Project for Peace winner to build toilets in India's slums

Aarti Reddy, a freshman at the University of Richmond and this year's Project for Peace proposal winner, was chosen to receive funding to build toilets in the urban slums of India.

"I'm really excited," Reddy said. "I'm hoping that if this works out, that the company will start doing this in other cities in India. This is just a pilot project."

Krittika Onsanit, a member of the deciding committee for the Project for Peace competition, said: "We were impressed that it was original. We had never had a proposal about health or sanitation or focusing on toilets. We were also impressed with the fact that the proposal was sustainable and worked with the NGOs [Non-governmental organizations] and models on micro-franchises."

To win, Onsanit said the proposal had to be two pages long with a budget proposal, and the project had to spread peace in some way and be sustainable for longer than just the summer when it would be implemented.

The winning project proposes building toilets in areas where sanitation is lacking in India, Reddy said. "I want the organization to build toilets in the slums and have a slum-dweller operate it and charge for its use," she said.

The project will provide this necessity through the involvement of a social enterprise called Shramik, which builds portable toilets, Reddy said. A social enterprise is a business that makes profit but uses all of its profits to help social issues, she said.

Winning the Projects for Peace competition afforded Reddy $10,000 toward her project, which she will start this summer and will take up to 12 weeks to complete, she said.

Reddy began formulating her ideas after researching different social enterprises and working with some.

"I worked in Bangladesh with a few social enterprises, Reddy said, "and that experience helped me with getting a better understanding [of] social enterprises or development in general."

Although many people take everyday luxuries, such as a clean toilet, for granted, Reddy's project proposal states, "In the urban slums of India, where one toilet is shared by over 1,400 people, getting a few minutes of relief at a clean toilet can be the foundation for 'peace of mind' for millions of people."

Contact reporter Amanda Minnitte at amanda.minnitte@richmond.edu