This Puneite Builds A Toilet In Two Hours Flat!

Ramdas Mane
Ramdas Mane

 

Meet Ramdas Mane, the man who has perfected the process to build toilets of thermocol in just two hours !

Ramdas Mane, a Pune based entrepreneur and founder of The Mane Group of Companies manufactures thermocol machines, besides making these portable toilets across the country.

Approximately 23,000 toilets have been supplied by his firm to more than 17 states across India.

The Mane Group of companies was started in 1994 to build thermocol machines. It supplies thermocol machines to around 45 countries now and grew in popularity since they are priced significantly lower than similar machines in this segment. Apparently, 90% percent of the thermocol in India is either made or recycled from the machines, Mane has manufactured.

I was brought up in a family where there was no toilet culture and the suffering that the women went through was not new to me. I have seen my own family members suffer since they were forced to defecate in open spaces. This story continued for every family in our village.

“I was once working with my mom on the farm and the heat was unbearable. I was sunburnt and this is when I decided to pursue my education.”

I have done whatever work that I came by from working as a waiter, to working at the bus stand.

I wanted to complete my education so as to be able to serve the thousands of needy people. I completed my industrial training and got an internship in Mahindra group with a stipend of Rs 100. Soon I cleared their internal exam and became a permanent employee of the company.”

While I was working with Mahindra & Mahindra, I completed my studies and soon started working with Finolex pipes and worked for a few years before he started his business in 1994. The Mane group of Industries made it to the Limca book of records in the year 2007. It was the same year when Mane decided to venture smart toilets.

He has also been honoured with numerous awards by the government and various organization for his outstanding innovation.

In the year 2007, Chief Minister of Maharashtra started work on the Swatch Abhiyan mission and announced a reward of 25 lakhs to a village that can equip every house with a toilet.

It took my village a year and a half to build 198 toilets, but to win the price, we needed two more toilets and the deadline was just 8 days away. The toilets we constructed in our village were of bricks, cement and tiles which take much more time. The villagers forced me to do a research and arrive at a solution to achieve this target. That was the time we decided to make two toilets of thermocol that won the village the price and also helped many people across the country today.

Thermacol Toilet as a Wedding Gift
Thermacol Toilet as a Wedding Gift

The innovation works on a simple model using thermocol that is collected and recycled.After the process of recycling, they are shaped into components which are used for building a smart toilet or ready made toilets. The big shaped rectangle is used as slabs, small bricks called thermocol sandwich used for laying the walls and cement for coating

Ramdas Mane has donated 25 smart toilets to needy young couples as their wedding “Every individual can and should contribute towards a clean nation, he adds signing off.

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Ankita Malekar