Toilets

World Toilet Day: India's sanitation reforms are delivering cleaner environments and healthier communities, but sustaining these improvements becomes the next priority

Highway users can report dirty toilets at toll plazas of National Highways Authority of India via the Rajmargyatra app and earn one-time FASTag reward; the drive runs until October 31, 2025

Compared with those who said they had never used a smartphone on the toilet, the researchers found that the smartphone users were much more likely to spend more than five minutes going to the bathroom

Public toilets can be a 'microbial soup', especially when many people use them and cleaning isn't frequent as it should be

This comes around the time when demand for luxury houses is growing in India, giving a larger push to the bathroom fittings market

According to a government survey, about 95.1 per cent of rural households have access to toilets, 92.7 per cent have arrangements to dispose of organic waste and 78.7 per cent have systems in place for greywater disposal, Minister of State for Jal Shakti V Somanna said on Thursday. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, the minister quoted findings from the Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2023-24 conducted by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, which covered 17,304 villages across 729 districts in the country. The survey included feedback from 2,60,059 households and 85,901 public places such as schools, anganwadis, health centres and markets. In terms of waste segregation, only 39.9 per cent households reported segregating waste into biodegradable and non-biodegradable categories, it said. At the village level, 45 per cent have exclusive or shared vehicles to collect and transport solid waste, and 29.4 per cent have designated sheds for storage and segregation. For plastic waste

The Kerala High Court directs state and local bodies not to force petrol pump owners to allow public use of toilets meant only for customers, citing safety and property concerns

An industry report last year showed that more than two in five renovating homeowners in the United States are choosing to install toilets with speciality features, including bidet toilet seats

The Three Brothers Machine Manufacturing Company in Foshan, Guangdong, enforced strict restroom rules, setting fixed break slots and a strict two-minute cap on unscheduled trips

This comes even as the country has increased girls' toilet coverage in rural schools from 66.4 per cent in 2018 to 72 per cent in 2024

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that more than 97.5 per cent schools in the country, including government, government-aided and private ones, have provided separate toilets facilities for girl students. It has filed an affidavit in a pending PIL moved by Congress leader and social activist Jaya Thakur seeking directions to the Centre and states to provide free sanitary pads to girl students of Classes 6 to 12 and ensure separate female toilet facilities in all government, government-aided and residential schools. The Centre has told the top court that states and Union territories, such as Delhi, Goa and Puducherry, have achieved 100 per cent targets and complied with the earlier orders of the court. It has also informed the court that 16 lakh toilets for boys and 17.5 lakh toilets for girls have been constructed in more than 10 lakh government schools and 2.5 lakh toilets for boys and 2.9 lakh toilets for girls have been made available in government-aided schools. The Cen

Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Himachal Pradesh government revised rates for water supply in the state which includes new tax measures and incentives

Three open-air gymnasiums and a number of tin sheet-covered bathing sheds for women have been created by a BSF battalion deployed in this frontier area of West Bengal to guard the India-Bangaldesh international boundary. The facilities were created following the Union home ministry's directive to the border forces to engage with the local population, with Home Minister Amit Shah saying these remote locations on the front are not the last but the first villages of the country, and organisations like the Border Security Force (BSF) should take all measures for the betterment of the lives of the citizens residing in these security-sensitive areas, a senior officer told PTI. The 32nd battalion of the BSF has created the open-air gyms near its border outposts of Gede, Kadipur and Tungi in West Bengal's Nadia district. Equipment like parallel bars, waist stretchers, chest press, fun rider, lateral pull down, sit-up trainer, two-sided rotator and "tai chi spinner" have been installed in ..

Public washroom automation firm Euronics is looking to double its turnover to Rs 400 crore by 2025-26 with its new manufacturing plant at Gurugram set to become operational to fulfil 50 per cent of its orders. The company has invested Rs 100 crore to set up the washroom automation accessories production unit at Gurugram with an annual production capacity of 2 lakh units and it will become operational this month. "In the last financial year we were around Rs 200 crore... This year we are looking at close to Rs 280 crore to Rs 290 crore and in FY25-26 we are chasing Rs 400 crore turnover," Euronics MD & CEO Viknesh Jain told PTI. He was responding to a query on the company's growth trajectory. Established in 2002, Euronics is a major player in India's public and commercial washroom sector, he said, with growth fuelled by the expansive growth of the country's public infrastructure, commercial real estate, and retail sectors. While initially it catered mainly to the private sector, ..

Observing that a large segment of India's population, involved in manual scavenging, has remained unheard and muted, in bondage and systematically trapped in inhumane conditions, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre and states to take appropriate measures, frame policies and issue directions to ensure that manual sewer cleaning is completely eradicated in a phased manner. The top court has asked the Centre to issue guidelines and directions that any sewer-cleaning work outsourced or required to be discharged by or through contractors or agencies do not require individuals to enter sewers for any purpose whatsoever. Issuing a slew of directions, a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat (since retired) and Aravind Kumar asked the central and state governments to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of those who die while cleaning sewers. "The court hereby directs the Union and the states to ensure that the compensation for sewer deaths is increased (given that the previou

In the letter, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said that around 1.5 million families still do not have access to advanced toilet facilities, despite the state being declared open-defecation-free (ODF)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak, who passed away recently, for his "major contribution" of giving an institutional solution to Mahatma Gandhi's ideas on cleanliness. Social activist Pathak, a pioneer in building public toilets, died at the AIIMS here due to a cardiac arrest last Tuesday. He was 80. In an article on Pathak in a Hindi daily, Modi said he has been watching Pathak's spirit ever since he was in Gujarat. "Amidst the Independence Day celebrations on 15th August, it was very difficult for me to digest the news that Bindeshwar Pathak ji is no more amongst us. The demise of Bindeshwar ji, the Sulabh International founder who was simple and polite, is an irreparable loss," the prime minister said. Today's young generation should learn the dignity of labour from the life of Pathak, he said. "No work was too small for him and neither was any person. His efforts to provide a dignified life to our brothers and sisters

What made Bindeshwar Pathak's 'Sulabh' so important? What's holding Indian women back? Will an erratic monsoon halt the rally in tractor stocks? What is a developed country? All answers here

Bindeshwar Pathak established the Sulabh International Social Service in 1970, to resolve the country's sanitation problems

Delhi Revenue Minister Atishi wrote to Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar on Saturday and asked him to ensure that people affected by flooding and living in relief camps in Delhi have access to toilets and don't face a shortage of water or electricity. She asked the chief secretary to immediately address the issues. Parts of Delhi have been inundated after the Yamuna in the city breached its banks following days of heavy rains in its upper catchment areas, prompting the evacuation of thousands from low-lying areas. After rising for three days, water levels in the Yamuna started receding on Friday. According to the Central Water Commission, the Yamuna's water level came down to 207.62 metres by 7 am on Saturday from its peak of 208.66 metres at 8 pm on Thursday. In her letter to Kumar, Atishi said, "Since yesterday, there have been complaints regarding facilities in relief camps -- shortage of water and toilets, no electricity, poor quality of food." "The people who have been evacuated