New Delhi: Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak died aged 80 at AIIMS Delhi on Tuesday. According to his close aide, he hoisted the national flag at the Sulabh International headquarters in the morning on the occasion of Independence Day and collapsed soon after. The cause of his death was said to be cardiac arrest.


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The activist and social worker is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son.


A pioneer of public toilets in India, 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. His contribution made a huge difference in the lives of millions of severely disadvantaged poor who couldn't afford toilets. 


Bindeshwar Pathak founded Sulabh in 1970 


Born in a Brahmin family in Bihar's Vaishali district, Bindeshwar Pathak founded Sulabh in 1970, which became synonymous with public toilets and activism against open defecation in no time.


After College and some odd jobs, he joined the Bhangi-Mukti (scavengers' liberation) cell of the Bihar Gandhi Centenary Celebrations Committee in 1968 and was intimately exposed to the problems of scavengers in India.


He then found his calling when he travelled the country and stayed with manual scavengers as part of his Ph.D. thesis, following which 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.



Designs pioneered by Pathak three decades ago of creating biogas by linking Sulabh toilets to fermentation plants, has now become a byword for sanitation in developing countries all over the world.


Bindeshwar Pathak received Padma Bhushan in 1991


In 1991, Bindeshwar Pathak was awarded the Padma Bhushan -- the third-highest civilian award in India -- for his monumental work for liberating and rehabilitating manual scavengers and also for preventing environmental pollution by providing pour-flush toilet technology which served as an alternative to dry latrines.


He was also the recipient of the Energy Globe Award, the Dubai International Award for Best Practices, the Stockholm Water Prize, the Legend of Planet award from the French senate in Paris, among others.


"You are helping the poor," Pope John Paul II lauded Pathak while honouring him with International St. Francis Prize for the Environment in 1992.

On July 12, 2017, Pathak's book 'The Making of a Legend' on the life of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was launched in New Delhi.



Bindeshwar Pathak - The brain behind Sulabh Shauchalaya


Currently, Bindeshwar Pathak's Sulabh is operating and maintaining toilets at railway stations and temple towns across the country. It has more than 9,000 community public complexes in India present in 1,600 towns. These complexes have electricity and a 24-hour water supply.


The complexes have separate enclosures for men and women. The users are charged a nominal sum for using toilets and bath facilities.

Some of the Sulabh complexes are also provided with shower facilities, cloakrooms, telephone, and primary healthcare.


Not just toilets, Sulabh has also set up a number of vocational training institutes, where liberated scavengers, their sons and daughters, and persons from other weaker sections of society are given training in various vocations like computer technology, typing and shorthand, electrical trade, woodcraft, leather craft, diesel and petrol engineering, cutting and tailoring, cane furniture making, masonry work, motor driving.