Sulabh Founder Bindeshwar Pathak, Sanitation Pioneer, Dies At Delhi Hospital

Bindeshwar Pathak campaigned extensively to alleviate the plight of manual scavengers.

Social activist and founder of ‘Sulabh International’ Bindeshwar Pathak, who campaigned extensively to alleviate the plight of manual scavengers, died at a Delhi hospital due to cardiac arrest, said a close aide. He was 80.

Bindeshwar Pathak unfurled the the national flag in the morning on the occasion of Independence Day and collapsed soon after that.

He was rushed to AIIMS Delhi. A source at the hospital said the social reformer was declared brought dead at 1.42 pm.

Sulabh has constructed nearly 1.3 million household toilets and 54 million government toilets using cheap, two-pit technology.

Apart from construction of toilets, the organisation has led a movement to discourage manual cleaning of human waste.

Lawmakers have passed several laws aiming to stamp out the age-old practice of manual scavenging, the latest in 2013. But many scavengers are still used through subcontractors.

The men are called “manual scavengers” because they mainly scrape the waste with their bare hands without any protective gear or masks, a practice Bindeshwar Pathak termed “demeaning”.