Suction Punch

A bunch of engineering friends have launched a robot that is doing away with the social evil of manual scavenging

- Ashutosh Mishra

Last month 43-year-old Panth Lal Chander died while another worker was admitted to a hospital in critical condition after they went into a manhole while working for Delhi Jal Board. The accident happened in southeast Delhi's tony New Friends Colony neighbourhood.

A similar accident had propelled a group of friends in an engineering college in Kerala to look for solutions to the problem of manual scavenging.

Vimal Govind MK, Arun George, Rashid K and Nikhil NP were students at MES College of Engineering, Kuttipuram when they first encountered the harsh realities of manually cleaning sewers. The loss of three lives—two sanitation workers and an auto driver who attempted to rescue them—due to toxic fumes in a manhole, exposed the grim conditions that persisted despite strict legal prohibitions.

Birth of Bandicoot

In 2017 the quartet founded Genrobotics Innovations in Thiruvananthapuram and in 2018 launched their groundbreaking innovation—Bandicoot, the world's first robotic scavenger.

“The problem was not just about creating a product; it was about integrating it into a larger system. We had to build the infrastructure for its adoption, including training, support services and scalable production,” says Govind. By 2018, Bandicoot was deployed in Kerala, marking the beginning of its nationwide rollout.

Today Bandicoot is being used in 19 states and three Union Territories with over 300 robots scavenging. Municipalities that have adopted the technology are expanding their fleets, reinforcing policy changes that support mechanised sanitation.