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 Made from waterproof cardboard, Pee Buddy is a single use funnel
which allows women to micturate without having to squat on a dirty
toilet seat and risk infection. The user simply needs to hold Pee
Buddy between her legs, directly under the flow area. They should
tilt their hips slightly forward, ensuring the funnel is tilted
downwards. Having poured the urine into the toilet, they should
dispose of Pee Buddy in the nearest bin.
It's the brainchild of Delhi-based entrepreneur, Deep Bajaj, who
came up with the idea during a road trip when the wife of a friend
complained about not finding a clean toilet on the journey.
"On every trip we would see this as a pressing problem that while
men could just have their beer or whatever they wanted to have on
their way. Females would always be restricted and they would reject
eight out of 10 toilets where we'd stop and for obvious reasons. If
you look at the condition of public toilets in India, especially on
the highways, and this includes the best of restaurants and petrol
pumps, you stop anywhere and you don't get a good toilet," Bajaj
told Reuters.
Having perfected the optimal shape and disposable material, Bajaj
and his partners were surprised to receive short shrift from various
women's stores when they tried to garner interest in their
prototype.
"When I took it to the store purchase managers and all and for
obvious reasons it was difficult to understand I am not kidding, I
am really talking about a product that offers a solution and it
shouts from the rooftop saying it's freedom to stand and pee for
women. So initially because they couldn't understand that something
like this can work and it's not a joke we were actually shown the
door," said Bajaj.
Eventually his persistence paid off, having successfully sought
recommendations for Pee Buddy from gynecologists and obstetricians.
Now it's on sale in selected Indian pharmacies and online.
According to the figures provided by Delhi's civic agencies, there
are more than 10 times the number of public toilets for men than
women in the national capital.
Dirty toilet seats are a breeding ground for bacteria and can cause
infections, such as Urinary Tract Infections (UTI). Development
organization WaterAid says that diseases spread through dirty water
and poor sanitation are the fifth biggest killer of women
world-wide, causing more deaths than AIDS, diabetes or breast
cancer.
Men urinating along roadsides and on footpaths is a common sight
across Indian cities, but this is not an attractive option for
women.
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Student Priayanka Rawat said she would consider buying Pee Buddy.
"First of all the toilets stink badly and it makes me very
uncomfortable to use them as they are very unhygienic. Due to these
factors I have to control and tell myself that I will only pee once
I get home," she said.
Priced at around 20 rupees ($0.315) per unit, Pee Buddy is available
in packs of five, 10, and 20.
Commuter Madhurima Mishra said the product has proved the answer to
her fears of contracting infections from a dirty toilet seat.
"I was not sure about the availability of the product. Now that I
have used it I found it really user-friendly and I am a working
woman and I have to use the public toilets a lot of time and I have
this fear of infections so at that time it's like a boon to me,"
said Mishra.
Bajaj hopes to get government support to make the product available
at subsidized prices in rural India. Indian Prime Minister, Narendra
Modi, launched the ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean Indian
Mission) in October 2014, to improve the poor state of sanitation in
the country within five years.
In rural areas without safe toilets, women and girls have to venture
outdoors to relieve themselves, often at night, putting them at risk
of sexual harassment and assault.
In 2006 the World Bank estimated that India was losing 6.4 percent
of gross domestic product annually because of poor sanitation.
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