Mid-day meals and cash incentives aside, a basic unfulfilled need – of toilets – is a key reason for girls dropping out of schools in India.

According to the Annual Status of Education Report, 2009, only 50 per cent Government and private schools in 575 out of 583 districts in India have toilets. Four out of 10 Government schools do not have separate toilets for girls and even where there are, 12-15 per cent are locked and only 30-40 per cent are “usable”.

Now, a Kerala-based company, Eram Scientific Solutions, has come up with a novel idea which may be a boon for school girls. It's an e-toilet, which can be moved from one location to another in 10 hours. The toilets have already been installed in some Kerala schools and many more have placed orders.

“Our idea was to develop an eco-friendly public sanitation system for India, based on convergence of electronic, mobile, Web and bio technologies, to serve as an affordable, sustainable and effective public toilet service,” M.S Vinod, Director of the company, told Business Line . The product was developed by a company called Dea Celera, whose 50 per cent shares were taken by the Eram Group, a Saudi-based $1-billion company.

Vinod, who refers to his company as a “social enterprise,” said the USP of ‘Delight' electronic toilet, which won an award recently, was that it worked totally on auto mode, economising on water and electricity use.

“Manual intervention is minimal. Once you insert a coin, the door opens and the lights switch on and audio directions are given. The e-toilets are programmed to flush 1.5 litre of water if the user takes up to 3 minutes, and 4.5 litre if usage is longer”, says Vinod .

With civic sense in India being what it is, the company also has put a maintenance plan in place. The toilets can be programmed to clean the platform after every 5 or 10 persons use it. A bio-membrane reactor is used to treat solid wastes and the water used is purified for reuse, it says. The base model, priced at Rs 1.5 lakh, is being manufactured in Coimbatore. As of now, 30 units have been installed in Kerala and Greater NOIDA. “Another 300 units are under implementation and will be operational within the next 2 months” said Vinod.

Since installation is much cheaper than constructing toilets, the company sees potential in other countries as well.

“We plan to export units to Africa as well as West Asia. Discussions are progressing for entering into technology transfer arrangements in South Africa and dealership arrangements in Nigeria and Botswana,” he said.

>aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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