Public Shaming Smart Toilet

In India according to reports, 654 toilets out of 1,175, 55% of the sample size were either wholly unusable or extremely dirty. A clean public toilet is a rarity in India. We find them in malls, theatre complexes, and corporate offices, among other upscale spaces. The ministry had inspected 191 toilets of EDMC out of which 76% were not usable while 18% were usable but very dirty. This means 94% of such facilities are either unfit for use or extremely dirty.

In India, a child who goes to a school is forced to use a dirty toilet which causes the transmission of diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera and dysentery, typhoid, intestinal worm infections, and polio. It is a common tendency of most people that they do not flush the toilet after use especially if it is a public toilet.

Medical experts list some of the diseases likely to be contracted directly or indirectly from the unclean toilet as: streptococcus, staphylococcus, shigella bacteria, hepatitis virus, common cold virus, etc.

Many people think of public property as their birthright and they don't take proper care of it because which government also has to face several challenges.

A prime illustration of this is here

And this problem is not only in India but in all the countries.

Public shaming has proved itself as a capable deterrent to prevent bad or inappropriate behavior of common people. It has made a difference to problems such as animal cruelty and copyright issues, while also increasing awareness of social and safety problems. Whilst public shaming is intended at reducing undesired behaviors, the recipient of public shame often suffers a loss of reputation, self-esteem, and sense of belonging to the community.

My idea is about a public shaming smart toilet system that shames the user publicly if they don't flush the toilet after its use. There would be a touch sensor installed on the handle of the toilet's door and on its flush.  This system's operation is quite simple: when a person opens the toilet door, the system gets activated. If the person doesn't flush the toilet after using it, a buzzing sound will be made for the next five minutes, and a photo of the person will be taken. When the person is shamed publicly then he/she might correct his mistake and do the right thing to stop this shaming and to prevent his loss of reputation.

Our target population is all those people who have to use unclean public toilets which is not good for their health. To solve this we came up with the idea of a Smart Public Shaming Toilet system. There are many people who have a mindset to not keep public toilets clean because of which other people have to face a lot of issues. Many people are hesitant to use public toilets just because of this.

The use of dirty toilets causes the transmission of diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera and dysentery, typhoid, intestinal worm infections, and polio.

Many people think of public property as their birthright and they don't take proper care of it because which government also has to face several challenges.

To change the mindset of the people we came up with this unique way of public shaming so that these types of people get a sense of belonging to the community and they do not take it for granted.

I'm taking part in this contest individually. I'm an eighth-grader from DELHI, India. I am also a member of the CBSE and INTEL-created AI Students Committee. I'm interested in technology, and I want to create something that can significantly improve society and provide a solution to millions of problems. I am among those who focus more on the problem than on the solution. Future plans include starting my own business to produce tech-related goods that can be used to solve a variety of everyday issues. I'm quite interested in programming, and I'm familiar with C, PYTHON, HTML, JAVA, JAVASCRIPT, and MYSQL. In a nutshell, I love technology.

I have myself faced this issue of the unclean public toilet while traveling on a train and that's why I understand all the challenges faced by people while using unclean public toilets.

I have taken the advice of many people who have faced this issue and then I made my final solution design so that it won't have any false-negative cases.

I have made a fully working model of my solution and I have tested it many times.

I need funds to develop my idea and also someone who could really help me in building my final product. Right now I am able to take only some people's advice but under the right guidance, I think that I can really understand the problem more perfectly and build a nice solution. 

Right now I am an 8th grader and I don't have any registered organization to build a final product but I know that through Solve I would get a chance to get in contact with mentors and professionals who can really guide me in making this product.

I don't have the right guidance and financial support but if I am selected as a finalist then I will surely convert this prototype into a solution because I know it is going to help make millions of people's lives better.

In short, I am participating in this competition to get the right guidance and financial support.

We have found a new way of public shaming so that people get a sense of belonging towards their community and they won't take public property as a taken for grant.

This unique way would be a new approach to change the mindset of the people and serve the community.

We want to first collaborate with IRCTC to install our system in all the toilets of the train because many people have to use unclean toilets while traveling on the train despite paying a hefty amount for their journey. We hope to impact almost 10 million people in the next 5 years.

In the future, we are also hoping to install these public shaming systems in other public properties also.

We want to first collaborate with IRCTC and get our solution installed in all trains. Then we would collaborate with NITI ayog to get our solution installed in all public toilets and I would keep my gross margin of about 70%-80% depending on the type of order.