Bindeshwar Pathak

Bindeshwar Pathak founded Sulabh International and spent more than fifty years working to end manual scavenging and improve sanitation in India. He was named posthumously for the Padma Vibhushan in 2024 in the field of social work, from Bihar ^[1].

Early life

Pathak was born on 2 April 1943 in Rampur Baghel, Bihar ^[2]. After graduating in 1964 he worked as a teacher, then in 1968 joined the Bihar Gandhi Centenary Celebration Committee, where he was asked to work for the dignity of people treated as untouchable ^[2]. He later earned a doctorate from Patna University and, in 1994, a DLitt for a study of manual scavenging and sanitation ^[2].

The Sulabh toilet

He developed a low-cost two-pit, pour-flush toilet and, from 1970, led a door-to-door campaign persuading households to replace bucket latrines that had to be emptied by hand ^[2]. He also introduced pay-and-use public toilets; Sulabh built the first one in Patna in 1974 ^[2].

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Pathak worked to free manual scavengers, most of them women from the most oppressed castes, from that work, offering them training and other jobs ^[2]. From 2012, at the Supreme Court’s request, his organisation also improved shelters, health care and livelihoods for widows in Vrindavan and Varanasi ^[2].

Recognition

Sulabh International received the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2016 for its sanitation work and the freeing of manual scavengers ^[2]. Pathak supported the government’s Swachh Bharat Mission and in 2016 became brand ambassador of the Indian Railways’ Swachh Rail Mission ^[2].

He died on 15 August 2023 ^[2].