Sulabh Int'l Founder Emphasizes Need for Empowering Women
Patna: April 4, 2008
 Dr. Bindeshwari Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International Social Service Organization and a recipient of Padmabhushan award, on Friday arrived in Patna with a group of women from Rajasthan who earlier carried human waste from house to house in Alwar district but turned their lives around for a better, more respectable career with the help of the Sulabh Organization.
"Until few years ago, these women did not know there was a better life waiting for them if they just tried a little harder. Sulabh International provided them guidance and training facilities and now the same women are traveling in jets to different countries, running successful small businesses and are brimming with their new-found confidence," Pathak said while introducing Usha Chaumar, Rajbala Nanda, Seema Atwal, Anokhi Atwal, Prem Atwal, Sunita Nanda, Lalita Nanda, Shakuntala Chaumar, Neetu Geyar, Guddi Topia, Mithilesh Pantamoli, and Lalita Daburia.
Pathak said there was a pressing need for education and proper guidance for women involved in such sub-human profession who must be given opportunity to join the mainstream society with equal rights and sharing in everything.
The women, at the invitation of Netherlands Prince of Orange Willem-Alexander who is also on the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, will participate in the UN General Assembly meet on July 2, Pathak said.
The Sulabh International, over the last couple of decades, has built 12 lakh public lavatories worldwide and has successfully given new directions to more than 20,000 people earlier engaged in carrying human waste, Pathak said adding more than 2 billion households in the world still lacked proper sanitation facilities and his organization was aiming to narrow the gap by half by 2015 and the other half by 2025.
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