The Jai Gurudev Sanstha School students in Mathura have a duty to clean the school premises every day after assembly prayers. This school caters the kids of underprivileged families in Mathura of Uttar Pradesh by providing free education. The boys are assigned to pick up waste with their bare hands while the girls need to sweep the school premises.
However, no student was happily doing this but were forced to do so every morning because of the rules in the school. It became worst for the boys after girls started laughing at boys who picked waste in the morning. Boys also tried to sneak out of the assembly to avoid the task.
15-year-old Sikanto, a student of class 9 had been noticing all this and came up with an innovative idea to make a manual waste lifting and dumping device and proposed it in front of his teachers. Teachers were happy with the idea, but the funds were an issue in its building. Sikanto’s father was a daily wage labourer and used to pull rickshaw while simultaneously he worked for a book factory. His older brother pursuing BSc was also working at the book factory for long hours to support his family.
Sikanto’s teacher came in support of him and encouraged him to apply for the Inspired Awards by Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. His entry impressed the authorities who awarded him with Rs 5,000 to build a model. After a rigorous attempt for two months, he successfully built a preliminary model of his mobile garbage collection machine with the help of woods, discarded bicycle parts like chains and brakes.
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The testing of the model in school grounds became successful and he was rewarded with prizes and awards at the state and national level exhibitions. In 2016, the director and Chief Innovation Officer of National Innovation Foundation, Dr Vipin Kumar helped Sikanto patent the technology.
His model also grabbed the attention of Gujarat-based start-up Sarjan Innovators Pvt Ltd. They made a few modifications and got the technology transferred for mass production with patents to commercialize it. The NIF named it Swachhta Cart and is all set to be available in the market at the price of Rs 10,500. However, Siknto would be receiving the royalty for the innovation of the technology.
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The brilliant child has configurated in a way that the sanitation worker can accommodate their brooms, a water bottle and other material they encounter on the field. There is also a picker that can collect the garbage without touching and runs without electricity and a battery.
