India is the fastest growing economy in the world. While the GDP of the country is skyrocketing, lack of proper sanitation at rural parts of the country or even the hygiene quotient of many urban toilets is a major factor that is hurting the happiness index. In India, many men take recourse in the ancient and raw form of civilization by relieving themselves in the open. However women, due their biological hurdle don’t leverage such opportunity.
The result?
Women are often subjected to harsh realities by being forced to use unhygienic and filthy toilets that often result in Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) and other fungal diseases. The government did take a lot of measures to restructure hygienic and clean toilets for people, the results aren’t much encouraging.
The 20 lakh Mumbai local women commuters, five lakh daily Delhi metro women travellers, 11 million annual women passengers at Delhi airport, the four in 10 pregnant women who undergo caesarean surgeries in urban areas, the 90 million women in India suffering from arthritis, and the more than 50 percent women who have at least one UTI during their lifetime.
Even in railway stations and marketplaces, where there are toilets, most of them aren’t hygienic enough as those should be.
Aiming to bridge the gap and find a solution, Deep Bajaj along with his co-founders Mohit Bajaj and Deepak Thareja came up with an ingenious product called PeeBuddy - the country’s first female urination device which allows women to stand and urinate even in dirty public toilets, so no more wiping of seats/making chairs and also lessening the risk of contracting infections. The product is also helpful for usage during Arthritis & Pregnancy. The three formed the parent company First Step Digital Pvt Ltd in 2015 to take on other challenges.
With women intimate hygiene and wellness as core focus, this Delhi based start-up with PeeBuddy has secured Rs. 2.96cr Pre-Series A Funding from Indian Angel Network last month.
So how did they get the idea from?
“The idea was born on a road trip from Delhi to Jaipur in 2014. We were four couples on a road trip. The women were really troubled, they were not drinking water/beverages from the fear of using a dirty toilet, two of them almost cried and we stopped at every fuel station on the way. All they wanted was clean toilets where seat didn’t have to be wiped (or where they could do without squat/making chairs), we were utterly unsatisfied by hygiene levels at most eateries and fuel stations.”
“The Eureka moment happened when one of the wives said that she wished she was in Europe because there she could have access to a reusable, plastic device to urinate in any dirty toilet. This is when it struck me that women in India don’t have access to clean public loos when they’re on the go and there was a need for a device to address this issue and PeeBuddy was born. We finalized the shape, applied for a design patent, got it in 2015 and started selling. Our Products Empower them to live, travel and operate better. The business model revolves around identifying such issues and solving those using our unique solutions," Deep told Business Insider.
At a time, when women are going a lot of distress in the world, at least they can take a respite while peeing.