Creation of WSS-focused investment readiness tools, templates, and training materials to facilitate capital raising for MFIs and FIs, India

• Aug 8, 2025
• 1 min

Access to safe sanitation in high-traffic urban and peri-urban areas has been especially limited for women, transgender individuals, and female traffic personnel. Marginalized groups also lacked structured training and dignified livelihoods in the sanitation sector. 

MSC designed and implemented high-impact water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and gender-inclusive initiatives. We introduced Pink Toilets, which are inclusive public facilities with dedicated transgender units, baby care amenities, and rest areas for female traffic officers. A self-sustaining operations and maintenance model was developed with women-led self-help groups and urban local bodies. FARMER and the Indian Railway Finance Corporation’s corporate social funding also financed the project and integrated it into state policy frameworks. 

We anchored the establishment of Bihar Swachhta Sansthan, a first-of-its-kind sanitation training college with support from the World Toilet Organization. 20 Pink Toilets were approved across major cities. These created livelihood opportunities for women-led self-help groups and strengthened Bihar’s urban sanitation ecosystem. The inclusive WASH model for highways received in-principle funding from the Asian Development Bank and secured inter-departmental alignment for future rollout. 

The Gates Foundation, on behalf of the Government of Bihar, commissioned this project.