The Central Ministry may have approached celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Anushka Sharma and Shilpa Shetty oflate apart from its brand ambassadors like yoga guru Ramdev to support clean Ganga mission, which aims at cleanliness and eradication of open defecation by 2019 but the real hero can be called this simple man from Roorkee who has been into this mission of raising awareness through exhibitions for the past 30 years.
His efforts have now recently been recognised by limca Book of Records team who have entered his name in their book for having collected more than 2000 newspaper clippings on toilets out of which 982 have been made in the entry of ‘interesting’ with dateline falling in the period from 1996 to 2016. His earlier collection did not have date and page details of newspaper for which they were not considered by the lBR edition. Ever since the day, he has been approached by schools of repute and administrative authorities for becoming their brand ambassadors in the Swachchha Bharat mission.
Not many of us would know that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed to his now wife Cherie Booth in 1976 while she was down on her knees cleaning a toilet. This news clipping is one of the many interesting ones collected by 58 year old Ramesh Bhateja of Ramnagar colony, Roorkee who is engaged in the business of installation of septic tanks, flush systems, rain water harvesting systems, water recharging and the likes. Many other interesting stories in his collection include like Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams talking about using toilets in space, wedding in a toilet, PhD researches on toilets and the famous gold-plated, gem studded bathroom of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Very much concerned about the community brotherhood, Bhateja has never highlighted the news linked to toilets which may arouse communal conflicts. “I never show news clippings which may give rise to communal tensions or hurt the sentiments of a community, although there are some negative stories on graves of Mahatma Gandhi and Muslim leader,” said Ramesh. Also the crime stories in toilets are never part of his collection for showing respect towards the fair sex.
Ramesh shares that his collection has interesting anecdotes like a toilet which is medicated, wherein a person gets all his body parameters like blood pressure and others, displayed on screen when he uses toilet. In Delhi there is a toilet, where one has to show voter-id before entering. There are some toilets exclusive for animals and some which can be used only at night. Subscriber to 6 newspapers and member of some 11 journals, the contractor is well informed.
When asked if he had taken some technical training Ramesh beams with a smile. “I stay in the town of scientists; the bent of mind has naturally become scientific. Science surrounds us everywhere, in all day to day tasks. Many IIT scientists come and discuss with me about treating rain water, storm water and others before installation of purifiers.
My son is a petroleum geologist and he has left his lucrative career for making some innovative technique of water purification.” India is a poor country and unless and until we give easily affordable methods of conservation of water and its purification, the mission of providing potable water to every citizen of India cannot be complete, adds Bhateja.
Speaking about how he first took up the hobby that he has nurtured over the last 3 decades in the service of the society, Bhateja said, "I have been a great fan of the founder of Sulabh Shauchalay Bindeshwar Pathak for his remarkable work on public sanitation in the past. Inspired by his own story I also thought of doing something for the society. Pathak had shared that once he was in Patna he had to attend natural call but being a Brahmin he could not go in the open fields. For two kms at a stretch there was no toilet available so he decided that day to constrict toilets and Sulabh shauchalayas are his gift to the society.”
Bhateja is often invited to events dedicated to sanitation and cleanliness issues in the country where he talks and displays the clippings on a board for the public. In 2007 he was invited to participate in the 'World Toilet Summit' in Delhi to display the clippings where more than 44 countries had participated was inaugurated by former President Abdul Kalam.