Sulabh International - Social Transformation Through Sanitation

For more than three and a half decades, Sulabh International with its pioneering work in public sanitation in India has shown that human waste can be disposed of affordably and in a socially acceptable way. This case discusses at length the innovative self sustaining business model and technology evolved by Sulabh to address the problems of defecation in the open and subhuman practice of scavenging. Notwithstanding the global acclaim for the Sulabh model as the way forward to deal with the issues of sanitation, India continues to exhibit a very large percentage of population not having any access to basic sanitation facilities. For Sulabh to play a significant role in accelerating the process of universal coverage of sanitation services as per the Millennium Development Goal, it will have to overcome numerous challenges as highlighted in the case.