An excerpt from a biography of the founder of the company that builds Sulabh toilets. Jan 14, 2021 · 05:30 pm Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak demonstrates his low-cost and environmentally-friendly two-pit toilet technology to former manual scavengers. | Sajjad Hussain/AFP
Bindeshwar had his early education in his village, Rampur Baghel, and in Hazipur, the village of his maternal grandfather. The schools in these villages had no toilets either for boys or girls. Pathak says in those days, girls were not encouraged to go to school. However, there were some girl students who had to go back home when they felt the call of nature. In his village too, no house had a toilet. He had a very big house built in 1915, having many rooms, a prayer room, a grinding room, a big courtyard with a well in the compound, but no toilet!