Picture this she leaves her home hastily, hoping to reach her workplace on time. It&rsquos a chilly morning in Pune, and she looks for a restroom on her daily commute, but it is in vain. So, she waits.
In India, ill-maintained washrooms pose a dire hazard to women&rsquos health and safety. This predicament is just as true in Pune, a densely populated city of 4 million people. Enter Ulka Sadalkar and Rajeev Kher, entrepreneurs from the sanitation sector who first converted an old municipal bus into a mobile public restroom for women in 2016. Sadalkar divulges that the idea was birthed in a brainstorming session held with Pune&rsquos municipal commissioner, Kunal Kumar who had proposed that they "take inspiration from a similar model in San Francisco that was converting old buses into restrooms for the homeless&rdquo. In the following year, the government of Pune offered up 12 decommissioned buses for the cause to be stationed near recreational areas, major bus stops and community centres.
What&rsquos more is that these buses are not only kind to women, but to the environment too For the most part, they run on solar power and connect to sewer lines, in addition to having holding tanks for waste. The users get access to Wi-Fi, a diaper changing station, a shower, drinking water, sanitary pads and a station for breastfeeding. Furthermore, a TV plays educational videos on self-examination for breast cancer, menstruation issues and how to treat urinary tract infections. Each such bus is also equipped with an emergency button, a full-time attendant and a café at the back. And all this is only available for a sum of @INR 5 (just 7 cents).
&ldquoThe idea is to give women what is theirs safety and dignity. We do not have fancy marble floors, but the toilets we are building are clean and of good quality,&rdquo Sadalkar said. &ldquoIn fact, it took us months to convince people here that public toilets can also be clean and safe to use, against the conventional notion in India&rdquo. Dependent on the location and the day, 300 women might visit a bus, although the average is between 100 and 150.
We can only hope this a starting point for these two pioneers and that this enterprise mushrooms to every corner of India
