The Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak Research Foundation advances the transition from sanitation access to safely managed sanitation — grounded in five decades of Sulabh International's field experience across India.
When Bindeshwar Pathak was seven, he touched the sari of a woman his Brahmin family called untouchable — and understood, in the uproar that followed, everything that was wrong with India.
The woman belonged to the Valmiki community. Her work was to clean human waste from pit latrines with bare hands, carry it on her head in baskets, and accept in return the contempt of those whose waste she removed. It was a form of dehumanisation so complete that touching her required ritual purification. Pathak underwent that purification — the Ganga water, the mixture forced down by his grandmother — and never forgot what it meant.
That childhood encounter shaped a life's mission. If Indians had proper toilets that did not require manual cleaning, the scavengers would be freed. If the scavengers were freed, they could, with training and support, reclaim their dignity and find new lives. The equation was simple. The execution took everything he had.
In 1968, after spending three months living among scavengers in Bettiah — enduring with them the stench, the filth and the humiliation — Pathak designed the two-pit pour-flush ecological toilet. It required only a litre of water to flush, used no sewer, and converted waste into odourless compost that could fertilise fields. Officials were sceptical. His family was appalled. He sold his wife's ornaments to keep building. In 1973, the municipality of Arrah gave him his first commission — two demonstration models. By 2020, 110 million had been installed across India.
In 1974 he built India's first public pay-and-use lavatory in Patna — 48 seats, urinals, 20 bathrooms. Today, Sulabh public conveniences serve approximately 20 million users every day at railway stations, bus terminals, markets, schools and community sites across the country.
His work was never only about toilets. He established centres where women formerly engaged in manual scavenging could learn to read, open bank accounts and train in new livelihoods. He took them to temples and five-star restaurants that had barred them — and refused, with quiet Gandhian determination, to leave. He arranged housing, food and cultural participation for the widows of Vrindavan, whom India's Supreme Court had asked Sulabh to assist. He understood, as The Lancet recorded, that good sanitation required attention not only to physical existence but to the mental wellbeing of people.
The Stockholm Water Prize nominating committee called his endeavours "one of the most amazing examples of how one person can impact the well-being of millions." UN-HABITAT declared the twin-pit technology a Global Best Practice, recommended by UNDP for use by 2.6 billion people worldwide.
Dr. Pathak passed away on 15 August 2023, aged 80.
The Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak Research Foundation carries his name and his method — going where the problem actually is, understanding it honestly, and generating evidence that makes a practical difference. Our research is grounded in five decades of Sulabh International's field experience because that is what he built: not just toilets, but a platform of knowledge that no laboratory could replicate.
A world where every person — regardless of caste, gender, income or location — has access to safe sanitation, clean water and the dignity that comes with them. Where toilets work, treatment plants receive waste, women and girls can use facilities safely, sanitation workers are protected and proven solutions reach the people who need them most. A world built through collaboration, evidence and a shared commitment to human development and environmental sustainability.
To generate rigorous, field-based research that advances the transition from toilet access to safely managed sanitation — contributing to the humanitarian values enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the global movement for health, dignity and environmental safety.
We pursue this through six interconnected research themes: studying the technology of non-sewered systems so that human waste is safely contained and treated; examining circular sanitation so that water, energy and nutrients are recovered rather than wasted; researching public and community facilities so that every person can reach a safe toilet when and where they need it; investigating gender, menstrual health and social inclusion so that sanitation serves women, girls and marginalised communities with dignity; studying operations and affordability so that services survive beyond construction; and working on policy and standards so that evidence reaches the people who make decisions.
Our research is evidence-based, transparent and honest about failure as well as success. We do not report what we wish were true. We report what the field tells us.
We place the most marginalised at the centre — women, girls, persons with disabilities, sanitation workers, caste-excluded communities and those living beyond the reach of conventional infrastructure. Safe sanitation that excludes anyone has failed its purpose.
Access to safe sanitation and clean water is not a privilege. It is a human right. Every research question we ask begins from that premise.
Sanitation systems must be designed for a climate-changing world. We study how facilities respond to flooding, drought and extreme heat — and how waste can be converted into water, energy and nutrients rather than discharged as pollution.
The best evidence comes from working together. We collaborate with universities, governments, international funders, NGOs and the communities our research serves — because no single institution can answer the questions that matter most.
SDG 6 commits the world to safe water and sanitation for all by 2030. The gap between that commitment and reality is not primarily a technology gap. It is an implementation gap.
In 2024, 3.4 billion people still lacked safely managed sanitation. Only 56% of domestic wastewater was safely treated. Across low- and middle-income countries, the majority of urban areas are not connected to sewer networks — meaning that household toilets, community facilities, schools and public conveniences must contain, treat and manage waste on site or through decentralised systems.
In India, millions of toilets have been built — but built does not mean functional, accessible or trusted. Facilities fall into disuse. Treatment systems receive no sludge. Women avoid toilets that offer no privacy. Caretakers are absent. Pits overflow. Budgets run out before maintenance begins.
DBPRF is positioned as an implementation-research and verification institution — not another infrastructure-delivery programme. Our role is to produce the evidence needed to answer the questions that come after construction: Is the toilet technically appropriate? Is excreta safely contained and treated? Can users afford the service? Are workers protected? Are women, girls and persons with disabilities able to use it safely? Why do promising solutions remain stuck at pilot stage?
We do not work alone. Our research is designed to be collaborative — bringing together the rigour of academic institutions, the reach of development organisations, the resources of international funders and the authority of government agencies.
We work with universities and academic partners — including the University of Portsmouth — to ensure our research meets the highest standards of evidence and reaches global audiences through peer-reviewed publication and knowledge exchange.
We engage with foundations such as the Gates Foundation to align our work with international priorities in sanitation, public health and sustainable development, and to access resources that allow research to scale.
We partner with government agencies at national and state level — including ministries, urban local bodies and regulatory institutions — to ensure findings inform policy, shape standards and influence procurement.
We collaborate with NGOs, community organisations and civil society partners who work directly with the communities our research is meant to serve — ensuring our evidence is grounded in lived reality.
The Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak Research Foundation is an initiative of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation — one of India's most respected voluntary organisations, with a presence in more than 1,400 towns and cities and a record of social reform spanning five decades.
That relationship gives DBPRF something rare: direct access to one of the world's largest sanitation field networks. Our research is not conducted on hypothetical systems. It is conducted on toilets that are used by real people, every day, across India.
Sulabh has demonstrated that sanitation can be transformed at scale. DBPRF exists to understand how — and to generate the evidence that allows others to do the same.