Mudit Tyagi developed a brilliant Susuvidha app for finding a public toilet which is clean. In India it is difficult to find the public toilet leave alone a clean one. By, using this app not only helps you find one, but also allows you to add new ones that you discover to the database, so others can be helped too.

He discovered this app after the incident which he faced in his real life. He said that “We faced the problem when we were travelling with our mother, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. We were taking her to Delhi for her medical appointment, and I saw that it is very difficult for people in her condition to find clean public toilets and washrooms.”

Mudit, a graduate of Columbia University in the US, has been involved in four startups and now runs two companies in India and the US. One of these is DevJiva, which has offices in Pune and Hyderabad, and has a team of 16 people.

Working of Susuvidha app:

The globe is divided into 20 km segments and the latitude and longitude of the midpoints in each segment is noted. Then, the Susuvidha servers run a very long Google search in the backend. It is a vast search, which includes all cafes, restaurants, and words like the toilet, loo, bathroom, washroom, etc., at each latitude and longitude. This search is constantly running in the backend of the app and the results get saved into a database. Thus, when a user runs the app on a GPS enabled phone, he/she can spot all the toilets available in and around that specific area, in the form of red pins.

In addition to the algorithm that is constantly searching for toilets, the app also has a feature that allows users to add new toilets to the database. If a user is present at the location of a public toilet and finds that it does not show up in the app, he/she just has to click on the ‘add new location’ option. The phone picks up the address with the help of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and sends it to the database. All toilets added by users are verified before they are visible in the app. This is done with the help of Google Earth to ensure that the location that has been added is actually a toilet and not something else.

Functions of Susuvidha:

• The app collects information about all public toilets located in the vicinity and presents it to users in an easy-to-use format.

• Susuvidha also provides the option for users to read or write reviews and ratings on each toilet.
• On selecting the pin that marks a particular toilet, users find the address, the distance from their location, the ratings of the toilet, and options to read and write reviews. This feature has been added to ensure that the standard and cleanliness of the toilets can be verified with the help of comments coming in from the users.

Cost:

The app is free and will remain free for all users, but Susuvidha plans to introduce a revenue model in the later stages by adding options for travellers to find bus stops and hotels, features that might be of interest to the travel industry.

“Twenty percent of Susuvidha’s profits will be donated to Sulabh International Social Service Organization to support its adoption of Indian villages, and its research in the development of safe and cheap toilets, with water treatment and energy generation units that use the waste products. Furthermore, fifty percent of profits will be invested to support small entrepreneurs who set up and operate Sulabh-style toilets,” says Prashant Bharam, an employee of DevJiva.

“To bring about change, you need three things. You need to have an idea. You need to implement it. And then you need to involve people. We have done the first two, and are now working towards the third,” concludes Mudit.

Susuvidha has been downloaded by over 1,500 users already. The app is not just confined to India but covers the entire world.