SULABH INTERNATIONAL TOILETS

DR. BINDESHWAR PATHAK FOUNDER OF SULABH INTERNATIONAL

PRESENTED BY: Rajan Gupta Mrinal Rakheja Amarpreet Kaur

The Business Model

SULABHS TWO MAIN SANITATION MODELS Public Pay-Per-Use toilets
Pathak built his business model based on his Bihar experience where he executed the toilet project with money and land from the municipality and retained 10 to 20 percent of the contract value as the contractors fee. He expanded that model to include private companies, religious institutions, government buildings, Indian railways and others. In its business model, Sulabh built toilets using its own design on land given by its clients with the money they provided. The operational costs are recovered from user charges. Pathak bet that if the toilet was kept clean, people would not mind paying a small fee. He first tried it out in Bihar, a tough market where people did not even pay for rail or bus tickets. However, people did pay ten paise. VIPs from Bihar used the toilet. In the first month we collected Rs 50 (US$1.10) but soon users increased.

Residential homes
In a significant move that enhanced its business potential, Sulabh launched the construction of toilets on a large scale for private households in Bihar. The government of Bihar had approved a 50 percent subsidy and 50 percent loan scheme for household installation of Sulabh toilets, and Sulabh kept ten percent of the overall cost for service charges. Sulabh managed the money on behalf of the beneficiary. Out of 100 toilets we got three or four complaints. We had a system. One person would campaign, one would supervise toilets and one would rectify complaints, said Pathak. This programme was launched in many towns in Bihar.

Value-Added Services at Sulabh Toilets

FOR A FEE Sulabhs pay-per-use facilities included more than just toilets. Part of the revenue came from many value-added services that were offered at Sulabh facilities, such as bathing, laundry, accommodation and more. A few examples of these are described below. The toilets were staffed by an attendant 24 hours per day and had supplies of powdered soap for washing hands, bathing and laundry. Some special toilet complex facilities also provided telephone services and primary healthcare. FOR FREE Sulabh offered free toilet services to women, children and the disabled in every facility, meaning that it only charged the adult male members of a household for using the toilet facilities. In Chattisgarh, Sulabh set up schools above the toilet complexes.

Strategies-Constraints Model

Sulabh Toilet Complex