Rohit Mehra

Indian social entrepreneur transforming sanitation through community-led innovation

Rohit Mehra's work in rural sanitation earned him the UN Water Prize at 26 years old. Founder of Toilet for School, his initiative built over 5000 toilets in Indian schools using locally sourced materials. The project's success led to the government adopting his Community Sanitation Blueprint as national policy. His TED Talk "How to Build Toilets People Want to Use" has 2.3M views. Innovations like solar-powered waste systems and menstrual hygiene workshops have reduced school dropout rates by 40% in partner villages. Mehra's methods are studied at MIT's Civic Ecology Lab and documented in Breaking the Taboo: Sanitation Solutions from Rural India, now used in UNICEF training programs.