Sulabh International: Providing Sustainable Sanitation Solutions

According to the 2015 WHO /UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Program report, 1 in 3 people, or 2.4 billion people worldwide, lacked access to basic sanitation facilities. These included 946 million people who defecated in the open. The problem was more serious in India with more than half of the country’s 1.3 billion population lacking access to toilets at home. Of these, around 564 million people practiced open defecation in fields, beaches, and other open spaces, which resulted in the spread of diseases such as cholera and diarrhea and in many children succumbing to these diseases. According to World Bank estimates, more than 500 children under the age of five died because of diarrhea each day in India. Many others suffered from chronic malnutrition and childhood stunting – a burden the World Bank estimated cost India US$106.7 billion in 2015 or 5.2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product for 2015...