Manual Scavenging, a job that claims hundreds of lives across the country every year, is coming to an end and that too soon. The profession looked down by the society and categorized the workers into untouchables would soon be buried for ever and the present day manual scavengers are all set to take a new avatar as technology professionals thanks to Bandicoot, an innovation developed by a group of young engineers based in Thiruvananthapuram.
True to its name, the Bandicoot itself would go into manholes and clean the entire sewage clogged in the area while its “masters” manipulate and manoeuvre the system with robotic arms and instruments. “Bandicoot is a robot developed by a start-up in Thiruvananthapuram’s Technopark and it would do away with manual scavenging once and forever. Bandicoots, designed and manufactured by us are in use in cities like Indore, Surat, Vadodara etc,” said Afsal Muttikkal, the young chief marketing officer of Genrobotics, the start-up firm and one of the founders of the company.
He said the robot is capable of cleaning ten manholes in day compared to three or four by human beings. “The Bandicoot has an edge over the humans in all sectors of the process. They will tackle solid waste clogging in sewers effectively than any other machines or humans. You can take it from us, the days of manual scavenging are coming to an end and for ever,” Afsal told The Pioneer.
The fact that Bandicoot walked away with the top honours in the Swachhata Start-Up Challenge underscores the observation by Afsal. What makes it distinct is its capability to warn the users of any hazardous emissions from below. “These machines are fitted with gas sensors to provide warning about any kind of hazardous emissions,” he said.
When Afsal and his colleagues in the engineering college, M K Vimal Govind, K Rashid, Arun George, and N P Nikhil set out for the long journey of life, they decided to do something revolutionary and the age-old scavenging is coming to an end because of this silent revolution. “We are indebted to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for the support given to us. It was at their initiative the Governments of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and 14 other States chose Bandicoots and the result is there to see,” said Afsal.
Bandicoot could be one of the reason behind Indore emerging as the cleanest city in the country by topping the survey Swachch Survekhan 2022 held by the Union Government. The second and third prize winners, Vadodara, Navi Mumbai and even Ulhas Nagar in Maharashtra too have deployed Bandicoots for scavenging jobs.
According to Afsal, more than 1700 sanitary workers have been shifted to higher levels of their jobs and the process was on to eliminate the manual work at the earliest.
Aziz Shaikh, the young municipal commissioner of Ulhas Nagar says his corporation made considerable savings through the deployment of Bandicoot as part of eliminating manual scavenging.