Invitation : Birthday Celebrations, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder Sulabh Sanitation, Social Reform

tion Invitota the

Birthday Celebrations of

DR. BINDESHWAR PATHAK

FOUNDER, SULABH SANITATION, SOCIAL REFORM AND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT

saturday, April 2, 2022, 11:00am at

Sulabh Sansar

Mahavir Enclave, Palam Dabri Road, New Delhi

Bharat Ratna Late J.R.D. Tata, financed a project to build a Public Toilet near Metro Cinema, Mumbai in 1991 by Sulabh International Social Service Organisation. Hon’ble Tata had come to see the ongoing project. He was present on the occasion of the inauguration of the Public Toilet by the Sheriff of Mumbai, Smt. Bakul Patel. A former Sheriff Shri Nana Chudasama was also present on the occasion. Late J.R.D. Tata had said, “This Sulabh Public Convenience is an icon in our Mumbai's Civic Infrastructures”.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak is being seen in the picture receiving the National Award, Padma Bhushan, from the then President of India Late R. Venkataraman. Late J.R.D.Tata looks on.

FATHER OF SOCIOLOGY OF SANITATION “Sociology of sanitation is a scientific study to solve the problems of society in relation to sanitation, social deprivation, water, public health, hygiene, ecology, environment, poverty, gender equality, welfare of children and empowering people for sustainable development and attainment of philosophical and spiritual knowledge to lead a happy life and to make a difference in the lives of others.”

DR. BINDESHWAR PATHAK

FOUNDER, SULABH SANITATION, SOCIAL REFORM AND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Sociology of Sanitation is being taught in the following Universities 1.

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Gujarat— (a)

Department of Sociology

(b)

Department of History

2.

Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University—Department of Sociology.

3.

Sardar Patel University, Gujarat—Department of Sociology.

4.

Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, Bihar.

5.

Kumaun University, Nainital.

6.

Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar.

7.

Sanitation as Vocational Training at Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra.

8.

Kashmir University, Srinagar.

9.

University of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

10.

Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

11.

Gujarat University, Gujarat.

12.

Bhakta Kavi Narsinh Mehta University, Gujarat.

13.

Saurashtra University, Gujarat—Department of Sociology.

14.

Mangalore University, Mangalore.

15.

Bangalore Central University, Bangalore.

16.

Kannada University, Hampi.

17.

Kuvempu University, Shimoga.

18.

Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, Bihar.

SOME REMARKS BY EMINENT PERSONALITIES ABOUT DR. PATHAK

“...Dr. Pathak is a man who has worked on the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Ambedkar, and Lal Bahadur Shastri ji. So I can say about Dr. Pathak that he is ‘three in one’.”

Hon’ble President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind

“... I want to congratulate once again the son of Bihar Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and organisation for being awarded with the prestigious 'Gandhi Peace Prize'. Through your determination, hard work and unparalleled work in the field of sanitation and contribution towards the Swachh Bharat Campaign, you have paid homage to the historic work of Mahatma Gandhi, who had started his own sanitation campaign in Champaran.

You have taken forward the great mission of Gandhiji.”

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi

One organisation which works to improve the state of sanitation in the country is Sulabh, founded by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak in 1970.

Sulabh is the largest internationally recognized pan-Indian social service outfit with over 35,000 volunteers. It began through Pathak’s desire to help scavengers-men and women who carry and dispose of human excreta. He developed a two-pit pour flush toilet (known as the Sulabh Shauchalaya) which did not require scavenging to clean. Subsequently, Sulabh also started pay-and-use public toilets, popularly known as Sulabh Complexes, with bath, laundry and toilet facilities. These are used by about ten million people every day.

Sulabh has also pioneered the production of biogas and bio-fertilizer from excreta-based plants.

I congratulate you on what you have achieved, which you richly deserve, for which there is no comparison. You have done such a great job and I would like to tell you that Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak has brought about a revolution, a very big revolution. Financial revolution can come about and can be brought about, but to bring a revolution in the mind set of people is a very big achievement, a very difficult job which Dr. Pathak has brought about.

Hon’ble Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam President of India

The Hon’ble President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil

The Sulabh technology is revolutionary. The efficacy of the system lies in its cost effectiveness and hence can be accepted globally. We are definitely going to mention Sulabh technologies and initiatives in our report.

Roberto Lenton Chairman of the U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Task Force on Water and Sanitation

I am the son of the son of Mahatma Gandhi but Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak is the son of his soul. If we were to go to meet Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he would first greet Dr. Pathak for the noble work that he is doing and then meet me. Dr. Pathak has restored human rights and dignity to people engaged in the manual cleaning of human excreta which they carried as head-load.

Hon’ble Prof. Rajmohan Gandhi

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak deserves the gratitude of the Nation.

Khushwant Singh eminent journalist

Technology from Sulabh can help alleviate the water and sanitation problems in a big way if replicated in other countries. We can achieve the MDGs within the prescribed period with the help of a social organization like Sulabh.

Margaret Catley-Carlson Global Water Partnership

"The visit has been most useful to me for it is the research in small things that changes a Community to do great things in this country," during his visit to Sulabh Gram on March 16, 2000.

What Abraham Lincoln did for Blacks in America, Dr. Pathak has done for scavengers in India. Both are great redeemers.

Dr. Mulk Raj Anand A noted writer

Dr. Raja Ramanna Indian physicist The Sulabh movement is indeed a reminder and jolt to conscience. It is performing the double task of socially rehabilitating the suffering segment of our society and providing healthy and clean municipal life. It deserves all support.

I.K. Gujral former Prime Minister of India Sulabh created a low-cost toilet technology that not only helped maintain sanitation but also restored the dignity of millions of “scavengers”, the cleaners of human excreta who are traditionally untouchables. The West’s toilet technology, composed of sewage and septic tanks, was unaffordable for India’s teeming millions. Pathak’s technology relies on two simple pits and sealed covers. While one pit is in use, the other is left to decompose, forming a fertilizer that can be used in agricultural fields. Equally important, human waste no longer requires manual cleansing.

Dr. Pathak’s work is very seminal. It is humane and educative.

Dr. Wally N’Dow SecretaryGeneral, Habitat

I read with great sympathy your account of the situation of the scavengers community, and I congratulate you on the work which you are doing on its behalf. I am sure your International Saint Francis Prize for the Environment was richly deserved.

Boutros-Boutros Ghali former Secretary General of United Nations

Now that the world is shrinking, leaders of the world unite to initiate a global approach to the problems of sanitation and water supply which have also become a tool for social change. In this field, the role of Sulabh International Social Service Organization is crucial. Sulabh is a known name not only in India but also in other countries. I have read about Sulabh and now I know how Sulabh makes things happen.

International experience in the management of public services shows that delivery of services can be vastly improved if a distinction is made between the ownership of these services (by the government) and the delivery of such services (by private and local enterprises).

Thus, a compilation of twenty-four case studies from twelve countries all over the world has concluded that in every case where the management of a public service was contracted out to private groups or enterprises, the distribution and quality of the service improved and the net cost to the public was reduced. In India also, there are successful examples of ‘micro-privatization’ (Such as Sulabh Sauchalayas and Public Call Offices).

These initiatives need to be replicated in respect of other services.

Dr. Jan P. Pronk Chairman, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

Bimal Jalan Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India

Tarun Khanna Jorge Paulo Lehmann Professor, Harvard Business School in BILLIONS OF ENTREPRENEURS

For his social reform movement, Dr. Pathak can be compared to Dayanand Saraswati and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Dr. Karan Singh former Union Minister, diplomat, great scholar and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)

The centre of Sulabh is everything I imagined and much more. A centre of inspiration, liberation and human vitality. I will remember forever this visit and remain a disciple and willing promotee of their wonderful ideas and activities in an area most people are too shy even to talk about. Nearly everything which works began with an idea and a small group of people committed to work to realize it. Thank you Dr. Pathak and your co-workers for your inspiration and achievements.

Sir Richard Jolly Special Advisor to the Administrator UNDP, Chairman, Collaboration Council for Drinking Water and Sanitation

Sulabh International showed me a good example during my recent visit to New Delhi. This organization has proved how effective small-scale solutions can be and how they can be extended all over India within a short time span. Thousands of ‘Pay and Use’ public toilet-cum-bath complexes and more than a million pour-flush latrines in private houses have been built (and are maintained) and they are used by more than ten million people everyday. By doing so, Sulabh has restored human dignity and given a new future to thousands of untouchables.

HRH Willem-Alexander the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands Chairman of the United Nations’ SecretaryGeneral’s Advisory Board of Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) In Launch of International Year of Sanitation New York on November 21, 2007

EMINENT PERSONALITIES WHO VISITED SULABH SANSAR

Hon'ble Home Minister of India (the then National President of BJP) Shri Amit Shah lighting the mantle lamp that uses biogas as green fuel from the Sulabh Toilet Complex

His Holiness Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji fries a papad at the Sulabh kitchen, where the biogas from the Sulabh toilet complex is used for cooking

Hon’ble Mr. Akshay Kumar, Celebrated Actor and Youth Icon, smelling a pod of odour-free dried human excreta taken out from the Sulabh two-pit compost toilet

Hon’ble Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India, watches an engine that converts biogas into electricity

Dr. Pathak showing H.E. Mr. Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish Prime Minister and his wife, clean water in a flask salvaged from sullage with the help of Sulabh technology

Hon’ble Mr. Justice Tirath Singh Thakur being briefed by Dr. Pathak, on the working of the Sulabh Effluent Treatment Plant, and how the treated water is made pathogen-free and safely used for floriculture and horticulture

H.E. Mr. Richard Rahul Verma, the then US Ambassador to India having a close look at the model of Sulabh two-pit pour-flush ecological compost toilet

H.E. Mr. Timothy J. Roemer, the then US Ambassador to India interacting with the children of Sulabh Public School

His Excellency Mr. Alphonsus H.M. Stoelinga taking the small ball of dried human excreta in his hands

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Kingdom of Thailand, showing keen interest in the Sulabh technologies

Dr. Pathak explaining to Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde, the model of the Sulabh two-pit ecological compost toilet installed in areas where there is space constraint

Hon'ble Smt. Ela Gandhi, Granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, and Globally Renowned Peace Activist watches a demonstration of how Sulabh biogas is used for warming oneself during winters