Sulabh Success

Sulabh International Social Service Organization, A Success Story

United Nations Economic and Social Council

AMR Innovation Fair

“Innovation and transformation for Eradication of Poverty and Hunger”

Geneva, Switzerland

2-5 July, 2007

1. Name of the approach/tool/project

Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers through Innovative Technology and Capacity Building : A Success Story.

2. Description of the approach/tool//project description (methodology, techniques and strategies used);

Sanitation in India has continued to be a matter of low priority on account of several factors – social, cultural, economic and technological. Nearly 65% of the population lacks basic sanitation facilities. One major cause of concern is the existence of 13 million bucket and dry privies and the wide-spread prevalence of open defecation. A particular class of people called “scavengers” clean these bucket privies or dry latrines and make house to house collection of human excreta in buckets and carry it on their heads for disposal. Since generations, they have been relegated to the lowest of the low in society, the majority of them being women. Though regulation prohibits scavenging, it required technological back-up and its implementation, to create conditions which eliminate the need of employing scavengers.

After years of research, Sulabh International Social Service Organisation developed the eco-friendly, pour-flush, water-seal, compost latrine with two leach pits for on-site disposal of human excreta, popularly known as Sulabh Shauchalaya, meaning a convenient toilet. Sulabh’s technology of two-pit composting toilet was a new idea and an altogether new approach to solve the problem of open defecation as well as to free scavengers from the highly demeaning and dehumanizing vocation, which was hereditary and also the only way for their survival and sustenance. This approach revolutionized the sanitation scenario in India. The scavengers thus liberated from this work...