Sonam Dumbre, 24-year old girl, born and brought up in Mumbai completed her post-graduation in Environmental Sciences and soon got a job as a sales executive. But one fine day, a general visit to the SBI website changed her life for good. She soon left her lucrative job to construct toilets for salt pan workers in Tamil Nadu. She saw a link on the website about SBI’s Youth for India fellowship. As she explored and read more about the initiative she became more interested in it. “Salt work involves rigorous physical labour in high temperatures (40° C and above) leading to rapid loss of water from the body which needs to be replaced during the working hours since the body is incapable of storing water for long,” said Dumbre.
“It was all so random. I had never imagined that I will be doing something like this. But what caught my attention was the uniqueness of the fellowship. Here we had to do everything from scratch – from finding the problem we wanted to solve to implementing the solution. We have to take ownership of everything and create a real impact,” added Dumbre.
Even before actually visiting the location to start her fellowship, Dumbre knew exactly the sector in which she wanted to intervene and the people she wanted to help. “I chose Tamil Nadu as I wanted to explore a place I had never been to before. The language, the people – everything was different. I had already decided that I will work with salt pan workers and address the issues faced by them,” she said.
Due to a lack of access to toilets near the salt pan, they often do not get to relieve themselves for hours. In order to avoid frequent visits to the distant peripheries where they could urinate in open, they stopped having enough water which led to various health issues. “There aren’t any toilets in the salt pan as the salt might get contaminated and then the traders won’t buy it. Also, it is very hard to construct toilets in those areas as even if you dig two-five feet, you get water from the ground,” Dumbre explained.
In addition to this, many of the workers are daily wage labourers and it takes a lot of time to reach the peripheries of salt pans which are located at least one kilometre away from the site, reducing their productivity and earning potential.
Considering the plight of these workers, she decided to design a urinal which could be constructed in salt pan areas. She came up with two prototypes: one of them is a basic simple design where urine plus water waste is passed to a concrete bed planted with salt and urea absorbing plants thus making it a zero liquid discharge unit. The plants can be harvested from time to time and used as fodder for animals. “The design is very simple and yet has not been implemented anywhere in the country,” she said. Another design she came up with required engineering support as it was based on vacuum evaporation technique.
Having started her fellowship in September 2014, Dumbre has come a long way. From feeling like an outsider to becoming friends with the community, this young girl has come out of the shell she lived in and not only changed her life but that of others who needed her help. The salt pan stretch is 118 acres wide. The intervention will benefit 90 families involved in salt production and 250 workers. Apart from this, about 80 people coming from neighbouring hamlets for daily wage labour will also be using the facility. Dumbre averred, “Earlier it was very difficult for me to break the ice. But gradually I have become part of the community. The journey has transformed me completely. I am no more a shy girl from Mumbai, I feel great that I am doing something that will lead to a larger impact. The whole experience is liberating.”
“As it is just a year long fellowship, we have a very limited time to do everything. I would like to spend some more time on it and will be more than happy if someone else comes up with a better design,” she added. Describing her entire experience of the fellowship, Dumbre says it is a great platform to explore and come out of your comfort zone.
Source: The Better India