Pune: Swanky Mobile toilets for women from scrapped city buses

With the intent to provide women with hygienic toilets, two entrepreneurs from Pune have converted scrapped city buses into a swanky mobile toilet for women.The toilet on wheels called 'Ti Swachatagruha' is powered by the sun and has additional facilities including a breastfeeding room, a diaper changing station, a small canteen and a panic button in case of emergency. 'Ti Swachatagruha' initiative is the brainchild of Ulka Sadalkar and Rajeev Khar.

Women can avail all facilities at Rs.5

With a minimal charge of Rs 5, all women can avail the services of the mobile lavatories. Sanitary pads and other sanitary products are also available on the mobile toilets that run on solar panels mounted on top of the vehicles. All scrapped buses of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd. were used to create the toilet for women.

"We wanted to give a high standard toilet even for the sweeper on the road. So any woman using the toilet; be it a woman sweeping the road, traveling by bus or car, they all have a right to use a good quality toilet," Ulka Sadalkar, owner of the scrapped buses, told ANI.

12 on wheels washrooms functional across Pune city, Sadalkar

Sadalkar said that the idea started as an initiative by Pune Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar in 2016. It started with four pink buses under the banner "Toilet for Her" and is now all set to reach over 20 cities across the country. Currently, there are total 12 such on wheels washrooms functional across Pune city.

"They wanted to provide toilets for women and we had means and ways to do it. Right now in Pune there are 12 operational and almost 20 in pipeline," Sadalkar said.

She further added that the pilot project for Karnataka will begin on women's day on Sunday at Bengaluru airport. Apart from this several other city like Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Nagpur, etc are also in the pipeline. Detailing the process of how the scrapped bus is converted into toilets, she explained, "When the bus comes to the factory, it is completely struck down. Whatever can be maintained of the scrap bus, can be maintained because we just don't want to throw stuff -- the whole idea is to recycle and reuse. The design is ready with us."

Apart from the mobile toilets, Sadalkar said there are plans to set up diagnostic centres where women can get urine diagnostics for just Rs 5 on an immediate basis.