Bindeshwar Pathak: 'Toilet Man of India' who founded Sulabh and pioneered public sanitation

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Bindeshwar Pathak came to be known as the "Toilet Man of India" long before the Swachch Bharat Mission made toilets a part of public discourse, even as he was often ridiculed, including by his father-in-law, for the work he was doing. Pathak famously recalled once how his father-in-law felt that his daughter's life has been ruined as he cannot tell anyone what his son-in-law did for a living. Pathak, 80, died on Tuesday after a cardiac arrest soon after unfurling the national flag.

He founded Sulabh in 1970 and it became synonymous with public toilets and activism against open defecation in no time. The activist and social worker, called by many as 'Sanitation Santa Claus', was born in a Brahmin family in village Rampur Baghel in Vaishali district of Bihar and is survived his wife, two daughters and a son. College and some odd jobs later, he joined the Bhangi-Mukti (scavengers' liberation) cell of the Bihar Gandhi Centenary Celebrations Committee in 1968 and he was intimately exposed to the problems of scavengers in India.

He found his calling when he travelled the country and stayed with manual scavengers as part of his PhD thesis. He established the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation in 1970, combining technical innovation with humanitarian principles. The organisation works to promote human rights, environmental sanitation, non-conventional sources of energy, waste management and social reforms through education.