edited by Padmashree Pande