Ramdas Mane - The Toilet Man of India! Entrepreneur Building Portable Toilets to Enable 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'

Most of you must have heard of Arunachalam Muruganantham aka PadMan, courtesy the Bollywood movie starring Akshay Kumar who plays his celluloid version in the film. But have you met the ‘Toilet- Man’ from Pune? Ramdas Mane, the 57-year-old born in Satara district of Maharashtra, has to his credit 22,000 toilets and has been a major force in eradicating open defection not just in his village but the entire district of Satara. Talking to LatestLY over an hour-long telephonic interview, he narrated his story, the rags to riches tale, mentioned how he has his name in the Limca Book of Records, his group of companies and most importantly- recounted the inspiration behind the idea of building portable toilets that has transformed his passion of serving the society into a mission.

Ramdas Mane is an entrepreneur and founder/chairman of Mane Group of companies. The boy who once had to endure sunburn because he had to work without clothes in the field in scorching heat, is today responsible for not only the toilets in his village but also the irrigation tanks which have made his village drought-proof. Born in Lodahwade village of Satara district in 1960 and forced to move out of his village due to his Katcha house collapsing, he had to beg his father to send him to school. Though his father, Mansingh Mane, wanted him to study, he was apprehensive about sending him to school because a pack of wolves and wild dogs had eaten two kids from a nearby village. His persistence paid off and his father agreed. “My mother used to ensure that I crossed the zone of wild dogs and wolves, and from there on I used to go to school by myself.” But after he appeared for class 7 exam, he had to look for work, any work to fund his education.

Finally, he got the job of digging and had to carry mud and unload it near dam construction site. Talking about that experience, he recalls “You may think it was easy to get a manual job, but I had to beg Mulla sahib who was incharge of employing labourers to let me work. He gave me work on one condition- he told me that I would have to work as much as an adult labour would and only then he would employ me. I did that for whole one and a half month and was paid 2.25 paise per day. Finally, I collected Rs.80 and used it to fund my further studies for the coming grades”. The reality is that the generation which grew in the first two decades after independence, had to face tough times if they were not from well-to-do families and depended entirely on agriculture.

Later, a young graduate from his village named Janardan Lohar who had returned after completing his B.COM from Satara, advised him to study at ITI in Pune. He came to Pune, attended classes in the day and worked at a canteen in the night. And he also topped his course.

Before gaining identity as the man who could ready a toilet in two hours and introducing his village to the idea of portable toilets, Ramdas Mane was known as an entrepreneur in the Pune belt. He founded the Mane Group of Companies which today has four subsidiaries. In fact, in the year 2007, his name was entered in the Limca Book of Records for building the largest Thermocol manufacturing machine in the world.

But the turning moment in his life came when the late Nationalist Congress Party leader from state, former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra R.R. Patil announced the Sant Gadge Baba Gram Swacchta Abhiyan. As per the initiative, the village which would have 200 toilets and would be open defecation free, would get a reward of Rs.25 lakhs, Ramnath Mane decided that it would be his village which had to win this prize not only for the prize money but also for the pride of being the cleanest village in the belt. An inspection committee would determine that and gave the village a period of one year to meet the criteria.

Talking to LatestLY, Ramdas said that open defacation was such a widespread habit that village residents did not use toilet even if they had one. Hence, it was not only about making toilets but changing mindsets. He was greatly helped by the Collector of Kolhapur Zilla Parishad, Prabhakar Deshmukh, in this endeavour. Initially, the cost of building 200 toilets was Rs.7 lakhs and Mane donated Rs.5 lakh for it. However, as the date of inspection came closer, they realised that they were short by two toilets.

There were numerous problems in constructing the toilets. Mane says, “The biggest trouble was arranging for labour, as they weren’t available. Also, material and other resources had to be arranged from other villages and took time. This is when Prabhakar Desmukh told me to find a way”. Being an entrepreneur, he did find a way. He went to Pune and used thermocol, cement and as he says, “sandwiched” it both. Ramdas soon found that he could construct a toilet in just two hours and moreover, a mobile toilet. He completed the two toilets within two hours after reaching his village and put Patra (Tin Roof) to cover it. Lodahwade village, his village, won the first prize and Rs. 25 lakhs cash reward which was used to construct irrigation tanks, he said. Those same irrigation tanks have made his village drought proof now, as water stored during rainy season is poured in the well.

Soon, the portable toilets became popular. In a meeting held soon after the reward, a neighbouring village ordered 20 toilets. Soon, it developed into a business model. Ramdas says that he has devised a unique formula. He has categorised the toilets in three groups: Basic, Executive, and Luxury. Explaining the concept, he says “We charge no money for the basic model. It is done on no-profit, no-loss basis. The executive toilet, which has slightly better facilities and the luxury toilet which is a complete washroom in itself, gives us a 10% margin.” He elaborated that he took only the material and labour cost for the basic model because he wanted customers to value and use the toilet. “If I give it for free, they will start keeping hens in it. Free commodity has no value. Hence we only take what cost is incurred.”

Ramdas Mane has supplied more than 22,000 portable toilets in the state of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore among others. The thermacole produced by his company is exported to more than 70 countries. He has also been awarded with the Swachh Bharat Award by none other than the eminent scientist Raghunath Masalkar.

The portable toilets used by the construction workers for latest Mumbai Metro project is also built and provided by Mane Group of Companies. He praises Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan but also has a request, “The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a worthy campaign but when we levy 18% GST on toilet building materials and toilet, somewhere the purpose gets defeated.” His message to the world through LatestLY is that he wants people to get inspired by his story and become entrepreneurs. “All it takes is hard work and determination,” he says as a parting message.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 26, 2018 08:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).