(Feature article by Divansha Mehta)
Sulabh International Museum of Toilets is located at Mahavir Enclave, Palam-Dabri road. The day at Sulabh start with a morning prayer, where all the staff members gather in the auditorium.
Sulabh International is an India-based social administration association that attempts to advance human rights, natural sanitation, non-conventional sources of energy, waste management and social reforms through education.
The International Museum of Toilets is one of the weirdest museums among the “10 museums around the world that are anything but mundane” according to Time Magazine. It was established in 1992 by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, a social activist, founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, recipient of national and international awards including the Stockholm Water Prize in 2009. His target in building up this gallery was to feature the need to address the issues of the sanitation area in the nation, considering the endeavors made in different pieces of the world in this field since the third millennium BC.
“Nobody should go outside for defecation and every house in India should have a toilet.”– Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak
The Museum has an uncommon gathering of facts, pictures and objects specifying the memorable development of toilets from 2500 BC to date. The photos showed in the Museum make one mindful of how the world looked like when social orders did not have the advantage of water wardrobes and the progressions that have been achieved by its creation. Different types of toilet pots are also installed in the museum to help the people to know how and what toilet pots earlier people used. There is a story behind every toilet pot being displayed and each story will amaze you. The Museum receives a daily stream of visitors from India and abroad.
Sulabh International also has its own school known as Sulabh Public School. Sulabh Public School is a unique experiment by providing infrastructural facilities and quality education to the wards of scavengers who have been liberated from manual cleaning of toilets. The scavenger’s children are given free education, uniform, books and stationery etc.
Another idea of support and development is of Water ATM machines and pay-and utilize open toilets, prominently known as Sulabh Complexes with shower, clothing and urinal offices being utilized by around ten million individuals consistently and creates biogas and biofertilizer delivered from excreta-based plants, low upkeep waste water treatment plants of the medium limit with regards to organizations and ventures.
(*Divansha Mehta is Student of BJMC-TIPS, I.P. University,Dwarka, Delhi & intern with Dwarka Parichay (June-August,2019)
