Use of bio toilets in Indian Railways to be a part of the B-school syllabus

The use of bio-toilets in Indian Railways is going to be a part of the B-school syllabus as a case study. Indian Railways has approved the Indian School of Business (ISB) to include the study by them on bio-toilets as a part of their curriculum.

Bio toilets in Indian Railways 

Bio toilet is a unique decomposition mechanized toilet system that decomposes human excretory waste in the digester tank by the use of specific high graded bacteria (aerobic or anaerobic). It further converts them into methane gas and water. 

In less than ten years (between 2011 and 2020), there are 245,775 bio-toilets in Indian  Railways installed in 68,694 coaches. Around 15 trains including - Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Humsafar and Vande Bharat express have bio-toilets.

As per a senior official, there are two major takeaways of bio-toilets in Indian Railways - 

• Bio toilets are eco friendly and their use has resulted in cleaner platforms and rails.
• It led to a successful reduction in corrosion leading to an increased life span of Railways.

He also highlighted that the bio-toilet model was perfect for management schools. It reflected how the national transporter has managed to go with this concept by the successful development of sustainable technology.

The study that will be a part of the B-school syllabus will include -

• How in 2011 the first prototype train with bio-toilets in Indian Railways started from Gwalior.
• How the project successfully scaled up by 2014.

Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) studied the impact of bio-toilets and found that -

• It resulted in reducing the burden of cleaning the tracks and subsequent manual scavenging.
• 5.4 million litres of water per day was saved that was spent earlier on track washing at the railway stations.
• Alternate jobs were provided to the manual scavengers which improved their livelihood.
• Approximately 155 tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide reduction was witnessed as a benefit of bio-toilets in Indian Railways.

Senior officials involved in the process confirmed that the bio-toilets used in Indian Railways were developed with DRDO in association with private entities and were installed in the coaches of Indian Railways. It was an achievement that was accomplished over a decade. It is an important material for management schools that teaches them the lessons of coordination between different departments and sustainable development.

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