Mr.Fuad Lokhandwala’s Toilets Business in New India

Sudheendra Kulkarni wrote a nice piece in last Sunday Express.

Some excerpts;

• “The story of how Fuad Lokhandwala, who has constructed some of the best public toilets in Delhi and Mumbai, made the transition from his dollar dream in the US to this “dirty” business in India, is as inspiring as it is instructive. He had a plush, globe-trotting job with a multinational food company in Chicago when India conducted a nuclear test on May 11, 1998. Washington reacted angrily by slapping economic sanctions. “That night I was watching TV news when a barbed comment by the anchor pierced me deeply,” says Lokhandwala. “Here is a third world country, the anchor remarked, that does not even build clean toilets for its teeming millions, but has built a nuclear weapon. More than anger, I was filled with shame because the remark accurately described the Indian reality. That very night, I decided to go back to India and start a business in sanitation.”

• Building toilets is not rocket science. But where Lokhandwala’s work distinguishes itself from the rest, including from that of Sulabh, which runs the largest number of public toilets in India, is on the all-important criterion of maintenance and aesthetics. “Why should public toilets be always smelly and ugly?” he asks. “And why should we have good-looking toilets only in five-star hotels or in the homes of the rich? In my toilets, I try to maintain inauguration-day quality all throughout by institutionalising the most rigorous and regular inspection, conducted mostly by myself and my wife. They have waterfalls, aquariums, potted plants, and even small patches of garden wherever space is available. If the aam aadmi and aam aurat have access to top-quality public conveniences, they will start demanding quality in all other public services. This will also slowly change their personal habits and civic behaviour. When I die, I’ll have the satisfaction of having made at least a tiny difference to sanitation in my country.”

• Lokhandwala’s ‘lemme-make-the-difference’ path hasn’t been smooth. Indeed, he has encountered more thorns than petals so far. I say this from personal experience, having tried to help him find his way in the corruption-infected innards of the political-bureaucratic establishment both in Delhi and Mumbai. In spite of my introducing him to the seniormost leaders of the Shiv Sena and BJP, Lokhandwala had to encounter harassment from extortionist corporators in Mumbai. One of them even sent hooligans to attack him and his men for not paying up. Bureaucrats created hurdles for the same reason. So far Lokhandwala has been able to construct only nine toilets on Mumbai’s municipal plots. In New Delhi, NDMC’s bribe-seeking officials have refused to renew his contract at many places. A less gritty person would have quit this business long ago.

• Lokhandwala’s business model is based on the recovery of capital and maintenance costs mostly through revenue generated by advertising on the toilets’ exterior walls. Although replicable in many places in urban India, it has inherent limitations. Therefore, the primary responsibility of public sanitation still rests on central, state and local governments. They must allocate necessary resources and put in place effective policies of public-private partnership with NGOs and entrepreneurs. However, what is of nationwide relevance in Lokhandwala’s model is his utmost commitment to quality of maintenance, which can only come from a belief that clean public toilets in slums, railway stations, bus-stands and schools (lack of sanitation in rural and slum schools is a major reason for the high dropout rates among puberty-age girls) are a more important yardstick to measure India’s emergence as a developed nation than the sudden surfeit of advertisements of luxury toiletry brands in glossy magazines and on TV channels.”