Loo & behold: NIDians design toilets for slums

An efficient and hygienic public toilet system is probably a distant dream for slum-dwellers. But that's what students and alumni of the National Institute of Design are working at.

NID alumni members, Abir Mullick and Shikha Agarwal, and current students, Ashok Kumar and Pushpalata Swarnkar, are pursuing research on public health and sanitation under the Jamshedji Tata-NID universal design research chair.

Explaining the project, Mullick said, "It is a research and design initiative that investigates user needs to design a new bathroom for universal access in Indian slums. Often called public toilet, this project uses 'public bathroom' as a terminology to identify public toilet and bathing facility in Indian slums."

Explaining the problems of the current public bathroom facilities Agarwal said, "We carried out series of interviews with urban poor with respect to the problems faced in the current public bathroom system.

As per slum residents, they are dirt and suffocation; habit of defecating in the open; provisions made outside their homes for bathing and washing; absence of facilities for disabled; difficulties faced by the elderly; too large latrine pans for children and out of reach faucets in bathing facilities for children.

Research conducted by these four NIDians helped them in understanding problems of flooring, fixtures, faucets, doors, leakages and the like.

Explaining their design intervention, Mullick said, "The 3x3 ft bathroom stalls are inadequate for all users and therefore 3x4 ft bathroom stalls for independent and dependent users and 4x4 ft stalls for those using walkers and offering care are what is needed. Toilets must have wall-mounted grab bars for sitting down and getting up."

Latrines need to have buttock support to maintain comfortable seating posture during defecation. Bathroom stalls with low height faucet location, accessory storage and place to hang clothes for disabled users and children, should also have mid-height facilities for others. They should have T-shaped grab bar to reach accessories and clothes and wall-mounted seats for elderly people to be seated when bathing. Bathroom sinks need to accommodate standing users, crawlers and children and urinals need to accommodate standing users and crawlers, he added.

According to members of this group, the universal design of public bathrooms in India must focus on self-empowerment, offer personal assistance, and be socially inclusive. Once ready, they are likely to present the design to government authorities.
"Public bathrooms must be user focused and gender informed.

Due to human diversity, it is clear that no one bathroom environment can be perfect for all users. Public bathrooms must be flexible, so through inter-changeability of parts it is possible to introduce many bathroom designs within a single system,” Mullick concluded.