A group of students at Panchayat Union Middle School, Kurumbapatty, took matters into their own hands when an incredibly strong malodour seemed to have taken over the school, inhibiting students from attending class. Inspired by Design for Change, a global movement supporting Children driving change, 5 young boys took to their ‘Feel-Imagine-Do-Share’ method, and decided to get to the bottom of the problem.

A committee was set up, comprising of 13-year-olds -Supikpandian, Santhosh, Dhiyanithi, Ragul, and Prabaharan, and their job was to identify what the source of the odour was, as said in this report. They soon identified that the smell was coming from the school bathroom, which was in desperate need of repair as it lacked good drainage and basic sanitation requirements.

The cost of installing urinals being too high, the boys got their thinking caps on and worked on an alternate, economic idea. “A boy in the committee said that when he drank water, he saw that the 20 litre upside down water container, which was looking like a urinary tank. And he said he could set up a urinary tank by using that,” as said on the DFC video. The empty bottles were handed over for free to the students as a token of appreciation for their ingenious idea. To set up well-equipped toilets, funds were collected from students and teachers. The walls were repainted green and the drainage system was set up so that urine could easily exit through pipes connected to the necks of the bottles. A line of drip irrigation pipes were set up above the urinals to flush them.

Calling this low-cost system “Safe Mode Pissing System”, they have gone from school to school spreading awareness about the problems with unsanitary toilets and urging them to adopt the SMPS. Of the 3,600 Stories of Change submitted at the ‘I CAN Awards 2016’ held by Design for Change, these students have gone on to win the award of the ‘Boldest Idea’. This lesson on innovation and problem solving is one we hope they start teaching in schools across the country.