Rajeev Kher plans to make Indians hygienic—by selling portable toilets.
If there was something that the Father of the Nation was obsessed more about than Swaraj, it was the hygiene of Indians. Mahatma Gandhi wrote about it in his newspapers Harijan and Navajivan, spoke about it at his prayer meetings, and even at AICC sessions. More than six decades aft er Independence, over 55% of the population— 660 million—defecate in the open.
“Given these statistics, it’s hardly surprising that India is ranked as the second worst country for sanitation by international NGO, WaterAid,” says Rajeev Kher, Founder and CEO of Shramik Sanitation Systems. Th e Pune-based company sells, leases and markets portable toilets. “Portable toilets can help the country address the sanitation crisis we are facing,” adds Kher. Over a thousand kids die of diarrhoea every day in the country. Given the grim numbers, Kher’s proposition cannot be brushed away lightly.
A letter from the Bill Clinton Foundation inviting Kher to a convention lies on his table. Micro- venture capital funds like Aavishkaar India have invested in Shramik. But the recognition has not come easy.
After completing his Masters in Business Management from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune, Kher wanted to do something diff erent—a business that would solve the sanitation problem that the country is facing. He faced scorn. “What are you doing in the business of bhangis, despite being a Brahmin, my relatives would ask,” recalls Kher. “People expect you to wear a tie, sell credit cards or computers or go abroad if you are a middle class boy with an MBA,” says Kher.
Funding proved difficult. His father, a former army man, supported him. Kher wrote to a German company Global Fliegenschmid GMBH with his ideas. Th e company understood his vision and dispatched two portable toilet units, without anypayment. Kher hired a pick-up truck and toured the country displaying the units. Finally, the Goa government agreed to purchase them.
It was a modest beginning for Kher. He was still laughed off by banks. “People often ask— what’s the need for portable toilets? People can use open spaces,” says Kher. Unlike permanent toilets (like Sulabh), portable ones don’t need constant maintenance, government permission and occupy lesser real estate.
Today, the company sells units to local government bodies like the Pune Municipal Corporation, Southern Railways, and the Pondicherry government. Kher’s company also leases these toilets to bodies that organise pilgrimages and events. Shramik is witnessing a spurt in demand from the construction industry.
If the good times continue, Kher sees the company installing over 5,000 such toilets across the country in the next three years from about 1,000 such units now.