This is the story of Diptendu Roy, a journalist, and his vision to make travel comfortable for women. Aludecor always appreciates and encourages noble missions – and more so when it involves the use of our ACP sheets!
It was 2018. Diptendu planned a visit to meet a group of aspiring business owners to present a proposal- an idea that he believed with all his heart and soul. But soon after his presentation, all he received was some hushed laughter and silent rejections from around the room. In fact, a well-meaning gentleman even smirked saying why is he determined to throw his wife’s money away.
What did Diptendu present that made everyone titter?
He was pursuing an ‘unconventional endeavour’ of creating clean public restrooms accessible for women. Formerly a journalist, he was working on a cause to which he felt utterly devoted: providing clean public facilities along India’s roads, especially for female travellers. Like most of non-conforming endeavors, Diptendu’s venture also started facing a lot of obstacles. The blow was harder for him as he was dependent on his wife’s earnings for the time being. But he remained strict to his goal and consistently worked on the concept of a cleaner and accessible sanitary section for women travellers, for which he even left his lucrative job.
How the idea started…
Although Diptendu was aware that Eloo was not the first startup to come up with this idea, he claims his personal experiences drove him to launch the company. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Raipur-based company and the self-help group (SHG) Bolpur Mahila Mahasangha led to the creation of this pilot project.
In the words of Diptendu, he was travelling on the highway in southern Chhattisgarh with his wife Sunita Chakraborty. All through the journey, there weren’t any restrooms in sight for miles. Understandably, it was an unresting situation for his wife as well as for other women. So, they had to pull over on the side of the road and hide behind some trees for lavatorial purposes.
Where the danger lies…
According to John Hopkins Medicine, retaining urine for an extended period of time might lead to irregular bladder function. However, given the dearth of clean facilities along the route, many women find that road vacations lose their fun factor. When discussed with a group of women, almost everyone accepted the fact that as much as they adore road trips and backpacking, they’ve to think twice before making the actual plan. The absence of effective infrastructure for restrooms is a major barrier. This increases the scope of urinary tract infections (UTIs) which is an incredibly painful medical condition. Some women decide not to drink water, while others often retain their urine until they reach their destination. Both of these actions are more harmful than one may think.
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Diptendu’s main goal in founding this firm was to make it easy for women to travel along roads. In 2018, he presented the concept to the Chhattisgarh government and registered for a fellowship program that the state was sponsoring. He spoke to numerous dhaba proprietors along the highway and learned that women didn’t drink any water on the way so they wouldn’t have to use the washroom until they got to their destination. He claims that these discussions were enlightening and left him feeling powerless about women’s predicament.
How does Eloo work?
The startup debuted its first prototype in Shantiniketan using old, defunct buses. “These restrooms are unusual because we created them using these vintage buses, which also means that our setup expenses are definitely lower,” says Diptendu. One gender-neutral restroom, a bathing space, and a changing room with a nursing station are all present in the restroom at Shantiniketan.
The Bolpur Mahila Mahasangha’s female members are in charge of the bathrooms. The front part of the toilets is used as a pantry in an effort to increase their income. Selling snacks and beverages is encouraged for SHG members as well. The project was done under the supervision of Mission Nirmal Bangla. According to Yasmin Sultana, a leader at the SHG, the district administration granted the finance for programmes promoting women’s hygiene and sanitation.
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The first working restroom has been installed in Shantiniketan, and a couple of others are under construction along the highway of Chhattisgarh. The bathroom’s design was assisted by Diptendu’s friend and interior designer, Ankit Chandak. Without his technological expertise, implementing this project would have been incredibly difficult, affirms Diptendu.
Even with limited resources, the idea was to make the place functional and spacious and tidy.
Speaking with Ankit, he stated that this was a personally fulfilling project and could actually create a positive impact if implemented rightly. One of the core design concerns was not to make the user feel claustrophobic.
Designing bus body with Aludecor ACP sheet
Recycling, energy efficiency, and lightweight design are essential considerations in production in the automobile sector. With Aludecor’s ACP sheet for buses, these requirements can be implemented in a versatile and consistent way that will work for cars, buses, the Interior of Metro Rails and Helicopters, trucks, caravans etc. For about 20 years now, Aludecor’s ACP sheet has been used widely to install various urban, sustainable architecture designs. Given the features of Aludecor’s ACPs, they are well-suited to be used as bus body ACP sheets as well – and one of the potent instances is Eloo. These aluminium panels are perfect for surface applications requiring low weight but with high component rigidity.
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The following are the main reasons why leading automobile OEMs look for Aludecor’s interior bus body design using ACP sheets to make their product stand out –
- Light in weight
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- Available in different styles and shades.
If you want to know more about ACP sheet and their variety of applications, contact the experts at 1800 102 0407 (Toll-free) or send us an enquiry.
