1.
Increasing
Spiritual Tourism
Not 10 ways -- Just ONE
Prepared by: Rahul Dewan; Twitter: @rahuldewan

2.
Backpacking Western Tourists
● Backpackers from Israel, Germany, France, S. Korea
have no objections to the ‘tough’ conditions in India
● They come looking for ‘spirituality’; and do not mind the
materialistic chaos
● They work their way through uncomfortable buses,
crazy honking on roads

3.
Backpacking Western Tourists
● India is already a ‘spiritual hub’ for them
● But they cannot deal with “dirty, filthy smelly, poorly
maintained toilets”
● Most foreign tourists simply ask for:
○ Clean Western-style Toilets
○ Access to Toilet Paper

4.
Let’s bring Clean Toilets to them
● We cannot change the ‘Indian type toilet’ infrastructure
overnight
● Let’s just give them ‘clean toilets’ first
● Start a “toilet cleanliness rating” for all restaurants
● “Sulabh Shauchalaya” requires massive expansion

5.
Poor Toilet Hygiene in Restaurants
● You walk in to Barista, Cafe Coffee Day, big eating food
chains, etc
● Amidst imported Sofas in the lounge, there are tiny,
dirty, water-leaking toilets even in big brands
● Even the smallest of eating place in Europe or USA has
a clean toilet

6.
Poor Toilet Hygiene in Restaurants
● Yes, part of it is the poor toilet hygiene Indians have
● But a large part of it is because of “poor toilet-hygiene”
consciousness among restaurant owners, food chains,
stores, and even malls
● By giving poor toilet infrastructure, these public places
create a vicious-circle with people’s poor toilet habits

7.
Example of Delhi Metro
● People’s habits change with a “cleanliness
consciousness” -- Delhi Metro is a pristine example
● No paan spits, no garbage, no spitting on tracks -- by
the sample people
● Delhi Metro changes that consciousness of the same
people

8.
Restaurants can do this too
● Create an economic incentive for restaurant owners to
have better, bigger, cleaner and well-maintained toilets
● Give them a “toilet hygiene ranking”
● Make this ranking public and accessible on a portal; and
on mobiles through Apps
● Crowd-source this ranking via the website and Mobile
apps

9.
Upgrade Sulabh Shauchalaya
● What started as a wonderful initiative has degenrated
● The toilets at all Delhi Metro stations maintained by
Sulabh Shauchalaya are to be seen
● They are all in horrible, unusable state
● Western-toilet seats are usually broken or dirty
● Indian-style toilets have water and unwashed excreta

10.
Upgrade Sulabh Shauchalaya
● Liquid soap bottles are mostly empty
● Same story repeats at other Sulabh Shauchalaya toilets
around the country

11.
Upgrade Sulabh Shauchalaya
● Liquid soap bottles are mostly empty
● Same story repeats at other Sulabh Shauchalaya toilets
around the country

12.
Upgrade Toilets at Train Stations
● The state of Sulabh Shauchalaya is repeated at public
toilets at all Train stations
● Give them the same cleanliness ranking
● Make this part of the job-function of the “Station Master”
-- and a reflection of his work
● Make available a public complaint system

13.
Upgrade Toilets at Train Stations
● Make available a “public complaint system” -- on the
same website being created for Restaurants
● Complaints against poor toilets should reflect the
“performance measures” of the Station Master

14.
Publicize this ranking & portal
● Create awareness among foreign tourists about using
the website and mobile app, through
○ advertisements at airports,
○ ads on social networking websites
○ creative TV ads on BBC/ CNN/ Al-Jazeera/ Nat Geo
and Discovery channels
● Have an “Incredible India” campaign around this change

15.
Facing national shame courageously
● If our Prime Minister can talk about poor toilet hygiene
from Red Fort, then the nation can well accept and
overcome the shame of publicly advertising clean toilets
and actually proudly speak about the change we want to
bring