Clean Hands Initiative develops viable solutions for safe and sustainable livelihoods
Clean Hands Initiative’s vision is to improve the street market experience for both customers and the vendors, by providing accessible public handwash facilities. We want to protect the lives and livelihoods of the workers who form the backbone of India’s supply chains and empower them to remain safe and healthy.
Clean Hands Initiative is a non-profit social venture led by young changemakers from New Delhi NCR, India. 21-year-old Suhasini Vira founded the initiative after she spent 2 years researching and interviewing street vendors and informal workers in outdoor markets. She heard stories of hardship, hope and resilience. She realised that we take these workers for granted and seldom stop to think about the precariousness and difficulties that characterise their daily lives.
Our model comprises an easily refillable water tank mounted on a specially designed stand with sprinkler taps and liquid soap dispensers. The taps and liquid soap dispensers are connected to foot pedals, reducing the risk of re-contaminating clean hands when turning off tap after use. With the water-efficient sprinkler tap, a unit could be used for 500 handwashes per 500 litres of water without needing to be refilled.
