WASH For India offers innovation consulting services to improve sanitation and hygiene in India. Our services span Strategy, Research, Design, & Management. Please get in touch to discuss possible collaborations.

1. SOCIAL INNOVATORS FOR
WATER, SANITATION, & HYGIENE
IN INDIA
INNOVATION
CONSULTING

2. CONTENTS
ABOUT
WFI
WFI
CONSULTING
THE
SANITATION
CRISIS
NEED FOR
INNOVATION
1 2 3 4

3. THE SANITATION CRISIS
ABOUT
WASH FOR INDIA

4. WASH FOR INDIA
OVERVIEW
Across India, a handful of individuals and organizations
harbor impossible dreams of ending India’s water,
sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) crisis. Working on issues
most others consider “taboo”, these innovators fight a
constant battle to get resources for their ventures and
programs. Their strong & creative visions often die
diluted & withered deaths in the absence of adequate
support for innovation in the WASH sector in India even
though its clear that without strategic innovation, the
needle isn’t really moving.
WFI is launching Innovation Consulting services to
enable other organizations & individuals to address and
the WASH crisis in India in innovative & effective ways.
WASH For India (WFI) is a unique social
innovation catalyst that seeks to greatly
accelerate the pace of WASH innovation in India.

5. WASH For India exists to make audacious
dreams of ending India’s water & sanitation
crisis come true.
WFI’s mission is to push the boundaries of
what is possible in sanitation & hygiene by
supporting creative approaches that would not
find takers otherwise.
Our vision is to make water, sanitation, &
hygiene in India a hotbed for innovation by
supporting incredibly talented individuals &
organizations working on these issues.
We want to become the single most important
catalyst for high impact WASH innovation in
India by 2016, working closely with rigorously
selected nonprofits and social enterprises and
supporting them in BIG ways. From the
programs incubated within WFI, we will also
spin off several social enterprises with
sustainable business models.
MISSION
+
VISION

6. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
HARSH SHRIVASTAVA
Harsh is an experienced social innovator
solving complex problems at the
intersection of business, governments, non-
profits, media, and politics. He was last the
Chief Operations Officer of the Centre for
Civil Society, India’s top rated think-tank.
Harsh was previously in India’s Planning
Commission. He was Prime Minister
Vajpayee’s deputy speechwriter. He
headed marketing and business
development for Feedback Infrastructure,
and was the first director for agribusiness
for the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Harsh is on the board of the Meghalaya
Institute of Governance and has been an
Emerging Leaders Fellow at the Australia
India Institute. He has an MBA from IIM-
Ahmedabad, India’s top B-School.
NIRAT BHATNAGAR
Nirat is the Founder & CEO of WASH For
India.
A serial social innovator with deep
experience in WASH innovation, Nirat has
conceptualized and led several
pathbreaking projects in sanitation such as
Project Sammaan & the Nirmal Bharat Yatra
along with partners such as the Gates
Foundation, Poverty Action Lab, & WASH
United.
Nirat has been a strategy consultant, an
online entrepreneur, & has lead the social
impact practice at a design-led innovation
firm.
Nirat has a BS in Physics from IIT
Kharagpur. & an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

7. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ANAND SHAH
Anand works with BMW Impact Ventures
identifying opportunities for partnership &
incubation to improve the built
environment & efficiency of urban areas.
A serial entrepreneur, Anand previously was
the CEO of Piramal Foundation where he
founded and led Sarvajal, a social
enterprise to deliver clean water to Indian
villages using a kiosk based micro-
franchising model .
Anand also founded Indicorps - a hugely
respected long term service program that
got passionate individuals to volunteer in
Indian social impact organizations.
Anand was also a Co-Founder of Teach For
India a large education program in India.
Anand graduated from Harvard College.
LOUIS BOORSTIN
Louis Boorstin is an experienced leader
and innovator in the international
development and social impact sectors.
Louis founded and served as deputy
director of the water, sanitation and
hygiene program at the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation from 2005 to 2013.
Prior to that, he worked at the
International Finance Corporation, part of
the World Bank Group, whackere he held a
number of positions including manager of
environmental finance from 1997 to 2004.
Louis holds a BA in Economics from Yale
University and an MBA and MA
(Development Economics) from Stanford
University.

8. MUSHFIQ MOBARAQ
Mushfiq is an associate professor at the Yale School
of Management. He is a development economist
with interests in environmental issues. Has several
ongoing research projects in Bangladesh, India,
Malawi and Brazil exploring ways to induce people in
developing countries to adopt technologies or
behaviors that are likely to be welfare improving. His
research has been covered by the New York Times,
The Economist, Science, NPR, Wired.com.
He co-chairs the Urban Services Initiative at the
Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT. He has
previously worked as an economist at the University
of Colorado at Boulder, the World Bank, and at the
International Monetary Fund.
He also leads Yale SOM 'international experience'
trips to developing countries.
BOARD OF ADVISORS
ADRIEN COUTON
Adrien is an Associate Partner and the lead of the
Water and sanitation practice at Dalberg, a
development consulting firm.
Before joining Dalberg, Adrien was the CEO of
Naandi Water, one of the largest BoP water utility in
India. He previously worked as an investor in water
ventures as manager of the water and sanitation
portfolio at Acumen Fund, and at the World Bank’s
Water and Sanitation Program.
Adrien holds a Masters in Management from HEC,
Paris, a Masters in Political Science from La
SorbonneUniversity, Paris, and a Masters in Public
Administration from the Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University.
He is an Acumen Fund Fellow, a Yale World Fellow
and an Asia Society’s Asia 21 Delegate.

9. THE SANITATION CRISIS
WFI
INNOVATION
CONSULTING

10. SERVICES
WASH For India seeks to be your partner across the entire
innovation lifecycle for WASH Projects & Programs.
Primary & Secondary
research as independent
deliverables or as inputs to
Strategy creation.
Can include User Research
through ethnographic
methods.
Developing Program
Strategy, Innovation Strategy,
or Investment Strategy as
per assignment.
Designing different
aspects of the Program or
Intervention.
Can include Service
Design, Product Design,
Technology Design,
Communication Design,
Behavior Change
Campaign Design, Game
Design, & several others.
Assembling teams &
implementing program
management structures
to manage complex
WASH programs &
projects.
We can also help you set
up new entities: for-
profit / nonprofit in
India.
RESEARCH STRATEGY DESIGN MANAGEMENT

11. RESEARCH
Successful innovation is based on a nuanced understanding of the
context and of the people the innovation ultimately targets. WFI offers
three kinds of innovation research services.
USER RESEARCH
How do caste & religion determine
whether people a toilet or not ?
EXPERT RESEARCH
Are there people who deeply
understand the economics of
waste ?
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Does clean water matter more or
access to toilets for better health?
Without a nuanced understanding
of the end users we are seeking to
help, we can easily design
programs that are grossly
ineffective, unused, or worst
harmful. WFI’s User-Research
services can help you develop
detailed personas for the
stakeholders you are trying to help.
A phenomenal amount of work has
happened in different spheres of
WASH. We can help you uncover
insights by engaging with leading
experts and can design interesting
formats of engagement ranging
from interviews to conferences to
offsites to co-creation sessions.
There is a wealth of rigorous
research that can inform good
program design & development.
We can frame a customized
research deep dive for your
purposes and return with valuable
insights you can use to shape your
strategy or programs.

12. STRATEGY
Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene in India is an extremely diverse canvas with multiple
stakeholders and a complex political-economy. While there are several opportunities to
make a leveraged impact, without a sound strategy, its very easy to burn millions of
dollars without any impact at all. WFI offers the following strategy services.
INDIA STRATEGY
What should I do ?
The WASH crisis in India is truly
vast. The seven blind men & the
elephant analogy is perhaps most
accurate to describe it. WFI has
engaged with this crisis from
multiple vantage points and can
help you frame your India strategy
for WASH: given your goals &
constrains, what are the
opportunities for you to maximize
impact.
PROGRAM STRATEGY
How should I do it ?
If you know what your goals for
India are, we can help develop you
the MOST exciting & high impact
WASH program given your
situational constraints. We will look
across disciplinary boundaries and
mix and match ingredients to
create a Program Strategy for you
that’s truly unique and makes a
genuine difference.
INVESTMENT STRATEGY
Who should I support ?
Several CSR funds & institutional &
individual donors are looking to
adopt WASH as a cause. We can
provide guidance on where your
resources can make the largest
difference.

13. DESIGN
The WFI ecosystem has expertise in several disciplines of design for social
impact and has applied them successfully to WASH innovation projects in
the past. We can help you with the following.
SERVICE DESIGN
How do we deliver sanitary napkins at
schools so that girls actually use
them ?
The delivery of WASH products &
services need to be ‘designed’ carefully
for optimal adoption by end users. Our
deep experience can help.
BEHAVIOR DESIGN
How does one get children to wash
hands with soap regularly ?
The trickiest challenges in WASH often
are around behavior & habits. Our
behavior design expertise can help you
with such problems.
BUSINESS MODEL DESIGN
How can one run community toilets
in slums sustainably ?
Most WASH services don’t scale
because they are not financially viable.
Business model innovation can provide
a sound financial base for your projects.
TECHNOLOGY DESIGN
How can mobile phones be used to
educate health workers in WASH ?
Used smartly, mobile & web technology
can make a huge difference in WASH.
The Internet Of Things & Big Data can
transform WASH. We can design
sophisticated technology solutions.
COMMUNICATION DESIGN
How can millions of urban Indians
adopt sanitation as their cause ?
Well design communication programs
can advocate for better policies, bigger
budgets, & bring more civil society
involvement. We have deep experience
in launching mega WASH campaigns.
GAME DESIGN
How can games instill greater WASH
awareness & habits ?
We have deep experience in building
games for awareness & behavior change
in WASH. We’ve built physical games as
well as those cutting edge technology
such as the Microsoft Kinect.

14. MANAGEMENT
True innovation requires complex coordination across heterogeneous
organizations, individuals, disciplines, & contexts. Our management
expertise can help.
PROGRAM
MANAGEMENT
Delivering complex projects
Nuanced project management,
people management, &
communication management
systems need to be designed &
implemented to keep large WASH
innovation projects on track. We
have program managed two of the
largest WASH innovation projects in
India and can help.
LAUNCH
Launching programs & ventures
Several inspired individuals and
organizations are looking to make a
difference to India’s sanitation. Our
experience in entrepreneurship and
social innovation can help them
launch their new projects
successfully and efficiently. We can
help with incorporation, hiring,
fundraising help, & strategy.
PARTNERSHIPS
Expertise & impact
Partnerships with the government,
with WASH sector partners,
corporate partners, institutions can
make a huge difference to the scale
& impact of WASH programs. We’ve
got deep experience in forging
multidisciplinary partners across and
spectrum and can help you with that.

15. RECOMMENDATIONS
JAIRAM RAMESH
(Former Union Cabinet Minister Of Rural Development. Government
of India. IIT Bombay. Carnegie Mellon University. MIT)
I have found Nirat to be a talented & passionate innovator working for
improved sanitation in India. He conceptualized and implemented the
Nirmal Bharat Yatra (along with WASH United), a mega campaign for
sanitation in 2012, that we endorsed and engaged with. I find "Use My Loo"
to be a very creative idea that could benefit in particular millions of women
who migrate from villages into cities. I wish Nirat & ‘Use My Loo’ the very
best for this ambitious and laudable campaign.
ALIX ZWANE
(Executive Director - Evidence Action. Executive Director - Deworm
The World. PhD - Public Policy. Harvard)
"Nirat is a great partner. He works hard, delivers promptly, and is truly
creative. I'd work with him again in a heart beat."
ADRIEN COUTON
(Partner & Head of Water & Sanitation Practice. Dalberg. Yale World
Fellow. Harvard Kennedy School)
Nirat is one of the most inspiring innovators I have met in the sanitation
space. His work has explored new technologies, new constituencies, new
ways to break the mental barriers that have made the sanitation issue so
big, of so long, and nowhere more than in India. I hope that this new
initiative is an opportunity to bring better sanitation and better health to
millions.
KETAN KAPOOR
(CEO Mettl. IIT Roorkee. IIM Calcutta)
Nirat is a highly talented and focused person who gives his best shot in
everything he takes up. I really like his attitude and his willingness to roll up
the sleeve and get going with seemingly impossible tasks. I will definitely
team up with him in case an opportunity arises in future.
VARAD PANDE
(Officer on Special Duty. Ministry of Rural Development. Harvard
Kennedy School. Cambridge University)
Nirat worked closely with me last year on the Nirmal Bharat Yatra project. I
found his ideas & energy refreshing and was particularly impressed by his
ability to translate a cool idea into a ground reality! Since then, he's
continued to deepen his focus on sanitation coming up with a set of really
strategic yet creative initiatives. I really hope Use My Loo succeeds at
scale, and I wish Nirat and the campaign all the very best for this
exceptionally valuable initiative.
RADHIKA JAIN
(Research Manager. Jameel Poverty Action Lab MIT. Harvard
Kennedy School)
Nirat has a rare combination of incredible energy, creativity, strategic
vision, and ability to execute. He has a knack for generating innovative,
disruptive ideas, and following through with the meticulous planning and
careful implementation required to make them a success.
ASEEM SADANA
(Co-Founder Isango!. INSEAD)
Nirat is great at coming up with new ideas, and passionate about the cause
of fulfilling widespread sanitation needs in India. He has solid experience in
rolling out new initiatives. I am sure he'll create great impact with the Use
My Loo initiative.
RAJNISH KUMAR
(Co-Founder. Ixigo. IIT Kanpur)
Nirat is an extremely focused manager and has excellent people
management and time management skills. He is an out of the box lateral
thinker and an extremely quick learner. It was a professionally enriching
experience to work with him at Isango!, as he helped me bring out the best
in me.

16. WASH For India founder Nirat Bhatnagar has conceptualized & implemented
some of the most significant innovation projects in sanitation in India over the
last 3 years with a combined budget of over USD 8 million.
WASH INNOVATION EXPERIENCE
POTTY PROJECT*
A pathbreaking 12 month long
research study that explored
sanitation in urban slums from a
variety of perspectives.
End-users were studied to
understand their behavior, habits,
perceptions, & attitudes towards
sanitation & hygiene and towards
usage of sanitation facilities.
Toilet operators were studied to
understand practical constraints,
incentive structures, infrastructural
barriers to improving sanitation in
slums.
WWW.POTTYPROJECT.IN
WITH QUICKSAND
PROJECT SAMMAAN*
A slum sanitation design + research
project involves (project still in
progress) designing user-centered
toilet facilities with innovative
features on the one hand and
implementing two distinct
management models on the other.
The research experiment being
managed by JPAL studies features
of design + management that can
maximize toilet adoption.
1,200 toilet seats are being built in
this project.
WWW.PROJECTSAMMAAN.COM
WITH QUICKSAND + JPAL
NIRMAL BHARAT YATRA
A mega campaign to promote
sanitation and hygiene in rural India
through the use of positive levers.
The NBY was a mega-traveling
carnival that traveled from rural
Maharashtra to Bihar over a period of
56 days. The carnival featured over 20
games that communicated the need
for adopting toilets, handwashing with
soap, menstrual hygiene.
NBY reached out to 230 million
people through mass media and
trained nearly 160,000 people in
sanitation and hygiene at the carnival.
WWW.NIRMALBHARATYATRA.ORG
WITH QUICKSAND + WASH UNITED

17. THE SANITATION CRISIS
INDIA’S
SANITATION
CRISIS

18. FOUR PILLARS OF SANITATION
GOOD HYGIENE IS DEFINED AS PEOPLE HAVING ACCESS
TO AND USING FOUR ESSENTIAL SERVICES.
CLEAN
WATER
TOILETS MENSTRUAL
HYGIENE
HANDWASHING
WITH SOAP
+ + +
Being aware of the
need of and
consistently washing
hands with soap at
critical times - before
eating, after
defecation, & after
handling child feces -
to avoid ingesting
pathogens.
Having access to
clean, pathogen &
chemical free water
for drinking &
cooking.
Centralized,
community level, or
household water
treatment solutions.
Being aware of the
need for and
consistently using
safe menstrual
hygiene practices
including appropriate
products (low cost
pads, cloth, cups)and
other local solutions.
Having access to &
consistently using
toilets that are well
designed, clean, &
disabled friendly.
Sewage management
systems that ensure
safe disposal of
waste generated.

19. DISEASE PATHWAYS
In the absence of adequately functioning toilets, clean water systems,
handwashing practices, & menstrual hygiene management practices, pathogens
affect humans with severe consequences, often including death.
FECES
GROUND &
SURFACE WATER
FINGERS
FIELDS & FLIES
FOOD
DRINKING
WATER
HEALTH
STATUS

20. THE CLEAN WATER CRISIS
Vast sections of the Indian population don’t have access to clean water for drinking and
cooking. Water contamination in urban municipal water supply systems is very common
especially during monsoons. People in rural areas collect their water from ponds, or
borewells that are contaminated by agricultural residue. A shockingly low percentage of
the population has adopted water treatment technology.
800 MILLION INDIANS DON’T TREAT THEIR WATER
IN SPITE OF CONTAMINATION
21% COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
ARE CAUSED BY WATER
770 MILLIONINDIANS DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO
DRINKING WATER NEAR THEIR HOUSES.
73 MILLIONWORKING DAYS LOST ANNUALLY DUE TO
WATERBORNE DISEASE.

22. 44% MOTHERS DISPOSE CHILD FECES IN THE OPEN
THE TOILET CRISIS
India faces a toilet crisis of epic proportions. 60% of the Indian population does’t have
access to a toilet and goes outside to defecate. Billions of dollars have been spent in
constructing toilets but India continues to be last in the World Diarrhea Rankings. India will
not be reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of Sanitation For All.
626 MILLION INDIANS DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO A
TOILET AND DEFECATE IN THE OPEN
100 MILLION SCHOOL DAYS LOST DUE TO LACK OF A TOILET
54% OF THE VARIATION IN INTERNATIONAL
CHILD HEIGHT DUE TO OPEN DEFECATION.
30% WOMEN EXPERIENCE VIOLENT SEXUAL ASSAULT
DUE TO LACK OF SANITATION FACILITIES
800,000 PEOPLE REMOVE HUMAN FECES
MANUALLY FROM LATRINES

24. THE HANDWASHING CRISIS
Handwashing with soap is one of the easiest ways to reduce disease and death
caused by pathogens. Yet, 70% of Indians don’t use soap to wash their hands at three
critical times: before eating food, after defecating, & after handling infant feces.
564 MILLION INDIANS DON’T WASH THEIR HANDS
WITH SOAP AFTER DEFECATION
40% REDUCTION IN DIARRHEAL DISEASE
DUE TO HANDWASHING.
19% REDUCTION IN INFANT MORTALITY DUE TO
HANDWASHING BY BIRTH ATTENDANTS.
744 MILLION INDIANS DON’T WASH HANDS
WITH SOAP BEFORE EATING.
PROMOTING HYGIENE IS OFTEN THE SINGLE MOST
IMPORTANT PUBLIC HEALTH INTERVENTION.#1

26. THE MENSTRUAL HYGIENE CRISIS
Menstruation and menstrual hygiene are “taboo” topics in India. In the absence of
education about this issue, many girls, during their first period, feel they’ve been
afflicted by a terrible disease and will die soon. 70% of Indian women don’t have access
to appropriate menstrual hygiene products - using sand, ash, rags. This leads to severe
health complications.
OLD RAGS, HUSK, DRY LEAVES,
ASH, SAND, NEWSPAPERS
MATERIALS INDIAN WOMEN WHO LACK SANITARY
PRODUCTS ARE FORCED TO USE DURING THEIR PERIODS.
300 MILLION INDIAN WOMEN & GIRLS DON’T HAVE ACCESS
TO MENSTRUAL HYGIENE PRODUCTS.
23% GIRLS DROP OUT OF SCHOOL WHEN THEY
START MENSTRUATING.
60% WOMEN CHANGE THEIR MENSTRUAL CLOTH
ONLY ONCE A DAY
10% GIRLS THINK MENSTRUATION IS A SERIOUS
ILLNESS.
20% WOMEN DON’T USE LATRINES DURING
MENSTRUATION DUE TO CULTURAL TABOOS.

28. HEALTH CONSEQUENCES
• 1000 children die every day due to diarrhea caused by the WASH crisis. This is more than HIV,
malaria, & TB combined.
• Indian children and adults remain stunted losing up to 3-4 inches in height due to open
defecation.
• Women develop severe health complications through using unsafe menstrual hygiene
products and through having to “hold it in” till the cover of dark.
HUMAN RIGHTS CONSEQUENCES
•25% women have reported violent sexual assault when they go to secluded places to relieve
themselves.
•50% report being catcalled or verbally abused.
•The loss of human dignity is immeasurable when people have to defecate publicly exposing
themselves to the eyes of others.
EDUCATION CONSEQUENCES
•25% girls drop out of school when they start menstruating.
•50 schools days missed by girls every year due to menstruation.
•100 Million school days missed due to lack of toilets.
ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES
•USD 53.4 billion is lost by India due to reduced productivity, reduced tourism, & medical costs.
CONSEQUENCES
The Toilet, Clean Water, Handwashing, & Menstrual Hygiene
Crises, together, form India’s WASH crisis. This is perhaps the
largest public health problem in the world.

29. THE NEED FOR
INNOVATION

30. ADVOCACY
INFRASTRUCTURE &
SERVICE DELIVERY
AWARENESS, EDUCATION,
& BEHAVIOR CHANGE
WHAT
Influencing government,
media, corporates, & civil
society.
Improving access to sanitation (toilet
infrastructure + waste management),
clean water supply, menstrual hygiene
products, & personal hygiene products in
urban low income areas & rural India.
Promoting awareness, demand, &
adoption of various WASH
products, services, & habits.
SPECIFIC
GOALS
GOVERNMENT:
Improved policy, improved
budgets, better policy
implementation & budget
utilization.
MEDIA:
Enhanced coverage of the
WASH crisis in media
CORPORATES:
Enhanced participation of
corporates in the WASH crisis
through CSR + business
programs
CIVIL SOCIETY:
Getting large sections of
society involved in addressing
the WASH crisis.
TOILETS:
An adequate number of household level
or community shared toilets run under
appropriate business models along with
centralized / de-centralized waste
capture and treatment processes
CLEAN DRINKING WATER:
An adequate supply of easily accessible
and affordable clean drinking water to
urban slums and rural villages
MENSTRUAL HYGIENE MANAGEMENT:
Easily accessible supply of affordable
menstrual hygiene management products
such as sanitary napkins.
AWARENESS:
Ensuring millions of people are
reached and are aware of the
need and mechanisms for
adopting improved hygiene
EDUCATION:
Ensuring millions of people are
trained in-depth around sanitation
and hygiene habits
BEHAVIOR CHANGE:
Ensuring adoption of the four key
health behaviors - adoption of
toilets, handwashing with soap,
consuming clean water, &
appropriate menstrual hygiene -
through a seamless transition
from awareness to behavior.
WASH LANDSCAPE OVERVIEW
Activities to improve India’s WASH crisis can be classified into three distinct buckets.

31. Toilets, Clean Water, & Handwashing have suffered from
being framed as purely “supply side” problems where the
solution is perceived to be building more toilets or laying
more pipelines. The issue of Menstrual Hygiene has
received almost no attention.
The results of this inadequate framing and gross neglect
are not surprising: In spite of pouring tens of billions of
dollars to improve sanitation, India has seen relatively
little success. It is placed at the bottom of the World
Diarrhea Rankings and will not even come close to
meeting the Millenium Development Goals for sanitation
coverage by 2015.
There has been very little effort in identifying high
leverage points where breakthrough innovation is
needed because current approaches aren’t yielding
results. This blind spot is the single largest impediment
to improving WASH in India.
Only a few players have invested in strategic innovation
projects that have huge upsides and the potential to
dramatically improve the WASH crisis.
But a lot more is needed: A comprehensive set of
innovation programs designed on the basis of clear
hypotheses.
THE NEED FOR
INNOVATION

32. INNOVATION TYPE ADVOCACY
INFRASTRUCTURE &
SERVICE DELIVERY
AWARENESS,
EDUCATION, &
BEHAVIOR CHANGE
SCIENCE & TECH X X
PRODUCT &
SERVICE DESIGN
X X
PROCESS X X X
MARKETING &
COMMUNICATION
X X
BUSINESS MODEL X X X
POLICY X X X
INNOVATION NEEDS IN WASH
Six types of innovation are desperately needed across A) Advocacy, B)
Infrastructure & Service Delivery, and C) Awareness, Education, & Behavior
Change. The table below illustrates how broad the need for innovation is.

33. MORE and BETTER infrastructure / service delivery, improved adoption of
toilets, waste treatment, clean drinking water supply, and usage of
menstrual hygiene products. Innovation is needed across the board: from
basic technology to design to business model innovation.
INNOVATION NEEDS
INFRASTRUCTURE | SERVICE DELIVERY
INNOVATION TYPE ILLUSTRATIVE TARGETS FOR INNOVATION
SCIENCE +
TECHNOLOGY
• The need to efficiently extract economic value out of human waste so that waste management
has positive economic value
• The need to cost effectively treat water and make it safe to drink
• Improved fabrics to create longer-lasting menstrual hygiene management products
PRODUCT
+
SERVICE
• Designing toilet facilities that are user friendly and increase adoption while minimizing
maintenance requirements
• Cost effective hand cleaning products that don’t require water and are in a form-factor that
maximizes usage
• Low cost machines that can enable micro-entrepreneurs to make menstrual hygiene products
PROCESS
• Supply chain designs that enable efficient capture and disposal of human waste from
decentralized toilet facilities through waste collection tankers
• Creating alternative distribution systems for ensuring access to menstrual hygiene products to
rural girls
BUSINESS
MODEL
• Pay as you go water filtration services aligned to the cash constraints of low income households
• Community sanitation facilities that are funded by productivity gains achieved through improved
sanitation such as reduced absence from work for people working as domestic help.
POLICY
• Creating frameworks that enable bureaucrats and planners to submit reliable city level sanitation
plans to the Central Government programs for funding
• Policy innovation to address menstrual hygiene as a core focus area within the Government’s
sanitation agenda

34. INNOVATION TYPE ILLUSTRATIVE TARGETS FOR INNOVATION
SCIENCE +
TECHNOLOGY
• The need to create WASH awareness, advocacy & behavior change content based on leading edge
research and understanding of behavior change through disciplines such as behavioral economics
+ cognitive neuroscience.
PRODUCT + SERVICE
• The need to create WASH behavior change content not on negative messaging (fear, shame,
disgust) and but on positive messaging.
• The need to have processes to constantly create new, relevant content for WASH awareness &
behavior change campaigns.
PROCESS
• The need to enable processes within the government that make it convenient for bureaucrats &
government officials to plan & execute awareness & behavior change campaigns.
MARKETING &
COMMUNICATION
• Awareness & behavior change programs run by the government & nonprofits suffer from
suboptimal PR strategy & presence leading to un-amplified messaging
BUSINESS MODEL
• The need to invest in WASH Design Labs that create compelling WASH behavior change content
since most nonprofits lack resources to invest in the upfront “invention” costs for content that may
be high even though the incremental cost of producing and using that content may be low / zero.
POLICY
• The need to advocate for a portion of the government budgets for IEC & demand generation to be
set aside for content creation & invention of new campaigns
• The need to advocate for a portion of the government budgets for IEC & demand generation to be
set aside for campaign monitoring & program evaluation - something that is missing right now.
Awareness, education, and behavior change programs based on a
nuanced understanding of human behavior and cognitive processes.
Innovation is also needed in how the government and other stakeholders
plan & implement these programs. Some examples are given below.
INNOVATION NEEDS
AWARENESS | EDUCATION | BEHAVIOR CHANGE

35. INNOVATION NEEDS
WASH ADVOCACY
INNOVATION TYPE ILLUSTRATIVE TARGETS FOR INNOVATION
PRODUCT +
SERVICE
• The need to create technology based advocacy platforms that allow constant engagement
with the government, the media, the corporate sector, & the “non-at-risk” populations around
the WASH crisis.
• Creating WASH advocacy campaigns that harness all forms of media
PROCESS
• Creating innovative data based platforms that allow for near real time feedback and reporting
loops into decision making around WASH infrastructure, service delivery, & campaigns
MARKETING &
COMMUNICATION
• Sanitation suffers from systemic under-reporting in media because it is considered “unsexy” &
“uncool” and as something that people don’t want to know about. The need to create WASH
advocacy campaigns that draw on popular elements such as music and engage large sections
of the population who would otherwise not be interested.
BUSINESS MODEL
• The need to create advocacy platforms & campaigns that are funded completely or
substantially not by grant making organizations but by end beneficiaries (urban middle
classes for instance) thus allowing them to scale as more people benefit from better
sanitation in India.
POLICY
• The need for smart data monitoring platforms to maximize government utilization of WASH
budgets & resources - something that is presently low or completely absent due to lack of
advocacy & monitoring.
Innovative advocacy platforms are needed to ensure that government decision making -
budget allocations, policy formulation, project monitoring - is based on rigorous data.
Innovations in advocacy are also needed to ensure that the WASH crisis gets the attention
it deserves in the media & corporate sectors and engages the middle classes who typically
neglect the crisis even though it affects them.

36. Three key barriers prevent social entrepreneurs & nonprofit
innovators working in WASH from innovating at scale.
FUNDING
There is a very large amount of
risk-averse funding to scale up
approaches that already work but
very little funding exists for risky
ventures and programs that have
the potential to dramatically
improve the situation.
PARTNERSHIPS
Most organizations don’t have
access to a rich set of multi-
disciplinary partnerships with
global experts. Something
absolutely vital to innovation
efforts.
This leads to programs that are
sub-optimally designed and that
don’t benefit from a diversity of
viewpoints.
INNOVATION
KNOWLEDGE
There is close to zero volunteerism
in the WASH sector as compared to
the education sector or even the
environment.
Given how pervasive the sanitation
crisis is, this lack of widespread
engagement leads to unsustainable
solutions that are dependent on
external interventions and which
don’t last beyond the initial
impetus.
BARRIERS TO INNOVATION

37. SOCIAL INNOVATORS FOR
WATER, SANITATION, & HYGIENE
IN INDIA
INNOVATION
CONSULTING
NIRAT@WASHFORINDIA.ORG
+91 9899692572